Palestinian Information Minister Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi has played down the reaction to the news that his ministry has banned the broadcasting of a children's program on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV because it conveys political messages.So the Information Minister, who according to all accounts is far more moderate politically than Fatah, is not saying that the program was wrong to teach children to kill themselves. He's got no problem with inciting tots to hate. Demonizing Israelis and Americans is A-OK. And, of course, he would never try to stop such a show from broadcasting on the TV channels he is partially responsible for.
Barghouthi said in conversation with Ma'an that Al-Aqsa TV stopped broadcasting the program itself after they reviewed the program in regards to its message. Barghouthi also denied issuing an order to end the program.
He stressed the need to be cautious when making children's programs so that these programs would not be exploited by bodies that monitor these programs in order to incite international public opinion against the Palestinian people and harm the Palestinian cause.
The problem is, you see, that certain "bodies that monitor these programs" happen to translate and publicize them. And, in the strange and twisted PalArab universe, telling the truth publicly about these sorts of things is incitement!
The legal definition of incitement is "the act of persuading, encouraging, instigating, pressuring, or threatening so as to cause another to commit a crime."
In normal English, that means that teaching kids to murder and blow themselves up in the process is incitement.
Telling the world about real incitement is not incitement unless you are a member of the professional victimhood society that comprises the Palestinian Arab leadership.
UPDATE: Hamas refused to drop the program. It will show this Friday as usual, inshallah.