The NYT piece mentioned Mohammed Assaf, Palestinian Arab Idol winner, as joining the fray to support violence in his music. But they didn't mention that Assaf is UNRWA's "youth ambassador" and that UNRWA refuses to distance themselves from his message of hate.
Fox News, however, highlights it:
One of the poster boys of the disturbing craze is Muhammed Assaf, a resident of Gaza who won the 2013 "Arab Idol" TV talent show that attracts huge audiences across the Middle East. Soon after his victory, the 23-year-old, born and educated in a United Nations-sponsored refugee camp, was appointed regional youth ambassador by the UN organization, known as UNRWA.
The lyrics of one of his recent hits, Ya Yumma, are accompanied by images of rioting young men, the iconic Golden Dome in Jerusalem's Old City, and the shroud-wrapped body of a dead Palestinian. Assaf sings, “Salute the determined people who are resisting the occupiers, Fight back until you defeat the aggressor.”
Despite the fact that his songs often glorify violence, UNRWA has continued to endorse and promote Assaf as its example to Palestinian youth.
“As a "child of UNRWA," Mohammed Assaf is the ideal individual to be the first goodwill ambassador in the more than six decades of our history,” a current statement on UNRWA’s website reads. “His mother, too, was an UNRWA teacher… With the universal language of his music, he carries the message of UNRWA and young Palestine refugees to new audiences.”
UNRWA is wholly funded by the international community and has repeatedly been accused of turning a blind eye to Palestinian incitement against Israel. Its critics accuse the humanitarian organization of allowing Hamas to dictate a warped educational agenda at its schools in Gaza that is both anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic, something UNRWA strongly denies. However, despite conclusive evidence of Assaf's songs inciting Palestinian youth to violence, UNRWA apparently remains steadfast in its admiration for the singer nurtured in its system.
Fox even captioned this photo of Assaf with the fact that he celebrates "martyrs" who kill Jews.
UNRWA might be trying to silence the publicity about its tacit support for terror, but as long as they don't cut their ties with Assaf, it is all just lip service.
