Anti-Semitic publications are flooding the Palestinian Authority. The official media has recruited the top newspaper reporters and television directors for this mission. Sermonizers in the mosques call on the faithful to fight the Jews in every way. Textbooks in Palestinian schools call on children to become suicide bombers and annihilate Israel. The wording is harsh, sharp and extremist.
Researchers from the University of Hamburg, who are conducting an international study on the perceptions of democracy among young people around the world, have found that Hitler is one of the heroes of Palestinian youth. The French news agency, Agence France Presse, reports Mein Kampf, the infamous work in which Adolph Hitler explains his hatred of Jews, reached number six on the Palestinian best-seller list. Mein Kampf was banned from the territories during the years of Israeli administration of the region, but was recently allowed in by the PA.
When Israeli forces overran Arafat's bases in southern Lebanon in 1982, they found many copies of Mein Kampf, in Arabic, among the PLO terrorists' belongings.
The Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) has more details on the sale of Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf in eastern Jerusalem and the Palestinian autonomy. The Arabic translation is being distributed by Al-Shurouq, a Ramallah-based book distributor, and is now in 6th place on the Palestinian best-seller list. The cover of the book shows a picture of Hitler, a swastika, and the title in both German and Arabic. Following are some excerpts of the introduction by translator Luis Al-Haj:
"Hitler was a man of ideology who bequeathed an ideological heritage whose decay is inconceivable. This ideological heritage includes politics, society, science, culture, and war as science and culture..."
"The National Socialism that Hitler preached for and whose characteristics were presented in his book My Struggle [Mein Kampf]... this National Socialism did not die with the death of its herald. Rather, its seeds multiplied under each star...
"This translation of the book My Struggle has never been presented to Arab speakers. It is taken from the original text of the author, Adolf Hitler. The text was untouched by the censor. We made a point to deliver Hitler's opinions and theories on nationalism, regimes, and ethnicity without any changes because they are not yet outmoded and because we, in the Arab world, still proceed haphazardly in all three fields..."
Fascination with Hitler is nothing new for the Arabs. The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, spent the Holocaust years in Berlin, where he was an active Nazi collaborator; he is still revered as a hero among the Palestinian Arabs today."
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