Just one day after the Annapolis conference at which the PA recognized the State of Israel's right to exist in peace and security, the PA's official television station screened a map that shows a Palestinian state in place of Israel. U.S. President George Bush, at the conference on Tuesday, read aloud the summit's agreed-upon joint statement, which declares, "In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty."
However, Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) report that just a day later, "Mahmoud AbbasÂ’s Palestinian Authority continues to paint a picture for its people of a world without Israel." Specifically, PMW reports that an information clip produced a while ago by the PA's Central Bureau of Statistics was rebroadcast on Wednesday on Abbas-controlled PA television. The clip shows a map in which the Land of Israel is painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing the replacement of Israel by a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian entity depicted as replacing Israel includes all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, though not the Golan Heights.
The depiction of all of Israel as "Palestine" is not coincidental, PMW reports, "and is part of a formal, systematic educational approach throughout the Palestinian Authority. This uniform message of a world without Israel is repeated in school books, children's programs, crossword puzzles, video clips, formal symbols, school and street names, etc. The picture painted for the Palestinian population, both verbally and visually, is of a world without Israel."
PMW concludes: "The fact that this campaign continues before the ink on the Annapolis agreement is even dry appears to contradict the central promise of the Palestinians at the Annapolis conference: that Israel has a right to exist."
The television clip appears to be loyal to widespread public opinion on the PA street. PA forces were forced to put down anti-Israel and anti-Annapolis rallies in several cities this week, and one protestor was even shot and killed. The protestors stated that Abbas has no right to make "concessions" regarding Jerusalem, refugees and the like in the name of the Palestinian people, and that any deal he makes with Israel will not be binding.
In Hevron, PA security forces killed a demonstrator, injured dozens, and arrested 29 when using force to disperse a mass protest. PA forces also dispersed large protests in Ramallah, Shechem (Nablus), and Bethlehem, making several arrests.
In Hamas-controlled Gaza, the protests were much more intense, and hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Gaza City, emphasizing the importance of the "right of return" for millions of Arabs and their descendants, the "liberation" of Jerusalem, the retention of "every inch of Palestinian land" and “the path of resistance and jihad,” i.e., terrorism.