Misinformation, Disinformation and Lies

By Sherwin Pomerantz

Yesterday we entertained a couple of business guests from Amman, Jordan during their first ever visit to Israel. Oddly enough they came here with their dog that needed some special surgery which was not available in Jordan. Given that our staff had prior connections with the principals of the company one of our senior people offered to take them on a tour of Jerusalem and met them at Damascus Gate, one of the northern entrances to the Old City after which they took the traditional walking tour of the area.

This morning I was told that our guests were absolutely amazed that Arab residents of Jerusalem walk freely on the streets of the city without hindrance. Their impression, from the press in Jordan and other information sources, was that the Arab population of Israel is interned in quasi-concentration camps and their movement is severely limited by the local security forces. This brought home to all of us here in the office both the failure of our information efforts directed to the Arab world as well as the disinformation fed to the local populace there by the media.

As for misinformation, it’s worth looking at http://www.theblaze.com/stories/palestinian-hip-hop-group-comparing-israelis-to-nazis-performs-for-oregon-public-high-school-students/ which is a video of the Palestinian Hip-Hop Group DAM (which means “blood” in both Hebrew and Arabic) performing at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon on November 4th.

The lyrics demonize Israeli Jews, calling them rapists and Nazis, justifying terrorism against them. (”You’re a Democracy? It’s more like the Nazis…Your raping of the Arab soul gave birth to your child: The suicide bomber.”) A sample of the group’s work: one DAM song called “Min Irhabi” or “Who’s a Terrorist?” is filled with anti-Israel propaganda and in-your-face lyrics. With these few lines, one gets the picture:

Who’s a terrorist? I’m a terrorist?
How am I a terrorist while I live in my country
Who’s a terrorist? You’re a terrorist!
You’re swallowing me while I live in my country
Killing me like you killed my ancestors […]
Democracy? I swear you’re Nazis
With all the times you raped the Arab spirit
It got pregnant and birthed a boy called the suicide bomber
And here you are calling us terrorists

Even though students and parents voiced their concerns about the band’s content to the school board, the board went ahead with the performance, “despite the physical and emotional fears of the students.”

For the record, the public school’s Arab Studies Program is funded by the Qatar Foundation International, which also sponsored the hip hop group’s visit to the high school. Last year, Israeli, Spanish and British newspapers reported that the Qatar Foundation had given money to extremist Muslim cleric Yusuf al Qaradawi who advocates “terrorism, wife beating and anti-Semitism” and that the foundation gives money to the terrorist group Hamas. All of this taking place in the public school system of a major US city.

So now we have it all, misinformation, disinformation and lies, some accidental some intentional but all damaging to Israel and its reputation in the world community.

Price winning journalist Carl Bernstein once said, “The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives - has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.” And that garbage molds public opinion and is our greatest enemy.