Israel Broadcasts Porn
Johnson
31mar02
PORN movies and programs in Hebrew are being broadcast by Israeli troops who
have taken over three Palestinian television stations of Ramallah, irate
residents of the besieged West Bank town have told AFP.
The offices of three local television and radio stations were occupied by
soldiers yesterday morning, a few hours after tanks and hundreds of troops
stormed the town in Israel's biggest offensive against the Palestinian
Authority and its leader Yasser Arafat.
The soldiers started broadcasting the porn clips -- considered extremely
offensive by most Muslims -- intermittently this afternoon from the
Al-Watan, Ammwaj, and Al-Sharaq channels, the residents said.
"The pornographic movies started on Al-Watan television at around 3:30 pm,"
one 34-year-old Palestinian mother named Reema told AFP.
"I have six children at home, they have nowhere to go with what is going on
here and can't even watch TV," she said angrily.
"It's not healthy really. I think the Israelis want to mess with our young
men's heads," she said.
Anita, a 52-year-old mother of three children, complained about "the
deliberate psychological damage caused by these broadcasts".
"I am furious, these are the people who are shooting at us that also play
this disgusting trick on us," she said.
"We are desperate for news and constantly flipping channels and get these
terrible pictures instead," adding that videos of the intifada were also
shown backwards with "ideal terrorism" written in red across the screen.
"Luckily, there is no electricity in half of Ramallah," she said from her
house in east Jerusalem where the channels are also available.
A fourth local station, whose premises were not seized by the army, ran a
written message across its screen letting people know it was the Israelis
who were behind the graphic scenes.
"Anything currently shown on Al-Watan and other local TV channels has
nothing to do with Palestinian programs but is being broadcast by the
Israeli occupation forces, we urge parents to take precautions," the message
said.
The Israeli military denied that it had anything to do with the pornographic
programming and instead blamed the Palestinian leaders.
"The Israeli security forces have no interest in putting pornographic and
racist movies on Palestinian television," an army spokesman told AFP.
"The only reason we are in these buildings and in this city is to fight
against terrorists and their infrastructure after giving the Palestinians
various chances to it themselves," he said.
Palestinian leader Yasser "Arafat is willing to go low in order to make
himself look better in this uncomfortable situation", he said.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said any such
broadcasting was "shameful", but said he was not aware of the Israeli army's
involvement.
"I cannot believe that Israeli soldiers would engage in such despicable
behaviour," he said.
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