By MATT BELLAN
A short TV message shows children playing in a nursery as soothing music plays on the soundtrack. The message ends with the screen turning to black. "Ask for death, the life will be given to you," the white text says, in English and Arabic.
A newspaper crossword puzzle refers to Yad Vashem as "the Jewish center for commemorating the Holocaust and the lies".
Those were just two of the examples of Palestinian propaganda Itamar Marcus shared with an audience of several dozen at the Berney Theater at Winnipeg's Asper Jewish Community Campus May 12.
"What we see happening in the Palestinian world is beyond incitement," Marcus, director of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Media Watch said at that Jewish Federation of Winnipeg/Combined Jewish Appeal-sponsored lecture. "There's a very systematic ideology. Palestinians have developed very effective and efficient means of delivering this to different age groups, different types of people."
Marcus said he organized Palestinian Media Watch five years ago to "get an idea" of what's happening in the "internal Palestinian world".
"We only knew the face the Palestinians were presenting to the world. It's important to understand what Palestinians were presenting to themselves."
Marcus uses former Israeli army intelligence officers with good knowledge of Arabic; they regularly inspect the different outlets the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian organizations and institutions use relentlessly to get their Israel-hating messages across. Vehicles range from school textbooks to music videos to university lectures to even the sports pages of Palestinian newspapers.
Marcus showed excerpts from the Palestinian Authority's TV network Palestinian Media Watch has taped over the past few years. They show how Palestinian officials package their message for different groups in Palestinian society.
Palestinian textbooks of all kinds show and describe Israel as "occupied Palestine". A singer on Palestinian TV, backed up by a huge orchestra, sings a tribute to the first female Palestinian suicide bomber.
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat says, in a videotaped message, that there is no greater glory than to "die for Allah".
A CD Palestinian Media Watch has just produced and has for sale shows how Palestinian TV has relentlessly encouraged children to "die for Allah" since the latest intifada started, in the fall of 2000. It's titled Ask for Death! The Indoctrination of Palestinian Children to Seek Death for Allah - Shahada.
One short film aimed at children encourages stoning of Israeli soldiers; all emphasize that there is nothing to fear in "Shahada" - death for Allah". Years of this "indoctrination" has had a huge effect on the thinking of Palestinian youth, Marcus claimed.
Three 14 year olds died about a year ago, after attacking an Israeli village, and left a suicide note saying they were dying for Allah.
Asked whether the current proposed "road map" to Israeli-Palestinian peace can lead anywhere, when Palestinians are subjected to such propaganda, Marcus said there has to be "someone first in the Palestinian Authority, like Sadat did for Egyptians, that completely changes the direction of the ideology." 
"As long as they grow up with this kind of hatred in their hearts, there's no chance of peace stabilizing."
The above story and pictures are just a sample of what you'll find in The Jewish Post & News every week. Take advantage of our $25 introductory rate for new subscribers living in Canada (lowest price for any Canadian Jewish weekly), or take out a gift subscription for a friend or relative by clicking here.
Click here to access the Palestinian Media Watch website.