Palestinian Authority depicts Santa as a victim, a fighter and Trump
For years during the Christmas season, the Palestinian Authority has used images of Santa Claus to further its agenda.
By RACHEL WOLFA Palestinian Authority cartoon in which Donald Trump is in a Santa Claus suit giving the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to Israel(photo credit: PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH)
Around the Christmas season, the Palestinian Authority uses images of Santa Claus in anti-Israel imagery. In the PA's propaganda Saint Nick has been murdered by and in fights with Israeli soldiers, stopped from helping Palestinians and came in the form of US President Donald Trump giving Israelis and Palestinians alike sinister gifts, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).As a victim of Israeli violence, Santa has been depicted as being held at gunpoint at a checkpoint, search with his hands against the security barrier and shot by an Israeli soldier.In December 26, 2016, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official PA daily published a two-part cartoon in connection with the "knife intifada," during which Palestinians murdered 44 people, PMW reported. "The PA simultaneously celebrated and honored the terrorist murderers, yet created the libel that those terrorists killed during their attacks were actually innocent civilians murdered by Israel, and the knives found at the scenes of the attacks were planted there by Israel," PMW wrote in the report.In the cartoons, Santa is first seen grinning at a checkpoint as one Israeli soldier holds him at gunpoint and a second one attempts to plant a knife on Santa to create the false narrative of a stabbing attack. In the second part, an Israeli soldier shoots Santa, killing him, and, according to PMW is seen saying "He tried to carry out a stabbing operation."Almost one year later, on December 22, 2017, Fatah's Twitter account posted a cartoon of Israeli soldiers searching Santa and his sack of toys while Santa's hands are outstretched on the security barrier. The text along with the image reads, "Invitation. The Bethlehem district committee for coordinating the factions, the popular committees, the civil society institutions, and the civilian institutions invite you to participate on Saturday [Dec. 23, 2017] in a Christmas procession towards Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Palestine, at 1:00 p.m. at Nisan Square. Jerusalem will remain the eternal capital of Palestine," according to PMW.In the cartoons depicting Santa as a victim, he is not always directly impacted, rather he is frustrated at his inability to help Palestinian victims. In one cartoon, published on Fatah's Information and Culture Commission website on January 1, 2017, Santa stands on a roof with his hand over his face as an Israeli soldier shoots an M-16 and throws grenades down a chimney. According to PMW, the headline reads, "The occupation's presents on Christmas Eve."Additionally, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official PA daily depicted Santa being separated from a Palestinian child in prison on Decemeber 24, 2017 and two days later published a cartoon of an Israeli soldier dragging a child away from Santa as the two reach for each other.
The PA not only depicts Santa as a victim, but also as a perpetrator of violence. Fatah's Twitter accound posted a cartoon in 2017 in which Santa empties a sack of rocks on an Israeli soldier while a woman next to him, wearing a Palestinian flag dress holds her hands in the "V" for "Victory" sign as the two smile at each other, PMW reported.Another 2017 cartoon depicts Santa in a different light, this time he is against the Palestinian cause.In response to Trump decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing it as Israel's capital, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official PA daily produced a cartoon that depicts Trump presenting Israel with a sack full of the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on December 14, 2017. Israel is represented in the form of a soldier with an Israeli flag on his helmet.
