New York — Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) media regularly includes approving and adulatory references to Adolf Hitler, most recently in a ‘PA radio ‘Voice of Palestine’ broadcast which included a Ramadan quiz. The full broadcast presents Hitler heroically, detailing his 2 Medals’ of Honor in World War 1, his rise to power, his launching of World War 2 and specifies country after country that he conquered. His victories in 1940 are coined “his golden year”, while his defeat and death are coined: “his bitter end.” The broadcast includes this description of Hitler: “His golden year was 1940, when his armies invaded Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium and defeated France … By mid 1942, his country controlled the largest land area in Europe… He refused to surrender and continued to fight for two more years, but, his bitter end came in the spring of 1945 when he took his own life…. Who is he?” (‘Voice of Palestine,’ radio contest, November 27, 2007, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch, December 4, 2007).

Not surprisingly, though citing his victories and “bitter” fall in great detail, the Holocaust is not mentioned. This is consistent with Palestinian education in general which erases the Holocaust from history. See recent full PMW report and bulletin on new 12th grade Palestinian history schoolbook, in which many pages are dedicated to the history of World War 2 and even to Nazi racism, but neither Jews nor the Holocaust are mentioned.

The revulsion of Hitler expected in the West is not true in Palestinian society. Palestinians can be found who are named “Hitler” as a first name: Hitler Salah [Al Hayat Al Jadida (Fatah), Sept. 28, 2005], Hitler Abu-Alrab [Al Hayat Al Jadida (Fatah), Jan. 27, 2005], Hitler Mahmud Abu-Libda [Al Hayat Al Jadida (Fatah), Dec.18, 2000.] Articles have appeared in both Fatah and Hamas newspapers which demonstrate Hitler’s admired status.

• A Palestinian newspaper chronicled with pride the ways in which different foreign leaders singled out the Palestinians as examples of ideal revolutionaries. The first leader cited for praising the Palestinians was Adolf Hitler: “Adolf Hitler, while exciting the Germans of the Sudetenland — the Sudetenland is a German province that the Allies had annexed to Czechoslovakia after the First World War – told them in his broadcasts: Look at what the Palestinian revolutionaries are doing to Great Britain!!”
  [Al-Rissala (Hamas Weekly), May 18, 2006]
  
  
• “Even Adolf Hitler, who after the fall of Nazi Germany turned into a political horror for most of the writers and artists, during the last decades has started to return himself to his part of the picture. There are some in Britain who defended Hitler and tried to do justice for him. There are elderly people, among them Arabs, who still carry the name Hitler since their fathers, who were charmed by him, linked them [their children] with his name.” [ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), April 13, 2000]
  
  
• One article explained the phenomenon of naming Palestinians after admired foreign leaders – such as Napoleon and the Nazi General Rommel: “Sometimes parents name their children with foreign names, due to the father’s admiration to a foreign personality. This is the source of the names: Rommel [famous Nazi General] and Napoleon.”
  [Al-Ayyam, November 15, 2001 “Woman’s Voice” supplement.]
  
  
• The admiration for Hitler is consistent with the status of Mein Kampf, which a PA daily cited as a book on the best sellers’ list. [ Al Hayat Al Jadida (Fatah), Sept. 2, 1999].