Itamar Marcus
Itamar Marcus is the founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch.[1] Marcus is a resident of the West Bank settlement of Efrat.[2] He is a former employee of David Bar-Illan, Benjamin Netanyahu's PR chief.[3] Marcus was appointed to represent Israel on the Israeli/Palestinian/American Trilateral Anti-Incitement Committee.[4]
As Director of Research for the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace from 1998 to 2000, Marcus wrote reports on Palestinian Authority (PA), Syrian and Jordanian schoolbooks.[5]
Marcus spoke at a panel session on Islamic radicalism at the International Institute for Counter-terrorism's sixth international conference in September 2006.[6]
Marcus spoke at Philadelphia's Union League, as a guest of the Middle East Forum on 21 November 2006.[7]
In February 2007, he released a report on the newest PA schoolbooks at a press conference in Washington together with Senator Hilary Clinton.[8]
Marcus spoke at the Facing Jihad conference which hosted Geert Wilders in Jerusalem in December 2008.[9]
Marcus is one of the interviewees in the anti-Islam film Obsession.[10]
Palestinian textbook controversy
Ha'aretz journalist Akiva Eldar suggested in January 2001 that Marcus's criticisms of Palestinan textbooks under-estimated attempts to modernise the curriculum.
- Marcus's center routinely feeds the media with excerpts from "Palestinian" textbooks that call for Israel's annihilation. He doesn't bother to point out that the texts quoted in fact come from Egypt and Jordan.
- In an executive summary he published for Thursday's seminar, Marcus makes a report of the 14 new textbooks published by the PA's "Center for Developing the Palestinian Curricula," replacing the old books. Marcus concedes there were "a few changes," like the fact that "The open calls for Israel's destruction found in the previous books are no longer present" and that "references defining Jews and Israelis as 'treacherous' or 'the evil enemy,' common in the previous books, are likewise not present." But this, to Marcus, is not enough. He complains that the new books "continue to teach non-recognition of Israel," and that the maps portray greater Palestine, with no boundaries separating the territories and Israel (just like the official textbooks and maps used by most Israeli institutions).[11]
In November 2001 paper, political scientist Natan Brown criticised the methodology of Marcus's work with the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace:
- When the PNA issued a new series of books for grades one and six in 2000, the Center rushed out its second report that passed over significant changes quite quickly before presenting its allegations of “delegitimization of Israel’s existence,” implicit “seeking of Israel’s destruction,” “defamation of Israel,” and “encouraging militarism and violence.” However, in contrast to the alarm and alacrity with which it studied Palestinian textbooks, the Center’s work on Israeli textbooks showed a far more generous spirit and proceeded at a far more leisurely pace, taking years rather than months. The report on Israeli books followed a very different method: rather than quoting example after example of offending passages with little historical context or explanation (a method that would have produced a very damning report indeed), the report on Israeli textbooks is nuanced and far more careful. Incendiary quotations are explained, analyzed and contextualized in the report on Israeli books; they are listed with only brief and sensationalist explanations in the reports on Palestinian books. In short, the Center is fair, balanced, and understanding for Israeli textbooks but tendentious on Palestinian books.[12]
Affiliations
- Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace - Director (1998-2000)
- Hasbara Fellowships - featured speaker
- Palestinian Media Watch - Director
- International Analyst Network - Featured Analyst
- Hasbara Fellowship Speakers Bureau - Featured Speaker
- Jerusalem Summit - Media Committee
External Resources
- Palestinian Media Watch website.
- Itamar Marcus' Lens on Anti-Semitism, Jews on First! profile.
- Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, FrontPageMag columns.
Notes
- ↑ Profiles: Itamar Marcus, International Analyst Network, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Fouad Moughrabi, Battle of the Books in Palestine, The Nation, 13 September 2001.
- ↑ Akiva Eldar, What Did You Study In School Today, Palestinian Child?, Ha'aretz, 2 January 2001, hosted at Palestinian Curriculum Development Center.
- ↑ Profiles: Itamar Marcus, International Analyst Network, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Profiles: Itamar Marcus, International Analyst Network, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Terrorism's Global Impact, ICT's Sixth International Conference, accessed 23 May 2009.
- ↑ The Palestinian Authority's Double Game: Preach Peace and Incite War, Middle East Forum, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Profiles: Itamar Marcus, International Analyst Network, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Schedule, facingjihad.com, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Itamar Marcus, Obsession The Movie, accessed 24 May 2009.
- ↑ Akiva Eldar, What Did You Study In School Today, Palestinian Child?, Ha'aretz, 2 January 2001, hosted at Palestinian Curriculum Development Center.
- ↑ Nathan Brown, Democracy, History and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum, Adam Institute, November 2001.
