Winnipeg Jewish Review  
Site Search:
Home  |  Archives  |  Contact Us
 
Features Local Israel Next Generation Arts/Op-Eds Editorial/Letters Links Obituary/In Memoriam




 
Puppet show at UN-supported Palestinian NGO: Replace cigarettes with machine guns

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik ,June 23, 2012

NGO also lists as past or present funders:  The French consulate, the Italian Institutions Union, the Swiss Development Agency and others

A Palestinian NGO, the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society organization, performed a puppet show for children in East Jerusalem to promote non-smoking. The educational message delivered by the puppets instructed children to replace cigarettes with machine guns:


Puppet: "I, and many other youth like me, think that cigarettes will help us to grow, to turn into men. Jerusalem doesn't need men who hold cigarettes. It needs men who hold machine guns, not cigarettes."

In addition to teaching children not to smoke, the puppet show glorified death and violence and educated children to see Jews as "enemies" who kill the Palestinian youth of Jerusalem: 

Puppet: "I wanted to stand before the audience and sing to Jerusalem, which is being kept from us. Jerusalem, whose youth are being killed by the Jews, to sing and to say:

Jerusalem, we are coming, Jerusalem, the time of death has arrived.

Jerusalem, we will not surrender to the enemies or be humiliated."

A video of the puppet show appears until today on the organization's homepage and "partners" page. According to the website, the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society is or has been supported by various branches of the UN, including UNICEF and UNESCO, in addition to international donors, including:  

"... the French consulate, the Swiss Development Agency, the Youth Development Department, which belongs to the Association of Arab Studies the 'Orient House,' the Italian Institutions Union, the Faisal Husseini Institute... UNFPA" and Arab countries, as well as the PA Ministry of Youth and Sports. 

UN and international donor money has been used before to support Palestinian institutions or organizations that incite hatred and promote violence against Jews and Israel. Among other examples, Palestinian Media Watch recently documented that UNESCO supported a Palestinian magazine for youth that glorified Hitler because he killed Jews because they are "a nation which spreads destruction all over the world." Following PMW's exposure and international protests, UNESCO stopped its funding of the magazine.   

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that promoting hatred and glorifying violence are intrinsic parts of the Palestinian Authority messages today and that foreign aid money, including UN money, is often used by PA frameworks to promote this hatred and violence - often without the knowledge of the donors. 

The following is the transcript of the puppet show performed at the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society, and the texts from its website indicating it is supported by UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNIFEM and others: 

Puppet 1: "I wanted to stand before the audience and sing to Jerusalem, which is being kept from us. Jerusalem, whose youth are being killed by the Jews. To sing and to say:

Jerusalem, we are coming, Jerusalem, the time of death has arrived.

Jerusalem, we will not surrender to the enemies or be humiliated."

Puppet 2: "What am I doing to myself [by smoking]?

I, and many other youth like me, think that through cigarettes we will be adults and men. Jerusalem doesn't need youth who hold cigarettes.

It needs men who hold machine guns, not cigarettes."

[The puppet show was performed at the Burj Luq-Luq Social
Center Society in East Jerusalem and was posted on the center's website,
http://burjalluqluq.org/main/, accessed June 11, 2012]

Text on Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society's website beside the video: 

"Sources of funding: The organization is based first and foremost on building scientific and professional ties with the funding institutions. The organization has succeeded in earning the respect of local and international funders, and maintains strategic ties with: ... the French consulate, the Swiss Development Agency, the Youth Development Department, which belongs to the Association of Arab Studies the "Orient House", the Italian Institutions Union, the Faisal Husseini Institute,.. UNFPA..., the [Palestinian] Ministry of Youth and Sports... UNICEF, UNESCO..." 

[Burj Luq-Luq website, accessed June 11, 2012]

In addition to this text, the website also shows the logos of UNIFEM and other foreign organizations beside the video. http://burjalluqluq.org/main/partners   

PMW has been informed that the Swiss Development Agency, in spite of its name appearing in the listing beside the video, is no longer funding this Palestinian NGO.

 
<<Previous Article       Next Article >>
Subscribe to the Winnipeg Jewish Review
  • RBC
  • Fillmore Riley
  • Daniel Friedman and Rob Dalgleish
  • Equitable Solutions Consulting
  • Taylor McCaffrey
  • Shuster Family
  • Winter's Collision
  • Obby Khan
  • Orthodox Union
  • Lipkin Family
  • Munroe Pharmacy
  • Booke + Partners
  • Karyn & Mel Lazareck
  • The Bob Silver Family
  • Leonard and Susan Asper Foundation
  • Taverna Rodos
  • Coughlin Insurance Brokers
  • Safeway Tuxedo
  • Gislason Targownik Peters
  • Jacqueline Simkin
  • Commercial Pool
  • Dr. Brent Schachter and Sora Ludwig
  • Shinewald Family
  • Lanny Silver
  • Laufman Reprographics
  • Sobeys Grant Park
  • West Kildonan Auto Service
  • Accurate Lawn & Garden
  • Artista Homes
  • Fetching Style
  • Preventative Health First
  • MCW Consultants Ltd.
  • Bridges for Peace
  • Bob and Shirley Freedman
  • PFK Lawyers
  • Myers LLP
  • MLT Aikins
  • Elaine and Ian Goldstine
  • Wolson Roitenberg Robinson Wolson & Minuk
  • MLT Aikins
  • Rudy Fidel
  • Pitblado
  • Cavalier Candies
  • Kathleen Cook
  • John Orlikow
  • Ted Falk
  • Chisick Family
  • Danny and Cara Stoller and family
  • Lazar Family
  • James Bezan
  • Evan Duncan
  • Ross Eadie
  • Cindy Lamoureux
  • Roseman Corp
  • Ronald B. Zimmerman
  • Shindico
  • Ambassador Mechanical
  • Red River Coop
  • CdnVISA Immigration Consultants
  • Holiday Inn Polo Park
  • Superlite
  • Tradesman Mechanical
  • Chochy's
  • Astroid Management Limited
  • Dr. Marshall Stitz
  • Doheny Securities Limited
  • Nick's Inn
  • Grant Kurian Trucking
  • Seer Logging
  • Shoppers Drug Mart
  • Josef Ryan
  • Fair Service
  • Broadway Law Group
  • Abe and Toni Berenhaut
  • Shoppers Drug Mart
  • kristinas-greek
  • The Center for Near East Policy Research Ltd.
  • Sarel Canada
  • Roofco Winnipeg Roofing
  • Center for Near East Policy Research
  • Nachum Bedein
Rhonda Spivak, Editor

Publisher: Spivak's Jewish Review Ltd.


Opinions expressed in letters to the editor or articles by contributing writers are not necessarily endorsed by Winnipeg Jewish Review.