Celebrations of the September 11, 2001 attacks

File:BinLadenVictoryOverWTC-AlHayat-12-9-2007.JPG

Cartoon that PMW believe to be part of a long tradition of Palestinian celebrating the September 11, 2001 Attacks. - Published by Al-Hayat al-Jadida, Palestinain Authority official daily newspaper, on September 12, 2007.

The September 11, 2001 attacks occasioned spontaneous outbreaks of public celebration in a number of Arab Muslim communities. Press and television coverage of these celebrations focused on the Middle East and were met with shock and outrage in the United States.

As a later response, Muslim groups, mostly from the USA, vocally distanced themselves from such behavior and also condemned it, while some media reported that in one of the incidents the participants were incited to celebrate.

World reaction

Official reaction was almost universal in condemning the attacks, even among countries considered hostile to the U.S. such as Libya, North Korea and Syria. In Iran for example thousands participated in candlelit vigils, while a minute's silence was held at Tehran's football stadium. The sole exception was Iraq, which said of the attacks that ""The American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity." Saddam Hussein would later offer sympathy to the Americans killed in the attacks..

The Reports

Reports and images of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank taking to the streets in jubilation, chanting 'Allāhu Akbar' (God is (the) greatest), passing along sweets in praise of Bin Laden (The US primary suspect), honking car horns, holding up the V sign for victory and holding up Palestinian flags were broadcast around the world, and most American networks aired the images. In addition, many newspapers, magazines, Web sites and wire services ran photographs of the festivities.^(VIDEO)

On the day of the attacks, The Times (British) and Fox News (American) reported that 3,000 celebrants were pouring into the streets of Nablus and dozens of people were celebrating in the traditional gesture of handing out sweets. The Times notes that in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, there was a smaller gathering of about two dozen people. FOX News adds that in Ein el-Hilweh (Lebanon), where about 75,000 Palestinians live, and also in Rashidiyeh camp south of Tyre, revelers fired weapons in the air.

The Times also writes that Nawal Abdel Fatah, a Palestinian woman (age 48) wearing a long black dress, was quoted saying she was happy because "America is the head of the snake, America always stands by Israel in its war against us". Her daughter Maysoon (age 22), expressed hopes that the next attack would be against Tel Aviv.^(VIDEO)

Palestinian Authority reaction

The Palestinian Authority, which had immediately condemned the September 11th attacks, moved to censor further reports of public celebrations, claiming that they were unrepresentative of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian Authority would not allow "a few kids" to "smear the real face of the Palestinians". Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Arafat's Cabinet secretary, said the Palestinian Authority could not "guarantee the life" of an Associated Press cameraman if footage he filmed of post-9/11 celebrations was broadcast. Rahman's statement prompted a formal protest from the AP bureau chief, Dan Perry..

A few days after the September 11th attacks, Yasser Arafat was shown on camera reported as symbolically donating blood for victims of the attacks. However, Charles Enderlin of France 2 TV, has stated that the scene was staged as the doctor only placed a needle next to his arm and agitated a bag of blood while reporters took photographs.

Palestinian Media Reaction

While the celebrations and ensuing controversy were widely covered in the United States and Europe, Arab condemnations of the attacks and the celebrations went widely unreported. The Palestinian media, however, quickly condemned the celebrations as an unrepresentative example of public opinion that was being exploited to vilify the Palestinian people. The lead editorial in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, for example, wrote:

"Those ignorant few who did that [celebrate] do not represent our public opinion. In fact, such ignorant behavior might have happened in other parts of the world, but unfortunately the cameras did not reach them..."

Authenticity

Rebroadcast footage

File:PalestinianChildren.jpg

Palestinian children, reported to be celebrating the "September 11 attacks".

There was an urban legend that the footage of some Palestinians celebrating the attacks was stock footage of Palestinian reactions to the invasion of Kuwait, a decade prior to 2001. This rumor was proven false shortly afterwards, and CNN issued a statement to that fact.

Germany's Panorama

Annette Krüger Spitta of ARD's (German public broadcasting) TV magazine Panorama claimed that while the footage was indeed correctly dated, reporters may have partly staged one of the scenes and that viewers should keep some distance from what is spread by journalists on images of conflict. The German weekly Der Spiegel repeated this news report and noted about the mistaken circulation that the footage was from 1991.

The Panorama report from September 20, 2001 has Medium Professor Martin Löffelholz explaining that in the images you see jubilant Palestinian children and several adults but it is impossible to know if they are necessarily pleased about the attack reports; and he does not assume this and ignores the way it has been reported.

Krüger Spitta notes that inspection of the untelecasted complete tape shows the street around the celebration is quiet and a man in a white T-shirt is noticeable for inciting the children and is fetching new people again and again. The woman who is remembered for her cheering (e.g. Nowel Abdel Fatah) stated afterwards that she was offered cake if she celebrates on camera, and that she was frightened when she saw the pictures on television and that she never expected it would be noticed to the USA.

Krüger Spitta expresses that it is impossible to know if these images -- which were wildly sent worldwide under the title: Palestinians celebrate in Jerusalem -- are truth or a production and that, as Professor Löffelholz says, in crises and war situations a due portion of distance should be kept from what is spread by journalists who sometime make errors.

External links

• IMRA media digest from IMRA
• CAMERA: The BBC, the British Press, and the Attack on America from CAMERA
• Jewish Virtual Library: Palestinian Authority Threatens Cameraman from Jewish Virtual Library