| Al-Fateh | |
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| Founded: | 2002 |
| Language: | Arabic |
Al-Fateh (Arabic: الفاتح, "The Conqueror") was an online children's magazine in Arabic. It began publication in September 2002, and its 108th issue was released in mid-September 2007. The magazine featured stories, poems, riddles, and puzzles.
Several Israeli reviews and news coverages of the site describe it as hate-mongering and accuse it of glorifying death and suicide for Allah.[1]
MEMRI has said that the magazine includes idealized illustrations of child warriors as wagers of Jihad.[2]
Mozes and Weimann characterize the level of visual extremism present in the magazine as being "not especially high," and generally not evocative of "strong emotions," with certain exceptions.[3] :217-8
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli research group, has stated that "Issue number 38 of Al-Fateh, includes a photograph of the severed head of a female suicide bomber."[4]
The Anti-Defamation League stated that the website "advocates hatred of Jews".[5] They reported that an issue from 1 March 2006, following Hamas's political victory in the Palestinian parliament, highlights a Hamas suicide bomber, Nassim Jabari, who participated in an August 2004 attack that killed 16 people in Israel. The issue also shows a figure of a girl throwing stones from a slingshot, and a poem next to the figure which in part reads: "The blood of the shahid has taught us/that martyrdom is like a new life…/and indeed martyrdom is an evident victory.".[6] An issue from 1 May 2007 includes a "games" section with a virtual "Chutes and Ladders" board game consisting of images of Israeli soldiers with snake bodies and tongues and caricatures of children throwing stones, entitled "The Palestinian kid and the Israeli soldier."[7]
According to PMW, an Israeli watchdog organization, terrorism for children is glorified on the website. On 15 March 2006, the website posted a short fictional story for children, entitled "A Palestinian Girl's Heroism," glorifying a young girl's suicide terror attack. In death, she is said to be "smiling, lying on the grass, because she died as a Shahida (Martyr for Allah) for Palestine."[8] [9] The PMW further reports that, following their publicization of the website, the Russian server (CORBINA TELECOM Network Operations) immediately closed it down on 9 March 2006, and that it reopened days later on a Malaysian web-hoster. The website has since been inactive.