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Revision as of 19:43, 15 September 2004

The September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack occasioned spontaneous outbreaks of public celebration in a number of Arab Muslim communities. Press and television coverage of these celebrations were met with shock and outrage in the United States. Observers in other nations often contrasted them with what they believe to be a justified distrust and antipathy to American hegemony.

There were reports of celebrations on the West Bank, and at the time there was an urban legend that the footage of some Palestinians celebrating the attacks was faked, and that it was actually footage from the invasion of Kuwait. This was proven false shortly afterwards , and the media widely circulated that fact.

However, the US media did not widely circulate European media reports (by the renowned German weeklies Der Spiegel and Stern, by the German public TV magazine Panorama and by the Swedish Dagens Nyheter) that while the footage was indeed correctly dated, reporters had at least in part staged the scene. One woman was quoted saying that she was offered a piece of pie for whooping it up in front of the camera. It is unclear whether it was explained to the woman what she was supposedly celebrating. The Panorama TV report which analyzed the full video footage noted (translated):

A closer look at the complete film material which was not broadcast shows that the street around the celebration is quiet. Only in front of the camera there are a few excited children. The woman, who is remembered for her cheering, shortly afterwards moves along quietly. A man in a white T-shirt is conspicuous. He incites the children, and keeps fetching new people. The woman who just left the picture says today that she was offered cake if she celebrates on camera, and that she was appalled when she saw the pictures on television.

On the day of the attacks, Times Newspapers LTD. (British) claimed that 3,000 celebrants were pouring into the streets of Nablus and dozens of people were celebrating in Arab East Jerusalem.

Moderate Palestinians and the Palestinian leadership quickly distanced themselves from any celebrations. A few days after the September 11th attacks, Yasser Arafat symbolically donated blood for victims of the attacks.

Reports concerning five Israelis employed by the company Urban Moving Systems who photographed or videotaped the burning towers while smiling received relatively little media attention (, mirror: ; report on Ha'aretz: ). The men were later detained and deported. According to ABCNEWS, the FBI believed Urban Moving Systems may have been a cover operation for Israeli intelligence. (Four of the five later allege torture, in a suit against the US government.)

In numerous cities of the Islamic world, September 11 was again celebrated in 2002, 2003, and 2004 with crowded streets filled with dancing chanting men and celebratory gunfire, documented at al-Jazeera and very briefly in the Western media.

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