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Summer camps teach Palestinian kids that stabbers are heroes

Nan Jacques Zilberdik  |
   
Summer camps teach Palestinian kids 
that stabbers are heroes
  • Jerusalem camp named after murderer of 3, Baha Alyan
  • Bethlehem camp named after 16-year-old stabber Mamoun Ra'ed Muhammad Al-Khatib
  • Camps held “under the auspices of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs” and “in partnership with” the PA Ministry of Education’s Jerusalem Education Directorate

[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Aug. 14, 2016]

 
Nan Jacques Zilberdik
 
One of the ways the Palestinian leadership turns terrorists into role models and heroes is by naming summer camps after them.

This summer, Palestinian children in the Jerusalem area were able to join a summer camp that was named “the Martyr Baha Alyan Pioneers” - after terrorist Baha Alyan who with an accomplice murdered 3 Israelis on a bus last October.

The camp was arranged “under the supervision of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs” - which is headed by Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub - and “in partnership with the Jerusalem Suburbs Education Directorate,” which is under the PA Ministry of Education. [Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Aug. 14, 2016; official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 16, 2016]

Children from the Bethlehem district were able to join the “Martyr Mamoun Al-Khatib Camp.” Al-Khatib was a 16-year-old terrorist who tried to stab an Israeli civilian on Dec.1, 2015.

Text on banner: “Under the auspices of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, Al-Dawha Sport Club, and Al-Dawha branch of Fatah are holding the Mamoun Al-Khatib Summer Camp for children for 2016 between Aug. 13-22, 2016”  [Facebook page of the Al-Dawha branch of Fatah, Aug. 13, 2016]
The Al-Khatib Camp was also held “under the auspices of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Youth and Sports,” and the Deputy Secretary-General of its southern council, Najeh Al-Izza, spoke at the opening event. He “emphasized that the Supreme Council is focusing on the youth sector, as it is the foundation of the future and the hope of the present.” (Emphasis added.) He went on to explain that “120 boys and girls will participate in the activities of the Martyr Mamoun Al-Khatib Camp.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 17, 2016]

At the camp named after murderer Alyan, the 11 to 17-year-old participants were to receive “informational visits” by the PLO’s Palestinian Political Guidance Authority and the PA Police, among others. The fact that these official institutions agreed to send speakers to the camp named after a murderer indicates their endorsement of this practice of turning murderers into role models for children.

Palestinian Media Watch recently published a report documenting statements by senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub, glorifying terror and inciting to murder. Rajoub heads the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, which organized the summer camps. 

PMW has reported on a
scouts' course named after murderer Alyan held by the Palestinian Scout Association and the glorification of the murderer by one of its instructors. Jibril Rajoub is also the chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association. Likewise, events at Palestinian universities have honored Alyan. 

Earlier this year, Fatah held a summer camp named after terrorist Muhammad Al-Shubaki, who stabbed and wounded an Israel soldier in November 2015. One of the camp activities was a play in which the children played
“Zionist jailers” executing Palestinian “heroic prisoners.” 

The following are longer excerpts of the reports on the summer camps:

“Today [Aug. 14, 2016], the Beit Anan Club, under the supervision of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs (which is headed by Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee Jibril Rajoub -Ed.) and in partnership with the Jerusalem Suburbs Education Directorate (which is under the PA Ministry of Education-Ed.), launched the activities of the first Free People of Palestine Summer Camp, Martyr (Shahid) Baha Alyan Pioneers, in the village of Beit Anan, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.
This was part of a series of activities and summer camps that the council launched in the various villages and cities of the homeland. The camp includes 55 male and female participants aged 11 to 17, who will be supervised by 15 male and female [camp] counselors from among the male and female youth of the village...
It should be noted that the first Free People of Palestine Camp, The Martyr Baha Alyan Pioneers, will include... informational visits by the [PLO’s] Palestinian Political Guidance [Authority], the Palestinian [Authority] Police, the [Palestinian] Civil Defense, and by a team from the Beit Anan Medical Center.”
[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Aug. 14, 2016;
 first two paragraphs also appeared in the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 16, 2016]

Note: The Supreme Council for Youth and Sports states on its website that it is “an official government body subordinate to the PLO.”

Baha Alyan and Bilal Ghanem - 22 and 23-year-old Palestinian terrorists who on Oct. 13, 2015, boarded a bus in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood with a gun and a knife and attacked passengers, killing Israelis Haviv Haim (78) and Alon Govberg (51), and Richard Lakin (76), and wounding 3 Israelis. Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard at the scene and Ghanem, a Hamas terrorist who served time in Israeli prison in 2013-2014, was wounded. Ghanem is serving 3 life sentences and an additional 60 years for these murders.

Headline: "The [PLO] Supreme Council for Youth and Sports opened 104 summer camps"
"Summer camp activities under the auspices of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (which is headed by Jibril Rajoub, Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee -Ed.) have opened, and this year there are 104 camps that are divided as follows: 40 camps in the north, 30 in the center, 30 in the south (i.e., north, center and south of the West Bank), and 4 in the Gaza Strip...
In the Southern Council, Deputy Secretary-General [of the Southern Council] Najeh Al-Izza opened the Martyr (Shahid) Mamoun Al-Khatib Camp in the city of Al-Dawha in the Bethlehem district, and emphasized that the Supreme Council is focusing on the youth sector, as it is the foundation of the future and the hope of the present. One hundred and twenty boys and girls will participate in the activities of the Martyr Mamoun Al-Khatib Camp, and it will be run by the Al-Dawha Club."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 17, 2016]

Mamoun Ra'ed Muhammad Al-Khatib - 16-year-old Palestinian terrorist who tried to stab an Israeli civilian at the Gush Etzion Junction on Dec.1, 2015. Israeli soldiers at the scene shot and killed Al-Khatib. An Israeli civilian driving by in his car was wounded by shrapnel.

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