"Machine gun and bullet are essence of the path" - song at PA university graduation ceremony for terrorist prisoners
According to Israeli law and the rules of the Israeli Prison Service, Palestinian terrorist prisoners are not allowed to study for academic degrees while imprisoned in Israel. Despite this, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that Palestinian terrorist prisoners continue to enroll and study at several Palestinian universities, earning degrees while in prison, and receiving university diplomas - in absentia.
At a ceremony in Nablus this summer, Al-Quds Open University President Younes Amr and Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr handed out university degrees to the relatives of prisoners. The choice of a song played at the ceremony stresses the PA's ideology and policy to continue promoting violence and terror:
Song lyrics: "Give me the machine gun so that I can keep goingOur occupied land will not return without it...The machine gun and the bullet are the essence of the pathWhoever destroys my home - we will shoot them with a bullet..."[Official PA TV, July 23, 2019]
At the ceremony, Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr praised the terrorist prisoners and stated that almost a fifth of Palestinian prisoners are registered at Palestinian universities:
"They [the prisoners] armed themselves with desire and determination and completed the path of struggle through knowledge...They have enrolled in the Palestinian universities [while in prison]...1,026 prisoners [out of 5,700] are currently registered at the Palestinian universities."
[Official PA TV, July 23, 2019]
University studies during imprisonment is one of the many benefits that the PA grants terrorists and murderers, in addition to paying them monthly salaries.
The following is a longer excerpt of the PLO Commission director's speech at the ceremony:
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: "They armed themselves with desire and determination and completed the path of struggle through knowledge - the struggle within the prison. They made efforts, worked diligently, and trampled the obstacles that the occupation placed before them. They have enrolled in the Palestinian universities and learned in minimal conditions: the handcuffs, bars, and walls of the prisons added nothing for them but determination to become academics...There is no avoiding mention of how the overall number of prisoners inside the prisons at this moment is approximately 5,700 prisoners. Of them, 1,026 prisoners are currently registered at the Palestinian universities, and prime among them this university, Al-Quds Open University, which holds the lion's share as the number registered at it today is 906 students. This is in addition to 74 at Al-Quds University and 46 prisoners registered for a master's degree at Hadarim Prison. This year 739 male and female prisoners took the matriculation exams, and we wish them success."
[Official PA TV, July 23, 2019]
Prisoners in general and security prisoners in particular are only allowed to conduct specific activities permitted to them under Israeli law and the rules of the Israeli Prison Service. In accordance with these, since 2011, security prisoners are not permitted to participate in degree courses.