Palestinian scouts in Lebanon turn scout salute into Nazi-like salute, pledging allegiance to “Palestine”
Palestinian scouts in Lebanon indoctrinated to seek destruction of Israel and be “a second army to liberate Palestine” “from the River to the Sea”
Scouts’ oath: “We will sacrifice our blood to reclaim you [Palestine]”
Palestinian Red Crescent representative expressed organization’s support for recent war against Israel - “revolution and intifada”
Hezbollah official spoke at scouts’ event and huge poster of Imad Mughniyeh – a senior Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist - adorned the ceremony
While pledging allegiance to “Palestine” at an event organized in Lebanon by the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA) and the Fatah Movement Scout Office, adult and child scouts appeared to make the Nazi salute.
The scout sign – or the three-finger-salute – is usually made with the three middle fingers touching the brow while the thumb and the little finger are folded and the palm faces out. However, the Palestinian scouts at the ceremony in Lebanon stretched their arms diagonally into the sky, thus making the scout sign look like the salute used by the Nazis:
[Scout Wiki, accessed June 14, 2021] |
[YouTube Channel of Fatah TV (Lebanon), June 7, 2021] |
Official PA TV chose to include the vow to “Palestine” and the Nazi-like salute as part of a 3-minute news item about the scouts’ event, which took place in the Maroun Al-Ras area on the border between Lebanon and Israel:
Official PA TV newsreader: “To Lebanon, where the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA) and the Fatah Movement Scout Office organized an activity for young people in the Maroun Al-Ras area on the border [with Israel]. The participants pledged allegiance to Palestine…”
Palestinian scouts: “Our Palestine,
We testify before Allah and history,
And we swear to you
that we will sacrifice our blood to reclaim you.”
[Official PA TV News, June 7, 2021]
The Nazi-like salute was made by everyone present, both the Lebanese Palestinian scouts and their supervisors. The scouts’ vow to “sacrifice our blood to reclaim you [Palestine],” shows the violent politicization of the Lebanese/Palestinian branch of the international scouts youth movement.
A longer broadcast from the ceremony by Fatah’s Lebanese TV channel shows with even greater clarity that the Lebanese Palestinian scouts have become a political organization, misusing its scouts’ platform to indoctrinate the Lebanese Palestinian youth to seek the destruction of Israel and the “liberation of Palestine.”
Among the speakers was Secretary of the Fatah Scouts Office in Lebanon Khaled Awad, who stressed that there will be no “normalization” with Israel, but rather Israel will cease to exist. He taught the assembled scouts that “the liberation of Palestine… from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea” is “a national and religious duty”:
Secretary of the Fatah Scouts Office in Lebanon Khaled Awad: “As for [Israeli PM] Netanyahu, or the great stinker [former US President] Trump who was uprooted and left never to return, [PA] President Abbas told them: ‘Curse the fathers of the deal of the century’ (i.e., Trump’s Middle East peace plan). May Allah’s curse be upon them to the end of time! We won’t normalize [with Israel]. We won’t be with the normalizers. The liberation of Palestine is a national and religious duty, and we will liberate it from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, whether they like it or not.”
[YouTube Channel of Fatah TV (Lebanon), June 7, 2021]
A scout interviewed at the event stressed that youth from the age of 8 and up are taught to be “a second army to liberate Palestine”:
Narrator of Fatah TV (Lebanon): “The Palestinian flag was waved high while accompanied by the scouts’ salute…”
Palestinian scouts: “Our Palestine,
We won’t forget you
We won't accept any homeland but you
Our Palestine
We testify before Allah and history,
and we swear to you
that we will sacrifice our blood to reclaim you
Long live Palestine
and may we live until our victorious return.”
Palestinian scout: “The scouts are from all the age groups… from age 8 to an unlimited age… We are passing from generation to generation the love for Palestine, loyalty to Palestine, and defense of Palestine. We emphasize the statement of [PA] President Martyr Yasser Arafat that we are a second army to liberate Palestine, Allah willing, and we are following the path.”
[YouTube Channel of Fatah TV (Lebanon), June 7, 2021]
A member of the Palestinian Scout Association seconded the goal of the “liberation of Palestine,” stressing that the participating scouts were “mostly young” and that they belong to “the generation of liberation and victory that will happen”:
Palestinian Scout Association member Muhammad Al-Mughayer: “These people are mostly young. Therefore, they are the generation of liberation and victory that will happen... We are coming to stand here to say that Palestine is near and we will yet return to it.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, June 9, 2021]
Moreover, a representative from the Palestinian Red Crescent interviewed at the event expressed the Palestinian Red Crescent’s approval of the recent Fatah/Hamas riot and rocket War against Israel, during which the terror organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired more than 4,300 rockets into Israel. The Red Crescent representative referred to the war as “their revolution and intifada”:
Palestinian Red Crescent representative Dr. Ziyad Abu Al-Einein: “We in the Palestinian Red Crescent, from Martyr Mahmoud Al-Hamshari Hospital, participated in this activity today to help our people in Palestine and to support their revolution and intifada that took place recently.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, June 9, 2021]
At the event, speeches were given by officials from Fatah and Hezbollah – an internationally designated terror organization. A huge poster of Imad Mughniyeh – a Lebanese terrorist and senior member of Hezbollah who was linked to major international terror attacks (see below) - adorned the ceremony.
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed that Palestinian students, youth, and activists have used the Nazi salute in the past.
For example, students at Bir Zeit University made the Nazi salute during protests over the cost of tuition and other financial matters, and over the university’s ban on military expression on campus:
[Democratic Student Alliance, Facebook, Dec. 11, 2019]
Fatah youth also performed the Nazi salute at a Fatah ceremony, in which they vowed to “be loyal to Palestine” and willing to “sacrifice everything I can for its liberation”:
[Dalal Mughrabi Magazine, Facebook, April 17, 2015]
Secretary of the Fatah Scouts Office in Lebanon Khaled Awad’s mention of “the normalizers” is a reference to Arab states and others that normalized relations with Israel during US President Trump’s term of office: