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Special for World Children’s Day: How does the Palestinian Authority indoctrinate children?

Itamar Marcus, Ephraim D. Tepler, and Nan Zilberdik  |

The PA teaches Palestinian children:

  • Terrorists as brave heroes 
  • Israel has no right to exist in any borders
  • All of Israel is "occupied Palestine" and will be "liberated"

Today is World Children's Day. According to the UN, this day is a call to action for schools, communities, and institutions to engage with and support children. It is a great opportunity to examine how the Palestinian Authority engages with children in its own schools, communities, and institutions.

As it has been doing for decades, the Palestinian Authority continues to indoctrinate its young people to seek death as "Martyrs" or imprisonment as terrorists, thus emulating those it portrays as heroes and role models. The PA also continues to reinforce its most fundamental of all messages—that Israel has no right to exist.

The following is a collection of recent children's activities and PA messages to children:

Terrorist prisoners are brave heroes

From a school event in Qabatiya honoring terrorist prisoners:

 

Text on sign on left: "A homeland whose heroes are Martyrs and prisoners is a free homeland"

A poster with the pictures of three terrorists: Yaqub Qaderi, who murdered 1 together with an accomplice; Mahmoud Ardah, who was involved in numerous terror attacks; and Muhammad Ardah, who was involved in the murder of 3.

 

Picture on the left is terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted of planning three attacks in which 5 people were murdered, and he planned many others as head of the Tanzim terror organization.

Posted text: "Our prisoners are in the period of annihilation [by Israel]. Activities of solidarity from the schools of the Qabatiya Directorate of Education (i.e., branch of the PA Ministry of Education) to support the prisoners in the occupation's (i.e., Israeli) prisons"

[The Qabatiya Directorate of Education, Facebook page, Nov. 6, 2024]

Israel has no right to exist in any borders

Poster in the center shows a map that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as "Palestine."

[South Hebron Directorate of Education, Facebook page, Nov. 11, 2024]

 

Child second from left wears a shirt with the PA map of "Palestine" erasing israel in the colors of the Palestinian flag, along with the text: "We will return."

[South Hebron Directorate of Education, Facebook page, Nov. 11, 2024]

 

Girl holds a poster featuring the PA map of "Palestine" with a rifle barrel emerging from the top and the word "Palestine" alongs its center.

[South Hebron Directorate of Education, Facebook page, Nov. 11, 2024]

 

The girl in the center is holding a poster featuring a map that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas as "Palestine." The map is wrapped in chains and is dressed in a keffiyeh (Arab headdress) pattern. Next to it is a large key symbolizing the refugees' so-called "right of return."

[PA Hebron Governorate, Facebook page, Nov. 5, 2024]

Schoolchildren are holding pictures of former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. On the school wall in the background is a large key symbolizing the refugees' so-called "right of return":

Text on wall: "The return is a right"

[South Hebron Directorate of Education, Facebook page, Nov. 11, 2024]

Palestinian Media Watch exposed that on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the PA stressed to schoolchildren that all of Israel is "Palestine" and that Jews/Israelis have "no right."

Finally, the use of the map of "Palestine" erasing Israel was explained explicitly in this recent video from an official in Fatah, the PA's ruling party:

Click to play

Fatah Tubas Branch Secretary Mahmoud Sawafta: "This mighty people is loyal to the blood that is drawing the map of the precious homeland. The map of Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Lod, and Ramle (i.e., all Israeli cities), and the map of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the capital Jerusalem."

[Official PA TV News, Nov. 11, 2024]

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