Interviewed Palestinians oppose child terrorism and blame TV for inciting
Interviewed Palestinians
oppose children's terrorism
oppose children's terrorism
and blame TV for inciting
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
The majority of Palestinians interviewed in the street by Fatah-run Awdah TV said they were against children participating in stabbing and other terror attacks. Most opposed child-terror in principle, while a few opposed it because they view it as ineffective.
All those included in the broadcast likewise blamed and condemned television for inciting children to commit stabbing attacks. One person specifically accused Palestinian TV, condemning "our TV channels." The moderator summarized the broadcast with a call to end "incitement on TV screens... enough spilling the blood of our children."
Palestinian Media Watch has reported that Palestinian schools also incite children to kill. Children in "many schools from the Ramallah and El-Bireh district" were presented with a terrorist stabber as a role model when they participated in a football tournament named after 13-year-old terrorist Ahmad Manasrah, who stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli and nearly killed him.
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 23, 2015]
A song on Fatah's Awdah TV called on Palestinians to drown Israelis "in a sea of blood, kill them as you wish":
The current terror campaign has witnessed 13, 14 and 15-year-old terrorists stabbing and attempting to stab people to death. Many of them have been killed while carrying out their attacks. According to Israeli army statistics, about half of the terrorists in the current terror campaign have been under age 20. At least 21 terrorists (10%) were under age 16. [IDF, Feb. 17, 2016]
The following is the transcript of the broadcast:
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: "What is required of children during the process of national liberation?"
Palestinian 1: "First of all, the children are victims... The children are deprived of everything considered children's entertainment. Our children, unfortunately, their entertainment is the weapon..."
Palestinian 2: "Our children are required, like the adults, to resist with every means they: with knives, with rocks, with Molotov cocktails, in every way they can resist, they also need to resist..."
Palestinian teacher: "As a teacher, I believe that you need to sow love of knowledge in a child, that is most important. That he should go and fight while still a child - I am totally against that..."
Palestinian 3: "These things are not for children. The children need to learn and live their lives, to go to school, to play..."
Palestinian 4: "I am against children's stabbing operations..."
Palestinian 5: "Stabbing operations by children are negative operations, because they don't bring significant results, they aren't organized. There's nothing positive about it, only negative - that we lose a child..."
Palestinian 6: "As we see and hear - most of the stabbings taking place are very weak, and they do almost nothing to change reality..."
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: "Do you think that the media and incitement on TV influence our children?"
Palestinian7: "Of course. It confuses the children when they see these things. I prevent my children from watching what is happening on TV, stabbing operations or shootings. I prevent my children from watching. It confuses them, causes them to want to do this..."
Palestinian 8: "What is happening today in the media has a negative influence. It doesn't tell them 'No.' It encourages them to take to the streets..."
Palestinian teacher:"I think that the media plays a large role. Especially our TV channels. Even when the situation has calmed down a little, you see that there are broadcasters among us and known satellite channels that begin to incite. Even if the incitement is indirect, it is incitement. You feel that the child does not know what to do. Unfortunately..."
Fatah-run Awdah TV host: "Enough with this incitement on TV screens, on [Facebook] pages and social media. We must protect our children and must develop a strategy of struggle built on responsibility... enough spilling the blood of our children."
[Fatah-run Awdah TV, Jan. 21, 2016]