Report: Inciting and Educating Children Towards Hate, Anti-Semitism and Violence in the Palestinain Authority

Dani Naveh

http://www.pmo.gov.il/english/nave/opening.html for illustrations

I. INTRODUCTION

This report presents disturbing evidence of the Palestinian Authority inciting children and educating them towards hate, anti-Semitism, and carrying out acts of violence and murder.

This phenomena contradicts the basic values of human rights and constitutes a flagrant violation of the International Covenant of Children's Rights, a covenant that prohibits, among others, the inclusion of children under the age of 15 in acts of violence (Paragraph 38). A United Nations committee decided in May 2000 to raise the prohibitive age to 18.

Our goal is firstly to ensure that Israel and the Palestinian Authority will be - fit for children. In order to achieve this, the Palestinian leadership must put an end to the cynical use it makes of children. Only then will there be a chance that one day Palestinian and Israeli children will share their lives together in peace, as opposed to death, killing and terror.

Millions of Palestinian and Israeli children are growing up in a reality of conflict, hate, violence, incitement and bloodshed. Millions of children who will design the pattern of our existence in the next generation. These children have many things in common. They are innocent, tender, have fertile imaginations, and love to play and be mischievous.

But while the Israeli children attend summer camps in which they learned to swim, draw, sing, sculpt, write and play, the Palestinian children spend time in a totally different kind of summer camp; summer camps whose organizers exploit their innocence. They are taught to hate, fight, kill, and destroy. Summer camps in which the popular game is shooting at a cardboard replica of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and US President George Bush.

These children are not to blame. They are only material in the hands of those who are sending them to be terrorists and suicide bombers. They are the victims of the hate, and sometimes, as terrible as it sounds, victims of their parents' beliefs

There is another difference between Israeli children and Palestinian children. Our children are enrolled in an educational system based on values such as: peace, reconciliation, democracy, the sanctity of life, pluralism, openness, and tolerance. Palestinian children, on the other hand, are enrolled in an educational system that includes: blind hatred, a desire to kill Jews, and non-recognition of the State of Israel's right to exist

In a 6th grade Palestinian textbook, "Our beautiful language" we find the "Shahid's song" encouraging death in war in the role of a shahid:

"I will take my soul into my hands and hurl it into the abyss of death". This is only one example of the brainwashing that Palestinian children undergo. Brainwashing is imprinted deep in their educational system and demands a far-reaching solution - uprooting the foundations of incitement and hate.

Dani Naveh Minister of Parliamentary Affairs

II. Arafat encourages the violent activity of Palestinian children

A. Introduction

1. Arafat is giving Palestinian youth and children a clear message - the Palestinian Authority gives a green light for violent activity against Israel

Act One:On April 6th 2001, Kamal Said comes to Friday morning prayers at the Al Aqsa mosque. After prayers the boy covers his face with a shirt and starts throwing stones at Israeli policemen in the area.

Act Two: On April 13th 2001 the head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, invites Kamal Said to his bureau in Ramallah and gives him words of encouragement.

2. Palestinian children on the violent confrontation front

The Palestinian Authority has attempted to impart a "popular character" to the violent acts it has initiated as part of the "El Aqsa Intifada". In this respect the PA operates in two major areas: motivating the Fatah movement to carry out shootings and bomb attacks against Israeli citizens and the Israel Defense Forces, and sending children and youth to the confrontation front, encouraging them to confront soldiers and citizens, and to throw stones and improvised Molotov cocktails. The political coordinating mechanism, directly subordinate to Arafat, has an important role in recruiting youth for the violent disturbances in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Ministry of Education does nothing significant to restrain the students.

The director-general of the Ministry of Education, Naim Abu Homus: "This is a popular Intifada...in which children, women, and men are participating...we in the ministry (education) cannot control the extent of the demonstrations...and those participating in them". (Al Kuds, November 6th 2001).

[Illustrations (on website):

-Sending the children to the confrontation line. Al Kuds, November 16th, 2000

- Parents encourage their children to attack settlements. The father and the mother at his side are holding stones and saying (Jewish settlement houses in the background): "Anyone who doesn't like climbing mountains, will live for ever in hell". Aliam, November 12th 2000

-A woman and a young girl bring stones for the youth to use in confrontations with Israel in Ramallah, November 5th 2000.]

- Placing children at the front

The Palestinian Authority is making cynical use of children in the fighting that the Fatah movement (whose supreme commander is Arafat) and the Palestinian masses are conducting against Israel. At the start of the events, armed Fatah movement activists used children (and other innocent citizens) as a defensive wall while they shot at Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria and at Israel Defense Force soldiers.

- The reward

In a special announcement published in the Palestinian press (Alchia Aljadida, October 2nd 2000) the PA promised grants to the wounded and the families of those killed in the violent disturbances organized by the "Authority" against Israel. Every wounded person would be granted $300 dollars and the family of a person killed would receive $2,000 dollars. These funds were defined as "a special grant on behalf of President Arafat".

[Illustration: A Fatah activist from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Majad Almatzri ("Bazbaz"), trains children to shoot at Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers. ]

B. The method

The political coordinating department, directly subordinate to Arafat, took the children out of school in an organized manner and directed them to the first front line, points of friction with the Israeli soldiers. Manning the second line behind the children were the armed activists of the Tanzim and the Fatah, firing on the soldiers. Palestinian security forces were present in the area but did nothing.

1. The Palestinian Ministry of Education sent students to the violent front

At the beginning of October an announcement by the National and Islamic Forces (the supreme directing body of the Al Aqsa Intifada controlled by Arafat) exposed the fact that the violent activities were organized by the Palestinian Authority, and that the Palestinian Ministry of Education arranged to send school students to the front in order to confront the Israeli security forces. In the announcement (published in Al-Iyam on October 12th 2001) " the students are called upon to play an organized role in the Intifada after school hours as well as taking part in activities determined by the supreme monitoring committee and that this is authorized by the Ministry of Education and Culture".

2. The Palestinian educational system gives the schools a platform for propaganda encouraging terror and mass suicide attacks against Israel

- On June 22nd 2001 the Hamas movement in Tulkarm arranged a conference in memory of two suicide bombers, residents of the city. At the ceremony, which took place at the "Eladouya" school, the head of Hamas in Tulkarm, Abas Alsaid, extolled the value of the Jihad against Israel, and the students participated in a march, carrying weapons and dressed as suicide terrorists (Eliam, June 24th 2001).

On a classroom wall of a high school in Ramallah where this photograph was taken (May 25th 2001) there is a poster praising Dia Eltawil, a Hamas activist who blew himself up in a suicide bombing attack at French Hill in Jerusalem (March 27th 2001). On the right is a copy of the poster that the Hamas movement distributed in memory of the terrorist.

-At a conference of the Hamas movement in Gaza (authorized by the Palestinian Authority), Ahmed Yassin declared to hundreds of students: "We will not give up Palestine, Acre, Haifa and Jerusalem"

On July 6th 2001 the Hamas movement convened a conference in a school in the Jabalya refugee camp (in Gaza) with the participation of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the school's administration, teachers and hundreds of students. The Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin presented his ideological doctrine to the junior high school students, as quoted below (according to the Hamas Internet site): "This is the generation of liberation and victory…the Zionist enemy wants to overpower us and make us give up Palestine, Acre, Haifa, Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa mosque, but this will not happen". In a speech to the audience, Saheil Alhinadi, representing the teaching sector on behalf of UNRWA, praised Hamas student activists who carried out suicide attacks against Israel in recent months, emphasizing that: "The road to Palestine passes through the blood of the fallen, and these fallen have written history with parts of their flesh and their bodies".

-Arafat presented his political approach towards Hamas to foreign journalists (see the quote in the Al Kuds newspaper on June 30th 2001) in a clear manner. Arafat emphasized that he would not give instructions to arrest Hamas and Islamic Jihad movement activists as demanded by Israel, because the Palestinian Authority "respects these bodies and because there is unity among us".

III. Instructing teachers to educate the children to hate Israel

The Palestinian Ministry of Education is providing clear direction to its high school history teachers to inculcate the view among the students that Zionism is a racist movement similar to Fascism and Nazism. The textbooks ignore the political negotiation channel that is meant to bring an end to the conflict in the region. On the contrary they emphasize the attachment of the Palestinian people to all of "Palestine" in its historical boundaries.

In Chapter 14 called "Zionism" in the instruction book for high school teachers, the Palestinian Ministry of Education defines for its teaching staff the required objectives in teaching this chapter, among which are: "Objective 5 - The student will understand the reasons why the peoples of the world hate the Jews". "Objective 7 - The student will discover the connections between imperialist interests and Zionist interests". "Objective 8 - The student will compare Zionism with imperialism". "Objective 9 - The student will understand the Zionist danger to Arab security and to Arab revival". "Objective 11 - The student will propose ways of dealing with Zionist activity that threaten the Arab world".

In the introductory chapter to the textbook, the following goals are defined for Palestinian history teachers: "The student will compare the foundations of Fascism and Nazism to those of Zionism. The student will acquire the following (learning) directives: Zionism is an aggressive, racist movement; the sense of racial superiority is the essence of Zionism, Fascism, and Nazism. The student will acquire the following values and perceptions: Understanding the dangers arising from Zionism and from racial discrimination...assessing the negative impact of Zionism on the Arab's revival and development. The student...will make the connection between Zionism and racial discrimination and will trace the connection between Zionism and terrorist movements in the modern world".

IV. Educating children about the value of the armed struggle

The children's newspaper "Elashbal" (published by the political coordinating mechanism directly subordinate to Arafat) published in its No. 26 edition (March 2001) a song of praise to Arafat which expresses to the children a message of willingness of sacrifice for his sake and to take the path of the armed struggle that Arafat is leading. Below is a translation of the poem "Father Yasser we are with you", written by Halil Hasouna:

Father Yasser Abu Amar We are with you we are your forgiveness Hand in hand and in every home And with the gun we are with you You have a large heart and with stones we are with you In spite of what they say and do And in spite of Mofaz's threats on us We stand upright with you And with the gun we are with you You have a large heart and with stones we are with you We are for you and we are for your sake And we are with you O Abu Amar We stand upright with you To Jerusalem we are going Knocking on the door and the window And with the gun we are with you You have a large heart and with stones we are with you

History textbooks designed for high school students and approved by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, place the blame on the Jews for the hatred that has developed toward them by the people of the world as a result of the Jews' belief in "the superiority of the Jews over the gentiles" and their "control over the economies of the host nations". Zionism is presented as a movement based on racist values that have caused a national tragedy for the Palestinian nation by the fact of its settlement in "Palestine", and it also constitutes a strategic threat for Arab national security as a whole. The history textbooks do not include any material dealing with the political process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The students are not informed that a peace agreement was signed between the PLO and Israel in September 1993.

"After you have learned, dear student, the characteristics of the Zionist movement and the factors assisting its establishment, you will understand its connection to racial discrimination and to the racist behavior toward the Arab population of the conquered Arab lands."

At the end of the chapter analyzing the Zionist movement and the foundations of the establishment of the State of Israel, high school students are asked to study the quotation in Samri Hiri's book "The theory of Arab national security" (pages 133-137), in order for them to "be aware of the danger of the Jews' presence in Palestine" (p. 124).

"The Zionist danger is expressed in its opposition to Arab national security, and it is thus essential that all efforts should be directed to stopping it as part of consolidating an Arab national security approach...continuing to give Zionist elements an opportunity to widen their interests and to develop their strength at the expense of Arab security, leads to dangerous negative implications, because any expansion of Zionist interests as part of their security conception will necessarily lead to limiting the essential interests of the Arab nation...the nuclear danger constitutes the most serious threat."

Israel does not exist in Palestinian textbooks: In the 6th grade textbook for 2000-2001 studied in Palestinian schools (published by the Palestinian Authority!) the State of Israel does not exist on maps dealing with the study of the geography of "Palestine". The introduction of the book expresses gratitude to some of the international sponsors: "The Ministry of Education and Culture...wishes to thank international bodies and organizations (UNESCO)...and the Italian government who assisted in the professional and financial aspects".

V. Overt terrorist activity at Al Najah University

The results of the incitement of children towards hate and violence did not take long to appear. In April 2001 the Hamas movement convened a conference in Nablus in the course of which senior members of the movement called for the continuation of the Jihad and praised the suicide attacks against Israel. Dummy models of mortars and anti-tank rocket launchers were presented, expressing the movement's determination to escalate the pattern of armed struggle. Furthermore, Hamas activists openly demonstrated how to prepare explosive devices and how to murder Israelis. These activities encouraging terrorism took place within an academic institution and were authorized by the Palestinian Authority.

-Young Fatah members threaten to murder Israelis

On November 6th 2000 the "shabiba" (the organizational framework of the young generation of the Fatah movement) organized a large conference at A-Najah University in Nablus, which dealt with ways of demolishing the Israeli settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. The "shabiba" activists, many of whom are part of the armed militias that have carried out hundreds of shooting attacks in Judea and Samaria since October, presented an ultimatum to the Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria to abandon all their settlements by the end of November, and if not, "they will become a target for Palestinian guns". In order to demonstrate the serious nature of the ultimatum, the "shabiba" activists (armed with assault rifles and RPG rocket launchers) conducted a "traditional" ceremony during which they burned the Israeli flag after which they shattered, burned and fired on a small-scale model of an Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria.