Palestinian Exploitation of Children

Examine the Product of the Palestine National Authority Ministry of Education.

 

"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children"

GOLDA MEIR, 1972

 

As confirmed by the New York Times on Aug 3, 2000 in a front page article, Arafat himself has designated resources for the training of at least 25,000 children for use in Jihadist guerilla warfare. The Palestinian Authority has greatly developed use of prejudiced and martyrdom oriented textbooks in addition to state media resources being used to air educational shows encouraging martyrdom and developing military training summer camps.

The military style summer camps have been organized to educate the children in terrorist warfare, combat, Palestinian Nationalism rhetoric and the contributions of children in pervious Arab warfare.

 


 

“…there will be a Jihad and our country shall be freed. This is our story with the thieving conquerors. You must know, my boy, that Palestine is your grave responsibility…”

Our Arabic Language, PA Textbook

“The honorable soul has two objectives: Achieving death and honor.”

Abd al-Rahim Mahmud’s Song of the Martyr, Sixth Grade reader

 

 

In 1988 Daoud Kuttab in the Journal of Palestinian Studies explained the traditional use of Children in terrorist warfare:

"When the danger alarm is sounded the young people of the neighborhood divide into three teams. The first is composed of lookouts...the second team is basically defensive in nature; its main task is to cover the offensive team...the most courageous. After advancing to the Israeli position and throwing stones, the defensive team goes into action to cover the retreating youths. When the offensive team starts to retreat, it is the job of the defensive team to throw a barrage of stones at the soldiers."

This was the model for the first Intifada. However as Jack Kelly of USA Today explained in October 2000, strategies have changed as the Palestinian terror fronts have more access to arms:

“Children serve as infantry in the confrontations between Israeli and Palestinian soldiers. In scenes reminiscent of Iranian children sent to the Iraqi front equipped with plastic keys to heaven, Palestinian children are sent close to Israeli positions with rocks and Molotov cocktails, while the gunmen and snipers fire from positions hundreds of yards back.”

It is also reminiscent of the cowardice of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who notoriously funded Palestinian terrorism; using civilian women and children as human shields.

 

The PA has used their media resources to produce shows such as "The Children's Club," a show similar in format to the American PBS series Sesame Street, to be martyrs for the Palestinian cause:

"I come here to say that we will throw them to the quiet sea. Occupiers, your day is near, then we will settle our account. We will settle our claims with stones and bullets." - 8 year-old Palestinian boy

"We are ready with our guns; revolution until victory; revolution until victory" - young Palestinian boys chanting

Why the use of children? PA-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheik 'Ikrimi Sabri, in an October 28 interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi:

"It's hard to express it in words. There is no doubt that a child [martyr] suggests that the new generation will carry on the mission with determination. The younger the martyr -- the greater and the more I respect him..."

 

The use of children in terrorist warfare has two self serving purposes: 1) trying to incite international public support for the Palestinian cause by using their deaths as an example of Israel being merciless and irresponsible, 2) and for psychologically terrorizing the Israeli people by holding them responsible for Palestinian children’s deaths.

Sam Kiley sums in up in his London Times article titled A Deadly Game, published Oct. 19, 2000, “Approving or not, the Palestinian authorities have done nothing to stop children playing with their lives. Let's face it, dead kids make great telly.”

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