With school resuming, many children are now recalling those fun times at summer camp where they took classes on subjects such as swimming, boating, art, archery, horsemanship and martyrdom.
Martyrdom?
Yes, that’s right.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, some Palestinian children who were sent to summer camps took classes that “promoted hate, terror, martyrdom-death and denial of the existence of Israel.”
The camps were organized by the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs and the PA’s National Committee for Summer Camps, both of which are funded by the PA budget, PMW reported.
On its Facebook page, the National Committee for Summer Camps has listed itself as a “governmental organization.” In Arabic, it defines itself as “a governmental institution for children aged 6-12 years with recreational activities aimed to develop the Palestinian child in various fields.”
Other sponsors included two U.N. groups, UNICEF and UNDP.
“The PA’s summer camp messages to children included glorifying terror, venerating martyrdom-death, and picturing a world without Israel in which all Israel has become ‘Palestine,'” said the report by Middle East experts Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik.
“Camp activities included children performing plays in which the children depicted Palestinian stabbers carrying out terror attacks and being shot and killed by ‘Israelis,’ and dying as honored ‘martyrs.’ Children created sculptures and drawings of the map of ‘Palestine,’ which includes all of Israel in addition to the PA areas, encouraging children to disregard the existence of Israel and foresee a world without it. Children were taught that Palestine’s border to the north is Lebanon and to the south is the Gulf of Aqaba, again depicting a world in which ‘Palestine’ has replaced Israel.”
At a camp funded by the PA’s National Committee for Summer Camps, “children performed a mock stabbing terror attack.”
A girl wearing Arab clothes was played the part of a terrorist, facing off against a boy playing an Israeli. The “Israeli” shot the “terrorist.”
The PA’s National Committee for Summer Camps also posted photos from a similar play performed by children at another camp, PMW said.
In another camp, children were divided into groups, and some were given the names of terrorist murderers, the report said, including Yasser Arafat, Ghassan Kanafani and Dala Mughrabi.
“At one camp … children built a large sculpture in the shape of the PA’s map of ‘Palestine’ which erases the existence of Israel. The sculpture was painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Palestinian political sovereignty over all of Israel in addition to the PA areas. A large key represented the so-called ‘right of return’ of Palestinian refugees to Israel,” the report said.
“A drawing at another camp showed a Palestinian flag dripping with blood with the Dome of the Rock above it and the outline of the PA map of ‘Palestine’ that presents all of Israel as ‘Palestine.’ To assure that the children received the message that there is no country named Israel, the text on the map states: ‘We are all a unified homeland.’ The names of Palestinian cities are written around the map as well as the names of Israeli cities including: ‘Jaffa,’ ‘Acre,’ ‘Tal Al-Rabia (i.e., Tel Aviv),’ ‘Haifa,’ ‘Beit Shean,’ and ‘Tiberias.'”
