The Ultimate Child Abuse
Palestinian Media Watch
Visual Analysis # 1 - April 23, 2002 *
*All the TV material cited is available on CD from [email protected]
PMW has compiled substantial evidence
that the Palestinian Authority has been encouraging
Palestinian children to seek death as Martyrs.
This report presents examples of this evidence:
Part 1: Encouraging Children to seek Martyrdom
Part 2: Success of the PA Strategy
Part 1:
Encouraging Children to seek Martyrdom
This drawing depicting a dead child Martyr appears
in a 7th grade Palestinian schoolbook...
with the following poem glorifying Martyrdom:
“The Martyr”
by Abd El Rahim Mahmud
“I shall carry my soul in my palm
And toss it into the abyss of destruction...
By your life! I see my death,
but I hasten my steps towards it...
Hearing [weapons’] clash is pleasant to my ear
And the flow of blood gladdens my soul…
By your life! This is the death of Men
And who asks for a noble death - here it is…”
This poem appears
in three additional
school books.
It has been recited
by heart by
children on PA TV.
[Our Arabic Language for 5th grade, page 60, Guide to Improve Arabic Language for 12th grade, page 84,
Our Beautiful Language for 7th grade, part A page 97, PATV, Oct 27, 2000 and other broadcasts]
Schoolbooks induce children not to fear dying
by teaching that death is predetermined
and Martyrdom is better than any other death:
“The Moslem sacrifices himself for his belief and wages
Jihad [Holy War] for Allah. He is not swayed for he
knows that the date of his death has been predetermined
and that his death as a Martyr on the field of battle is
preferable to death in his bed…”
[Islamic Education, for 8th grade, page 176]*
*PA Ministry of Education, based on a Jordanian book
“How Sweet is Martyrdom” for children
The following slides are from one of many
Palestinian TV clips encouraging Martyrdom.
This clip attempts to allay Palestinian children’s
innate fear of death by depicting death
by Martyrdom as painless, even serene.
This clip depicts the last day in the life of a young boy.
His farewell letter explains that he willingly chose death:
[Boy routinely leaves to school, without disclosing his plan]
Father receives “farewell letter”:
“Don’t be sad, my dear [father] and don’t cry over my
parting, for my country Martyrdom... For my country I
sacrifice myself.”
[ He’s a nice, friendly child ]
“farewell letter”:
“With determination and desire I long to approach”
“farewell letter”:
“How sweet is Martyrdom when I embrace you my land.”
Palestinian TV broadcast this
glorification of a child’s eager self-sacrifice
nearly every day last year.
Often 2 and 3 times a day.
The news media openly portrayed children as seeking death:
When 14 year old Wajdi died, the official PA daily
glorified what they claimed was his desire for death:
“The Martyr Wajdi Al-Hattab (9th grade) responded
to the call of Allah and achieved the Martyrdom
that he yearned for... He would always say to his
friends: ‘When I become a Martyr, give out
cake... he attained what he yearned for. He
reached the highest levels with Allah… [Wajdi’s
gym teacher:] ‘Wajdi asked me to give out
Caption: “Wajdi Al-Hattib
cake if he becomes a Martyr…’
His classmates swore that they would continue in the path
of Martyrdom until the liberation of Jerusalem…”
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 9, 2000]
When children were only injured,
the PA reported they were disappointed
because they sought death as Martyrs.
Ramadan Saadi Abed Rabbo, 13, injured:
“My goal is not to be injured, rather something much
nobler: Martyrdom.” [PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 8, 2000]
“The injured [boy] Sa’ed Osallah [11] from the Jebalya
[refugee] camp said:
‘We are all potential Martyrs for Jerusalem and the
motherland’.”
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 6, 2000]
“The injured [boy] Alfayumi [11] says that being killed
as a Martyr for Allah and the motherland is an
obligation of every Palestinian.”
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 6, 2000]
This interviewer asked a 2nd grader
if he wasn’t afraid to die fighting Israel.
When the child hesitated,the interviewer prompted him by
shaking her head “no”, after which he answered “no.”
Even 7 year olds are being pushed to Martyrdom.
Arafat on PA TV:
His message to PA children is that
their “greatest message in the world” is Martyrdom:
Question: “Mr. President,
what message would you
like to send to ...
Palestinian children?”
Arafat: “…This child, who
is grasping the stone,
facing the tank – is it not
the greatest message in
the world when that hero
becomes a Martyr?
We are proud of them…”
[PATV Jan. 15, 2002]
Palestinian children are asked
to “follow” a child Martyr to Paradise.
Mohammed Al Dura was killed by an undetermined
source in a televised crossfire.
He was turned into a symbol for Palestinian children.
In order to make child paradise look attractive, the PA
TV broadcast a video clip with an actor playing Al Dura,
frolicking in child paradise.
The clip opened with this call from Al Dura in Paradise
to other Palestinian children to follow him:
“I am waving, not to say good bye, but to say follow me.”
[Signed] “Muhammad Al Dura.”
In paradise for child Martyrs, he is:
Running on the beach
“How sweet is the fragrance of the Martyrs,
how sweet is the fragrance of the earth,
its thirst quenched by the gush of blood
flowing from the youthful body.”
Playing with a kite
“I shall go with no fear, no tears…”
And even with a Ferris Wheel
“How sweet is the fragrance of the Martyrs”
Post Script:
After PMW exposed this on NBC TV, the Palestinian
Authority, in a special press release, attacked PMW’s
and NBC’s credibility.
Disgraced at being caught telling children- “follow me” to
paradise, the clip was immediately removed from PA TV.
After editing, which took out both the “follow me”
and the scene with the ferris wheel,
it was again broadcast regularly.
The text:
‘How sweet is the fragrance of the Martyrs, how sweet is
the fragrance of the earth, its thirst quenched by the
gush of blood, flowing from the youthful body’
...continues to be broadcast.
Young girls were given posters idolizing the first woman
suicide bomber as the “Heroine Martyr Wafa Idris.”
[Al-Ayyam, Feb. 1, 2002]
Parents are regularly cited describing their joy at the
death of their children:
“The best Mothers Day present I got this year
was the death as a Martyr of Abbas.”
[mother of Abbas Al Awiwi, PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Mar. 21, 2001]
Part 2: Success of the PA Strategy
Tragically the PA manipulation of their children to seek
Martyrdom has been successful:
“72% of the children sampled from all the districts of
Gaza expressed the hope of becoming Martyrs...”
[‘Sout Al-Nissa-Voice of the Women’, Al-Ayyam, Jan. 24, 2002]
“63% of them [children] said they want to be Martyrs.”
[The Eighth Day, Al-Ayyam, Mar. 3, 2002]
Child Karam -age 12wrote his own death announcement…
“Prior to his being injured... Karam announced his own
death on the walls of his home and attributed to himself,
in his own handwriting, Martyrdom and its honor. The
notice read: ‘The Al-Kard family announces the death of
its courageous Martyr Karam...”
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 30, 2000]
Child Muhammad asked Allah for Martyrdom...
“The [child] Martyr Muhammad Abu Tahun wrote his last
words in his notebook:
‘The Martyrs [will enter] Paradise and myself among
them, Please Allah ...”
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 9, 2000]
A mother of 2 dead sons:
My sons sought Martyrdom:
[The first son]:
“He wrote phrases of love of the
homeland… and becoming a
Martyr... He referred to himself as
a Martyr.
On one of his notebooks he
wrote: ‘The Martyr hero Yasser
Sami Al-Koussba died as a
Martyr on the land of
Palestine…”
[‘Sout Al-Nissa-Voice of the Women’, Al-Ayyam, Feb. 28, 2002]
The second son:
“A few days before he became a Martyr, wrote the
following phrase on one of his notebooks:
‘Mother! Don’t cry over me if I am killed. Death
does not scare me, my aspiration is to be a
Martyr’.”
[‘Sout Al-Nissa-Voice of the Women’, Al-Ayyam, Feb. 28, 2002]
The Mother describes her pride:
“After reading this
passage, Fatma’s
expression took on a
look of pride and honor
at her sons’ sacrifice,
and her own sacrifice.
The she said: “Praise
to Allah, I gave birth to
heroes’…”
[‘Sout Al-Nissa-Voice of the Women’, Al-Ayyam, Feb. 28, 2002]
10, 11, and 12 year-olds - ran away to seek Martyrdom.
“The residents of Yassid,
a Palestinian village, found
the missing girls, aged 10, 11
and 12, after a day-long search.
Apparently, the children
went looking for Jerusalem,
seeking Martyrdom...
The children said they were going to get
weapons and to be Martyred in Jerusalem, and
that the Israeli checkpoint would not prevent
them from their aspiration to achieve
Martyrdom.”
[Al-Quds, Jun. 7, 2001]
“Children of Gaza Substitute Child Play
with the Martyr Game” ...
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 26, 2001]
… and compete who will be the Martyr
“Nada, a seven year old girl,
says to her friends: ‘Let’s
play the Martyr Game!’ The
children fetch an old sheet
that they spread on the
ground, and then they argue
who will play the Martyr.
Fa’iz, 6 years old, says: You
were the Martyr yesterday,
today it’s my turn! I’m
younger than you. I will be
the one to die!’ ”
[PA official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 26, 2001]
Conclusions
The Palestinians are presenting Martyrdom to their
young children as something idyllic and as something
expected of them. The selections here are just a
sampling of the evidence.
The Palestinians’ education of the next generation to see
Martyrdom as an ideal, will have tragic repercussions,
even if only 1% of the children fulfill their “duty”. The
victims of their terror will be Israel, other Western
democracies, and of course, the children themselves.
This PA education is a permanent stain on the
Palestinian Authority, placing them among the
greatest child abusers in history!
Palestinian Media Watch
Visual Analysis # 1 - April 23, 2002 *
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