Prime-time hate from Arafat TV: Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority is producing slick music videos and other agitprop that encourages Arab children and teens to become martyrs and kill Jews

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 24, 2002 | by Kenneth R. Timmerman

On June 9, 2002, two well-dressed 11-year-old girls named Wala and Yussra were interviewed on a talk show broadcast by PA TV about their personal yearning to achieve death through Shahada, which they said is the desire of "every Palestinian child." These were not children of the camps, but from the middle classes. They explained that their goal was not to become doctors or teachers, but to achieve a proper death through martyrdom for Allah.

Host: "You described Shahada as something beautiful. Do you think it is beautiful?"

Wala: "Shahada is very, very beautiful. Everyone yearns for Shahada. What could be better than going to paradise?"

Host: "What is better, peace and full rights for the Palestinian people, or Shahada?"

Wala: "Shahada. I will achieve my rights after becoming a Shahida."

Yussra: "Of course Shahada is a good thing. We don't want this world; we want the afterlife. We benefit not from this life, but from the afterlife. The children of Palestine have accepted the concept that this is Shahada, and that death by Shahada is very good. Every Palestinian child aged, say 12, says: `Oh Lord, I would like to become a Shahid.'"

Yet another film clip aimed at children intersperses scenes of "martyred" children about to be buried with normal street scenes of children playing. It ends with a black screen stamped with the official crest of the PA and a slogan in Arabic with its English translation: "Ask for death, the life will be given to you."

There is no precedent for this type of indoctrination. "Not even Hitler did this," Marcus says. "The Hitler Youth were taught to kill, not to be killed. This is the ultimate in child abuse. Here you have a whole generation of kids who think the most they can accomplish in life is to die for Allah. This is a tragedy with implications that no one in the West has begun to contemplate."

Some Palestinian parents have tried to raise their voices against the barbarity of the PA indoctrination, but to little effect. Bassam Zakhout is the father of a 14-year-old boy who set off in April with two schoolmates to attack an Israeli military outpost near the Netzarim settlement in Gaza. Prompted by the calls to martyrdom the three teen-agers armed themselves with knives and packed their schoolbags with explosives, apparently given to them by Hamas, and ran across open ground toward the army post, where they were gunned down. Bassam Zakhout blamed PA TV for inciting the attack. "I am against all this, especially at his age," he said. "We should not destroy this generation. They are the leaders of the future."

After plastering Gaza with posters of the three "martyrs," Hamas was too embarrassed to claim responsibility once it heard the father's remark. "The blood of our cubs should be preserved for a coming day when they become strong men," said a Hamas statement issued soon afterward. "Their role in jihad is for later." Even Arafat's deputy education minister, Naim Abu-Hummos, decried their deaths. "What's happening is crazy," he said, vowing to instruct Palestinian teachers to stop glorifying martyrs.