From the Mouths of Babes -- 03/23/1999

From the Mouths of Babes

23 March, 1999

By Patrick Goodenough
CNS Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem - (CNS) - Their little bodies sway in time to the music, eyes shiny and hair-ribbons bright in their curly hair. In the television studio around them are the colorful props used in children's TV shows everywhere - teddy bear puppets, murals of Donald Duck and other Disney characters, while a larger-than-life. Mickey Mouse dances to a cheerful tune. Then the camera focuses on a little girl, who appears to be no more than five years old, as she sings slightly off-key: "Oh my sister, sing constantly about my life as a suicide warrior. Each and every part of your soil I have drenched with all my blood, and we shall march as warriors of jihad."

This is children's television, Palestinian Authority-style. The participants in this popular prime-time show are bringing a message of holy war into tens of thousands of living-rooms throughout the Palestinian autonomous areas. And the Clinton Administration has helped to foot the bill.

The Children's Club, a program broadcast on official Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) television, is produced by the PA Ministry of Education. One after another, children almost too young to pronounce the words, stand up to recite slogans about blood, stones, bullets and - one of the most common words - jihad, the term for Holy War.

On camera, a young girl sporting a gap in the front of her milk-teeth declares, "When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I'll turn into a suicide warrior, in battledress, in battledress."

"Ask from us blood and we will drench you, ask from us our soul, we will give it to you," sings another, and "all Arab experience calls me to take revenge." A boy, who appears no older than 10, warns grimly, "Occupier, your day is near. Then we will settle our account with stones and bullets."

Included in the children's video is the image of a child dressed in a puffed- sleeve, orange and white party frock. She begins, her voice rising to a crescendo, and sings a song of a Muslim girl preparing to sacrifice her life and kill Jews: "I shall take my soul into my hand, and throw it into the abyss of death. On your life, I foresee my death. But I march quickly towards my death. Am I afraid? For me, life has little value, because I'm returning to my Lord. And my people will know that I am a hero. And my people will know that I am a hero."

After each brief contribution, all the children burst into applause while the program presenter, a young woman, claps and calls, "Bravo, bravo."

After viewing a video collection of the PA broadcasts entitled Jihad for Kids, compiled last year by the Israeli lobby group Peace for Generations, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said PA Chairman Yasser Arafat "must stop poisoning the hearts and minds of their children. Start teaching them about peace."

The funding for such programming does not come entirely from those who watch it. A sizeable chunk come from those who helped broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. PBC chairman Radwan Abu Ayash said that last year, the corporation had received "about $500,000 in equipment and training" from the U.S. Agency for International Development and "more than $6 million in aid from the European Union."

This televised use of children to promote a political message of violence constitutes an apparent violation of the Oslo II agreement, Article XXII, which says Israel and the PA "shall seek to foster mutual under-standing and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other."

Last August, Congress moved to ban all U.S. funding to Palestinian media because of such incitement. But the incitement doesn't end with television or the very young.

Summer Camp With a Difference

In the next stage of the evolutionary process, the older child prepares for the battle extolled in song by the younger sibling. Official summer camps run by the Palestinian Authority aim to provide political education and military training for children. While their Israeli counterparts learn about biblical heroes and sing around campfires, Palestinian youngsters learn weapons training and hand-to-hand combat.

A report by the Jerusalem-based monitoring group, Palestinian Media Watch, found that last summer's camps were run along military lines, under a camp "commander." Staff members were often PA police or security officials, or "National Political Direction" officials. Children were divided into platoons "which carry the names of the Palestinian cities that were destroyed by the occupation in 1948," in the words of one camp commander.

Boys and girls alike were taught military drill, and in at least one camp, a PA lieutenant "held a lecture on the technical and tactical characteristics of the rifle."

In song, dance and drama, the children were taught that Israel must disappear for Palestine to be created. Violence was glorified. In television footage obtained from a Khan Yunis summer camp, one young boy led others in a chant: "The youth will be victorious, we are ready with our guns, revolution until victory."

One such summer camp was given the theme, "Fifty years of Occupation: We will not forget and we will not forgive." Large maps of Palestine were displayed, including the entire state of Israel, the name of which did not appear. At one camp, an oversized picture of the Temple Mount was shown, covered with blood, severed arms and heads, according to Palestinian Media Watch.

The deputy commander of another camp described them as being "like a mission under the auspices of the political guidance to build a generation capable of shouldering the responsibilities of the present and the past, who can arrive at Jerusalem, fight the settlements and build the independent Palestinian state."

Where Schoolbooks Lead, Minds Follow

It's not just during summer vacations that children are taught the lessons of political violence. Textbooks used in Palestinian schools contain many anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish invective.

The Israeli Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace issued a report last July comparing the contents of school textbooks with some of the rhetoric contained in the PLO Covenant.

The text entitled Our Arabic Language for Fourth Grade contains the slogan "Long live the homeland. O my land, my land, my blood will be sacrificed for you. I have given my life as a sacrifice, accept it." An exercise in Our Arabic Language for Seventh Grade asks, "How are we going to liberate our stolen land? Make use of the following ideas:
Arab unity, genuine faith in Allah, most modern weapons and ammunition, using oil and other precious natural resources as weapons in the battle for liberation."

Other examples included:

Reader and Literary Texts (Eighth Grade): "My brothers! The oppressors have overstepped the boundary, therefore jihad and sacrifice are a duty...are we to let them steal its Arab nature?....let us gather for war with red blood and blazing fire...Oh Palestine, the youth will redeem your land."

Modern Arab History (Tenth Grade): "The Zionists turn their attention towards Palestine as the national homeland of the Jews, while relying on false historical and religious claims."

Islamic Education (Ninth Grade): "Write in your exercise book: An event showing the fanaticism of the Jews in Palestine against Muslims or Christians." Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade: "Remember: the final and inevitable result will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews ... the Nation will recruit its forces and there will be a jihad and our country will be freed."

Following the Leader

Schooled in such sentiments, which are reinforced through state-sponsored television and summer camps, Palestinian youth can be ripe for manipulation by those promoting violence, and Arafat has contributed to the incitement in some of his public remarks.

As recently as March 19, Arafat spoke of renewed violence against Israel while addressing supporters of his Fatah faction of the PLO, in Ram Allah. Referring to a clash between Israel and the PLO fighters in 1968, Arafat said "the battle of Al-Karamah was the first Arab victory after the war of 1967. This victory was achieved by our warriors. Let the far and the near know on this occasion that the Fatah movement is ready to fight battles like Al-Karamah daily, if anyone tries to diminish our legitimate rights and our right to declare a state."

Arafat said "We will continue our struggle until a Palestinian boy or a Palestinian girl waves our flag on the walls, mosques, and churches of Jerusalem, the capital of our independent state, whether some people are happy about it or not. He who doesn't like it may drink the water of the Dead Sea." (Translations courtesy MEMRI).

Thus speaks the young Palestinian's leader, Israel's peace partner.

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