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Child Abuse: How the Palestinian Authority Promotes Martyrdom to Its Children
Images from an educational Facebook page showing Palestinian children using slingshots in Palestinian Authority schools. Photo: IMPACT-se.
The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s death message to Palestinian children doesn’t get any clearer than this.
The below picture of a Palestinian boy with the PA map of “Palestine” painted on his face was posted by the PA’s Presidential Guard with the following text: “I will sacrifice my life for you, O my homeland” [PA Presidential Guard, Facebook page, Aug. 6, 2024].
Smiling and making a “V” for “victory” with his fingers, the boy seems unaware of the future the PA wants for him as a “Martyr.” Or, perhaps, he is already so deeply affected by the PA’s brainwashing that he actually believes he will be rewarded with 72 virgins in Paradise, as Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented.
The following are recent examples:
Dead teen terrorist wished for Martyrdom, wanted to marry “women from the world to come”
Intisar Nafea, aunt of terrorist Ashraf Nafea: “The women of the neighborhood wouldn’t agree to not have Martyr [children]. Praise Allah, [teen Martyr] Ashraf [Nafea] raises our heads up high. On Aug. 1, [2024,] he was supposed to turn 18 years old. I wanted to do a birthday for him.
He said: “Get me married.” I said: “[You will have] 72 [Virgins] like your uncle.” He said: “Right. I don’t want to marry women from this world, I want to marry [women] from the world to come.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, July 23, 2024]
Dead terrorist to his mother: “I’m going to the Dark-Eyed Maidens in Paradise, I want Martyrdom”
Mother of terrorist Abd Al-Jabbar Al-Sabbagh: “He said to me: ‘Mom, this is the last week you’ll see me. That’s it, bid me farewell.’ I said: ‘Sweetie, why?’ He said: ‘That’s it, I feel I won’t remain much longer.’ I’m satisfied, I’m going to the Dark-Eyed Maidens in Paradise, I want Martyrdom.’ I said: ‘Allah will be satisfied with you.’
Martyrdom is beautiful, not everyone who seeks it merits it, but the farewell is difficult.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, Aug. 3, 2024]
The Arabic word for Martyrdom is Shahada. Shahada also means “certificate.” A mother of a dead terrorist used a chilling wordplay when her terrorist son was killed while planning a terror attack, thereby not finishing his matriculation exams and not receiving his high school certificate:
“Bassel succeed and received Martyrdom, which is more important than the certificate of the matriculation exams … Bassel succeeded, by Allah he succeeded. Everyone came to congratulate me — his friends and also his study friends.” [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, July 29, 2024]
PMW has reported on this wordplay before, which was even turned into part of the PA’s message to students and their parents. When Palestinian teen terrorists got themselves killed while participating in the PA’s terror wave in 2015-16, the PA glorified them. Even though they missed their graduation certificate (Shahada), the families were told to “be proud of their Martyrdom (Shahada).” The PA summarized that “death as a Martyr is the path to excellence and greatness”:
Sixteen [students] succeeded [in achieving] the Martyrdom (Shahada) of the homeland and withstanding its difficult tests, for death as a Martyr is the path to excellence and greatness, and the path of those who know how to reach the great victory… [emphasis added]
[WAFA (official PA news agency), July 11, 2016; official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 12, 2016]
Accordingly, other families have proudly celebrated their children’s Martyrdom instead of their matriculation, and parents continue to celebrate the death of their children:
Father of teen terrorist: “[My son] is not the first Martyr and not the last, praise Allah … He always told me: ‘I want to die as a Martyr’”
Father of terrorist Khaled Al-Uruq: “[Khaled Al-Uruq] is not the first Martyr and not the last, praise Allah. He asked for [Martyrdom] and achieved it, praise Allah. He always told me: ‘I want to die as a Martyr.’ Praise Allah, [the conditions] were enabled and he achieved it.”
[Official PA TV, April 25, 2024]
Mother of dead terrorist: “For two months he’s been saying: I want to die as a Martyr”
Mother of terrorist Nimr Hamarsheh: “Nimr was happy like that, [because] he wants to die as a Martyr. For two months already he’s been saying: ‘Mom, I want to follow the footsteps of Ahmed, I want to go to Ahmed, I want to die as a Martyr.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, July 3, 2024]
There is no doubt that the PA message is a soaring success. Hundreds if not thousands have chosen death over life by becoming terrorists, and society is cheering — including parents, spouses, and other family members of dead terrorists:
Father of dead terrorist: Son’s Martyrdom is “bridal crown for entire people” — Martyrdom is “fate of the people”
Official PA TV newsreader: “The body of Martyr Ubeida Hassan Hamed (i.e., terrorist), 18 was laid to rest…”
Hassan Hamed, father of terrorist Ubeida Hassan Hamed: “Praise Allah, this is [a source of] pride and a crown on our heads
Praise Allah, this is mercy from our Lord to this people. This is a bridal crown for this entire people. This is the fate of the Palestinian people, directly from the ground to Paradise.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, Jan. 29, 2024]
Brother of terrorist “Martyr”: He wanted “the Dark-Eyed Maidens of Paradise”
Brother of terrorist Uday Al-Zayyat “Abu Saqr”: “He would take care of all the household needs. I told him: “Go on and get married” … He told me: ‘Actually I want the Dark-Eyed Maidens of Paradise.’ Praise Allah, Allah granted him Paradise, Allah willing he will see the Dark-Eyed Maidens of Paradise.”
[Official PA TV, Moons of Palestine, March 19, 2024]
Mother congratulates dead terrorist son on his Martyrdom
Mother of terrorist Bashar Nihad Hanani: “Praise Allah, Allah gave him to me and took him. This is not a waste for the sake of Palestine … May Allah be satisfied with him and receive his Martyrdom. Congratulations to him on the Martyrdom.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Feb. 29, 2024]
Wife of a “Martyr”: “Don’t cry, he’s a groom”
Posted text: “Martyr’s wife: ‘All of you make sounds of joy for him. Don’t cry, he’s a groom and let everyone accompany him to his wedding.’”
Wife of unidentified “Martyr”: “I’m the wife of a Martyr! They haven’t accompanied him to his wedding, let everyone accompany him to his wedding [now]. I married him quietly. Let everyone make sounds of joy, this is entrusted to you! Let no one cry! My husband is a Martyr, let no one cry! My beloved is a Martyr.”
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Jan. 3, 2024]
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.