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Palestinian Authority Summer Camps: A Place to Idolize Terrorists and Eliminate Israel
A group of Palestinian children being taught during the school year that Israel will be destroyed. Photo: Palestinian Media Watch.
While the Olympics were being held in France to celebrate athletics, the Palestinian Authority (PA) held a summer camp to celebrate the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The PA chose to name its largest summer camp, which hosts 150 children ages 7-13, after terrorist Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad” — the head of the Black September terror organization and the mastermind behind the Munich Olympics massacre.
Salah Khalaf was not the only terrorist placed on a pedestal at the PA summer camp.
Fatah terror leaders Khalil Al-Wazir — “Abu Jihad” — and Yasser Arafat were also placed on the camp’s banner — in military garb — to serve as role models, while the campers were taught to memorize the camp’s motto and pledged to follow the path of the three terrorists:
Posted text and picture: “#Announcement
All the lion cubs and flowers [i.e., boys and girls] participating in the Martyr Salah Khalaf ‘Abu Iyad’ summer camp are asked to memorize the Cry and Motto of the summer camp:
‘We are the lion cubs and flowers of Palestine
Education, knowledge, culture, and religion
My land, my country, and the Paradise of My Lord, all the wishes for Palestine
On your path, Yasser Arafat
On your path, Salah Khalaf ‘Abu Iyad’
On your path, ‘Abu Jihad’
All the lion cubs and flowers [i.e., children]
Al-Aqsa Mosque remains our first Qiblah [i.e., Muslim direction for prayer], and Jerusalem is the cradle of the civilizations” [emphasis added]
[Beit Amin-Azzoun Atma sports club, Facebook page, Aug. 8, 2024]
The PA is proud to show how it educates children to follow the way of hate and terror.
The Western-funded PA Security Forces led the summer camp activities, as the children stood at attention dressed in t-shirts that also boasted terrorist Khalaf’s picture and name:
The camp’s T-shirts worn by all the children and staff have the picture of Khalaf and the words: “Martyr Salah Khalaf ‘Abu Iyad’ summer camp”:
The children were taught to draw the PA map, in which all of Israel has become “Palestine.” Israel is gone and is painted over in the colors of the Palestinian flag:
Since the PA intends for “Palestine” to be repopulated with UNRWA refugees, it inculcated this ideology to the children through signs that read: “I will not relinquish my right of return”:
In another summer camp organized by the PLO Supreme Council of Youth and Sports, the children were likewise taught that their goal is to be a world without Israel and to that end, they also facepainted the map of “Palestine” that erases Israel.
[PLO Supreme Council of Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 22, 2024]
The Salah Khalaf camp further emphasized the centrality of terror glorification by taking the children to visit the Salah Khalaf Square in the Azzoun Atma village:
[Beit Amin-Azzoun Atma sports club, Facebook page, Aug. 11, 2024]
The PA also ran yet another summer camp for 100 children from a refugee camp at the Salah Khalaf Center. The children were taught to ignore Israel’s existence by presenting the names of the Israeli cities of Haifa, Beit Shean, Acre, and Jaffa as Palestinian on signs that they were holding.
In an article in its official daily, the PA explained that the naming of the summer camps was intentional, as part of its policy to honor its dead terrorists:
The symbolism of the Martyr … remains one of the most important and sacred symbols in the Palestinian national consciousness … The Israeli occupation has been targeting the Martyrs’ symbolism… activating all kinds of aggression to press the PA to stop paying the allowances of the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners and stop what Israel calls ‘incitement,’ including the glorification of the Martyrs in the political discourse and Palestinian media.
…
The camp is named after Martyr Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad” to eternalize the memory and symbolism of one of the prominent leaders of the Palestinian national movement …
He was one of the most prominent founders of Fatah, a member of its Central Committee… He established the first security forces of the revolution, the surveillance organization, and stood alongside Yasser Arafat, Khalil Al-Wazir [Abu Jihad], and Saad Sayel in commanding the revolution’s forces. He participated in all its battles until his death as a Martyr on Jan. 14, 1991 in Tunisia. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, Aug. 21, 2024]
The “allowances,” which the official PA daily glorifies, is what is known as its “Pay-for-Slay” program. This program was exposed by Palestinian Media Watch and consists of a law enacted by the PA whereby it must pay salaries to terrorists in prison and to the families of dead terrorists.
So, while Israeli athletes were busy winning seven Olympic medals, the PA was busy making sure that its young people’s role models would not be sports heroes but the masterminds of massacres.
Itamar Marcus is Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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