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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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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
TRUMP THREAT
Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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