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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.
The post Palestinian Authority Summer Camps: A Place to Idolize Terrorists and Eliminate Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.