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Skeleton with Bloody Knife and Bomb Greets Palestinian Kids at Summer Camp
A poster celebrating death and terrorism at a Palestinian summer camp in July 2025. Photo: Palestinian Media Watch.
At a summer camp, Palestinian children and youth are greeted by a giant mural of a skeleton holding a bloody knife and a bomb with a lit fuse.
The skeleton is wearing a bandana in the colors of the Palestinian flag, and appears on one of the walls surrounding the football field where the kids spend part of the summer camp:
Text on mural in Arabic and Spanish: “Rayo is in favor of the resistance”
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 7, 2025]
This mural is at a summer camp of the Lajee Center, an NGO at the Aida refugee camp north of Bethlehem, which “is supported by the Mennonite Central Committee.” [Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 5, 2025]
As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented for decades, the word “resistance” is a Palestinian euphemism for terror against Israel.
“Rayo” refers to the Spanish football club Rayo Vallecano.
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[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 7, 2025] |
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 10, 2025] |
The skeleton is the logo of the Bukaneros, a politically inclined far left-wing support group of Rayo Vallecano:
[Nice One, accessed July 20, 2025]
A similar message condoning terror is conveyed by a skull possibly symbolizing death (to Israel), draped in a keffiyeh (Arab headdress), who watches from another wall as kids enjoy the summer camp activities:
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 13, 2025]
Other huge wall paintings around the football field show masked rock throwers and text in English and Arabic that also encourages terror:
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 5, 2025]
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 7, 2025]
The text on walls reads: “Resistance until liberation and return”
In its own words, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), which supports the Palestinian NGO running the summer camp, is “a global, nonprofit organization that strives to share God’s love and compassion for all through relief, development and peacebuilding,” and strives “to make peace part of everything we do.” [emphasis added]
The murderous skeleton teaching terror against Israel to Palestinian kids at the summer camp hardly fits the ideology of the Christian principles guiding MCC:
For MCC, peace is not just a wish. It’s our work. It’s a conviction rooted in our faith and Anabaptist convictions.
With conflict on the rise around the globe, peacebuilding skills are critical. We want to promote reconciliation, speak out against injustice and build resilience through trauma healing.
All over the world, MCC partners with local communities and organizations to build a brighter, more peaceful future.
[MCC website, accessed July 20, 2025]
At the camp, the instructors and the participating children are all wearing shirts with MCC’s name and logo on the sleeve. Text on the front says “We’re here to stay” while “1948” is written on the back, a reference to the “right of return” to “Palestine” of “1948” — an expression of the Palestinian desire to eliminate the State of Israel.
The Lajee Center states on its website that it is “a community-based grassroots creative cultural center,” and that it is independent of the Palestinian Authority:
Lajee Center refuses any financial support from Palestinian political factions so as to not foster or support in any way any favoritism or divisions within Palestinian society…
[https://lajee.org/, accessed July 20, 2025]
Regarding its “ideology,” Lajee Center explains that it “works in full support of all national, human, and moral rights without exception.”
However, the center also states that “much of our project work focuses in some way on the inalienable ‘Right of Return’ for all refugees as stipulated in United Nations resolution number 194,” thereby expressing support for flooding Israel with refugees and consequently eliminating Israel as a Jewish state.
Moreover, Lajee Center supports the BDS campaign against Israel:
Lajee Center is an active signatory to the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the Israeli regime. Our commitment to BDS includes full practice of all aspects of BDS in our work and the spreading of information and awareness about BDS through networking, workshops, and education.
[https://lajee.org/, accessed July 20, 2025]
The Lajee Center also cooperates with the anti-Israel NGO BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights.
In addition to the Spanish Bukaneros, the Lajee Center also has strong ties to another European football fan club: The Green Brigade, a supporter group of the Scottish Celtic Football Club. Together, Lajee Center and the Green Brigade established the Lajee Celtic Football Academy, where the summer camp is being held:
The pictures show the football field of the Lajee Celtic Football Academy. On the wall is the logo of the academy, which features a large key symbolizing the Palestinian refugees’ “right of return,” with “1948” written on it. [Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 14, 2025]
The Green Brigade is known for its extreme anti-Israel stance and solidarity with “Palestine.” On Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and committed a massacre, Green Brigade members displayed two huge banners declaring “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the Resistance”:
[The Scottish Sun, Oct. 9, 2023]
Describing the warm relations with the Celtic support group, Lajee Center mentions sports’ ability to create bridges:
It is a widely held belief that football has the power to break down barriers and inspire hope. Lajee Celtic, training in the shadow of an illegal separation wall, stands as the next living proof of that idea.
[Website of Lajee Center, accessed July 20, 2025]
While the Lajee Center takes pride in its ties with foreign football fans and the “breaking down of barriers,” this ideal seems to not include Israel given the messages encouraging terror on the Lajee Celtic Football Academy walls.
Similarly, the far-left Bukaneros are known for their support for “Palestine” and the “resistance” i.e., terror against Israel. The following tweet shows the Bukaneros-inspired painting at the Lajee Center, crediting the Bukaneros with making it:
[“Antifa Ultras,” X (Twitter) account, July 2, 2025]
At a football match in 2024, Bukaneros members demonstrated their solidarity by waving Palestinian flags:
As is PA policy, children at the Lajee Center summer camp were also taught to envision a “Palestine” that erases the entire State of Israel with map drawing activities:
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 10, 2025]
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 7, 2025]
Other camp shirts included the one below with the Lajee Center logo on the sleeve and a fist holding a key symbolizing the “return” of Palestinian “refugees”:
Text on shirt: “We are alive and remaining, and we continue dreaming further”
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 14, 2025]
Another camp shirt shows the PA map of “Palestine” with the text: “One people, one destiny and the return is certain“:
[Lajee Center, Facebook page, July 14, 2025]
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this story first appeared.
The post Skeleton with Bloody Knife and Bomb Greets Palestinian Kids at Summer Camp 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.