Israel Hayom article cites PMW material - Puppet show for Palestinian kids motivates violence against Israel

…This month, an Islamic Jihad kindergarten displayed for parents how well its 5- and 6-year-olds had absorbed what they were taught during the year. At their graduation ceremony, the little ones put on a performance that made the adults enormously proud.

The show included a series of skits depicting Israeli soldiers as evil torturers of innocent Palestinians. A number of the children were in a cage, representing an Israeli prison, with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Others were dressed in makeshift IDF uniforms — with kippot on their heads — carrying various kinds of weapons...

The principal of the kindergarten explained the impetus behind the show. "We have to educate children at the earliest stages of their lives to love the resistance, Palestine and Jerusalem, so that they know what Palestine is, why it is important, and who its enemies are, so they know what their role is in the future." …

Those who think this kind of indoctrination goes on in Gaza, where terrorists reign, but is not characteristic of the “moderate” Palestinian Authority in the West Bank ought to think again. Though examples abound – all of which can be obtained from Palestinian Media Watch – a recent gem is worth noting.

A Palestinian NGO intent on educating children about the evils of cigarette smoking recently put on a puppet show in east Jerusalem. In it, one puppet said, "I wanted to stand before the audience and sing to Jerusalem, which is being kept from us. Jerusalem, whose youth are being killed by the Jews. To sing and to say: Jerusalem, we are coming, Jerusalem, the time of death has arrived. Jerusalem, we will not surrender to the enemies or be humiliated."

The second puppet responded, “What am I doing to myself [by smoking]? I, and many other youths like me, think that through cigarettes we will be adults and men. Jerusalem doesn't need youths who hold cigarettes. It needs men who hold machine guns, not cigarettes."

Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank have been relying on Egypt to broker a deal that would facilitate the establishment of a unity government. This is no easy feat, as they are arch-rivals in an ongoing power struggle. But one thing they have in common is an ultimate goal for their mutual enemy, Israel. Under these circumstances, Israeli children won’t be getting the peace they’re taught to seek.

But don’t take my word for it; just ask any Palestinian toddler.