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Puppet masters twist young minds to hate

PIERS AKERMAN  |
ONCE again Israeli and Palestinian leaders have verbally agreed to a ceasefire, but there seems little hope of long-term peace while the Palestinian Authority continues to indoctrinate Palestinian children with hate.
The cessation of hostilities is all for the best, but who will save the young Palestinians from the evil cult of Antisemitism which they are force-fed by the authorities?
Mahmoud Abbas may well declare an end to violence against Israelis, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may declare an end to Israeli military operations, but while the Palestinian Authority uses its control of the airwaves and the education system to feed lies into the minds of future generations of Palestinians, there is scant reason to believe the Palestinians are approaching the process with clean hands or, indeed, with much honesty.
The Palestinian Authority has made it clear it is not going to actively crack down on militant groups, but it might show some commitment to peace by ending its disgraceful indoctrination program.
According to Itamar Marcus, an international authority on Middle East media, even Palestinian pre-schoolers are being instructed to hate Jews and resolve conflict with violence by the Palestine Authority's official television network.
The indoctrination takes place through programs featuring puppets, songs and dances aimed at the youngest Palestinian children.
Mr Marcus, the director of the respected Palestinian Media Watch organisation, said in Sydney last week that the level of Antisemitic instruction directed at young Palestinians had reached horrific levels.
“The justification for aggression is no longer territorial ambition, it has become an existential anti-Semitic conflict with the elimination of the Jews the sole goal,” he said.
Mr Marcus said the authority’s promotion of genocide was conducted in three stages, the first of which collectively labelled Jews as defective in nature and character, and inherent evil enemies of God, with murderous traditions.
In the second phase the audience was instructed that Jews were the cause of all wars and a danger not only to Muslims but all humanity.
Thirdly, instructions were given to fight and kill Jews for Allah and humanity.
“The propaganda is so focussed on violence as the only way forward that it almost precludes any peaceful solution, that's why it's so dangerous,” Mr Marcus said.
Examples he gave included a video of a 21-year-old terrorist Reem Riyashi reciting “it was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on Heaven's doors with the skulls of Zionists.”
The “knock on Heaven’s door” phrase has been used in mosques and by other militants, indicating its absorption into Palestinian culture.
Similarly, calls by Palestinian academics, religious leaders and community figures for Muslims to kill all Jews are repeatedly broadcast by the authority.
The practice of teaching children to hate is spread throughout the Palestinian system.
Not only are pre-schoolers targeted with the poisonous messages of hatred through glove puppets advocating the use of AK47s, there are hate-filled musical programs aimed at older kids and sporting events such as soccer tournaments are named after suicide bombers.
In one soccer competition, each team was named after a different terrorist and the prizes were distributed by the brother of a suicide bomber.
Girls’ summer camps are named after female suicide bombers and young girls are taught to admire dead terrorists and suicide as shahadas -- martyrs -- through programs which teach that death as a suicide bomber is not really death but merely a passport to paradise.
“A death-worship society is being created for Palestinian kids,” Mr Marcus said.
“To teach a population that you get to heaven through the murder of a Jew is a terrible message to preach.”
Horrifyingly, there are clear parallels between the Palestinian Authority’s preaching of genocide as a systematic public policy and the ideology Adolf Hitler outlined in his blueprint for the Nazi reich, Mein Kampf.
Mr Marcus says the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the father of modern Middle East terrorism, has not changed the outlook for peace in the region.
‘No one on the Palestinian side is saying that you do not achieve peace through violence,” he said.
“All that [controversial Sydney Peace Prize winner] Hanan Ashrawi and others are saying is that military action must be judged by its political results.
“No one has said that suicide terrorism is wrong, only that it is damaging now.”
Both Fatah and Hamas, the two major terrorist organisations, are merely saying that the current period of negotiation provides a space for “the fighters to rest.”
This was the same message that was relayed to the militants during each period of earlier peace talks, and doesn’t bode well for the future.
In the United States, Mr Marcus has received bipartisan support for his campaign to end the indoctrination of children with Antisemitic, genocidal messages.
Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of former US president Bill Clinton, described the authority's programming as an “horrific abuse of children.”
“How can you think about building a better future if you indoctrinate your children to a culture of death?” she asked.
That is a question Australian supporters of the Palestinian cause might well ask themselves.

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