Bethlehem summer camp teaches children to idolize terrorists

A group of young campers sit outside wearing matching camp t-shirts and clapping their hands rhythmically, while cheering in time.

It’s not an unfamiliar scene to those who have attended summer camps. However, they are not chanting about spirit or lemonade or even sports — they are yelling, “Saddam Hussein, O God, have mercy on Saddam Hussein!”

The Palestinian Media Watch has reported on this phenomenon and has publicized this video of Palestinian youth being taught to venerate a number of different historical figures. “This how Fatah teaches its children loyalty to the Martyrs’ blood,” reads an introduction to the video.

The campers in question are marked with the logo of the PLO Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs and are members of the Bethlehem Branch of the Fatah Shabiba [Youth Movement] Committee. In addition to chanting about Hussein, they laud Yasser Arafat, the former PLO chairman, who according to PMW was behind attacks in the Second Intifada.

They also praised Abu Jihad, who was one of Fatah’s founders and was behind terror attacks against civilians during the Lebanon War. Abu Iyad also came up in the chant — he was Arafat’s deputy and the organizer of the 1972 Munich Olympics attacks that killed 11 Israeli athletes.

Nan Jacques Zilberdik, a senior PMW analyst, said that the video displays indoctrination and incitement of children by the Palestinian Authority. “The blatant misuse by Fatah and the PLO of its summer camps are yet another example of the extent that the Palestinian Authority goes to, to indoctrinate and abuse their own children,” she said. “Instead of teaching Palestinian children the building blocks for life, these programs are preaching that violence and terror are legitimate and that arch-terrorists, who are responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians, are their ultimate role models.”

According to PMW, a number of summer camps have been named after terrorists, such as Abu Jihad and Dalal Mughrabi, a Fatah terrorist who hijacked a bus in 1978, killing dozens and wounding 70.

Source: JP