Palestinian children compelled to participate in a Hamas military parade. Photo: Twitter.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) chose to exploit World Children’s Day to repeat its libel that Israel deliberately targets, harms, and even murders Palestinian children.

In a cartoon in the official PA daily, the logo of Defense for Children International — Palestine (DCI-Palestine) was used to express the PA blood libel that Israel deliberately targets Palestinian children.

The cartoon shows the logo of DCI-Palestine, which features two children standing with their hands to their faces and the letters “ID” behind them. An Israeli soldier putting rifle sights on the chests of the two children with blood on his finger was added to it.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 20, 2021]

Tragically, it is the PA that harms and abuses Palestinian children.

As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has exposed for decades — most recently,  in its report on Fatah’s education of children ages 6-15 through its Waed magazine — the PA and Fatah are indoctrinating Palestinian children to seek Martyrdom for “Palestine”; to see terror as a legitimate tool in the “struggle against the enemy Israel”; and to strive for Israel’s destruction.

PMW has documented that the PA actively promotes the blood libel to children that Israel deliberately tries to harm them, telling them that “barbaric” Israel’s objective is to kill children — “so don’t walk alone!”

Ironically, a host on official PA TV taught children this message while Palestinian teens were at the same time carrying out numerous stabbing attacks trying to murder Israelis during the so-called “Knife Intifada” (2015-2016):

Official PA TV host: “The occupation [Israel] targets children everywhere. In their schools, near their homes. … We must be very careful now. We are confronting the occupiers who act in a very barbaric terrorist way. They are trying to kill people everywhere. These are barbarians, my young friends. They try to kill people for no reason, who are just walking on their land. They make various accusations against them. This is called barbarity, my friends. Be very careful all the time. All children under 18, and children under 15, when you go out, your mom or dad, should accompany you … an adult should accompany you.”

[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2015]

PMW has shown that this PA libel is dangerous, because it impels Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israelis.

Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus are respectively a contributor and Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch — where a version of this article first appeared.