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

The main theme of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s summer camps this year was presenting terrorists and “martyrs” as role models for Palestinian children.

Summarizing the overall message of the camps, senior PA and Fatah official Jibril Rajoub, who is also the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Supreme Council for Youth and Sports that ran the camps, stressed that dead terrorists are “moons,” “stars,” and “the elite.”

These terrorists are “heroes” who are “recorded in our hearts,” he said, adding that it is crucial that they “remain in our memories” and that they are “honored.” Rajoub stressed that the purpose of the camps are in line with the “Palestinian national ideology to ensure the awareness of these children who are the builders of the future.”

In other words: The camps are a teaching tool for the PA through which the PA leaders make sure their ideology and values — that terrorists are heroes and role models — continue to live on in the next generation:

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “We established 648 [summer] camps in which 65,000 male and female [child] pioneers participated … These camps were established … on the principle of the Palestinian national ideology to ensure the awareness of these children who are the builders of the future … An additional [camp] topic connected to the shared slogan of these [Martyr] heroes, whose bodies are being held by these new Nazi fascists [i.e., Israelis] … We say to them [Israelis]: They [the Martyrs] are moons, they are stars, they are the elite, and they are the ones who sacrificed their lives. They were and will remain in our memories and in the memory of their children and their grandchildren… These [Martyrs] are recorded in our hearts.” [emphasis added]

[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, July 23, 2023]

Accordingly, the slogan the PA chose this year for all the summer camps was “Moons and Not Numbers,” with the goal to teach 65.000 teens aged 13-17 to admire terrorists. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has exposed that the PA glorifies terrorist “martyrs” as “moons.” “Not numbers” refers to Israel temporarily burying dead terrorists in numbered cemeteries until the bodies are transferred to the PA at a later date.

The following are examples of how the PA instilled in 65,000 teens this summer the belief that terrorists who attack Israelis — including those who succeed in murdering their victims — are heroes to be admired.

Kids in PA summer camps taught to identify with and see terrorists as “moons” 

Text on screen: “Who are you, pioneer?”

Girl: “My sister is Martyr Mai Afaneh [i.e., terrorist].”

Boy 1: “My friend is heroic Martyr Fayez Damdoum [i.e., terrorist].”

Boy 2: “I am the friend of Martyr Fayez Damdoum, who died as a Martyr on Oct. 1, 2022.”

Boy 3: “Martyr Yamen Jaffal and Martyr Nassim Abu Roumi [i.e., terrorists] are my friends.”

Text on screen: “And who are our Martyrs?”

The children repeat the same line one after the other:

Children: “Our Martyrs are moons and not numbers”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 17, 2023]

Sixteen PA summer camps were named after terrorists, teaching kids “their obligations towards the cause”

Qalqilya District Governor Rafe’ Rawajbeh: “The [summer] camps are establishing a generation that is aware and young people who internalize their cause … what the Palestinian cause is … and what the obligations of this generation are towards this cause, towards the liberation, independence, and establishment of our independent Palestinian state.”

Official PA TV reporter: “Sixteen [summer] camps throughout the district, all of them bearing the names of Martyrs, with a message expressing loyalty to this section [of society] that has sacrificed and watered the land of the homeland with its blood, for freedom and liberation from the occupation.”

[Official PA TV News, July 16, 2023]

Children taught to envision themselves as “Martyrs” in PA summer camps

In the following video, children participating in PA summer camps in the Gaza Strip are taught to honor past terrorist “martyrs” and to envision themselves as “martyrs.” In a procession, children held signs that read: “I am Martyr number,” followed by a different number for each child. Moreover, the PA chose to name a sports event after a terrorist who was involved in the murder of seven Israelis:

PA summer camp sports instruction board member Mirfat Al-Baitar: “We came to participate in launching the summer camps named ‘Moons and Not Numbers,’ which are dedicated to the Martyrs’ bodies that are being held by the Israeli occupation. For the sports event we picked the name of Nasser Abu Hmeid [i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of seven people], because he is the latest Martyr of medical neglect in the occupation’s prisons, and his body is still being held by the occupation.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, July 15, 2023]

PA summer camp skit: “Israelis” attack Palestinian kneeling in prayer

This video shows children participating in a play during their summer camp. Some of the children play the role of Israeli soldiers with rifles who attack a Palestinian kneeling in prayer. This shows that Palestinian children continue to be taught that Israelis will attack them randomly and kill them in cold blood. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has exposed that this message is actively taught by the PA.

In addition, the video exposes that Palestinian children are taught that terrorist murderers are heroes and should be glorified and admired:

Girl 1: “In your opinion, what are we learning in our summer camps?” …

Girl 2: “In the national education corner, we get to know our land’s prisoners, its history, and its holy sites. The most important thing is that you remember that our Martyrs are moons and not numbers.”

Children hold signs with the names of terrorist “Martyrs” written on them, including two murderers.

Omar Abu Laila — one of the two terrorist murderers presented to kids as heroes in this camp — has been the focus of camps before. PMW exposed that Fatah named a military camp for high school boys after him. When 19-year-old Abu Laila stabbed two Israelis to death in 2019, the PA and Fatah turned him from an unknown teenager into a Palestinian symbol.

A play at another camp also included children holding toy guns:

Posted text: “The hours of joy and creativity continue and are crowned with the talents of our children at the [PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports] children’s summer camp ‘Moons and Not Numbers’”

[Khirbet Al-Adas Youth Center, Facebook page, July 20, 2023]

PMW has exposed similar activities in summer camps in the past, including children posing with automatic rifles to get their picture taken.

Mass murderer of children honored in summer camps

One of the most prominent Palestinian “heroes” of all times, Dalal Mughrabi — who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history in which she and other terrorists hijacked a bus and murdered 37 Israelis, 12 of them children– was also honored in the PA summer camps.

The photo below shows an art display at a summer camp featuring several pictures of terrorists. The picture to the left is of terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi. The others are of Uday Al-Tamimi, who murdered one, and of Wadi’ Al-Houh, Abdallah Abu Al-Tin, and Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, who all shot at Israeli soldiers. There are two signs on the left side, one of which reads “Jasmine neighborhood group,” while the other reads “Martyr Uday Al-Tamimi group.”

Posted text: “The joy does not decrease for even a moment from the faces of the pioneers of Bethlehem during the National Day activities

#Pioneers’_summer_camps_2023

#Moons_and_Not_Numbers”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 15, 2023]

The photo shows a group of children holding Palestinian flags. One child in the middle is holding a picture of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi.

The photo shows a boy holding part of the art display in the first photo, in which the pictures of terrorists Uday Al-Tamimi, Abdallah Abu Al-Tin, and Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi are visible.

Terrorist murderer Mughrabi’s status as a role model for Palestinian society in general and for kids in particular was stressed in several camps, as seen in the picture below in which a boy is holding a model of the Dome of the Rock.

On the wall behind him are several pictures, including pictures of terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi and terrorist Fatima Barnawi, who placed a bomb in a movie theater.

Posted text: “The flowers of the Gaza Strip glow in the [PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports] summer camp program”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 20, 2023]

Terrorist Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi was also the subject of another PA summer camp. The picture below shows children participating in one of the PA summer camps. On the whiteboard in the background is written “Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi.”

Posted text: “The [PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports] summer camps’ activities continue in the Nablus and Tubas districts”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 12, 2023]

Another murderer who Palestinian kids are taught to admire is suicide bomber Andalib Takatka, who murdered 6 and wounded more than 80 in her bombing of a bus in the heart of Jerusalem in 2002. Below, some very young kids are holding a framed photo of her:

Posted text: “Who is like the Martyr, for his virtues are lofty. This is his call to Heaven: Listen to it.

#Pictures … of the Martyrs’ relatives from the Bethlehem district

#Moons_and_Not_Numbers”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 18, 2023]

Other family members of Takatka, who were also involved in the terror attack, were also honored at the summer camp.

A central part of the PA summer camps seems to have been to teach the participating children about individual terrorists. In this video two girls explain that they were taught “the names of Martyrs” — i.e., dead terrorists:

Children: “At the [summer] camp we learned names of Martyrs, including Muhammad Al-Azizi ‘Abu Saleh’. Izz Al-Din Salahat died in 2022 as a Martyr.”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 17, 2023]

At other camps, children were holding signs with names of terrorists as an act of identification with them. The picture below shows a child holding a sign bearing the text “Martyr Muhammad Al-Faqih,” a terrorist who murdered one person, with an accomplice:

The following picture shows a child holding a sign bearing the text “Baha Al-Awawdeh,” a terrorist who wounded an Israeli soldier in a car ramming attack:

A teacher stands in front of a whiteboard in the picture below. Her head is partially blocking text on the board, which reads: “the L—- Den,” with the dashes indicating the part of the text that is blocked. Evidently the text reads “the Lion’s Den,” an independent Palestinian terror cell, responsible for many attacks:

Posted text: “We don’t know which picture to start the album of the pioneers of Hebron and Bethlehem with, because all the faces are amazing

#Moons_and_Not_Numbers

#2023_summer_camps”

[PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Facebook page, July 12, 2023]

Part of a creative event at one summer camp was to enter names of terrorists into a self-made table, including that of a murderer of seven:

The picture shows a table made of red string attached to a piece of paper with names written in the boxes, including the names of Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad terrorist who killed himself in a hunger strike in prison; former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat; terrorist Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, who shot at Israeli soldiers; terrorist Khairy Alqam, who murdered seven; and terrorist Zafer Al-Rimawi, who was killed while participating in violent confrontations with Israeli soldiers north of Ramallah on Nov. 29, 2022.

In other camps, children posed with posters featuring armed Islamic Jihad terrorists who were killed:

Or, as here below, posed with pictures of armed men:

The girl in the black shirt in the center is holding a picture of a man with an assault rifle, and her shirt features a picture of a man holding an assault rifle.

The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.