ARAFAT'S CHILDREN

Both the international and the Palestinian media have accentuated the tragic fact that Palestinian children have been killed or wounded in the recent wave of violence which has engulfed the Middle East. Has any consideration been given, however, to the question of why these Palestinian children have been exposed to such dangers? Why are they frequently found on the streets, in the front lines of violent confrontations, when they should be safe at home or in school?
There are only two possibilities. Either, as Palestinian spokespersons and spin-doctors would have us believe, Israeli forces have been willfully and unabashedly targeting innocent Palestinian children, intentionally seeking them out and murdering them. Or these children are being deliberately taken out of their homes, schools and playgrounds and being sent to the streets, alongside Palestinian rioters, snipers and terrorists -- with the express purpose of placing them in the line of fire in a calculated play for world sympathy.
We all know which of these two possibilities is more likely. We all know who stands to benefit from the sympathy and the censure that the injury of these children attracts. We all know who needs to deflect world attention from their unwillingness to take the necessary steps to make peace. We all know who rejected American proposals at Camp David as even a basis for further negotiations.

SYMPATHY PLOY
In the eyes of the Palestinians, the fact that their children are being wounded or killed is secondary to the fact that the world sees them being wounded or killed. Thus the Palestinians are able to cynically manipulate their media image and that of Israel.
Furthermore, while the Palestinians make sure that the injury of children is captured on film, they are equally active in ensuring that Palestinian atrocities are not. When foreign correspondents are caught filming footage that could show the Palestinians in a negative light, such as the slaughter of innocent Israelis by Palestinian mobs (an act condoned and even encouraged by Palestinian religious leaders) or the destruction of Jewish holy sites, the photographers are beaten up or otherwise intimidated, the film confiscated and destroyed. This is the way that the Palestinians cultivate their media image, by martyring their children and bullying those who dare to tell the truth.
Arafat, who is ruthlessly encouraging the tragic involvement of children in the violence, calls them "the generals of the rocks." He would have the world believe that Israel, with its guns and helicopters, is waging a war against 10-year-olds with small stones. In truth, however, the children are not the generals of this conflict, but, rather, the smoke screen masking the gunmen, petrol-bomb throwers and lynch mobs which have exacted their pound of Jewish flesh, unseen or ignored by the television cameras and the media crews.

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Targeting Children
Perhaps it is not surprising that parents and leaders who proudly send children to die in attacks against Israel would resort to targeting Israeli children as well.

Myth of Israel Using Excessive Force
Children are dying in the Mideast riots. Who's really to blame?

Palestinians Train Children To Fight In Case Peace Fails
Reuters, July 13, 2000 / AFP, July 14, 2000

The Use of Palestinian Children In The Al-Aqsa Intifada
Watching the television coverage of the daily Palestinian riots, known as the Al-Aqsa intifada, one is immediately struck by the near total absence of adults.The appearance of Palestinian children in these riots, it will be demonstrated, is not accidental. The Palestinian Authority has intentionally mobilized Palestinian children to man the front line in its struggle against Israel, frequently using them as shields to protect Palestinian gunmen...
By Justus Reid Weiner, Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs
November 1, 2000

Palestinian Kids Raised For War
Taught to hate, kill Jews through "Sesame Street"-type TV show....
By Jon E. Dougherty and David Kupelian, WorldNetDaily
2000

Arafat's Children
London Times
March 15, 2001

Palestinian Children Yearning Martyrdom Encouraged By Parents
By Itamar Marcus, Director Palestinian Media Watch
November 30, 2000

Commercials Ask Children To Put Down Toys and Become Martyrs
By Martin Fletcher, NBC NEWS
May 8, 2001

Palestinian Television "The Sweet Fragrance of Martyrdom"
Arutz Sheva News Service
May 15, 2001

Devotion, Desire Drive Youths to 'Martyrdom'
By Jack Kelley, USA Today
July 5, 2001

Israel To UN: Keep Palestinians From Using Kids As Shields
By Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post
November 8, 2001

Child Sacrifice Is Palestinian Paganism

'Shahids'- Children Educated To Hate And Kill
By Emanuel A. Winston, Middle East Analyst & Commentator
2002

Jihad For Kids
Fox News Investigative Report
February 4, 2002

Kids With Bombs
By Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times
April 2002

Teenage girl ‘willing to die for my people’
By Rory Macmillan, The Scotsman
April 9, 2002

Kids in the Hell: The Conflict's Forgotten Victims
By Sylvana Foa, The Village Voice
July 17-23, 2002

Two Years On--Still Exploiting Children
By Prof. Justus Reid Weiner, Institute For Contemporary Affairs
1 October 2002

Children And Terror
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The Innocent Palestinian Children
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The Palestinian Authority School Textbooks
Palestinian Authority school children are actively taught that the Jews and Israel are the enemy in a broad range of contexts. The calls to fight and eliminate Israel through Jihad (Holy War) and Martyrdom for Allah, appear frequently in the PA school books. Includes scans from some of the textbooks.

Palestinian Child Abuse Slideshow

Photos