Palestinian Authority schools openly celebrated and glorified the October 7 massacre, incorporating praise for the Hamas attack into school ceremonies, student performances, marches and even mathematics exercises, according to a new report by the Palestinian Media Watch research institute.
The special report, compiled by Palestinian Media Watch researchers Itamar Marcus and Aaron Shapiro, presents numerous examples and quotations that the organization says document how PA-operated schools responded to the Hamas-led massacre in Israel.
According to the report, students participated in assemblies, ceremonies and other events featuring recitations that praised the October 7 atrocities and those who carried them out. One passage quoted in the report declared: “October, month of blood, you have arrived – welcome… Open your door, we are death… We see only blood as an ally, and we will cool the fire in our hearts with body parts and the screams of soldiers. Open your door, we are death.”
Other material presented at school gatherings portrayed the attack as a moment of celebration, pride and renewed Palestinian hope. Among the statements documented were: “We woke up [on October 7] to the sounds of laughter. Some among us thought they were dreaming, but it was a beautiful dream they did not want to wake up from.” “We never imagined this pride in the sons of our people… The sense of honor we felt cannot be described.” “We yearn to die as martyrs, while our enemy fears confrontation. He is surrounded by walls. They [the Israelis] pretend to be brave, but when they see the faces of the lions, they are all rats.” “October 7 will be a date that historians will note in the years to come, and it is a historic day that brought us satisfaction and restored our hope for liberation and independence.”
Marcus and Shapiro also cited additional recitations praising Gaza and those responsible for the attack: “A morning of victory, O Gaza, a morning of honor and glory, a morning of heroic martyrs, a morning of child martyrs. Good morning, O people of the resistance.” “[The men of] Gaza are the ones who brought us honor and raised our heads… They beat the drums of war and taught the enemy a lesson it will find difficult to forget.”
The report says these and numerous similar statements were published on the official Facebook pages of PA schools. Among those identified were Palestine Girls Elementary School, Siris Girls Elementary School, Sinjil Boys High School, Asqalan Coeducational Elementary School and Yasser Arafat School, along with numerous other educational institutions.
One particularly striking example documented by Palestinian Media Watch occurred just 10 days after the massacre, when Azzun Boys Elementary School reportedly organized a victory march featuring children in first, second and third grades. The young students sang material celebrating the Hamas attack and invoking the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’s name for its October 7 assault.
“O men, cry ‘Allahu Akbar’: Allahu Akbar! … The ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ has come upon you; there is no consolation for the thieving occupier. Martyrs in shrouds show you how heroes fight… You called us and we answered, O heroes of Jerusalem. From the skies, hawks swoop down, crying: Allahu Akbar. They turn the waves of the sea into bridges; roaring lions surround you. Men whom fear does not bring to the ground dig the tunnels of glory. Coming from the land of Gaza – in an instant they appear all around you… The land has owners – who will not abandon it under any circumstances. Gaza – its men are victorious – to the cries of the residents of Jerusalem, the ’48 Arabs, and the people of the West Bank.”
The report alleges that the glorification of October 7 was not confined to ceremonies and extracurricular activities, but was incorporated into ordinary classroom instruction as well. Researchers highlighted mathematics exercises given to young students that used Israeli deaths and Hamas terrorists as the subjects of multiplication problems.
In one example, third-grade students were given the question: “Multiplication exercises: Al-Aqsa Flood: ‘At least 150 Israelis were killed in one day. How many were killed in nine days?’” Another exercise stated: “‘Hamas sent 150 jihad fighters to each of nine settlements in Israel. How many jihad fighters entered all the settlements combined?’”
The report also documented comments that teachers allegedly wrote in students’ notebooks after they correctly completed the assignments. Among them were: “Excellent! May Allah protect you!” “Excellent! Champion! May our blessings come true! Mercy and forgiveness for our martyrs!” and others.
In concluding the report, Marcus and Shapiro argued that changing individual Palestinian Authority textbooks would be grossly insufficient to address what they described as a much deeper problem throughout the PA educational establishment.
“Some countries have paid lip service to demands for reform by calling on the PA to change its textbooks. However, as is clearly demonstrated by this report, and by countless other PMW reports on what takes place in PA schools, changing a number of texts in textbooks would not even begin to constitute the profound reform required in the PA Ministry of Education. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA Ministry of Education as a whole – its administrators and teachers, together with the educational apparatus of the PA’s ruling Fatah party – are all guilty of poisoning the minds of Palestinian children by educating them to hate, deny Israel’s right to exist, and glorify acts of murder. All of these bodies and individuals must be removed from positions of influence and education and replaced by new administrators and educators who will be placed under close supervision, similar to the way Germany’s education system and educators were placed under Allied supervision after World War II.”
{Matzav.com}
