PLO summer camps for kids underway, praising and glorifying jihadists while demonizing Israelis
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
It is nothing short of disturbing that the world at large is willing to either deny or turn a blind eye to the annual indoctrination at summer camp of Palestinian children to murder Israelis. The Palestinian leadership is not only waging perpetual jihad against the Jewish state, but it is systemically abusing its own children by teaching them hate, and telling them that to murder Israelis will earn them rich rewards in Islamic paradise. Even more disturbing is that support for the Palestinian “resistance” — which aims to obliterate Israel from the (Jordan) River the (Mediterranean) Sea — has spread globally.
Jibril Rajoub, secretary-general of Fatah’s Central Committee, said: “The name ‘Luminaries Not Numbers’ was chosen in the steadfast belief that our martyrs are luminaries who sacrificed their lives for the homeland.”
The role of the vulnerable children in “defending the homeland” also includes suicide bombings, a well-known practice that the world continues to ignore.
“PLO Summer Camps – Part I : Praise And Glorification Of Terrorists,” MEMRI, August 3, 2023:
Every year, summer camps are held for the Palestinian children in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The camps are sponsored by the Higher Council for Youth and Sports, which is subordinate to the PLO and headed by Jibril Rajoub, who is also secretary-general of Fatah’s Central Committee.
This year, the approximately 650 summer camps were attended by about 65,000 girls and boys.[1] The name for the camps this year was “Luminaries Not Numbers,”[2] with the aim of raising the children’s awareness about terrorists who have perpetrated attacks against Israelis and whose bodies have not been returned to the Palestinian Authority (PA) but are buried in specially designated Israeli cemeteries.[3]
Camp activities included glorification of these terrorists, as luminaries whose examples should be followed. The children learned about them, were photographed holding pictures of them, and decorated the camps with posters bearing the terrorists’ names and photos. In some of the camps, the children were divided into groups named for the terrorists. Also at the camps were activities glorifying terrorists currently imprisoned in Israel for carrying out attacks in which Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed.
At the opening ceremony for this year’s summer camps in the Gaza Strip, Fata [sic] Central Committee member Ahmed Hils, who is also Fatah’s Commissioner for Recruitment and Organization in the Gaza Strip, stressed that the “Luminaries Not Numbers” name for the camps “is very important because it familiarizes the pioneers [i.e. the campers] with the suffering of the families of the martyrs, whose bodies are held in the Cemeteries of the Numbers.” Asserting that “the Israeli enemy strives to deprive our people of its identity and to transform [the martyrs] into nothing but numbers,” he added that “for our people, they are true luminaries. The martyrs are luminaries and the prisoners are luminaries… These luminaries will continue to glow in the sky of the homeland.”[4]
At the closing ceremony for the summer camps, Higher Council for Youth and Sports and Fatah Central Committee head Rajoub said: “The name ‘Luminaries Not Numbers’ was chosen in the steadfast belief that our martyrs are luminaries who sacrificed their lives for the homeland, and that they were and will remain in the people’s memory.” Calling Israel’s refusal to return the terrorists’ bodies is a mark of disgrace for the occupation, he added, “We shall neither rest nor be at ease until these martyrs [receive] the respect they deserve.”…….