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Op Ed in NY Daily News: Blame UN for Brainwashed Palestinian Kids

Please see the link below for my Op Ed in the NY Daily News (text is also pasted below)

Blame UN for Brainwashed Palestinian Kids

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/07/19/2007-07-19_blame_un_for_brainwashed_palestinian_kid.html


Blame UN for brainwashed Palestinian kids



Be Our Guest

This week, Hamas TV introduced children to a new character, Nahoul the honey bee, which it will use to indoctrinate innocent Palestinian youth to hate, violence and suicide bombing. Two weeks ago Farfour, Hamas' abhorrent radical Mickey Mouse clone, signed off: He was beaten to death by an actor portraying an Israeli soldier. The bee, apparently his predecessor's cousin, dedicated himself to, in his own words, "continuing the path of Farfour - the path of Islam, of heroism, of martyrdom, and of the mujahedeen."

The sickening lengths to which terrorists will go to encourage Palestinian children to kill themselves as suicide bombers and child soldiers - through teachers, textbooks, cartoons, music videos, sticker albums and summer camps - is well known and in direct violation of these children's human rights.

What is less understood is the fact that, despite widespread evidence of this child abuse, human-rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have failed to consistently condemn the Palestinian Authority for inciting and enabling the murder of their own children. Despite admissions by terrorist groups who claim responsibility for child bombers, organizations like the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers have denied the existence of the phenomenon.

More disturbing is the fact that the United Nations itself is not only complicit, but active in teaching innocent Palestinian children to hate others and martyr themselves. According to its mandate, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN arm responsible for providing aid and education in the Palestinian territories, employs the school curriculum of its host, the Palestinian Authority (run by the supposedly secular Fatah and Hamas, partners in indoctrinating children).

This means that the 658 elementary and preparatory schools funded and operated by UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza use the hate-filled and murderous curriculum produced by the PA - and hire teachers straight off the Hamas payroll. UNRWA educates future terrorists in line with Hamas ideology, hanging martyr posters depicting dead children brandishing weapons on its classroom walls.

At best, UNRWA is turning the other way while known terrorists radicalize Palestinian children in its schools. At worst, it is guilty of aiding and abetting the premeditated murder of innocent children.

This is not an academic criticism; the real-world consequences are deadly. For example, 20-year-old Shadi Zakayira Tubasi and 21-year-old Faud Ismail Mohamad Al-Horani, both of whom had been students at UNRWA schools, carried out their lessons by committing suicide attacks in Israel. Prominent Hamas leaders such as Ibrahim Maqadama, founder of the military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza; Salah Mustafa Shehada, who has openly endorsed suicide bombings; and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh were educated at UNRWA schools.

Having spent time myself visiting Palestinian schools and interviewing dozens of Palestinian children, I have seen first-hand that a culture of death has taken hold of the youth. Not one of the children I interviewed denounced suicide bombing. Most told me that they aspired to be future martyrs.

Governments funding UNRWA - chief among them, the U.S. and the European Union - must condition their funds on a new curriculum that teaches peace and coexistence. If this incitement to hate and violence continues, there is absolutely no hope for peace.

Goldstein is director of the documentary film "The Making of a Martyr."

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