Wall Street Journal highlights PMW report on Palestinian Authority school celebrations of Oct 7 atrocities
The following is this past Friday's Wall Street Journal editorial on Palestinian Authority schools' celebrations of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and massacre of Israelis. The editorial is based on excerpts from an in-depth, forthcoming PMW report on PA schools' education.
Abbas and Macron Play Games With Oct. 7
Mahmoud Abbas isn't honest about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. The Palestinian Authority (PA) president will have his state of Palestine recognized by France and others at the United Nations this month. To pull this off, Mr. Abbas had to provide France a mere fig leaf in the form of his condemnation of Hamas's attack, 20 months late.
But as a forthcoming report by Palestinian Media Watch makes clear, Mr. Abbas has been playing a double game. His own West Bank schools pump children with pro-Oct. 7 propaganda, the Jerusalem-based NGO finds.
PA schools trumpet the indoctrination on Facebook. The report collects their videos of children reciting praise for Oct. 7 at assemblies. "Allahu Akbar! This is the [Al Aqsa] Flood," read a student at Askelan Mixed Elementary School. "We long for martyrdom, and our enemy fears the encounter. . . . They are all rats."
A student at Palestine Girls' Elementary School read, "Good morning, O people of the Resistance [Hamas], as you play the anthem of victory with bullets and rifles. Good morning, O you who stand guard like lions in tunnels and trenches. Good morning, O men of heroism, O men of power."
Taffuh Girls Elementary School posted a photo of a young girl with "Al Aqsa Flood," Hamas's name for Oct. 7, written on her face in marker. PA schools held anniversary celebrations a year after the massacre. Even now, the PA's "pay-for-slay" salaries to terrorists continue despite Mr. Abbas's assurances to the West that they would stop.
But not to worry. "I received a letter of hope, courage, and clarity" from Mr. Abbas, "opening a horizon for peace," wrote French President Emmanuel Macron on June 11. Yet those statements by Mr. Abbas weren't circulated by PA media. Instead, on June 1 the PA's official newspaper published an interview with him.
Asked how he views Oct. 7, Mr. Abbas listed its triumphs. "This attack shook the foundations of the Israeli entity" and revealed its weakness, he said. But, "as important as the goals that Hamas attempted to achieve through this attack may have been, they are not comparable to the damage" Gaza has suffered.
Speaking to his own people, Mr. Abbas blamed Hamas not for the Israelis it slaughtered, but for having "provided this occupation with the excuses to do what it did."
It's as if France's President said to Mr. Abbas: Lie to me. Now Mr. Macron can pretend to the world that he's doing something for peace.
