Is the “revitalized” PA still sending minors to die as Martyrs while simultaneously claiming victimhood and heroism?
By Itamar Marcus and Ephraim D. Tepler, PMW
Palestinian Media Watch has reported extensively on the PA policy of convincing children to seek Martyrdom—death for Allah—while fighting Israel. We continue to see the results of this indoctrination as parents of terrorists report that their children had requested to die as martyrs, just as they had been taught.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 25, 2024]
On one hand, the PA, through its official television channel, seeks to portray Al-Uruq as a hero for confronting Israel. On the other hand, the PA, through its official daily, WAFA, also tries to advance the claim that the 16-year-old Al-Uruq was a victim by publishing an innocent-looking picture of him after he was shot and killed in Ramallah.
At the same time, another picture of Khaled Al-Uruq has been circulating online in which he is prominently featured holding a rifle with his finger on the trigger.
[SHFA, independent Palestinian news website, April 25, 2024]
This incident is just the latest of many instances reported by Palestinian Media Watch where minors notify their relatives or friends of their desire to die as Martyrs and then go and perpetrate violent attacks in which there is a high likelihood that they will die. They are then used by the PA to claim that Israel is targeting children while at the same time, they are glorified by the PA as martyrs who have taken heroic action.
The PA’s promotion of child Martyrdom is blatant child abuse, as young children are taught that their life’s goal should be to die a young hero. Indeed, as once stated by a young girl on Fatah’s Facebook page, “our weapon is our Islam and our ammunition is our children.”
Khaled Al-Uruq – 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist who died while participating in violent confrontations with Israeli forces in Ramallah on April 25, 2024. Al-Uruq’s father, a PA military intelligence officer, said that his son “always told me: ‘I want to die as a Martyr’” (Official PA TV, April 25, 2024).