Watchdog: Schools run by PA celebrated Oct. 7 Hamas massacres
Report reveals school in Jenin closed after onslaught to honor ‘martyrs’ and decry ‘Nazi occupation’; students at a Nablus school drew infamous Hamas paragliders
Since the brutal Hamas massacres of Israelis on October 7, the atrocities have been celebrated by at least 11 Palestinian schools, including eight run by the Palestinian Authority, according to a watchdog’s new report.
The schools “are openly and publicly celebrating the horrors of the October 7 massacre,” said the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), adding that “this follows years of hate-teaching in PA schools.”
The report also notes one private West Bank school, a UNRWA-run school in the West Bank and a Hamas-run school in Gaza where students and teachers praised and glorified the devastating October 7 onslaught. In the attack, thousands of terrorists murdered 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and abducted some 240 to the Gaza Strip.
“The international community heavily funds PA education sector civil servants responsible for curriculum development and the operation of schools,” the report stated.
IMPACT-se, an organization based in the UK and Israel, monitors education curricula to determine whether they are in compliance with UNESCO standards on peace, tolerance and nonviolence.
In one example provided, the Ya’bad Secondary Boys School in Jenin told parents it would be closed on October 18 “out of respect for the pure blood of our martyrs, and to denounce the massacres made by the cowardly Nazi Occupation.” The letter also said: “God punish the Jews and those who support them.”
In another example, the Abdallah Abu Seta Elementary Boys’ School in Khan Younis posted an image on its Facebook page a day after the massacre of masked terrorists raising a Palestinian flag, armed with guns and a rocket launcher, as Israel Defense Forces soldiers flee.
On October 12 at the Al-Nukhba School in Bethlehem, a boy was filmed giving a written speech praising “resistance” and for “educating the youth to sacrifice for the sake of the Motherland as unwavering martyrs.”
“He immediately connects this to the October 7 massacre, describing how ‘jihad fighters’ stomped with pure shoes on the heads’ of the ‘Zionists’ with gliders and machine guns, killing 1,500 ‘soldiers,’ as well as ‘imprisoning hundreds of soldiers.’ The school account commented on this video, calling on Palestine to ‘rise up’ and ‘take the Occupation off of you,’ for ‘they are destined to vanish,'” the report read.
The Adnan Zaki al-Safarini Boys’ High School in Tulkarm staged a demonstration on October 12 praising Hamas’s massacre, with a video showing a male student’s speech, entitled, “A day that will live forever in the history of the Arab Palestinian struggle… the day of Al-Aqsa Flood.”
On October 15 at the Fadwa Touqan Mixed Elementary School in Nablus, images posted on the school’s Facebook page showed 21 students preparing drawings of Hamas terrorists on gliders, glorifying the terrorists who paraglided into Israel on October 7.
“These findings indicate that the next generation of Palestinians are being desensitized to violence and death, to see Jews and Israelis as inhuman creatures, and to perceive their own death in battle as an utmost goal. In light of this, one cannot escape the conclusion that should the status quo of Palestinian education continue, the next atrocity is all but assured,” the report read.
Earlier this month, IMPACT-se released another report showing that several UNRWA staffers praised the attack in social media posts.
It highlights comments by 14 UNRWA members and examines the participation of UNRWA school graduates in terror attacks against Israeli civilians as well as the presence of antisemitic and jihadist content in textbooks used in UNRWA schools.
European nations and institutions have become increasingly critical of incitement in the textbooks of the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank but not Gaza. In May, the European Parliament, which is the Union’s legislative branch, called in a resolution on the Palestinian Authority for a fourth consecutive year to remove hateful elements from its textbooks.
The May resolution was the first time that the Parliament urged the Union’s executive branch, the European Commission, to stop funding the Palestinian education system unless it removes “all antisemitic references and examples that incite hatred and violence,” as the resolution states.
Israel has also lambasted Ramallah for failing to condemn the atrocities of October 7, while also disseminating disinformation, including a false claim earlier this week that Israeli forces were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of partygoers near Kibbutz Re’im during the attack.
