Mideast peace hindered by education

Kaufman is a fourth-year political science student.

By Ziv Kaufman

The Americans, Israelis and Palestinians as well as the rest of
the world have all referred to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as
an issue of occupied land and terrorism.

Most believe the conflict persists because of Israeli occupation
of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and because of terrorism
carried out in the area. It is true that Israelis and Palestinians
disagree on who is to blame on the current situation. The
Palestinians claim that Israel needs to withdraw from the occupied
territories in order to establish peace, while the Israelis claim
that the terror needs to stop first.

What both sides fail to see (or see but fail to acknowledge) is
that the education given to the Palestinian children by the
Palestinian Authority is the most difficult obstacle standing in
the way of making peace.

While Americans and Israelis receive adequate education from
their systems of government, the situation is not the same for
Palestinians. Indeed, the Palestinian Authority teaches children to
use violence when necessary ““ especially to resist the
Israeli occupation. A Palestinian child could never defeat an armed
Israeli soldier. Nevertheless, children are encouraged by the
Palestinian leaders to try to confront soldiers. One would think
that a government should do everything to protect its citizens, yet
the Palestinian Authority cruelly exploits its children.

In the beginning of the recent Intifada (uprising), the
Palestinian Authority appeared on television advertisements calling
all Palestinian children to throw their toys and replace them with
rocks in order to “resist the enemy.”

It is no wonder that Palestinian children are seen on TV
throwing rocks and getting injured. In addition to these horrific
acts, children are recruited by the terrorist Jihad group to go to
summer camps. There, they do not sing “Mary Had a Little
Lamb,” but shout “Death to Israel.” The children
are taught not to fear death but to welcome it. Those children (who
are usually no more than 13 years old) go through an intensive boot
camp where they learn to use machine guns and explosives in order
to become suicide bombers.

The world is determined to look at the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict as a matter of occupation and terrorism while it is
neglecting the Palestinian children abused by their own authority.
Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem will not stop a Palestinian
mother from seeing her 5-year-old child hospitalized after throwing
rocks at soldiers, nor will it stop the child from saying that when
he gets out he’ll continue to do the same.

An independent sovereign Palestine is not an answer to the
little girl receiving applause from her kindergarten teacher after
singing, “I will grow up and become a suicide warrior.”
The implementation of the right of Palestinians to return into the
heartland of Israel will not change the fact that over 50 percent
of Palestinian children between the ages of 6 and 11 are dreaming
of becoming suicide bombers.

The government of Israel insists that the peace talks can resume
only when Arafat arrests all the terrorists or when Arafat is
replaced. However, it does not face the core of the problem ““
education. Even if all of the terrorists were arrested, there would
still be a whole new generation of children who have been
brainwashed and abused by the Palestinian Authority, and are now
ready to become suicide bombers to murder Israelis.

The Palestinian children must no longer be neglected. When a
whole generation is being taught to hate and to use violence, it is
child abuse. Some may say that the Palestinians are so suppressed
by the occupation that they have no choice but to use violence.
However, we may ask ourselves that if they are so suppressed, then
why make their children suffer even more by encouraging them to
resort to violence and risk their lives, instead of trying to
protect them?

Every child in the world has a right to receive food, shelter
and adequate education.

The Palestinian Authority is depriving its children of those
rights.