Palestinian Authority Summer Camps: A Place to Idolize Terrorists and Eliminate Israel

While the Olympics were being held in France to celebrate athletics, the Palestinian Authority (PA) held a summer camp to celebrate the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The PA chose to name its largest summer camp, which hosts 150 children ages 7-13, after terrorist Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad” — the head of the Black September terror organization and the mastermind behind the Munich Olympics massacre.

Salah Khalaf was not the only terrorist placed on a pedestal at the PA summer camp.

Fatah terror leaders Khalil Al-Wazir — “Abu Jihad” — and Yasser Arafat were also placed on the camp’s banner — in military garb — to serve as role models, while the campers were taught to memorize the camp’s motto and pledged to follow the path of the three terrorists:

Posted text and picture: “#Announcement

All the lion cubs and flowers [i.e., boys and girls] participating in the Martyr Salah Khalaf ‘Abu Iyad’ summer camp are asked to memorize the Cry and Motto of the summer camp:

‘We are the lion cubs and flowers of Palestine

Education, knowledge, culture, and religion

My land, my country, and the Paradise of My Lord, all the wishes for Palestine

On your path, Yasser Arafat

On your path, Salah Khalaf ‘Abu Iyad’

On your path, ‘Abu Jihad’

All the lion cubs and flowers [i.e., children]

Al-Aqsa Mosque remains our first Qiblah [i.e., Muslim direction for prayer], and Jerusalem is the cradle of the civilizations” [emphasis added]

[Beit Amin-Azzoun Atma sports club, Facebook page, Aug. 8, 2024]

The PA is proud to show how it educates children to follow the way of hate and terror.

The Western-funded PA Security Forces led the summer camp activities, as the children stood at attention dressed in t-shirts that also boasted terrorist Khalaf’s picture and name:

The camp’s T-shirts worn by all the children and staff have the picture of Khalaf and the words: “Martyr Salah Khalaf ‘Abu Iyad’ summer camp”:

The children were taught to draw the PA map, in which all of Israel has become “Palestine.” Israel is gone and is painted over in the colors of the Palestinian flag:

Since the PA intends for “Palestine” to be repopulated with UNRWA refugees, it inculcated this ideology to the children through signs that read: “I will not relinquish my right of return”:

In another summer camp organized by the PLO Supreme Council of Youth and Sports, the children were likewise taught that their goal is to be a world without Israel and to that end, they also facepainted the map of “Palestine” that erases Israel.

The Salah Khalaf camp further emphasized the centrality of terror glorification by taking the children to visit the Salah Khalaf Square in the Azzoun Atma village:

The PA also ran yet another summer camp for 100 children from a refugee camp at the Salah Khalaf Center. The children were taught to ignore Israel’s existence by presenting the names of the Israeli cities of Haifa, Beit Shean, Acre, and Jaffa as Palestinian on signs that they were holding.

In an article in its official daily, the PA explained that the naming of the summer camps was intentional, as part of its policy to honor its dead terrorists:

The symbolism of the Martyr … remains one of the most important and sacred symbols in the Palestinian national consciousness … The Israeli occupation has been targeting the Martyrs’ symbolism… activating all kinds of aggression to press the PA to stop paying the allowances of the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners and stop what Israel calls ‘incitement,’ including the glorification of the Martyrs in the political discourse and Palestinian media. 

…

The camp is named after Martyr Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad” to eternalize the memory and symbolism of one of the prominent leaders of the Palestinian national movement …

He was one of the most prominent founders of Fatah, a member of its Central Committee… He established the first security forces of the revolution, the surveillance organization, and stood alongside Yasser Arafat, Khalil Al-Wazir [Abu Jihad], and Saad Sayel in commanding the revolution’s forces. He participated in all its battles until his death as a Martyr on Jan. 14, 1991 in Tunisia. [emphasis added]

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida website, Aug. 21, 2024]

The “allowances,” which the official PA daily glorifies, is what is known as its “Pay-for-Slay” program. This program was exposed by Palestinian Media Watch and consists of a law enacted by the PA whereby it must pay salaries to terrorists in prison and to the families of dead terrorists.

So, while Israeli athletes were busy winning seven Olympic medals, the PA was busy making sure that its young people’s role models would not be sports heroes but the masterminds of massacres.

Itamar Marcus is Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.