Palestinian children have, for some time, been the targets of an organized campaign by the official press of the Palestinian Authority - a campaign aimed at encouraging them to become child martyrs by attacking armed Israeli soldiers. So reports Dr. Itamar Marcus of the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) The following is an example - from Al Ayam, an official PA newspaper. It was published April 4th:
"Mohammed Abu A'atzi is a Martyr of Al Aqsa
[Mohammed] refused to eat. His mother thought that he didn't like the food that she had prepared, so she sent his older brother to buy him a can of meat. When he saw it, Mohammed threw it down and said, They are murdering us and we go on eating? The hell with it!
On Monday Mohammed went to the nest of iniquity, Netzarim [a Jewish Settlement in the Gaza Strip] in order to express his anger. He found a ride, then apologized to the owners [of the car] saying, I wish to die as a martyr. Please excuse me for not paying you.
He [the driver] answered. Go with Allah beside you.
Mohammed was then hit in the chest in a residential building near the Netzarim Army Base. The bullet was shot from an Apache helicopter which was hovering in the skies of Martyrs Junction in order to strike at [literally to stand against-PMW] the bare-chested Mohammed so that he would fall as a martyr."
(Al Ayam April 4, '01)
"Mohammed Abu A'atzi is a Martyr of Al Aqsa
[Mohammed] refused to eat. His mother thought that he didn't like the food that she had prepared, so she sent his older brother to buy him a can of meat. When he saw it, Mohammed threw it down and said, They are murdering us and we go on eating? The hell with it!
On Monday Mohammed went to the nest of iniquity, Netzarim [a Jewish Settlement in the Gaza Strip] in order to express his anger. He found a ride, then apologized to the owners [of the car] saying, I wish to die as a martyr. Please excuse me for not paying you.
He [the driver] answered. Go with Allah beside you.
Mohammed was then hit in the chest in a residential building near the Netzarim Army Base. The bullet was shot from an Apache helicopter which was hovering in the skies of Martyrs Junction in order to strike at [literally to stand against-PMW] the bare-chested Mohammed so that he would fall as a martyr."
(Al Ayam April 4, '01)