The Hamas-affiliated student union in Gaza published a cartoon Tuesday in which a person whose body is made of a Palestinian Authority flag is seen throwing a Star of David – one of the best-known Jewish symbols – into agarbage can.
Text under the picture says, “Keep the world clean.”
The cartoon uses a Star of David rather than an explicitly Israeli symbol, indicating that it is meant to refer to Judaism or the Jewish nation as a whole and not the state of Israel alone.
The student union in question is known as the Islamic Bloc – in Arabic, al-Kutla al-Islamiya. It operates in high schools, universities and other educational institutions in Gaza. Its primary purpose is to teach the next generation about the importance of, in Hamas’ words, freeing Palestine from the Israeli occupation.
Hamas views all of Israel as occupied territory and justifies attacks on Israeli civilians as “resistance.”
Many teenagers active in the Islamic Bloc are sent to join the al-Kassam Brigades – the Hamas cells responsible for rocket fire on Israel. Some teen boys are sent to join the cells before finishing high school.
