When PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with President Donald Trump at the White House, Abbas said that the Palestinians teach their children and grandchildren "a culture of peace."
But Abbas' embracing a "culture of peace" in Washington is meaningless when his schools in Ramallah embrace a culture of terror. As Palestinian Media Watch has already exposed, the PA systematically teaches Palestinian children to hate Israelis and perpetrate violence against them. This special report shows that even the names that the Palestinian Authority has chosen for its schools encourage children to see terrorists as personal role models.
The Palestinian Authority has named at least 28 schools after terrorists and at least 3 schools after Nazi collaborators.
Below is the full report:
Palestinian Authority schools
named after terrorists and Nazi collaborators
- 28 PA schools named after terrorists
- 3 PA schools named after Nazi collaborators
by Itamar Marcus and PMW staff
The PA Ministry of Education has named at least 28 schools after terrorists and an additional 3 schools after Nazi collaborators. Significantly, the PA Ministry of Education is directly and solely responsible for the naming of schools:
"The naming of schools and changes are the responsibility of the Minister of Education, by a direct decision of the Ministry or the Name Committee." [Ma'an, independent news agency, Aug. 26, 2015, see also WAFA, official Palestinian Authority news agency Aug. 25, 2015]
By naming schools after terrorists, the Palestinian Authority is telling its children most emphatically that terrorists who have murdered Israeli civilians are role models and heroes. PMW has found evidence that in practice, students who attend such schools refer to terrorists as personal heroes whom they look up to and aspire to emulate.
For example, the Shadia Abu Ghazaleh School for Girls is named after one of the first Palestinian female terrorists. She was killed in 1968 when a bomb she was preparing accidentally detonated. This is what the girls studying in the school named after Ghazaleh said about her when interviewed on PA TV:
PA TV host:"What do you know about Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, you study in a school named after her?"
Girl 1: "Shadia Abu Ghazaleh is a model of the patriotic woman..."
Girl 2: "She was a model of the wonderful female Palestinian fighter. We follow her path in this school."
Girl 3: "We're happy that our school is named after a very well-known Martyr, who played a role and who did something great."
Girl 4: "The school is named after her to commemorate her... and encourage people to be like her."
Girl 5: "Shadia was a model for us and will remain a model for us and we'll follow her path."
The students definitely know that it is a bombmaker they are praising as their role model, because a mural with her face and biography appears prominently on a school wall:
"Shadia Abu Ghazaleh... participated in the operation that blew up a bus. She was at home preparing a bomb in order to detonate it in an Israeli building in Tel Aviv but it exploded in her hands."
[Official PA TV, Dec. 5 2013 and rebroadcast Dec. 9, 2013]
The PA has named two schools after terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.
When young students were interviewed in the Dalal Mughrabi School, named after a terrorist who led the murder of 37 civilians, including 12 children, in a bus hijacking, the girls likewise expressed admiration for their school's namesake:
Girl 1: "Dalal Mughrabi is a great leader... Our mothers give birth to thousands like Dalal, and she still walks among us... I personally am proud to attend the Dalal Mughrabi School."
Girl 2: "My life's ambition is to reach the level of the Martyr fighter Dalal Mughrabi."
[Official PA TV, March 27, 2014]
The PA has named three schools after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi.
The following are schools the Palestinian Authority has named after terrorists:
The PA has named three schools after terrorist Dalal Mughrabi.
1. The Dalal Mughrabi High School for Girls - Gaza
2. The Dalal Mughrabi High School for Girls - Al-Shuyoukh, Hebron
3. The Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School for Girls - near Hebron
| Terrorist Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70. |
Picture of the bus after Mughrabi's hijacking and murder of the passengers
(Photo: IDF Spokesman Unit)
The PA has named two schools after terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.
4. The Shadia Abu Ghazaleh School for Girls - Gaza
5. The Shadia Abu Ghazalah High School for Boys - Jabaliya
| Terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh - One of the first Palestinian female terrorists, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization. She was involved in many attacks against Israel and was killed in 1968 while preparing a bomb for an attack in Tel Aviv that accidentally detonated. |
The PA has named five schools after terrorist Abu Jihad.
6. The Khalil Al-Wazir [Abu Jihad] Elementary School for Girls - Hebron
7. The Martyr Khalil Al-Wazir Elementary School for Boys - Samu'a, Hebron
8. The Martyr Khalil Al-Wazir Elementary School for Boys - Al-Yamun, Jenin
9. The Abu Jihad High School for Boys - Arabe, Jenin
10. The Abu Jihad High School for Boys - Hebron
| Terrorist Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks. These attacks, in which a total of 125 Israelis were murdered, included the most lethal in Israeli history - the hijacking of a bus and killing of 37 civilians, 12 of them children. |
The PA has named four schools after terrorist Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad).
11.The Salah Khalaf Elementary School for Girls- Gaza
12. TheSalah Khalaf Junior High School - Gaza
13. TheMartyr Abu Iyad School - Rafah
14. The Salah Khalaf School - Tulkarem (under construction)
| Terrorist Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) was one of the founders of Fatah and head of the Black September terror organization. Attacks he planned include the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972) and the murder of two American diplomats in Sudan (March 1, 1973). |
The PA has named one school after Hamas terror leader Ahmed Yassin.
15. The Martyr Ahmed Yassin School for Boys - Jenin
| Terror leader Ahmed Yassin founded the Hamas terror organization and headed it when Hamas was responsible for numerous terror attacks and the deaths of hundreds of civilians in suicide bombings. |
The PA has named one school after Al-Qaeda co-founder Abdullah Azzam.
16. Martyr Abdullah Azzam Elementary School for Boys - Jenin
Abdullah Azzam was the Palestinian co-founder of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist organization in Pakistan. Azzam was a proponent of Global Jihad and the establishment of an Islamic State. Azzam fled the West Bank in 1967 and reached Saudi Arabia in the 1970s, where he taught Osama bin Laden at King Abdul Aziz University. In 1979, Azzam moved to northern Pakistan, where he took an active role leading the fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, enlisting bin Laden in the effort as well. Azzam had planned to attack Israel and Europe after the Soviet-Afghan War. It remains unclear who was responsible for Azzam's assassination with a bomb in Peshawar, Pakistan on Nov. 24, 1989.
|
The PA has named one school after terrorist Abu Ali Iyad.
17. The Abu Ali Iyad High School for Girls - Qalqilya| Terrorist Abu Ali Iyad was appointed head of Fatah military operations in 1966 and was responsible for numerous terror attacks on Israeli civilians, including attacks against civilians in four Israeli towns. |
The PA has named one school after terrorist Nash'at Abu Jabara.
18. The Martyr Nash'at Abu Jabara High School for Girls - Tulkarem
| Terrorist Nash'at Abu Jabara was a member of Hamas and a bomb builder. He built suicide belts used by suicide bombers who carried out numerous terrorists attacks against Israeli civilians. |
The PA has named two schools after terrorist Abu Ali Mustafa.
19. The Abu Ali Mustafa Elementary School for Boys - Jenin
20. TheAbu Ali Mustafa Elementary School for Girls - Jenin
| Terrorist Abu Ali Mustafa was the leader of the terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which carried out numerous terror attacks against civilians from its founding in 1967 through the Palestinian terror campaign of 2000 - 2005 (the Intifada). |
The PA has named two schools after terror leader Mustafa Hafez.
21. The Mustafa Hafez Elementary School for Boys - Khan Younis
22. The Mustafa Hafez School - Gaza
| Terror leader Mustafa Hafez was an officer in the Egyptian army who organized terror squads and sent terrorists across the border to attack Israeli civilians in the 1950's. |
The PA has named one school after terrorist Izzat Abu Al-Rubb.
23. The Martyr Izzat Abu Al-Rubb High School - Jenin
Terrorist Izzat Abu Al-Rubb was a Fatah military leader who participated in a number of terror attacks against Israel.
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24. The Martyr Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam High School for Boys - Yaa'bad
25. The Martyr Izz Al-Din [Al-Qassam] Elementary School - Jenin
| Terror leader Sheikh Izz A-Din Al-Qassam was an influential Islamic preacher who led a Muslim terror group in the British Mandate of Palestine in the 1930s. Hamas' military wing, which has murdered hundreds in suicide bombings, is named after him - the Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. |
The PA has named one school after terrorist Osama Al-Najjar.
26. The Martyr Osama Al-Najjar School - Khan Yunis
| Terrorist Osama Al-Najjar was the spokesperson of the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades," Fatah's military wing, during the PA terror campaign (the "Intifada," 2000-2005). The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has been declared a terrorist group by Israel, the US, Canada, the EU, and Japan. |
The PA has named one school after terrorist Kamal Adwan.
27. The Kamal Adwan High School for Boys - Tel Al-Sultan, Rafah
Terrorist Kamal Adwan was responsible for Fatah's terrorist operations in Israel and was a senior member of Black September, which planned and carried out the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (Sept. 5, 1972). He was killed by Israeli forces in April 1973.
|
28. The Martyr Saa'd Sayel Elementary School for Boys- Nablus
| Terrorist Saa'd Sayel was a senior Fatah commander who led the Palestinian terrorist forces that fought in Lebanon during early 1980s. |
The following is a list of schools the PA has named after Nazi collaborators:
The PA has named one school after Nazi collaborator and war criminal Amin Al-Husseini.
1.The Amin Al-Husseini Elementary School - El-Bireh
| Amin Al-Husseiniwas the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the time of the British Mandate. During World War II he moved to Berlin, where he was a Nazi collaborator and an associate of Hitler. Al-Husseini was on Yugoslovia's list of wanted war criminals, and was responsible for a Muslim SS division that murdered thousands of Serbs and Croats. When the Nazis offered to free some Jewish children, Al-Husseini fought against their release, and as result, 5000 children were sent to the gas chambers. |
Amin Al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler (December 1941)
The PA has named two schools after Nazi collaborator Hassan Salameh.
2.The Hassan Salameh Junior High School for Girls - Gaza
3. Hassan Salameh Elementary School - Gaza
| Hassan Salameh was a leader of Arab gangs in the Lod and Jaffa region in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a loyal follower of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who spent World War II in Berlin supporting the Nazi war effort. In 1941, Salameh was recruited to be a Nazi agent, and in 1944, he was sent on a mission by the Nazis in the British Mandate of Palestine, with the goal of starting an Arab revolt against the British and poisoning Tel Aviv's water sources. The plot was discovered and thwarted by the British. In 1947, Salameh was appointed by the Mufti as Deputy Commander of the "Holy Jihad" Army that fought Israel in the 1948 War of Independence. In June 1948, he was killed in battle. |
PA schools also teach children to idolize terrorists using artwork and imagery. For example, the Artas High School for Girls near Bethlehem chose to put a picture of 17-year-old female suicide bomber Ayyat Al-Akhras over the entrance to the school. Ayyat Al-Akhras murdered 2 civilians in a supermarket in 2002.
The caption carries this praise: "The Heroic Martyr."
The school uniform in an elementary school named after Dalal Mughrabi features a picture of the terrorist. Palestinian children who attend this school see the face of this terrorist murderer every day from grade 1 through grade 8.
School logo and uniform with face of the terrorist
[Facebook page of Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School for Girls in Hebron,
Posted Nov. 2, 2014]
PA school names promoting Martyrdom:
Another common PA school name is the name Al-Khansa, with at least eight schools so named. Al-Khansa is honored in Islamic tradition and by the PA as "The Mother of Martyrs." An Arab woman and poet from the earliest period of Islam (7th century), she is famous for sending her four sons to battle and rejoicing when they all died as Martyrs. She has been lauded by the PA and presented as a role model for mothers. This is how her significance is explained in a PA schoolbook for Grade 8 published in 2002:
"Al-Khansa witnessed the Battle of Al-Qadisiyah with her four sons. She urged them to fight... They fought until all of them fell as Martyrs. When the news reached her she said, 'Praise be to Allah who has honored me by their Martyrdom...'" [Reading and Texts Part II, Grade 8, p. 13]
The PA has named 8 schools after the "Mother of Martyrs" Al-Khansa.
- The Al-Khansa Elementary School for Girls- Bethlehem
- The Al-Khansa Elementary School for Girls - Jenin
- The Al-Khansa Elementary School for Girls - Nablus
- The Al-Khansa Elementary School for Girls - Khan Yunis
- The Al-Khansa Elementary School for Girls - Rafah
- The Al-Khansa Elementary School for Girls - Yatta
- The Al-Khansa High School for Girls - Absan Al-Kabira
- The Mother of the Martyrs School for Boys - Bethlehem
Conclusions
The PA leadership publicly proclaims that it is promoting peace education. Mahmoud Abbas recently announced during a press conference with US Pres. Donald Trump: "I affirm to you that we are raising our children and our grandchildren on a culture of peace." [White House Press Conference, May 3, 2017]
But Abbas' embracing a "culture of peace" in Washington is meaningless when his schools in Ramallah embrace a culture of terror. Indeed, Palestinian youth themselves make a mockery of Abbas' claim, as children in the schools named for terrorists declare that those terrorists are their role models
Action Step
If Mahmoud Abbas wants to create a culture of peace, he needs to take action and not just talk. A minimal first step would be to announce that during the coming year the PA will rename all Palestinian schools named after terrorists and Nazi war criminals. This step will certainly be welcomed in Washington and by the international community. But more than that, if accompanied by the cessation of other terror glorification, it would be a first glimmer of hope that the PA may really be interested in being a peace partner.
