On October 22, Zaid Abd al-Rahman, a 20-year-old enrolled in Al Quds University, allegedly entered Ramot with a six-inch knife and attacked 17-year-old Yehuda Ne’emad, son of the local grocery owner… Meir Indor of the Almagor Terror Victims Association connected the crime to the ransom paid four days previously to free Gilad Shalit: “The publicity surrounding the deal turned murderers into culture heroes on the Arab and Palestinian street.”
A 2009-10 report by Arnon Groiss of Impact-Se, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Curriculum describes the school books Rahman would have been exposed to as delegitimizing Jews and Israel, denying their historical and religious presence and ascribing to them dubious and nefarious characteristics, as well as assigning full blame to them for the Middle East conflict and stressing the ideal of violent struggle for liberation over peaceful negotiation.
After school, Rahman would have been exposed to Al Aqsa Television children’s programs, like this one: “What do you want to do to the Jews who shot your father?” says the cuddly bear.
“I want to kill them,” a child’s voice pipes up.
“We don’t want to do anything to them,” a little girl shakes her head at the bear. “Just to expel them from our land.”
“But if we slaughter them, they’ll be expelled,” the bear cheerfully corrects her.
“Yes, that’s right,” she agrees.
Graduating from this kind of education, Rahman enrolled in Al Quds University, with its Abu Jihad Museum, honoring the master terrorist who engineered the Coastal Road Massacre. In 2007, Al Quds held a week-long celebration honoring Yahya Ayyash, the notorious Hamas “engineer credited for numerous deadly attacks and for inventing the suicide belt.”
On March 11, 2011, Al Quds held a celebration of the 33rd anniversary of the death of Dalal Mughrabi, a despicable Lebanese woman who landed on Israel’s coast in a dinghy with a dozen other terrorists, killing nature photographer Gail Rubin and then hijacking a passenger bus which she blew up with a grenade, killing 38 Israelis – thirteen of them children.
“Now we go to a glorious chapter in Palestinian history… ” the Palestinian television announcer says, introducing Mughrabi’s sister, who says: “This is a day of glory and pride for the Palestinian people and a blow to the Zionists. She [Mughrabi] left a note to our father saying to point all rifles at Zionists, so if you haven’t yet…”
The release of terrorist murderers was a bad idea for many reasons. But while it might have emboldened him, it didn’t put the idea of killing Jews into Zaid Abd al-Rahman’s head. For that, it took a village. If the West is ever really sincere about tackling the problem of peace in our area, the first sign will be the halting of all funding and cultural exchanges with the likes of Al Quds “University.” It will be the attention paid to reversing the damage done by years of toxic PA and Hamas brainwashing, the kind that turns young people into monsters.
When the security fence goes up between Ramot and Beit Iksa, Palestinian apologists. Al Quds University and its television broadcasting system will vent fury at further evidences of Israeli “apartheid.”
But we should all know better who really built this fence.
This article was first published in the Jerusalem Post on 18 November, 2011.