IBTimes.co.uk  |  June 13, 2012

Palestinian Children Taught To Die At Kindergarten In Gaza

By Anissa Haddadi

'Until I die as a shaheed.' Children attending Islamic Jihad-run kindergarten in Gaza celebrate graduation.

Children attending an Islamic jihad-run kindergarten in Gaza celebrated their graduation by wearing army uniforms "to recognise the importance of Palestine and its enemy", an Israeli online daily reported.

During the graduation ceremony, the children wore uniforms of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine's armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades, and carrying toy rifles they had received as presents while they chanted anti-Israeli slogans, the Israeli Ynet reported.

Many of the relatives who attended the ceremony are members of the Islamist group or other Palestinian political factions, according to the report.

"It is our obligation to educate the children to love the resistance, Palestine and Jerusalem, so they will recognise the importance of Palestine and its enemy," the kindergarten's director was quoted as saying.

Ynet also reported one of the teachers as saying the school aims to teach the children to "grow up to love the resistance and serve the cause of Palestine and jihad".

In an effort to achieve this goal, the children engaged in role playing during the ceremony, portraying Israeli troops and Palestinian prisoners, with some of them handcuffed and put in cages while guards stood by, Ynet said.

One child took the role of an Israeli guard torturing a Palestinian prisoner by putting his head in a bucket of water, while other children stood next to mock coffins draped with flags bearing and bearing the image of martyrs, the report added.

"I'll fight the Zionist enemy and fire missiles at it until I die as a shaheed [martyr] and join my father in heaven," said a child named Hamza. "I want to blow myself up on Zionists and kill them on a bus in a suicide bombing."

Original article here.