![A child's drawing shown here says: "In Gaza City at least 150 children die as Martyrs [daily]. How many child Martyrs are there in nine days?"](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/q_auto/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_720,w_1280/735155 "A child's drawing shown here says: \"In Gaza City at least 150 children die as Martyrs [daily]. How many child Martyrs are there in nine days?\"")
Schools run by the Palestinian Authority have incorporated the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel into math lessons and used it as inspiration for speeches delivered at school assemblies, Palestinian Media Watch first reported, and The Jerusalem Post independently verified on Tuesday.
A teacher at the PA-administered Al-Kuwait Primary Mixed School assigned students to write equations based on the attacks just one week after the massacre, according to a post published on the school’s social media account.
The nine-year-old students came up with the following equations: “At least 150 Israelis were killed in one day. What was the number killed in nine days?”; “Al-Qassam Brigades fired 150 rockets at Israel for an hour. How many rockets did they fire in nine hours?”; “Al-Qassam Brigades sent 150 Jihad fighters to [each of] nine settlements in Israel. How many Jihad fighters entered [all] the settlements?” and “Al-Qassam Brigades launched 150 rockets daily at the occupation's settlements. How many rockets were launched over nine days?”
Itamar Marcus, the director of Palestinian Media Watch, said in a statement to the Post that “The Palestinian Authority has made the glorification of the murder of Jews and Israelis so deeply ingrained in its institutions that when Israelis were tortured, burned alive, raped, and more than 1,100 were murdered on October 7, PA educators understood this ‘success’ as something demanding extraordinary celebration.”
Beyond reducing October 7 to a math exercise, the nine-year-olds were also praised by their teacher in written feedback for writing questions relating to martyrdom, including child martyrdom, in Gaza.
Terrorism turned into math questions
“May Allah protect you! Wonderful! Mercy and peace to the Martyrs of Gaza,” a teacher wrote in red pen next to the equation, “In Gaza City, at least 150 children die as Martyrs [daily]. How many child Martyrs are there in nine days?”
The teacher also wrote, “Excellent! Champion! Our blessings be fulfilled! Mercy and forgiveness to our Martyrs!” in response to the question, “At least 150 Martyrs were killed in Gaza in one day. How many were killed in nine days?”
In a number of other PA-administered schools, students were also encouraged to read poems and make speeches celebrating October 7 within days of the massacre.
The Kharas Girls' Elementary School in Hebron posted a video of a young student reading a poem describing the “honor” she felt when she woke up the day of the massacre, and how she was surrounded by laughter.
“On Saturday [October 7], the people who resist returned to their land... It was impossible to express the emotions in our hearts, and we never imagined such pride in our people on our faces,” she read.
The Shweikeh Mixed Elementary School in Hebron also posted a video of one of its students reading a poem depicting the massacre as Palestinian “revenge.”
'We are death': murder, torture, rape glorified to children
“Only blood do we see as an ally, And we will cool the fire in our heart with the body parts and screams of soldiers,” the young girl read. “Open your door, we are death, or close it – we will get to you, the target is identified."
The Askelan Mixed Elementary School and Palestine Girls' Elementary School in Hebron, the Sinjil Boys' High School in Ramallah, Yasser Arafat Girls' High School in Tulkarm, the Deir Al-Sharaf Boys' School in Nablus, and the Siris Elementary School for Girls in Jenin all held similar events in October 2023.
“The language PA educators chose for children to read at schoolwide assemblies about the October 7 atrocities is almost inconceivable: ‘pride,’ ‘honor,’ ‘joy,’ ‘glory,’ ‘fame,’ and ‘a beautiful dream. These were the words used to teach Palestinian children how to view mass murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping,” Marcus told the Post.
“Israel must insist that the long-promised “PA reform” begin with the removal and replacement of all senior officials in the PA Ministry of Education and of every school principal. These are the people who are collectively guilty of poisoning the minds of Palestinian children. Their replacements must be subject to years of rigorous oversight and supervision, just as Germany’s educational system and educators were subjected to Allied supervision after World War II."
Marcus said, “Reforming the PA while leaving the people and institutions responsible for educating generations of Palestinian children to glorify terror in place would make reform meaningless.”
Notably, PA-administered schools currently operate only three days a week due to the PA’s severe financial crisis. The PA has been forced to make significant cuts to basic public services as it grapples with a prolonged fiscal crisis, compounded by US restrictions under the Taylor Force Act and Israel’s withholding of tax revenues over payments to Palestinian prisoners and their families.