Top Islamic Jihad operative accuses rabbis of treating Palestinians like ‘snakes, bugs,’ says Palestinians have right to teach about ‘thieving Israeli enemy’

Elior Levy

A top Islamic Jihad operative on Wednesday accused Israeli rabbis of teaching hatred and racist values to children, a statement made in response to a recent report that Gaza kindergartens indoctrinate students into becoming terrorists.

Palestinian boy dressed as IDF soldier

“(Rabbis) treat Palestinian children and women as if they were snakes and bugs,” Khader Habib, a leader of the Gaza group told Ynet. “They don’t see them as normal people.”

Photographs released earlier this week showed a graduation ceremony celebrated at a Gaza preschool, during which the children donned army uniforms, carried rifles and staged scenes of torture purportedly inflicted on Palestinian prisoners by Israeli troops.

According to the report, during the ceremony some of the kids vowed to become terrorists and martyrs who kill Zionists.

Palestinian 'tortured' by 'Israeli soldier'

The kindergarten’s director said that it is the school’s obligation to teach children to “love the resistance” and to recognize the enemy.

The Foreign Ministry is looking into the possibility of sending the photographs out to several embassies worldwide, to be used for advocacy purposes. Meanwhile, the Israeli embassy in London has already decided to display the photos during a British Parliament session.

Habib dismissed the criticism of the unsavory education practices witnessed at the school.

“The Palestinian people have the right to teach its children that the Israeli enemy is stealing Palestinian land,” he said.

'Until I die as a shahid.' Gaza kids during party

Habib further claimed that the “enemy is trying to distort the facts by using its media outlets across the globe,” and urged the Arab and Palestinian press to come out against the “enemy’s criminal propaganda machine.”

View original Ynet publication at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4242297,00.html