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Palestinian schoolchildren given 7 October maths questions praising Hamas attacks
Nine-year-olds were asked to calculate numbers of rockets and fighters, while other pupils recited poems celebrating the massacre
Palestinian Authority schoolchildren as young as nine were given maths exercises based on the 7 October Hamas attacks, including questions about the number of Israelis killed, rockets fired, and terrorists sent into Israeli communities.
The classroom material was uncovered by Israeli media watchdog Palestinian Media Watch, which found examples posted online by schools run by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
At Al-Kuwait Primary Mixed School, pupils were asked to create multiplication problems linked to the attacks just a week after 7 October.
One question read: “At least 150 Israelis were killed in one day. What was the number killed in nine days?”
Others referred to Hamas’s armed wing, including: “Al-Qassam Brigades launched 150 rockets daily at the occupation’s settlements. How many rockets were launched over nine days?”
The exercises also included questions about Palestinians killed in Gaza, with teachers praising pupils for referring to them as “Martyrs”.
Next to a question asking pupils to calculate how many children would be killed over nine days if 150 died each day, a teacher wrote: “May Allah protect you! Wonderful! Mercy and peace to the Martyrs of Gaza.”
Another pupil was told: “Excellent! Champion! Our blessings be fulfilled! Mercy and forgiveness to our Martyrs!”
The material was posted on school social media accounts shortly after the Hamas-led attack, in which around 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel, and 251 were taken hostage.
Separate examples uncovered by Palestinian Media Watch showed pupils at Palestinian Authority-run schools delivering poems about the attack during assemblies in the days that followed.
At Kharas Girls’ Elementary School in Hebron, a young pupil described the “honour” and “pride” she felt after waking on 7 October.
Another pupil at Shweikeh Mixed Elementary School read a poem which said: “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.”
It continued: “Open your door, we are death, or close it – we will get to you, the target is identified.”
Similar activities were reported at schools in Hebron, Ramallah, Tulkarm, Nablus and Jenin.
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, told The Jerusalem Post: “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 7 October, PA educators understood this ‘success’ as something demanding extraordinary celebration.”
Marcus called for sweeping changes within the Palestinian Authority education system, arguing that promised reforms would be meaningless without changes to its leadership and oversight of schools.
The revelations come as Palestinian Authority-run schools are operating for only three days a week amid a severe financial crisis which has forced cuts to public services.
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