Palestinian Authority press report tells children that the way youths can reach ‘excellence and greatness’ is to die as martyrs.

A seemingly innocent report on high school matriculation by the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority managed to embed within it glorification of martyrdom, otherwise known as death by trying to murder Israelis.

The article stated that though graduating high school is important, shahada [death by martyrdom] is even greater, and is actually greater than life itself. So reports Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which monitors incitement in the PA press and government organs.

This latest PMW analysis was of an article concerning the publication of high school matriculation scores. The report highlighted those whose high school education was interrupted, permanently, by their deaths while in the process of attempting to carry out terrorism against Israelis. The official news agency's report did not condemn these students and attempts, as several countries have asked the PA to do, but rather praised them magnanimously.

The PA article states:

"The day on which the matriculation scores are published is known as a day of great anticipation… Some students are disappointed that they did not receive the mark they hoped for, or that did not pass; others see this day as their new birthday and the beginning of their way in life, work, and building; but the families of the shahidim [martyrs] and their relatives find themselves proud of the shahada [a play on words, also meaning 'report card'] that their sons achieved with the Creator and the homeland…

"16 high school students succeeded in achieving 'homeland shahada' and in the difficult tests connected with it – for a martyr's death is the way to excellence and greatness, and the way of those who know the way to the great victory."

Messages of this nature are not new in the Palestinian Authority. Among many examples, PMW notes a famous song that has been repeatedly published in the children's magazine Zeizfuna, and which clearly connects between "being a Palestinian" and "being a martyr." PMW says the song has been published three times in recent years. It reads as follows:

"If you know you were born with a death decree, and you go to death without fear – then you are a Palestinian!"

"If your anthem is that of shahada, and death for you is birth - – then you are a Palestinian!"

"If you love death, and you recite aloud the declaration of allegiance to Allah – then you are a Palestinian!"

"If you watered the tree of the homeland with your free blood out of love, and extended the other organs of your body as a bridge for those who come – then you are a Palestinian!"

"If your wedding was held amid bullet volleys, and among your friends' shoulders [carrying the body of the shahid] on the background of tears mixed with happiness and pain at the separation – then you are a Palestinian, and you are filled with pride that you are a Palestinian."