TEACHING PA MOTHERS TO CELEBRATE THEIR MURDEROUS CHILDREN

Pressuring Mothers to Celebrate Sons' Martyrdom Key to Promoting Suicide Terrorism - Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook (Palestinian Media Watch)

Creating a supportive social environment for terrorists has been a critical factor in the PA's successful promotion of suicide terrorism. PA policy has been to honor terrorists as Shahids (Martyrs for Allah), and to teach Palestinian mothers to celebrate when their children die as terrorist Shahids.

On March 11, 2005, in the first Friday sermon broadcast on PA TV since the PA announced that it would vet all Friday sermons, and with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the audience, Sheikh Yusuf Juma' Salamah said that the ideal Palestinian woman is like Al Khansah, the heroine of Islamic tradition who celebrated her four sons' death in battle by thanking God for the honor.

A day earlier, PA TV broadcast a telephone call from the Dean of Media at Al-Aqsa University who expressed admiration for the "unique Palestinian woman...she is the one who shouts for joy on the day of the Shahid."