PALIS CELEBRATE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION WITH GUNFIRE; ISRAELI HIT

Israeli Shot on Major Cross-Country Highway; Palestinian Celebratory Gunfire Blamed - Roni Singer Heruti
A 51-year-old man was shot and wounded on Tuesday in central Israel while traveling on Route 6, the country's only toll highway, which at some points runs adjacent to the separation fence with the West Bank. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the shots came from the West Bank and struck the driver in the chest. According to an initial inquiry, it appears the man was hit by a stray bullet fired in the air during celebrations at a high school graduation in a nearby Palestinian village. (Ha'aretz)

See also Palestinians Fete School Exam Scores with Gunfire - Mohammed Daraghmeh and Dalia Nammari
The streets of West Bank cities reverberated with the boom of gunfire in an emotional response to the publication of the results of the high school final exams. (AP/Washington Post)

HAMAS TAKES CONTROL OF PALESTINIAN SCHOOLS

A Struggle for Young Palestinian Minds - Karin Laub and Dalia Nammari (AP/Washington Post)
During a year in power, the Islamic Hamas movement has begun taking control of Palestinian schools and is making changes. Palestinian children spend more of their school day studying Islam. Critical jobs in public education are filled by Islamic stalwarts. A once-banned social studies reader, crammed with hard-line rhetoric, is now in classrooms.

"You are seeing the gradual transformation of a largely secular national...education system and curriculum into a more ideological, closed system," said Hanan Ashrawi, a former minister of higher education.

IT'S TOO BAD, BECAUSE WHEN FATAH CONTROLLED THE EDUCATION SYSTEM, STUDENTS WERE TAUGHT TO RECOGNIZE ISRAEL AND LOVE JEWS.

PALESTINIAN ACADEMIC DECRIES INCITEMENT BY IMANS

Straight Talk on Palestinian Incitement (CAMERA)

Two men, a Palestinian and an American, an academic and a journalist, independently discussed in separate venues the militarization of Palestinian youth.

The American, New York Times reporter Steve Erlanger, wrote a long feature last week in which he almost entirely ignored the widespread phenomenon of hate indoctrination. The Palestinian academic, Dr. Nadir Sa'id, spoke openly about it on Palestinian television March 6. Palestinian Media Watch translated his words:

What happened in Palestine in the last years is speech incitement of the highest degree. Violence speech of the highest degree in mosques, and occasionally in the media, from many politicians. . . . there are Imams who incite to killing: killing of women, beating children, killing the "other," rejection of the "other's" opinion. A whole generation was raised on the denial of the "other" and erasing him completely, and to the possibility of killing him without any restraint or problem.

90% OF PALESTINIAN YOUTH DENY ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST

SO MUCH FOR WAITING FOR THE NEXT, MORE "MODERATE" GENERATION TO ACHIEVE PEACE.

90 Percent of Palestinian Youth Deny Israel's Right to Exist - Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook (Palestinian Media Watch)
A new poll released by Near East Consulting, a Palestinian research institute, asked Palestinians, "Does Israel have the right to exist?" Among young people ages 18-25, those who have been most influenced by PA education, between 84% and 93% denied Israel's right to exist. PA teachings denying Israel's right to exist are endemic throughout PA society and media, which would account for the high levels of denial of Israel's legitimacy throughout PA society.