A Palestinian teenage suicide bomber has had a plaque revealed in her honour placed at a girls’ high school in Bethlehem.
It is the latest in what has become a normalised occurrence of promoting jihad to children at Palestinian-run schools.
It is both sad and shocking that in the place of Jesus’s birth, young people are being indoctrinated with a message that celebrates the murder of Jews. Furthermore, it is chilling to think that the “martyr” being honoured is the same age as teenage girls attending the school
17-year-old Ayyat al-Akras murdered two Israelis and injured 28 others when she blew herself up near a supermarket in Jerusalem on March 29, 2002. One of her victims was also a teenage girl and the other was a 55-year-old security guard who prevented al-Akras from entering the supermarket, saving many lives.
Her attack was part of the Second Intifada of 2000 – 2005 in which more than 1,100 Israelis were killed, including in a number of suicide bombings.
Now she has been commemorated as a role model for children at the Bethlehem High School for Girls, with a plaque in her honour placed at the entrance to the school, a recent Facebook post by the school has revealed.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, the text on the plaque reads:
“This memorial was established in cooperation between the Education Directorate [a branch of the PA Ministry of Education] and the Fatah Shabiba [Youth Movement] organization, in order to commemorate the Martyrs of the Al-Aqsa Intifada at the Bethlehem High School for Girls for the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolutionJan. 1, 2003Martyr Ayyat Al-AkhrasMartyr Nida Al-Izza”
