http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2007%20Opinion%20Editorials/February/13%20o/Teaching%20Hatred%20By%20Mike%20Odetalla.htm

There is a series is pictures posted with this original article... well worth looking for and seeing what the children of Palestine see daily.

Teaching Hatred

By Mike Odetalla

Al-Jazeerah, February 13, 2007

Not a day goes by without having to read or listen to someone from the “Israel right or wrong camp” spin tales about Palestinians teaching their children to “hate”. From those aspiring to higher public office, such as Hillary Clinton, to hatemongering lunatics such as Pat Robertson, Daniel Pipes, and an assortment of conservative talk show hosts, they do not miss an opportunity to propagate this lie in the hopes of portraying Palestinian parents and society as a whole, as “lesser” human beings, unfit to raise their children “properly”…

Although this myth about Palestinian parents and their children has been debunked countless times by many experts, including Israeli academics and journalists in the Hebrew press, this has not stopped those that seek to demonize the Palestinians at every turn in their relentless campaign to brainwash the American public so that Israel’s nefarious actions and policies against the much maligned and brutalized Palestinian people can be dismissed or “excused”, because, after all, in their eyes, Palestinians and their children couldn’t possibly be regarded as equally “human”!

As a child, growing up in Palestine, where we had no television or for that matter, any electricity, the first time I was ever exposed to the Star of David was when I saw it painted on the gleaming metallic bodies of the Fantom jet fighters that were flying low overhead as they bombed and strafed the outskirts of our village and which nearly massacred us as we huddled along with nearly twenty others in a cave, escaping mere minutes before the cave was destroyed by a missile from one the jets during the 1967war.

The first Jew that I had ever seen in my life was an alien looking figure, who was standing atop a tank, which also had the Star of David painted on it, pointing a gun at my mother and shouting at us in a language that I had never before heard. The first Jew that I had ever seen close up, was also pointing a gun at me, even though I was a mere child of six…

Many times during the early period of Israel’s occupation of my homeland, the only Jews that I personally encountered were the Israeli soldiers who marched into our village, on more than one occasion, forcing every male aged 12 to 75 to go out onto the villages open field, and sit under the brutal summer sun for hours, with little regard for their safety and well being. These soldiers were also the ones that clamped daily curfews on our villages and in one night, while we were confined to our homes, came into our village and killed every dog in the village that they could find because the dogs tended to bark when the soldiers slipped into the village during the night. For many days after this dastardly act, the stench of the decaying flesh permeated throughout the village.

On more than one occasion, I witnessed Jewish soldiers physically and verbally abusing Palestinian men, women, and children. Some of these soldiers seemed to relish the power that their guns and uniform gave them over these people, showing a sadistic zeal for their “work”.

Needless to say, for countless Palestinian children, their very first or only encounters with Jews were similar to mine, whether in Palestine, or the refugee camps of Lebanon and elsewhere. The “Jewish” face of Israel, to us, manifested itself in the persona of the Israeli soldier.

By contrast, the first Christian I had ever encountered, looked and sounded just like me, a native Palestinian who did not present a threat to me nor my family, who shared our language, customs, food, and dress.

Thus, my perception of Jews was profoundly influenced by the experiences of my early encounters with Israeli soldiers, and I was one of the “lucky ones” because thousands of other Palestinian children were forever scarred, as they had to witness the killings, beatings, midnight raids, humiliations, and imprisonment of their fathers, siblings, and other loved ones by the Israelis.

The Star of David was not a religious symbol to me and other Palestinians. It was symbol of oppression and fear, painted on the side of the Israeli army’s death machines. It was under this very symbol that many Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands.

It was not until I came to America that I met a Jew who did not seem to threaten me and who looked and acted “normal”, like every ones around him. Since then, I have come to meet and befriend many Jews in America and elsewhere who do not approve of what is being done “in their names”, showing me a “different” side of Jews that I had no idea existed.

My children on the other hand, were born and raised in the United States and had gotten to meet and to know many of my Jewish friends. Although they knew much about what the Israelis were doing to our people, they didn’t look at Jews in this country any differently than any other Americans.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2003 that my children began to see Jews in a different light. Standing in the hot summer sun at the Israeli checkpoints, they were witness to Israeli oppression and cruelty first hand, staring in shock as a young Palestinian father was set upon and beaten by Israeli soldiers for having the “audacity” to complain because his pregnant wife and 2 young children had to stand in the sweltering heat for hours at the Qalandia Checkpoint on their way home. I will never forget the shock on my children’s’ faces as I tried to help the young father up after he was beaten silly in front of his wife and young children.

More than anything else, it is the Israelis themselves who are having the greatest influence on the youths of Palestine. By their words and deeds, they are the ones that are teaching the Palestinian children to hate, because as we all know, experience is the greatest “teacher” of them all and the Israelis are doing one hell of a job “teaching” the children of Palestine.

What did these children “learn” after their homes were demolished by the Israeli army?

The American poet, Auden, I believe, said it best:

“I and the public know, what all school children learn, those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”

Mike Odetalla..."A seed in the eternal fruit of Palestine"

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“It is said that every cloud has a silver lining...
I prefer to think that if you look past the clouds, the Sun is always shining” - Mike Odetalla

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