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FOREWORD
Minister of Education
Ms. Limor Livnat, MK
Education Ministers in enlightened, modern
countries, are generally concerned with raising the
level of education in their countries, broadening
their students horizons and improving the schools.
They do not generally have to pen introductions to
pamphlets dedicated to the memory of dozens of
infants, children and teenagers murdered in cold-blooded
acts of terror.
However, as Israel's Education Minister I am
unfORTunately forced to do just that. The wave of
terror launched by the Palestinian Authority
demonstrates complete scorn and utter contempt for
the rules and principles of the civilized world,
turning children and teenagers into the targets - and
victims - of barbarous acts of murder.
The laws of war in the civilized world are based on
a clear-cut distinction between combatants and
civilians. The civilized world has determined that
acts of war may be carried out only against armed
combatants - not against unarmed citizens.
Terrorists refuse to heed these laws - and in so doing
set themselves apart from civilized people
everywhere.
When terrorists declare every member of a
particular society a legitimate target, when babies
become fair game, they are moving humanity
backwards - to the age of savagery, when human
society was dominated by dark, unrestrained
passions, not the laws and accepted rules of civilized
conduct.
In our current war, the Palestinians are employing
terror in their attempt to vanquish Israel and force it
to accept conditions the vast majority of Israelis
believe to be tantamount to national suicide.
The Palestinians have demonstrated a shocking
contempt for children's lives - not only the lives
of our children, but of their own children as well.
In one of many examples, 14-year-old Ismail
Abu Nada bid farewell to his mother on April
23, 2002, saying, "I am on my way to becoming a
shahid."
Armed with explosives provided by terrorist
leaders, he and his friend, Anwar, 13, went to
carry out a suicide attack in a Jewish town.The
appeal from the Israel National Council for the
Child to Palestinian authorities to leave all
children on both sides outside the circle of war
remains unanswered.
As Israel's Education Minister, I consider one
of the most impORTant parts of my job to be the
fostering among the children of my country -
even at these terrible times - the values that we
have always taught and believed in: love of
humanity, nation and homeland; tolerance and
acceptance of the other; faith in the future and
hope for peace; and coexistence between nations.
How sad it is that on the other side the
Palestinian education system persists in
inculcating hatred and lust for murder in young
Palestinian minds and spirits - teaching them
that suicide murderers are national heroes and
role models.
We must do whatever we can to ensure that
the scores of infants, children and teenagers
whose memory we seek to perpetuate in this
pamphlet are the last victims of terror. The
civilized world must not permit the murder of
children - and the international community must
condemn and denounce those who dispatch and
harbor such terrorist murderers.
Limor Livnat
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