The Haj - Leon Uris [234]
In the math class the younger grades were taught addition and subtraction: ‘If you had ten dead Zionists and killed six more, how many dead Zionists would you have altogether?’ Multiplying and dividing dead Zionists became more intricate as the grade level increased.
Every classroom had a piece of art by every student pinned to the walls. They overwhelmingly depicted bloodthirsty hooknosed Jews maiming and killing Arab children, Zionist airplanes attacking helpless refugee camps, glorious fedayeen goring Jews with bayonets, glorious fedayeen stomping on Jews whose pockets bulged with blood money, glorious fedayeen chasing fleeing Jewish cowards, glorious fedayeen standing atop a mound of Jewish skulls in Tel Aviv, glorious fedayeen reading sweet poems to Arab children.
There was the occasional picture of flowers, tents, water wells, trees, birds, and animals, but such pictures were discouraged and never won a prize.
Each month there was a poetry contest. The theme never varied.
The Zionist is the assassin of the world.
Children and trees and birds die before his bullets,
All the poor people cry,
For their homes have been destroyed,
And the world will pay.
As the grades grew higher, the words grew hotter.
Whip me!
Bring more whips!
More executioners!
By the thousands!
Beat my skin to shoe soles!
Rub salt into every wound!
Old wounds and new wounds.
With my blood I shall write
A million songs of protest.
We had a variety of textbooks from many different lands. In the upper grades we read from the Egyptian High School Reader:
O MOTHER OF ISRAEL
O mother of Israel! Dry your tears, your children’s blood which is being spilled in the desert will produce naught but thorn and wormwood. Wipe off your blood, O mother of Israel, have mercy and spare the desert your filthy blood, O mother of Israel Remove your slain, for their flesh has caused the ravens bellyache and their stink causes vomit. Cry, O mother of Israel, and wail. Let every house be the Wailing Wall of the Jews.
Slogans wrapped around the walls of every classroom, vowing death and destruction. Jokes were told in the schoolyard.
‘How many Jews fit in a Volkswagen?’
‘Thirty. Four in the seats and twenty-six in the ashtrays.’
Our physical education was actually a program of military training. We hiked out of the school grounds for ‘nature study,’ to comply with UNRWA rules. We marched to secret fedayeen training sites. Our courses consisted of learning to live in the field, tracking, hand and knife fighting, crawling under barbed wire, leaping through fires, grenade throwing, and strangling live animals to prove courage. We worked very hard for the privilege of being allowed to fire live ammunition. Shooting a machine gun filled us with a tremendous feeling of power and exultation. A nine-year-old was our best marksman.
The ten upperclassmen which included myself, were honored to have a ranking holy man from the Brotherhood to teach us. Our course was on the publication of the Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research in Cairo, a gathering of fifty of the world’s leading Moslem scholars and holy men from all over Islam. In addition to delegates from the Arab nations, there had been some from such diverse places as Togoland, Russia, Indonesia, India, Yugoslavia, China, and Japan. These were the muftis, the professors, the ministers of religion. There had been dozens of speeches, lectures, scholarly papers, forums, and resolutions. All dealt with the ‘Five Great Themes’:
1. The Jews are the enemies of God and humanity.
2. Jews have been evil throughout history. Their Bible is filled with scandals and debauchery that reveal the true nature of their religion. It is a counterfeit work falsifying God’s message.
3. Jews are scum and do not constitute a legitimate nation.
4. The State of Israel must be destroyed, for it is the culmination of the historical and cultural depravity of the Jews. Their state is a total