Today: Anniversary Of Murder Of Robert Kennedy By Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan

Hat tip to Boker Tov, Boulder, who wrote Bobby said Shalom... but Sirhan Sirhan was palestinian back in 2008.

She quotes from Mel Ayton, the author of The Forgotten Terrorist: Sirhan Sirahn and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, who in an article in Crime Magazine (Why Sirhan Sirhan Assassinated Robert Kennedy) he summarized some of his main points:

.... From the time he was a child Sirhan had been indoctrinated in ideologies that are at the center of his murderous act. Sirhan's hatred had its roots in the milieu in which he was raised and the education he received. Later, as a young adult, Sirhan sought meaning to his increasingly hopeless life by embracing anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and Palestinian nationalism.
As a child Sirhan had been taught by Arab teachers who instilled in him the principles of the Palestinian cause. They promoted the cause of Palestinian nationalism and made constant references to the great Arab warrior, Saladin, who had expelled the foreign crusaders from Jerusalem. Teachers would attempt to inspire their young students to fight for Palestinian rights.

During Sirhan's trial his mother related how the intense feelings of the Palestinians remained with the family even though they had been far removed from the conflict when they immigrated to America. She told of how her family had lived in Jerusalem for "thousands of years" and she spoke of the bitterness and hatred of the Israelis who had "taken their land." Mary Sirhan believed her son had killed Robert Kennedy because of his Arab nationalism. She said, "What he did, he did for his country."


.... In Sirhan's case, his parents taught him the Jews were "evil" and "stole their home." Sirhan's father, Bishara, regretted Kennedy's death but his hatred and contempt shone through in a statement he made to reporters in the days following his son's arrest. Bishara, himself a victim of Palestinian propaganda, said, "I can say that I do not regret his death as Kennedy the American politician who attempted to gain the presidential election by his aggressive propaganda against the Arab people of Palestine...Kennedy was promising the Zionists to supply them with arms and aircraft…and thus provoked the sensitive feelings of Sirhan who had suffered so much from the Jews…It is not fair to accuse my son without a full examination of Zionist atrocities against the Arabs – those atrocities which received the support and blessings of Robert Kennedy."

Arab leaders compiled a curriculum of hatred for use by their children and the anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish teachings became a basic element in the study of history in the schools. Arab children were taught that Jews were the ultimate embodiment of evil and should be "destroyed." Although Sirhan's school was nominally Christian, teachers were mainly drawn from the Arab community, which was predominantly Muslim, with some input from foreign missionary workers. Christian Arabic children used Jordanian textbooks. From 1948 to 1967, Christian Schools in East Jerusalem were required to teach the Koran. Following his arrest for the murder of Robert Kennedy, Sirhan told of how he had been influenced by one particular teacher in his school, "Mr Suheil," who angrily denounced present-day Arabs and compared them to the Arab warrior Saladin. Suheil tried to indoctrinate his pupils in Arab nationalism and urged them to be like Saladin and fight for the Arab cause.

Read the rest of Boker Tov, Boulder's post.

Little has changed in terms of indoctrination of children--including by "moderate" Abbas who has been honoring terrorists and inciting hatred towards for years.

Technorati Tag: Sirhan Sirhan and Palestinian.