GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Zainab al-Azaar got used to hearing her son Iyad, 5, reciting partisan songs and moving his legs and arms as if he were in a military parade at home, although she has repeatedly told him not to. She noticed he was exhibiting — at such a young age — a leaning toward Hamas, which is affiliated with his kindergarten in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
She told Al-Monitor, “I always heard Iyad repeating songs, and I believed it was OK since we used to listen to these songs on partisan radio and TV stations during the war, with news on Al-Aqsa TV or Al-Kofiya TV. Yet what caught my attention is that my son had a fight with his cousin because the latter sang [Popular] Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s songs.”
She added, “At that moment, I felt that my son was being oriented toward a particular ideology, and I decided to go to the kindergarten that he attends," which promotes itself as a school focused on teaching children how to recite the Quran. "I was surprised to see the kids there performing dance steps to the lyrics of partisan songs. When I asked why, I was told that the kids would be performing in a show that was being prepared.”
Azaar spoke to members of the kindergarten’s administration and criticized them for teaching the children partisan slogans and songs. She said the director told her that the curriculum was part of the kindergarten’s general policy, that there was no law banning it and that if she did not like it, she would just have to move her child to another kindergarten — which is what she ended up doing.
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