Carte Blanche is South Africa's  equivalent to the CBS News program  ":60 Minutes"  broadcast throughout Southern Africa

This child and thousands like him have long forgotten the meaning of childhood - of toys and freedom to play.

Armed and dangerous, these are Africa's child soldiers. From Sierra Leone to Somalia, from Mozambique to the Democratic Republic of Congo, boys have marched into adult wars.

In Sarajevo, Bosnian children played war games in the bombed out ruins of what once were homes.

And in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian youth face Israeli bullets and tanks with stones and Molotov cocktails.

Israeli soldier: “They don't like us much. They throw stones and things like that. They don't like us much.'

Palestinian youth: “I throw stones because I want the soldiers to leave.”

Israeli soldier: “Not all of them take part in the violence. They just want to work, to study, to grow like every young man. In a lot of ways, they cannot do it.'

The question is: Do Palestinian children turn to violence because they're surrounded by conflict, or because their leaders incite them?

President Yasser Arafat (on Palestinian Authority TV, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch): “As I’ve always said: the new generals are our boys, our cubs, our flowers (our girls), in the Intifada; I called them our new generals.”

It's a message that Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has often reiterated.

TV Presenter: “Mr President, what message would you like to send to the Palestinian people in general and especially to the Palestinian children?”

Pres. Yasser Arafat (on Palestinian Authority TV, January 2002): “The child who is grasping the stone, facing the tank … is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a Shahid (dies for Allah)? We are proud of them.”

To be a martyr, to die for Palestine - this is the hope of many Palestinian children. And on this widely televised kiddies' programme, children encourage children to go into battle.

[footage Palestinian Authority TV, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch]

Palestinian children: “On my life I foresee my death …”

“… and we shall march as soldiers of Jihad (holy war) …”

“… a machine, violence, anger, anger, anger …”

“When I wonder [sic] into the entrance of Jerusalem, I’ll turn into a suicide warrior, I’ll turn into a suicide warrior, in battledress, in battledress”

TV Host: “Thank you. Well done!”

Incitement to violence allegedly extends into the classroom.

Molly Resnick: 'If you have an education system that fosters hatred, I don't care how many peace agreements you sign, the children are going to grow up and it's not going to work - it's delusory.'

Molly Resnick, a Belgian-born Israeli and former NBC Television producer, now heads up an organisation called Mother's Against Teaching Children to Hate and Kill (M.A.T.C.H.K.).

Molly started campaigning in the period after the 1993 Oslo Accord between Israel and Palestine. It was a time of hope, when people believed that finally lasting peace in the Middle East might be possible.

Molly: 'So adults were making peace and teaching children that - well, first it was 'the Jews are evil' and then it was 'the big Satan is America and the little Satan is Israel' and I was telling the Europeans that unfortunately now they are the 'middle-sized Satan'. And then what? What hope is there for the world?'

Molly travels to Jewish schools around the world to raise awareness about what she believes is the systematic indoctrination of Palestinian children. She also shows students a video that includes shocking footage of children aspiring to martyrdom and carrying AK47s.

Molly hopes to create a worldwide ground swell that will help change a school curriculum that she says encourages Palestinian children to hate and kill. She goes as far as to compare modern day Palestine to Nazi Germany.

Molly: 'They took children and taught them that Jews are vermin. It's very easy to exterminate vermin.”

[old newsreel footage of captured German soldiers]

Narrator: “All these boys have fought in the field and all of them have been brought up in the fanatical belief in their destiny as a master race.”

Molly: “What did Hitler try to do? Exterminate the Jews to make the world 'Judenrein' because the Jew is vermin. So what's the difference? It happened 60 years ago and the world isn't waking up.'

Palestinian Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'Nobody is using the children. Nobody. And they haven’t tried to use Palestinian children.'

Palestinian Ambassador Salman El Herfi flatly denies allegations that the Palestinian Authority incites children to violence.

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'It's a consequence of the occupation. We haven't to blame those kids or their teachers, we have to blame the occupation.'

We showed the ambassador some of the footage that has activists like Molly Resnick up in arms.

Ruda Landman: 'But if a little child stands up and says, 'Martyrdom! Martyrdom!', aren't you inciting hatred through your education system?'

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'Put this kid in a peaceful situation and he won't shout that.'

[footage Palestinian Authority TV, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch]

Pres. Yasser Arafat: “If anyone is growing weary, let him stay at home and send me his children.”

Palestine's ambassador also says clips like that take Yasser Arafat's words out of context.

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'He's praising the bravery of our people, and he's saying, yes, we're looking for the future, we're looking for the next generation to build Palestine; virtually all people are tired; the next generation will build Palestine. This is what he means. This is Israeli propaganda, we know it very well.'

Ruda: 'How would you respond if the Palestinians were to say this is Israeli propaganda?'

Molly: 'Well, what if the Germans had said that the concentration camps is Jewish propaganda. There are facts. Check it out.'

The Centre for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, a New York-based NGO with strong Israeli connections, conducted an extensive study on both Palestinian and Israeli school textbooks. At the time the man in charge was Itamar Marcus.

Itamar: 'Here we have an example from a 7th grade school book. There's this picture here of a dead child here being carried aloft as a heroic Shahid. And one of the texts in this book is 'I see my death, yet I hasten my steps toward it'.'

The study cites 170 excerpts from Palestinian textbooks, for example:

'Build a sentence containing the following words:
dies as a Martyr
to defend
our hero
the homeland'

(Our Arabic Language, Grade 3).

And from another textbook, nine-year-olds read that: 'Treachery and disloyalty are character traits of the Jews', and 'Jews are enemies of the Prophet and the believers' (Islamic Religious Education, Grade 4).

The highly controversial study has received both praise and condemnation.

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'This is Israeli propaganda, of course.'

Ruda: 'Is this not correct? Is there no book in your schools that will have these quotes in it?'

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'We haven't. Since we signed Oslo agreement, all our education system are supervised by United Nations. And I don't think that United Nations or UNESCO going to put such a phrase in that.'

We contacted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is responsible for monitoring the education of Palestinian children in refugee camps. They have largely discredited the study, saying that the textbooks in question were inherited from the Egyptian and Jordanian education system and that they are being replaced by textbooks that are geared towards peace.

In their written response The United Nations agency quotes independent studies that found the following:

'The new Palestinian schoolbooks have far fewer stereotypes towards Jews and Israelis than the Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks previously used,' Professor Ruth Frier, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and
'The books authored under the Palestinian National Authority are largely innocent of the charge that they incite students against Jews and Israel,' Professor Nathan Brown, George Washington University, Washington D.C.

The agency goes on to say that:

UNRWA develops supplementary curriculum materials; and
This is an effective means to bring about greater mutual tolerance and understanding

Still, Itamar Marcus says that even new textbooks ignore the State of Israel.

Itamar: 'In every map in every school book, all of Israel's erased, Israel doesn't exist.'

In the map we showed the ambassador, the purple area, which is the State of Israel, is labelled, 'Arab land conquered before 1967'.

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'This is not an official map.'

Ruda: 'No, of course not, but this is what you are teaching your children.'

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'There is not in our education system a map like this. A school can produce what it likes - a private school. We cannot control everything.'

Which is also what he says about this Palestinian school.

[footage Palestinian Authority TV, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch]

Palestinian child: “The sound of stones is the sound of anger. Little hands are carrying stones to challenge aggression.”

Molly: 'This educational system of using children to kill and hate and to blow themselves up for a cause is totally one-sided.'

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'But if you go to the Israeli education system, it's hatred from A to Z.'

Angela McIntyre: 'On one side it may seem quite basic and exploitive and barbaric, for example inciting children to martyrdom or inciting them to throw stones at soldiers, or whatever. I think on the other side of the picture you also have to understand that education can be used in quite subtle ways to support authority and to support authorities and power bases.'

Angela McIntyre, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, has conducted extensive research on children living in war zones.

Angela: 'There are very sophisticated ways in which education can be used, and it's not always the direct incitement of violence. It can actually be perpetuating a power structure that is oppressive.'

That is precisely what South Africa's Christian National Education system achieved during Apartheid. Its teachings helped keep a regime in power.

[old news footage]

Former South African Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd: “We will not force independence from outside and from above.”

Molly: 'You can take any curriculum, any Jewish school, any one of them, and you will not find a trace of that because there is a desire for peace.'

Angela: 'Children are not only educated in schools - they're educated at home, they're educated through the media, they're educated on the internet. So, we need to really look beyond text books if we want to see the whole picture of how education is perpetuating this conflict.'

Angela is critical of Molly Resnick, her organisation and its methods.

Angela: 'The fact that they seem to be working almost exclusively with American high schools and youth groups opens the possibility that they themselves are using the education system to serve a broader political agenda.'

She also criticises the group for not contextualising shocking pictures of children.

Angela: 'These terrible photographs of babies propped up against M16s are incredibly exploitive in themselves. And the only words to describe them - that come to mind - are political kiddie porn.'

Ruda: 'So, when you see an 11-year old standing up and saying 'I want to be a martyr and die in this cause,' how do you interpret that?'

Angela: 'I interpret that as such an utter lack of alternatives that a society actually has to resort to using its children in such a way.'

[footage Palestinian Authority TV, 2002, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch]

TV Host: “You describe martyrdom as something beautiful. Do you think it is beautiful?”

Palestinian girl: “Martyrdom is a very, very beautiful thing. Everyone yearns for martyrdom. What could be better than going to paradise?”

TV Host: “What is better - peace and full rights for the Palestinian people or martyrdom?”

Palestinian girl: “Martyrdom. I will achieve my rights after becoming a martyr. We won’t stay children forever.”

Earlier this week, the city of Haifa was rocked by the worst terror attack in recent months. A suicide bomber strapped explosives to himself, climbed onto a bus and killed 15 people. Like so many before him, this bomber grew up under occupation. He was a child once.

Lucy Naseibeh: 'The children have the desire only to be killed. They grow up - at the age of 14 and 15, their only ambition is to become martyrs. And this is not got anything to do with brainwashing. No one has brainwashed these children. This is simply a reflection of their despair and their total lack of hope.'

Lucy Naseibeh knows more than most about what Palestinian children learn in the classroom. She heads up a project called Youth Living With Conflict and runs workshops at Palestinian schools.

Lucy: 'One of the things we have been trying to do is to work to give back a sense of hope.'

Yes, there is hopelessness and anger but Lucy doesn't believe hate is formally indoctrinated.

Lucy: 'I've never heard much hatred from Palestinians. It's more expressed in 'we want these people off our backs'.'

Sammer Huisham: “I dislike the settlers and Israeli soldiers but I don’t mind interacting with just normal Jews.”

Sammer Huisham has been jailed three times for throwing stones at soldiers. He is one of thousands of Palestinian youths living under occupation, surrounded by hurt, violence and hatred.

In Sammer's eyes, martyrdom and freedom go hand in hand.

Interviewer: “What do you know about suicide bombers?”

Sammer: “They are trying to liberate Palestine.”

Interviewer: “What do you think about children killing themselves?”

Sammer: “They are good. They are good.”

Lucy: 'They see their friends killed and wounded and that again makes them more likely to be angry.'

In the early hours of Friday morning, Israeli children awoke to the sounds of war.

The Israeli incursion into the Gaza city of Jalaya came without warning.

Flying shrapnel and machine gun fire from Israeli tanks injured over a hundred civilians. Eleven people were killed, one of them a child.

It's not the first time a child has been killed by Israeli bullets. In this war the line between civilians and the military has been erased. Ordinary people, including children, constantly find themselves caught in the crossfire.

[footage: Palestinian Authority TV, courtesy Palestinian Media Watch]

Instructor: “In the suicide squad …”

Children: “In the suicide squad …”

Instructor: “… fear not the armoured car or tank ...”

Children: “… fear not the armoured car or tank …”

Instructor: “… as long as the mine explodes.”

Children: “… as long as the mine explodes.”

This isn't the only time in history where children have gone to the front lines in a bid to free themselves from what they perceive as unjust oppressors.

Apartheid South Africa is a typical example.

During the struggle against apartheid, young black South Africans were recruited to fight in MK-units - teenagers taking up arms in the name of freedom. Many people argue that the situation in Palestine today is very similar.

Thousands of teenagers - heralded as freedom fighters - go to boot camp where they receive para-military training. Here youths learn to be proficient with an AK47. And so too - by the looks of things - do younger children.

Ambassador Salman El Herfi: 'This is the tenth generation born under occupation. And we are very proud of our youth for being in the avant-garde to resist the occupation. So, what we would like is that they withdraw from our territory. And we will throw flowers on them and our kids will sing for them a love song and not this hatred language. We are forced to do that.'

Ruda: 'If we can wave a magic wand and Israel and Palestine are at peace tomorrow, what happens to these young people?'

Angela: 'I think the best we can do is ensure that the children of those children don't inherit this conflict.'

Ruda: 'How do we do that?'

Angela: 'Through education.'

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.