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Beyond disarming Hamas, Trump’s Board of Peace must deradicalize Gaza as well

President Donald Trump convened his Board of Peace on Thursday, announcing new commitments to fund Gaza’s reconstruction and provide troops for a Gaza stabilization force. But so far, everyone’s avoided an essential question: How will future generations of Palestinian children be raised and educated — and will they again be indoctrinated with radical hatred of Jews and Israel?

If so, then the president’s vision of Gaza as a “deradicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors” will remain a pipe dream.

Many of the Hamas terrorists who stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — murdering families, raping women, burning homes, kidnapping civilians — were raised on a steady diet of hatred.

As children, they watched a Hamas-produced TV show hosted by a Mickey Mouse knockoff named Farfour, who preached jihad and urged the killing of Jews.

Broadcast on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV from 2007 to 2009, “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” resembled a grotesque parody of “Sesame Street.”

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Surrounded by smiling children, Farfour vowed to “liberate Jerusalem from the criminal Zionists,” repeatedly exhorting: “Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Another character, a talking bee named Nahoul, echoed the same genocidal themes, ranting about “the filth of the criminal Jews.”

In one infamous episode, children sang hymns to martyrdom while hurling darts at a Star of David.

These are only two examples. The broader Palestinian education system has long been suffused with similar incitement.

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That reality helps explain not only the barbarism of Oct. 7, but also why hundreds of Gaza civilians joined the rampage and many more celebrated in the streets.

The most urgent question now is not reconstruction or security arrangements. It’s whether the machinery of radicalization that produced Hamas will finally be dismantled.

If it is not, a return to war is inevitable.

That requires uprooting the Islamist ideology that glorifies death, demonizes Jews and sanctifies terror — much as the Allies purged Nazism from Germany after World War II.

Without such a process, no political framework, peacekeeping force or aid package can deliver lasting stability.

Yet no serious deradicalization plan has emerged. Backed by Qatar and Turkey, Hamas is maneuvering to preserve its power, refusing to disarm while seeking to integrate its fighters into future security forces.

As long as Hamas remains embedded in Gaza’s institutions, Palestinian children will continue to be indoctrinated to hate and kill Jews — in schools, on screens and at home.

The problem extends beyond Hamas. Even the Palestinian Authority’s revised Gaza curriculum remains steeped in antisemitic conspiracy theories and incitement.

Textbooks portray Jews as global manipulators, deny Jewish history and reject Israel’s legitimacy.

If Trump wants peace in Gaza to endure, he must act on the most critical element of his own vision.

He should establish a Deradicalization Commission through the Board of Peace, charged with dismantling the entire infrastructure of hate.

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Its mandate should include scrubbing school materials and children’s programming of antisemitic incitement, ending the glorification of jihad, eliminating content that advocates Israel’s destruction and replacing ideological dogma with education that encourages critical thinking.

This is not about erasing Palestinian identity. It is about teaching the next generation to resolve disputes through politics and compromise.

Much of Gaza’s educational infrastructure is administered by the United Nations through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has long been complicit in radicalization.

The IDF has discovered that numerous UNRWA employees were also Hamas members, including some who committed acts of terror. This agency must be dismantled.

Regional partners can help. The United Arab Emirates has demonstrated real expertise in countering Islamist radicalization — reforming curricula, regulating religious discourse, dismantling extremist networks and promoting tolerance.

By contrast, Qatar and Turkey actively undermine deradicalization. Both provide political cover, financial support and media platforms for Hamas while fueling antisemitic propaganda that legitimizes terror.

As long as Doha and Ankara shield Hamas, they remain part of the problem.

Defeating Hamas militarily is necessary but insufficient. Even after it is dismantled, the ideas that fueled it will persist unless confronted directly.

The surge of antisemitism across Western democracies over the past two decades shows how resilient and contagious this hatred can be.

A Deradicalization Commission would ensure that peace in Gaza is not merely the absence of war, but the foundation for a different future — one in which children grow up learning to build rather than destroy.

Without it, Gaza will remain what Hamas made it: a factory of terror, endlessly recycling tragedy and atrocity.

Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Ben Cohen is a research fellow. 

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