There’s a systematic celebration of terrorism within Palestinian culture that many Western government officials and diplomats like to ignore.

Whether it’s the Palestinian Authority (PA) paying monthly salaries to individuals convicted of terror charges in Israeli prisons or Palestinian organizations putting on kid’s plays that have young Palestinian children simulate attacks against Israeli military personnel and civilians, Palestinian terrorism continues to be incentivized. A recent birthday cake made for a Palestinian ‘martyr’ epitomizes this culture of death. Ynetnews reports on the event and the Palestinian media’s disturbing coverage of it:

Palestinian news sites published on Wednesday photos of a “birthday cake” made for Muhammad Ali, who attacked two Israel Police officers at Nablus Gate in Jerusalem in October and was killed in the incident. He was 19 at the time. Printed on the cake is a photograph is a picture of his attack from security footage in which he is stabbing a policeman.

Beside the picture, frosting writes out “the knives commando,” which is a nickname that Ali gained posthumously. Wednesday would have been his 20th birthday. Palestinian news sites wrote that Ali’s family prepared the cake and that they appear in pictures alongside it.

One site wrote in a caption, “Today is the 20th birthday of the Jerusalemite martyr Muhammad Ali, who carried out a stabbing operation against occupation soldiers near Nablus Gate in occupied Jerusalem.”

Ali, then a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, on October 10, 2015, sat near two police officers while concealing a knife in his clothes. They approached him and asked him to present his identity card, and he pulled out his knife and stabbed a policeman in the neck. Ali was shot and killed within a matter of seconds by another policeman.

So, where does this glorification of ‘martrydom’ within Palestinian society come from? One common source is Islamic texts. Some examples include:

So let those fight in the cause of Allah who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter. And he who fights in the cause of Allah and is killed or achieves victory – We will bestow upon him a great reward. –Quran 4:74

Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed… –Quran 9:111

The Prophet said, “…I would love to be martyred in Al1ah’s [sic] Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred…” –Bukhari 52:54

The twisted ideology behind these displays needs to be directly addressed by Palestinian leaders before any kind of meaning peace talks can occur. It’s time for Palestinians to take a stand against terrorism and the influences of jihad.