What kind of society consciously and purposely sacrifices its own youth for political gain and tactical advantage? Suicide bombers are an escalation of a small-arms war introduced and championed by Palestinian Arab leaders, even prior to Arafat's arrival from Tunis to Gaza in July 1994.

Today the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Arabs nurture a blind hatred of Israel. They created a cultural milieu of vengeance, violence and death — preparing their children to be sacrifices in a death cult. Proud parents dress up their toddlers not in clown costumes, but with suicide belts,[1] and countless others celebrate their children's deaths with traditional sweet ho liday cakes and candies.

Palestinian Arabs are killing their children because they make effective delivery systems for killing Israelis. They also sacrifice them because wounded or dead children paint Israelis as heartless and cruel in the eyes of the world and the Israelis themselves.

Children as human shields

This so-called success encouraged Palestinians to enlarge the role of their children by using them as human shields, direct combatants and suicide bombers — glorifying, rather than mourning their deaths.

The death of Arab children on the front lines — extolled as shahids or martyrs — has become a cynical weapon in the arsenal of Arab leaders. They have learned that when their children are killed, they gain world sympathy, especially in Europe and North America — where the death of any child is viewed as a tragedy and portrayed as such in the media, regardless of circumstance.

While Palestinian leaders exhort the public into volunteering their children for suicide missions, they make sure their own children are not among the volunteers.

International law prohibits using children to fight. Article 38 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted in 1989) condemns the recruitment and involvement of children in hostilities and armed conflicts. In 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted a treaty that raised the age limit for compulsory recruitment and participation in combat to age 18. Article 36 of the same UN document calls on states to protect children against any kind of exploitation.[2]

Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu condemned terrorist groups' use of children as human shields, gunmen and suicide bombers. At a UN Security Council debate on January 14, 2003 devoted to measures to protect children in armed conflict, he said:

"We have witnessed child victims at both ends of these acts: [Palestinian] children have been used as suicide bombers and [Israeli] children have been killed by suicide bombings. Nothing can justify this. I call on the Palestinian authorities to do everything within their powers to stop all participation by children in this conflict."[3]

A Washington Post editorial headlined "Death Wish,"[4] following a conference in which 57 Islamic nations rejected the idea that Palestinian 'resistance' to Israel had anything to do with terrorism, said:

"In effect, the Islamic conference sanctioned not only terrorism but also suicide as a legitimate political instrument. ... It is hard to imagine any other grouping in the world's nations that could reach such a self-destructive and morally repugnant conclusion."

The Post castigated Muslim states and suggested their behavior was liable to be the seeds to their own destruction. It concluded:

"The Palestinian national cause will never recover — nor should it — until its leadership is willing to break definitely with the bombers."

A criminal Palestinian Arab leadership, along with cowardly and intimidated Palestinian parents on the West Bank and Gaza, exploit their children to engage in armed conflict — in opposition to values held by the rest of the civilized world and in flagrant violation of international law and common decency.

This picture was posted by American al Qaeda fan, and fellow traveler with Omar Bakri Mohammed's minions, Samir Khan (aka, Inshallahshaheed) of Charlotte, North Carolina. Samir captions it: "This is a picture of a Palestinian mother stepping on the corpse of her son who betrayed the Muslims by helping the Israelis." (Jawa Report, January 17, 2008).

There is no excuse — nor any widespread precedent among the wretched of the earth — for sacrificing the youth of any society for political gain and tactical advantage. If this is to stop, the culpability must be put squarely on the shoulders of Palestinian society and others who legitimize, support and 'understand' such child sacrifice.

FOOTNOTES

[1] "Baby Bomber Photo 'Just Fun,'" BBC, June 29, 2002, at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2075072.stm.

[2] Justus Weiner, "The Recruitment of Children in Current Palestinian Strategy," Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, October 1, 2002.

[3] See "UN urges Palestinian leaders to stop child suicide bombings," Agence France-Presse, January 14, 2002.

[4] "Death Wish," Washington Post, April 4, 2002, at: www.mefacts.com/cached.asp?x_id=11482.
 

Eli E. Hertz is president of Myths and Facts, Inc. The organization's objective is to provide policymakers, national leadership, the media and the public-at-large with information and viewpoints that are founded on factual and reliable content. Contact him at today@mythsandfacts.org and visit the website at http://www.mythsandfacts.com

This essay was submitted January 19, 2009.

Additional Information from several sources

(1) "Teaching Tots Terror: Hamas Tv Promotes Culture Of Death For Palestinian Children"
February 3rd 2009
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/02/03/2009-02-03_teaching_tots_terror_hamas_tv_promotes_c.html

Palestinian youngsters have a new martyr to emulate when they grow older and join the battle to exterminate Israel. Once more, Hamas' TV channel has perverted children's programming by sending a cuddly character to death as a recruiting tool for jihad.

There is no mistaking the Al Aqsa TV show "Tomorrow's Pioneers" for "Sesame Street." Its death rate is stomach-turning. Farfur, the mouse, was beaten to death by an Israeli policeman. Nahul, the bee, died when an Israeli blockade prevented him from getting to the hospital. And now Assud, the bunny, who once vowed to "finish off the Jews and eat them," has died in the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

His deathbed scene was captured by the Middle East Media Research Institute at www.memritv.org. Assud tells his friend Saraa:

"The Zionist enemy is treacherous, and it kills everything, but I never thought it would kill the children of Palestine and that it would bomb the Al Aqsa TV station.

"I went to Al Aqsa TV when they said it would be bombed. I collected the gifts, books, magazines and stories, which belong to the children of Palestine.

"Tell them that Assud died a martyr's death, Saraa. We should teach our children that we have a land to which we must return: Jaffa, Acre, Haifa and Tel Aviv. We will return to all these cities, Allah willing."

After Assud dies, Saraa wails: "Don't die, Assud. Victory is near. The soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow will grow up. O, Palestine, we will liberate your soil, Allah willing. We will liberate it from the filth of the Zionists. We will purify it with the soldiers of the Pioneers of Tomorrow."

What hope can there be as long as Hamas steeps the most innocent of the Palestinians in a culture of death?Teaching tots terror: Hamas TV promotes culture of death for Palestinian children
 

(2) "Palestinian Terrorists: Poisoning the Minds of Their Own Children with Violence and Hatred [Image Gallery]"
By Andrew L. Jaffee
January 31, 2009
http://netwmd.com/blog/2009/01/31/3222

"For years, it has been well-known that Palestinian terrorists, including Fatah, Hamas, and Hezbollah, have indoctrinated their children with poisonous hatred of Israel and the rest of the civilized, Western world. This is not conjecture, but well-documented history, known as fact to people like our new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

"When Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, did Hamas start building schools, universities, a free-market economic system, or any other part of a normal civilized society? No. Hamas' top agenda was to go on a brutal rampage directed against its own people, the members of Fatah. Their next "priority" was to start shooting missiles at Israel. This is not the mark of a civilized society, but of brutal thugs (e.g., gangs) fighting a petty turf war. Yet many people in the "world community" ignore Palestinian society's extreme dysfunctional nature."
 

(3) Videos:

Video: "Kids Learning To Be Killers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTGbP55HGi8
Jack commented: with your favorite 'news' services why they do not report this stuff. It has been going on for 16 years now, in all the grade schools and summer camps in the Palestinian Authority, not just those of Hamas. The 'moderate' Fatah has exactly the same 'educational' program."

Video: "Children Training For Military"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvnlzsyQSlI

_________________________End of Story___________________________

HOME

January-February 2009 Featured Stories

Background Information

News On The Web