Hamas Summer Camps Incite — Media Snoozes
Who cares if 50,000 young Gazans spend their summer getting paramilitary training and a large dose of radical politics? Not the New York Times! Or most any other news outlet.
AFP (Agence France Presse) was unique in covering the story. But reporter Adel Zaanoun should have dug a little deeper, instead of repeating the benign claims of the organizers. Zaanoun reported:
“These camps have no military or political dimension; they are held outdoors, with sports, cultural, educational, social and recreational activities,” said Saleh Hamdan, a member of the central committee for summer camps.
As the Terrorism and Information Center documents, the “recreational activities” definitely do have a military dimension! The report notes:
[A]s in previous years, in addition to the diverse social activities (soccer, swimming, entertainment), the summer camps also included three major themes reflecting Hamas’ agenda: paramilitary training, dissemination of Hamas’ political messages, and religious indoctrination in the spirit of radical Islam.
Hamas’ political messages include such statements as:
“The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,’ except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.” (Hamas Charter, Article Seven)
If Hamas’ ongoing indoctrination were on the front pages of a few newspapers or on CNN Hamas might have a harder time educating new generations of Israel-haters! But first there needs to be a new generation of journalists — that understands filling young minds with hate is an obstacle to peace — and worth reporting.
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