Hamas Summer Camp

 

Rabbi Shea Hecht


 

Imagine if an ad for summer camp read, “Give your children a summer of enjoyment! Let them learn a skill! Teach them to kill.” It would be shocking, wouldn’t it? The ad is imaginary, but just as other specialty camps teach children various skills; according to a recent “San Francisco Chronicle” article there is a camp that teaches children to kill.

 

Why do parents send their children away to summer camp? Mostly because of the things they’ll gain from their stay in camp - particularly in a specialty camp. The camping experience teaches children how to get along, how to follow rules, how to work problems out with their peers, and how to clean up after themselves, among other things. Being away from home and on their own, helps children mature.

 

Summer camp has a particular beauty. Since no one has their parents with them children get to deal with each other on an equal keel. The poor and rich are equalized. Everyone has the same bed, same cubbies, and same food, and everyone goes home to the same “house” every night. Most children find it to be an amazing experience, which they look forward to all throughout the school year.

 

The “San Francisco Chronicle” article told about summer camps created by Hamas terrorists for the poor children of the Gaza, to indoctrinate the children to be suicide bombers.

 

The children attending Hamas summer camps learn all the skills that other children learn in camp plus more. They also learn songs, including an intifada song urging them to “kill the Zionists wherever they are in the name of G-d.” At one beach camp, attended by approximately 100 children, an instructor had a webbed belt strapped to his stomach, under his shirt. When asked by a reporter what it was, he smiled and said, “Boom.”

 

According to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s spokesman, Ra’anan Gissin, “Hamas takes advantage of the dire economic straits of the Gaza families by offering to care and feed for their children while concealing the organization’s true motives. The indoctrination in these summer camps is comparable to Hitler’s youth groups.” Though I don’t doubt that the parents are poor, it’s hard for me to imagine that they are unaware of the camp’s mission when they send their children there. 

 

It’s difficult for me view these camps as harmless in the face of comments from Hamas officials such as Gaza leader Mahmoud al-Zahar who said that in spite of the shaky truce with Israel right now, they will continue to attack Jewish settlements in the West Bank until the Jews leave. He also said he remains devoted to the destruction of the State of Israel altogether. Raising these children to be future suicide bombers fits Hamas’ view of the future.  

 

Actually, the Hamas-sponsored summer camps are a double-edged sword. These children deserve the chance to enjoy the camaraderie of a summer experience while exploring their talents and abilities. Hamas, by providing what would otherwise be a luxury for these kids, is getting away with feeding them poison that will unavoidably bring further sickness to the region. When the children are finished with all their years in camp, they are full-fledged members of Hamas, ready to sacrifice themselves as suicide bombers.  Palestinian children as young as 11 have tried killing Israelis. It makes me wonder: What summer camp did they go to?

 

There are so many different summer camps all around the world many of them with their own specialty: swimming, dancing, arts, horseback riding, or even religion. Yet no summer camp does what the Hamas camps do - take an impressionable child and mold him into a murderer.