Hamas Trains 13,000 Teens to Emulate ‘Suicide Martyrs’
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by Steven Emerson
A Hamas rally. Photo: Wiki Commons.
Hamas has historically engaged in concerted efforts to brainwash its youth to wage violent jihad. Roughly 13,000 high school students recently participated in a week-long training camp geared to enable the teenagers “to follow in the footsteps of the suicide martyrs.”
This is more than twice the enrollment from last year’s camp, the Times of Israel reports. The “Pioneers of Liberation” camp included weapons training, marching exercises, and “security awareness” classes concerning the identification of Israeli spies.
While addressing the graduation ceremony, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh warned Israel that “this is a generation which knows no fear. It is the generation of the missile, the tunnel, and the suicide operations.” Hamas’ interior minister said that the training was in preparation for the next war with Israel.
Hamas is engaging in a widespread campaign to raise the next generation of youth to embrace hatred and terrorism as legitimate modus operandi. Instead of devoting time and resources to developing their society, Hamas is teaching its youth to kill.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has its own camp with a similar emphasis on glorifying terrorist attacks.
Hamas has a long track record of similar propaganda endeavors. Previous training and education programs have been devoted to similar brainwashing. Through textbooks and the media, Hamas constantly indoctrinates Palestinian youth – sometimes as young as toddlers – and glorifies violent jihad.
Human rights groups and media outlets pay little attention to this indoctrination.
