Hamas for kids
Who's afraid of the 'occupying wolf'?
Hamas website for kids tells of 15-year old martyr, slams peace with Israel, promotes armed warfare
Hamas has found a way to market itself to children, over the internet. Its website made especially for kids, 'Al-Fatah', includes personal tales of martyrdom, lists of Hamas heroes and leaders, and plenty of anti-Israel sentiment.
The website was launched in September 2002 in Lebanon, but for the past three years has boasted a London base. It is renewed twice a month, in editions, each of which is accompanied by an editors' note written by someone who calls himself Sami Alhalabi.
The site numbers its readers at about 63 million, and is adapted to suit a younger audience with animation, cartoon characters, and links to sites called 'Uncle Izz a-Din's stories', 'My grandma', and 'My dear girl of the future'.
By clicking on a link called 'Story of a shahid', children can read about 'martyrs' chosen by the editor. Recently the story chosen was that of Amar, who joined Hamas at age 15 and died while still in high school, during the IDF offensive in Gaza earlier this year.
The editors' attitude towards peace with Israel is made evident by an 'educational simulation' in which a young girl writes to her uncle, a prisoner in Israel, about an Israeli education official who came to her school to speak about peace.
The letter, which appears in 'Uncle Izz a-Din's stories', sparks an online debate. "The anger crept up Izz a-Din's face and he said, 'Did you keep quiet after this?'" the site says.
The girl answers, "I told him: Do you expect peace between a wolf and a lamb? The wolf wants to prey on the poor, weak lamb because it drank from a stream of water. Peace, dear sir, with the occupying wolf who took everything from us, tramples our Jerusalem, confiscates our country, ruins our houses, and imprisons our youths… Our warriors will run them down and kill them… The students clapped their hands and whispered, 'The occupation will fall, no peace with the enemy'."
While shunning peace the site promotes the continuation of an armed battle, including the capture of soldiers and sacrificing of life, as in Amar's case. "You are the brave martyr, and we will continue on your path and the paths of those who preceded you," the site says, "until our dear Palestine is cleansed of hostile and robbing Jewish filth."
The only exception to the violent tirade is a letter from a 13-year old Nablus girl, who calls for an end to violence in dealing with the 'other' and condemns the killing of Israeli children as she does the killing of Palestinian kids.
"My only wish is to call out truly in the name of the Palestinian children to the leaders of Israel in order to ask them to see us and their children from the perspective of future children, and let us live together," the girl writes.
However the editors have so far refrained from adopting the 13-year-old's rhetoric and continue to launch twice-monthly tirades against Jews and Israelis, which become all the more vehement in times of political conflict. The site appears to be Hamas' way of making its presence felt among Palestinian kids, as schools teach only programs approved by the Palestinian Authority.
