Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, head of the Israel
National Council for the Child, has been searching for his Palestinian
counterpart for months, to no avail.
Kadman, like most of us, is horrified by the
growing trend of child terrorists. He has reached out to Palestinian
Authority officials, used all his contacts to reach out and convey a
simple message: "War is not a game and children are not toys."
But he soon learned that he has no Palestinian counterpart.
Kadman's interest in the current violence has
been triggered by the fact that time after time it turned out that the
perpetrators were children, blinded by hatred and incitement.
Palestinian children, it seems, no longer believe the "norm" of throwing
rocks and firebombs at Israel security forces is enough, and have
graduated to full-fledged terrorism, taking an active part in the wave
of stabbing attacks.
Some of them, in their early teens, have been
shot dead by Israeli troops. The media usually conceals the identities
of the soldiers or police who neutralize these young assailants, over
concerns for their safety.
In one case, an unidentified soldier allowed
the media a glimpse into the experience of having to kill a teen
terrorist. The incident took place at the A'zaim checkpoint, east of
Jerusalem, several weeks ago, when a 16-year-old Palestinian brandishing
a large butcher's knife stormed the post. He refused to stop or back
away, leaving the soldier no choice but to shoot him dead.
"Everyone praised me for my vigilance and
professionalism. At that moment I felt good about myself, like a hero …
but when I got back to the base, I lay down on my bunk and just started
crying," the soldier said. "I felt terrible. … Yes, he was a terrorist,
and yes, he tried to hurt us, but he was a 16-year-old kid. I couldn't
sleep. I couldn't stop crying. My actions were just, but I still feel
guilty. I took a life. I killed a kid, who just happened to decide to
become a terrorist."
While the soldier's feelings are
understandable, the Palestinian, like many of his friends, did not set
out to be a terrorist by chance. When official or semi-official
Palestinian Facebook pages post pictures of Palestinian babies and
children holding knives between their teeth, when young children wear
mock RPG launchers and explosive belts as part of a Fatah procession in
Bethlehem, or when parents name their baby girl "Knife of Jerusalem,"
there is little wonder children decide to become terrorists.
According to the Israel-based nongovernmental
organization Palestinian Media Watch, the "Intifada Youth Coalition of
Jerusalem" recently uploaded a video to its Facebook page depicting an
adult asking a little girl if she had anything to say to young
Palestinians in the West Bank. Demonstrating the motion, the girl
replies, "Stab them, stab, stab." Another video, posted by a Palestinian
singer and actor, shows him declaring, "I stab Zionists. ... I exact
revenge because I'm a Muslim Palestinian."
Many of the children's shows that air on an
endless loop on Palestinian television convey specific messages to their
young audience both covertly and overtly, preaching the right of return
to all of Israel and lauding "shahids" ("martyrs").
It is particularly difficult to watch
televised classes in which stern Palestinian teachers instill murderous
theories in their young students' minds. One of them shows a Palestinian
teacher in Nablus telling her students that the Palestinians "have
sacrificed prisoners and shahids," then asking, "Who has a shahid in his
family?" When several children raise their hands, she asks, "Why did
they sacrifice their lives?" and quickly answers, "To free Al-Aqsa
mosque. To free Haifa. For an Arab Palestine from the river to the sea!"
She repeats the last sentence over and over, and the children echo her
obediently.
Pragmatic morals
Still, there seems to be something new in the
internal Palestinian discourse, cracks in the endless incitement and
hatred toward Israel. Alongside the continued encouragement of children
and youth to pursue a path of terrorism, martyrdom and jihad,
Palestinian intellectuals and journalists are -- for the first time --
leveling harsh criticism against terrorist attacks in general, and
particularly against the child-terrorist trend.
The first to indicate this change were the
researchers at the Middle East Media Research Institute, who say this
criticism is driven by "pragmatic morals." Some critics believe the
timing is wrong, others fear Palestinian terrorism will become
synonymous with Islamic State-led global terrorism, while others still
say the Palestinians must "remain humane" and refrain from "trading in
the blood of children."
The most outspoken critic to date is Hafez
al-Barghouti, formerly editor in chief of the Palestinian daily of
Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda and a member of Fatah's Revolutionary Council.
Contrary to Fatah's position, which encourages children to participate
in acts of terror, Barghouti says that "even the Prophet Muhammad
forbade including children in battle," and demands that the Palestinian
leadership "keep children away from riots and flashpoints. Let them have
their childhood. As difficult as it may be, it is better than having no
childhood, being injured, imprisoned or a shahid."
Barghouti implores his fellow Fatah members
and the Palestinian media to "stop lauding children who carry out
stabbing attacks. Don't take pride in their actions. Blood is not a
game. Anyone who praises a boy for brandishing a knife or a girl for
wielding scissors should look at them as if they were his own children.
Would he throw his own son into this furnace?"
Journalist Mohammed Daraghmeh, who writes for
the Ramallah-based daily Al Ayyam, urges parents and their children "not
to follow the path of death. Palestine needs you alive. You are free to
get angry, to revolt. Take to the streets; go to the checkpoint. You
can block roads, yell and scream and make a deaf world hear your voice.
If it does not hear you today, it will hear you tomorrow. But do not
seek death. We cannot have Palestinian youth rushing to their deaths
this way."
Daraghmeh recalls that when the Second
Intifada, known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, ended, "No one had the courage
to say in due time what was said after its painful end, for fear of the
consequences, but now … we must confront ourselves bravely and say
things as they are. ... Indeed, those who carry a knife and attack
soldiers are suicide [militants]. … Every day several young Palestinians
are killed and we remain silent and even praise their deaths. We have
to stand as one and say, no more. "
Political scientist and columnist Jihad Harb
presents an even more pragmatic approach. He believes the cycle of
stabbing attacks has "exhausted itself" and they have "given Israel an
excuse to kill our youth at the checkpoints." Harb stresses he does not
call for a "tahadiya" -- a temporary calm -- but rather for "rethinking
our options and develop means for popular resistance."
Fellow columnist Mahmoud Fanon slams late
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's famous slogan, "A million shahids are
marching to Jerusalem," writing, "Why 'shahids'? Why shouldn't we set
out to win, to take [Jerusalem] back, and then we will arrive safe and
sound, even if some are killed. This culture does not affect the enemy.
On the contrary -- it welcomes it. … We march to our deaths, and we will
die while the enemy continues to conquer the land. We may achieve
shahada [martyrdom], but the enemy gets the land."
'Trading in children's blood'
The criticism does not spare heads of the
Palestinian terrorist groups, who keep their children safe while
encouraging the children of others to carry out terrorist attacks.
Addressing this issue, Barghouti wrote, "Some
of the organizations and tribes … actively trade in others' blood,
presenting themselves as the patrons of our blood, while not a drop of
their own blood is spilled."
MEMRI researchers found this type of criticism more prevalent than we might think.
Palestinian journalist Amid Dwaikat, of the
Nablus-based Tariq Al-Mahabe Radio, demands, "Let those who encourage
children to reach this state show themselves. Let them show us their own
children. Do not call for continued [attacks] while you sit [safely] in
your offices. … Children are not robots for you to turn on and off with
the push of a button. These children's blood is on your conscience."
Journalist Ihab Al-Jariri of Radio 24 FM
offered harsher criticism, saying, "Those who post theories on Facebook,
from behind a computer screen, supporting the notion of children
carrying out stabbing attacks and encouraging them to do so, should
first do it themselves, and only then ask the little ones to follow in
their footsteps."
Emad Al-Asfar, of the Media Development Center
at Birzeit University, near Ramallah, lays the blame for the
child-terrorist trend not only on those who encourage children to carry
out stabbing attacks, but also on those who offer their tacit consent.
"Those of you who do not speak out against
this death, especially the media personalities and intellectuals, are
even worse," he said.
The internal Palestinian criticism does not
shy away from dealing with the role played by the Palestinian
educational system in recent events.
"Death is not the goal in and of itself; do
not praise it so we will not die in vain. It is our duty to educate the
younger generation and instill within it the love of life, of education,
of being earnest and studious," Barghouti wrote.
Al-Ayyam columnist Muhammad Abd al-Hamid urged
the Palestinian people to "question social and cultural norms, the
political and media discourse, and everything else that might encourage
children to carry out acts of violence that contradict the natural
development of childhood." He called for adopting "a national policy
that encourages children to participate in nonviolent protests … far
from clashes and violence."
Blogger Muhammad Abu Allan, who writes about
Israeli media, called on Palestinian Education Minister Sabri Saidam "to
send a message to schoolchildren that they have a long path to complete
in school before facing a certain death. ... Resisting the occupation
does not necessarily mean dying in vain."
Another viewpoint criticizes Palestinian
attacks against Israeli civilians, although this is mostly marginalized.
This moral-tactical position warns against the risk that the world will
come to see Palestinian terrorism as cut from Islamic State's cloth.
Al-Ayyam journalist Hamada Fara'na wrote that
he hopes some prominent Palestinian intellectuals will be courageous
enough to denounce Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians,
"just like Haaretz journalist Ari Shavit," who denounced Jewish
terrorism against Palestinians.
"The Palestinian struggle against Israel's
Jewish-Zionist imperialist enterprise is legitimate. … However, the
Palestinian struggle must be free of any suspicion of terrorism and it
must not target Israel's Jewish civilians. It must be … the complete
opposite of the Islamic terrorism of al-Qaida and Islamic State. … We
must understand the importance of the moral dimension of the Palestinian
people's struggle, so that the world feels solidarity and identifies
with the Palestinian cause. We must be brave and condemn acts of terror,
regardless of whether they are carried out by Palestinians or Arabs,
Muslims or Christians," Fara'na wrote.
This criticism may be unusual, but it reflects
a different Palestinian voice. Last week, when yet another youth from
the Palestinian town of Sair, near Hebron, was killed by Israeli
security forces, town elders decided things had gone far enough, that
they could no longer allow the situation to continue, and that the
attacks, prompted by Fatah's incitement, are futile.
Town elders met with Hebron governor Kamal
Hamid and asked him to use his influence to put a stop to the incitement
and attacks that are killing their youth. Sair, they said, has already
made its "blood contribution" to the Palestinian struggle -- five of its
residents had carried out terrorist attacks over the past few months,
and several of them were killed. Hamid listened but did not say much,
promising only to convey the sentiment to senior Palestinian officials.
While
the chances that this is the beginning of a new conversation within
Palestinian society that might change the terrorism curve are slim, one
must remember that grass-roots revolutions can inspire great change. In
the meantime, however, fiery texts laced with hatred, incitement and
religious extremism continue to make their way to Palestinian children.
Now let’s take this position to its logical conclusion, which if applied across the board in the intelligence community or the military, anybody handling a sensitive document could determine on their own whether the document should be classified or not. “Oh sure” an Air Force officer might say “I posted a schematic of a new radar for the F-35 on my personal blog, but I hear the Chinese already have it anyway, so it’s really not classified. Please take off the handcuffs.” 
