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Fun at Camp

What summer camp with Hamas looks like

by
Adam Chandler
July 16, 2012
Palestinian children participating in a Hamas protest(Getty)
Palestinian children participating in a Hamas protest(Getty)

Elhanan Miller at The Times of Israel has a disturbing summer dispatch from Gaza, where young campers are participating in a Hamas-run program called “We will live honorably”:

“We will live honorably” provides activities to some 70,000 children across the Gaza Strip throughout the summer, the Quds News Network reported this week. But startling photos of the camp’s activities display children walking on nails and on knife blades.



The camp’s organizers even constructed a model of an Israeli security prison, to “reenact the daily suffering of Palestinian prisoners,” the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. The “prison,” made up of six rooms, is meant to demonstrate different aspects of treatment endured by security prisoners: an investigation room, a detention room, a confession extortion room, a solitary confinement room, a courtyard and an infirmary.

Going back to 2007, different summer camp programs in Gaza were successfully run by the United Nations Relief Works and Agency (UNRWA), providing an outlet for a quarter of a million children. But with budget cuts and Hamas intimidation (including arson) against it, UNRWA lessened its presence each summer. This year in Gaza, Hamas is the only show in town.

As its known, Hamas was first elected largely due in part to Palestinian disenchantment with Fatah, which had been a corrupt ruling force for decades under Yasser Arafat. Voters were convinced that Hamas would provide the social services that Palestinians so badly lacked, that they would build infrastructure, provide food, and boost the economy. However, Hamas has done little to improve life in Gaza and this story is par for its cynical course. This manipulation of Gaza’s children on television and its outlets like summer camp as well as continued incitement against Israel will not allow anyone to live honorably. In fact, programs like this will set Palestinian life back generations.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.