Israel Matzav

Hamas Launches Web Site Encouraging Kids to Become 'Martyrs'

The Palestinian Authority's ruling Hamas terror group has launched a web site for children, preaching the moral desirability of being a suicide terrorist through cartoons and children's stories.

The Hamas-run Al-Fateh.net glorifies shahada, martyrdom, and presents the deaths of terrorists attacking Israelis as a time of celebration, according to a report by Palestinian Media Watch.

One of the stories on the site quotes a mother saying that when she heard her son had become a shahid, a martyr, she bought dates, candies and coffee to give out. An entire section of the site is called "Stories of the Shahids" and the most recently posted story honors Hamas terrorist Naseem Ja'abari, who murdered 16 people when he blew himself up on a bus in Be'er Sheva on August 31, 2004.

The page is egalitarian in its encouragement of martyrdom, with a prominently featured drawing of a religiously garbed girl participating in violent attacks (pictured above) on both the homepage and on a second page with a poem glorifying Jihad, Islamic conquest, and Shahada.

Hamas recently won the Palestinian Authority's parliamentary elections by a landslide and has since been subject to requests and demands that it at least verbally recognize Israel. One the web site, though, according to PMW, "Israel is repeatedly referred to as 'thief' and 'invader' and its defeat in battle is both desired and anticipated."

Though the site shares its name with Yassir Arafat's rival terror group, Al-Fateh, the name means "The Conqueror" and is run by Hamas.

The following are excerpts from PMW's translation of a poem on the site and excerpts from the "Stories of the Shahids" section:

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:02 AM