Trying to make 'Palestinian' kids spend their summers like other kids
I've posted several times about how the 'Palestinians' have their kids spend the summer. Here's one example. This year, the Jerusalem Municipality is spending NIS 500,000 (about $128,000) trying to get 'Palestinian' kids to spend their summer in a camp run by the Municipality instead of in Islamist camps. Is it working? Well, they have 8,000 kids in Municipal-run summer camps this year. That Israel sees [Islamist] camps as a threat is not in his imagination. In recent years there has been alarm in the Israeli media over Palestinian summer camps run by Fatah and Hamas, some offering paramilitary training for teenagers. Now, even camps for younger children have come into question, and officials in the Jerusalem municipality say they're in a strugle to make municipal-run (read: Israeli) camps more affordable for the children of Arab East Jerusalemites.Of course, the article doesn't say how many kids are in the Islamist camps. I suspect it's several times 8,000. And if the kids get the same Islamist training all year long, you're not likely to change their lives over the summer.
"The Islamic movement is running summer camps with a very clear agenda: to indoctrinate young kids to a very strict religious viewpoint and what we know are very extreme messages, which of course we think is not the right thing," says Yakir Segev, a Jerusalem city council member who is in charge of the East Jerusalem portfolio.
"There's a competition for the hearts and souls of the kids," he says. "There are community centers which the municipality supports, which has summer camps which are more moderate."
To that end, the Jerusalem municipality tripled its budget this summer for city-funded day camps in East Jerusalem, Mr. Segev says, spending close to half a million shekels, or about $128,000.
"What we are trying to do is to provide parents with an alternative, by offering low-cost programs that will be a counter to the extremists," he says.
Up to 8,000 children are now in such programs, a huge boost from previous years when funding for activities in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem – which Israel annexed following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war – was low on the public agenda.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:58 AM
5 Comments:
Better that Arab kids have a normal childhood than spend it being indoctrinated to hate Jews and kill them. Keeping them out of the clutches of Islamist recruiters is no easy task for Israel.
i disagree that the israeli camp won't make much of a difference. For the palestinian kids to actually meet "normal" people would be a learning experience, and I think they may rethink their ideas because of it.
Ah the joys of summer camp. The arts and crafts (How many popcicle sticks does it take to make a rocket?), the nature walks (Which rock works better for throwing at Israeli soldiers? Igneous or Sedimentary?), and of course playing capture the flag (Or in their case, blow up the flag.)
How wonderful these children learn such wonderful things during the summer.
A "ultra" orthodoz jew... to me that means you are my brother, i am commanded to show you preference over other non-muslims, your Prophet (PBUH) is one of mine as well, i may marry a woman of your tribes and i may eat your food, you are Ahl-E-Kitab (People of the Book) and i am not even to disparage your ways, yet in the text of the post i noticed that all Muslims are lumped into the "Islamist Movement" - perhaps not by you but i notice it with sadness as we were meant not to make such differences. I myself make a distinction between Israelis and the Jewish people. I hope that the majority of people will be able to do that one day. We believe in the same things yet we kill each other over lands, ancient wars, ethnicities and the word of man. May you go in peace and may you be granted Heaven, ameen (amen).
Zeyad...
By distinguishing between Jews and Israelis in the same manner as some distinguish between Muslims and Islamists you display the very attitude that is at the crux of the conflict between Arabs and Jews. Israel is the manifestation of Jewish national aspiration. The religion, ethnicity and national identity of Jews are entertwined.
In order for this conflict to end, Arabs must accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, just as Israelis must accept the Palestinians' right to a state of their own.
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