Maof

Incitement Machine
In its effort to Islamize the Palestinian national struggle, Hamas invests significant resources in molding Palestinian culture. Experts have noted that giving the Palestinian cause an Islamic flavor is part of Hamas's effort "to link the particular Palestinian struggle with the wider Islamic wave in the Muslim world."[36]
To this end, Hamas charities, social service organizations, hospitals, schools, and mosques openly laud suicide bombing, teach hate, and incite even the youngest and most impressionable of Palestinians to violence.
For example, the graduation ceremony at a kindergarten run by al-Jam‘iya al-Islamiya, a Hamas charitable association run by Sheikh Ahmad Bahar, featured 1,600 preschool age children wearing uniforms and carrying pretend rifles. A five-year-old girl reenacted attacks on Israelis by dipping her hands in red paint, mimicking the bloodied hands Palestinians proudly displayed after the lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah.[37]
Radicalization of Palestinian youth in Hamas early childhood programs has been widely documented. Consider the following account reported in USA Today:
In Hamas-run kindergartens, signs on the walls read: "The children of the kindergarten are the shaheeds [martyrs] of tomorrow." The classroom signs at al-Najah University in the West Bank and at Gaza's Islamic University say, "Israel has nuclear bombs; we have human bombs." At an Islamic school in Gaza City run by Hamas, 11-year-old Palestinian student Ahmed states, "I will make my body a bomb that will blast the flesh of Zionists, the sons of pigs and monkeys … I will tear their bodies into little pieces and cause them more pain than they will ever know." "Allah Akbar," his classmates shout in response: "God is great." "May the virgins give you pleasure," his teacher yells, referring to one of the rewards awaiting martyrs in paradise. Even the principal smiles and nods his approval.[38]
The Hamas radicalization and incitement campaign continues through the course of a Palestinian student's academic career. The Hamas Islamic Student Movement in the Bethlehem area distributed instruction cards bearing the pictures of Hamas suicide bombers and others killed carrying out terrorist attacks and encouraging Palestinian youth to follow in their footsteps.[39] Other educational material produced by Hamas da‘wa activists and distributed by the Hamas charity committees includes collectible postcards featuring Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide bombers with rhythmic Arabic inscriptions such as "Oh, Mother, the time for leaving [this world] is quickly approaching," and "Oh, Mother, do not speak of me should I fall and lie dead on the ground."[40] In the al-Fawwar refugee camp, key rings and children's trading cards also feature suicide bombers, and teenage singing groups, such as "The Martyrs," sing their praises.[41] Similar material, including pamphlets, posters, and a printed timetable for university lectures, features a picture of Karim Nimr Mafarja, an ‘Izz ad-Din al-Qassam activist, with the inscription, "The shahids [martyrs] are with their Lord and light shines from them."[42]
According to Sheikh Bahar, Hamas summer camps are especially successful in indoctrinating religious and secular youth alike. Bahar explained that by teaching children the history of Islam and surrounding them with pictures of Hamas suicide bombers, the camps instill "seeds of hate against Israel."[43]
Surrounding Palestinians with messages extolling Hamas carries over from Hamas schools and camps to its social service organizations. For example, the waiting room at a Jenin hospital was plastered with posters of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades terrorists, including suicide bombers and those who dispatched them.[44] Press reports on the Islamic Charity Association described an assembly line of Palestinian men and teenage boys packing food items to the tune of inspirational music praising Hamas. The lyrics informed, "The holy war is calling," and pledged, "We will continue the resistance, the Hamas revolution."[45]
Children socialized in this environment make willing and supple recruits. In one recent case, Hamas military commander Muhammad Zakarna recruited a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy to courier small arms to Hamas terrorists across the West Bank, to shoot at Israelis traveling West Bank roads, and to carry out a "sacrificial terror attack" targeting the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim. The boy, in his statement to police, expressed no remorse, stating instead, "I have no heart, like the Jews have no heart," and adding, "I hate Jews, and at any opportunity I have, I will kill Jews. I am a shahid [martyr]."[46] At the child's hearing, the judge commented that "from everything taken together, there emerges a picture that in the heart of a young child influenced by the adults around him is aroused a hatred that leads him to carry out actions that are among the gravest in the law books."[47]
According to press reports, moderate Palestinian parents find it increasingly difficult to shelter their children from Hamas recruiters seeking to breed future suicide bombers. One mother recounted how her son's behavior changed when he started going to the mosque regularly:
At first I thought it was normal when my son Muhammad, who is eighteen, started going to the mosque frequently. But when I found out he was watching films about suicide attacks, I was worried … My son was going to the mosque late at night and early in the morning, adding to our fears … His behavior changed. He became introverted, which made his father and me search his room and spy on his comings and goings … We even locked the door to stop him going out … We later found out that those in charge of the mosque are members of Hamas, which teaches children about jihad and shows them documentaries about suicide bombings.[48]
The father of fifteen-year-old Hamas recruit Musa Ziadah told a similar tale. Originally pleased with his son's growing faith, the father did not realize Hamas had begun radicalizing his son when the boy was just ten years old and sweeping the mosque floors. Musa would later tell reporters that Hamas "taught me about the heroes of Islam who were killed as saints and how they are now in heaven beside God … I also learned that the Jews have no right to exist on this land, which belongs to Muslims."[49]
By all accounts, polling data corroborates the anecdotal evidence of Hamas's successful radicalization efforts. According to an April 2001 survey conducted by the Islamic University in Gaza—itself intimately tied to Hamas—while 49 percent of children aged nine to sixteen claimed to have participated in the intifada, a terrifying 73 percent claimed they hoped to become martyrs.[50]
Indeed, the Palestinian Authority (PA) grew concerned about Hamas's successful penetration of the its Ministry of Education and the group's radicalization of Palestinian youth in PA schools. According to a PA intelligence report, "the Hamas movement has begun to constitute a real threat to the PA's political vision, its interests, presence, and influence. The influence of the Hamas movement through its teachers in the [PA] schools is absolutely clear."[51]
Zero Tolerance
David Aufhauser, the just-retired general counsel to the Treasury Department and chair of the National Security Council's policy coordinating committee on terrorist financing, describes the drawing of distinctions between terrorist groups' charitable and military wings as "sophistry" and maintains that "the idea that there's a firewall between the two defies common sense."[52] He adds:
No one is at war with the idea of building hospitals or orphanages or taking care of people who are displaced. But the same people that govern how to apply the money to hospitals govern how to apply the money to killing people, and you cannot abdicate responsibility for one and celebrate what you're doing on the other: it remains blood money.[53]
The State Department concurs: "As long as Hamas continues to rely on terrorism to achieve its political ends, we should not draw a distinction between its military and humanitarian arms, since funds provided to one can be used to support the other."[54]
For any renewed peace initiative to take hold, the international community must endorse this basic principle. Recognizing this, President Bush issued a call on June 25, 2003, for "swift, decisive action against [Palestinian] terror groups such as Hamas, to cut off their funding and support."[55] Such cooperation, however, remains elusive largely due to the veil of legitimacy Hamas charitable work provides for its terror attacks.
Islamic social welfare groups must not be given a free pass simply because they provide humanitarian support alongside their support role for terrorism. Instead, the international community must insist that humanitarian support for Palestinians be divorced from support for terrorist activity. To do otherwise is to be complicit in the Hamas campaign to destroy any prospect of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. It is essential that Europe, the Gulf states, and other countries strictly regulate which Palestinian charities receive international aid and shut down front organizations raising funds for Hamas and other terrorist groups.
To be sure, Palestinians face dire social welfare needs not addressed by the PA, creating an opportunity Hamas eagerly exploits. Tolerating this exploitation is neither in the interest of Israeli-Palestinian peace nor Palestinian humanitarian assistance. Islamic social welfare groups that contaminate their benevolent activities with support for terrorism muddy the waters of charitable giving and good works, making the job that much harder for those genuinely trying to better conditions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Shutting down the Hamas da‘wa must be accompanied by a cooperative effort by the international donor community to fill the gap and provide organized humanitarian aid for needy Palestinians in a way that does not support terrorists, facilitate their attacks, fill their ranks with new recruits, and incite society. Cutting off the flow of funds to Hamas and replacing its terror-spawning social network with an organized and regulated international aid effort are now more urgent than ever.
Matthew A. Levitt, a former FBI counterterrorism intelligence analyst, is senior fellow in terrorism studies at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. This article draws upon his forthcoming monograph, Exposing Hamas: Funding Terror Under the Cover of Charity (The Washington Institute).
[1] Reuters, May 27, 1998.
[2] "A May 2002 Interview with the Hamas Commander of the al-Qassam Brigades," The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), July 24, 2002, at http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP40302.
[3] Reuters, July 31, 2001.
[4] Dale L. Watson, assistant director for counterterrorism, FBI, "Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Action Memorandum," memorandum to R. Richard Newcomb, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Nov. 5, 2001 (hereafter, Watson memo).
[5] "U.S. Designates Five Charities Funding Hamas and Six Senior Hamas Leaders as Terrorist Entities," Office of Public Affairs, Department of the Treasury, Aug. 22, 2003, at http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/js672.htm.
[6] "Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks against Israeli Civilians," Human Rights Watch, Oct. 2002, p. 63, at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/isrl-pa/.
[7] The Washington Post, Sept. 21, 2003.
[8] The Boston Globe, Sept. 8, 2003.
[9] David Aufhauser, testimony before U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Sept. 24, 2003, at http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js758.htm.
[10] The New York Times, June 13, 2003.
[11] "Unmasking Hamas' Hydra of Terror," Simon Wiesenthal Center Snider Social Action Institute Report, Aug. 2003, at http://www.wiesenthal.com/social/pdf/index.cfm?ItemID=7993.
[12] Watson memo.
[13] "Terrorists Misuse of Medical Services to Further Terrorist Activity," Israel Foreign Ministry, Aug. 26, 2002, at http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0md20. The FBI has described al-Ghazi Hospital as Hamas-affiliated; Watson memo.
[14] U. S. State Department, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000, at http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2000/2438.htm.
[15] Associated Press, Aug. 27, 2003.
[16] "Transcript of Interview with Sufian Abu Samara on 14 January, 1991," Israeli police document dated Aug. 21, 1995, author's personal files.
[17] Shimon Peres, address to the Knesset, Feb. 26, 1996, at http://www.israel.org/mfa/go.asp?MFAH01el0.
[18] "Suicide Bomber: The Planning of the Bloodiest Suicide Bombing Campaign in Israel's History," CBS 60 Minutes, Oct. 5, 1997.
[19] Ibid.; "Details Released on Hamas Bombing Supporters," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 9, 1996, at http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0cbi0.
[20] U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Susan Weinstein, et al., Plaintiffs v. The Islamic Republic of Iran, et al., Defendants, Civil Action No. 00-2601 (RCL) and United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Leonard I. Eisenfeld, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The Islamic Republic of Iran, et al., Defendants, Civil Action No. 98-1945 (RCL).
[21] Associated Press, Aug. 27, 2003.
[22] Watson memo.
[23] All examples from ibid.
[24] Agence France-Presse, Aug. 15, 2001.
[25] Associated Press, Mar. 2, 2001.
[26] Ha'aretz (Tel Aviv), June 27, 2002.
[27] "The Financial Sources of the Hamas Terror Organization," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 30, 2003, at http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0nmu0.
[28] Filastin al-Muslima (London), Jan. 1998, quoted in Watson memo.
[29] The Washington Post, Aug. 11, 2001.
[30] Watson memo.
[31] Ibid.
[32] "Hamas's Use of Charitable Societies to Fund and Support Terror," Israel Government Press Office, Sept. 22, 2003, at http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0nt70.
[33] Watson memo.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Colin L. Powell, interview on Fox News Sunday with Tony Snow, Washington, D.C., June 30, 2002, at http://usembassy.state.gov/tokyo/wwwhse1499.html.
[36] Meir Litvak, "The Islamization of Palestinian Identity: The Case of Hamas," The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Tel Aviv University, at http://www.dayan.org/d&a-hamas-litvak.htm.
[37] Ma‘ariv, June 23, 2002.
[38] USA Today, June 26, 2001.
[39] "Incitement to Terror and Hatred," Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, Special Information Bulletin, Tel Aviv, June 2003, http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/var/h_sch/hs_inc.htm.
[40] Ibid.
[41] The New York Times, Mar. 18, 1996.
[42] "The Martyrdom and Suicide Culture in Palestinian Universities—an-Najah University in Nablus as a Case Study," Special Information Bulletin, Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies, Tel Aviv, May 2003, http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/sib_mb/university.htm.
[43] "Participation of Children and Teenagers in Terrorist Activity during the Al Aqsa Intifada," Government of Israel, at http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0n100.
[44] "Palestinian Hospital Endorses Palestinian Terrorists," Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Spokesperson's Unit, Nov. 6, 2002, at http://www.idf.il/newsite/english/1106-7.stm.
[45] Associated Press, Mar. 2, 2001.
[46] Ha'aretz, Oct. 24, 2003.
[47] Ibid.
[48] Agence France-Presse, July 8, 2003.
[49] The New York Times, Mar. 18, 1996.
[50] Associated Press, Mar. 2, 2001.
[51] "Hamas Penetration into the PA Ministry of Education and Its Growing Influence over Palestinian Youth," Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Center for Special Studies, Tel Aviv, at http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/hamas/education.htm.
[52] Reuters, Nov. 27, 2002.
[53] Ibid.
[54] E. Anthony Wayne, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, Department of State, "The Hamas Asset Freeze and Other Government Efforts to Stop Terrorist Financing," testimony to the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Sept. 24, 2003, at http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/rm/2003/24622.htm.
[55] "President Bush, European Leaders Act to Fight Global Terror," remarks by President Bush, Prime Minister Simitis, and President Prodi, White House news release, June 25, 2003, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030625-12.html.
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