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Children Groomed in Hatred

(Sydney Morning Herald-Australia) Ed O'Loughlin - A Friday afternoon in Gaza City and 24 masked recruits of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a Palestinian militant group, is staging a passing out parade for its newest recruits. Out on the soccer field a masked fighter crawls to the halfway line, pushing a homemade bomb. When the masks come off, several of these would-be "fighters" are seen as barely 12 years old. "I want to be a fighter against the Jews," said Ahmed, 12. "The Israelis have no right to be on our territory. This territory is our own - all of Palestine, not just Gaza and the West Bank." Like all the young trainees, Ahmed wears a black T-shirt bearing the name of the PRC. It also shows a Kalashnikov rifle over a silhouette of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque and the slogan, "Kill them where you find them." Nothing, apart from the suicide bombing of innocent civilians, has done more to tarnish the Palestinian cause in the eyes of the world than the use of teenagers as fighters/terrorists. Many Palestinians also complain of the crude bias and propaganda of the Arafat-controlled Palestinian Authority TV channels. Few still watch them. Instead, the most popular sources for news are now Arab satellite channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, Western sources like the BBC, and even Israeli Army Radio.
2004-10-22 00:00:00
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