Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh. Here I am at Camp Shahada

  Canoeing, swimming, cookouts, nature walks? Palestinian summer camps are not the same as those Western children attend.

  Every year, tens of thousands of Palestinian children attend one of the 90 two- or three-week camps in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Run by the men who handle psychological warfare for Yasser Arafat, their is no horsing around in the dorm, no fun-in-the-sun by a cool clear lake, no rousing sing-alongs beside a roaring campfire.

  Instead, the campers learn military skills and guerrilla tactics, such as staging mock abductions of Israeli officers by masked Palestinian commandos. The abduction ends with the Israeli bodyguards sprawled dead on the ground.

  Next, there might be a mock attack on an Israeli military post, a sentry brutally stabbed. Always, there is the opportunity to excel in field-stripping and reassembling a Kalashnikov. Often, several blindfolded children, deemed to be the most adept, race to see who can be the first to assemble their weapon.

  The camps aren't a recent development, having been held in Palestinian areas for years. Some Palestinian Authority (PA)officials went through them as children. It is not only the PA, but the terrorist organizations HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operate similar camps at no charge to the parents.

  Boys and girls as young as age six are trained in weapons handling and hand-to-hand combat. Junior high school students learn how to handle weapons, 15- to 17-year-olds participate in full-fledged military drills. In one camp in the West Bank town of Nablus, campers crawl on their bellies, carrying wooden Kalashnikovs, rehearsing the kidnapping of an officer from an enemy camp, as demonstrated earlier by adults.

  A popular game is shooting at a cardboard replica of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and US President George Bush.

  As in the West, there are sing-alongs. Among the songs children learn at are such classics as, "We’ll Throw Them into the Sea," "Revolution Until Victory," and "My Children in the Suicide Squads." One videotaped camp activity aired on Palestinian television shows a group of youngsters joining with soldiers to sing the Palestinian national anthem. In the background is a huge mural of the Temple Mount, where Arab warriors on horseback prance proudly over a battlefield soaked in Jewish blood and strewn with Jewish skulls. Another video clip of camp life glorifies children who yell "commando" and then jump through a ring of fire.

  At PIJ's camp boys are taught the benefits of becoming suicide bombers. According to Teacher Mohammed el Hattab: Suicide bombers go to the highest state in paradise. The militant group has a sworn mission to wage a holy war against Israel. The boys are told not only that it is good to kill, but also that it is good to die. They learn that suicide bomb attacks have proved the most deadly way to hit the Israelis.

  The boys are shown pictures of those who have already died in the conflict with Israel. They are taught that to give their lives is to be guaranteed a place in heaven. And to be a suicide bomber is one of the highest forms of martyrdom. They will be greeted in paradise by 70 virgins.

  "We are teaching the children that suicide bombing is the only thing that make the Israeli people very frightened. Furthermore, we are teaching them that we have the right to do it," said Islamic Jihad member Mohammed el Hattab, one of the teachers on the program.

  "We are teaching them that after the suicide attacks, the man who makes it goes to the highest state in paradise."

  The children learn Islamic precepts that call for and encourage Jihad against Israel. The Islamic Foundation in Gaza organized summer camps called the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs summer camp". Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Baher, chairman of the Islamic Foundation, was quoted in the newspaper "Al-Quds" as saying that the foundation attempted to keep the summer camps going despite the ongoing conflict, because they deeply believe in the values the summer camps are instilling in the children.

  In addition, Dr. Baher stated that there is a constant stream of children who want to participate in the HAMAS summer camps, where the children receive uniforms, shoes, exercise books and attention from the camp organizers. According to him, non-religious children join the summer camps due to the vast number of attractions that the organization offers. In addition, they teach the children the history of Islam, with pictures of the "martyrs" displayed everywhere, and in this way "instill the seeds of hate against Israel."

  The children are enthusiastic about what they learn.

  Mohammed, a 14-year-old boy, draws himself with explosives strapped to his body, ready to blow himself to pieces if it means killing Jews. When asked if he wishes to become a martyr, Mohammed replies, "Yes, I want to liberate Palestine and be part of the revolution."

  Suleiman Nubaim, age 16, says: "I want my country to be free." Asked how he defined Palestinian freedom, he said it included having Jerusalem, and then the rest of Israel. "As long as Israel occupies any part of our land, in Tel Aviv or Jaffa or Haifa," he said, "we have not liberated our homeland."

  Mahmoud Ramadan, 10, said military training was the favorite part of his 10-hour camp day during which he also learned about Palestinian history, including Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

  Mahmoud, short and skinny, excitedly described how he learned to clean, aim and take apart Kalashnikovs and M-16 assault rifles. When he grows up, he said, he wants to "join the army and liberate Palestine."

  Ahmed Abdel Minhem, 17, who has received military training in Nablus for three summers, said: "Look what happened in Lebanon. The war on the land is very easy for the Palestinians. We know the mountains and the roads. This makes us very strong."

  Not all parents are thrilled about military training.

  Adly Monsour, a Palestinian engineer who works in Saudi Arabia, said he sent his 11-year-old son, Hassan, to camp to learn more about Palestinian history, a subject not taught in schools in the Gulf.

  Other parents see the camps as a way to keep their children busy at least for part of the three-month summer holiday. The children are given two meals a day.

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