According to research conducted by the Center for Near East Policy Research, Palestinian youngsters currently attending Hamas summer camps are learning methods of attacking and killing Jews. This is a blatant violation of children’s rights. Palestinian children living in Gaza should be given the opportunity to reach their full educational potential. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial and religious groups.”
Unfortunately, due to the activities of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority and their Iranian supporters who fund such terrorist activity, these basic human rights that should be granted to Palestinian children are denied to them. Under the auspices of Hamas, Palestinian children, instead of being educated to love and to reach their potential in life, are systematically being taught to kill and to fight rather than to seek self-improvement, to respect human rights and to support fundamental freedoms.
According to research conducted by Iranian investigative journalist Neda Amin on behalf of the Center for Near East Policy Research and Israel Resource News Agency, Iran is presently funding a new training camp for Palestinian youngsters in Gaza titled, “How do we kill an Israeli?” In this training camp, 180 young Palestinian children are taught to shoot with M-16 rifles at Israelis. Some of the children who are taught to use weapons are of elementary school age. And according to Amin, “Iran is fully aware of all of the indoctrinating activities that go on in the summer camps that they are funding. The Iranian regime supports it.”
There is a strategic objective behind Iran funding Hamas summer camps. A couple of months ago, the Times of Israel reported that Hamas is seeking an alliance with Hezbollah and Iran in order to foil Trump’s peace plan. Now, Amin’s research implies that Hamas is increasingly warming up to the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the report, a spokesman for the Resistance Committees of the People of Palestine (a coalition of armed Palestinian terror groups opposed to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority) acknowledged how Iran is funding summer camps for Palestinian children, stressing: “All the world knows that Iran has always been the protector and supporter of the Palestinian people and resistance.” A report by the Palestinian Information Center, an independent Palestinian organization, added that Abu Mujahid said on Facebook: “We should not ignore anyone’s good deeds and support and we are obliged to appreciate and thank the government of Iran for that.”
In an exclusive interview, Amin stressed that although America is viewed as the great Satan and Israel as the little Satan, the Iranian regime still considers Israel to be their most dangerous enemy since they never at any point have accepted any bribes from the Iranian regime, like the Europeans, Arab states and even the US under Obama did. For this reason, she claims that Iran believes that the only chance that they got to undermine Israel is to empower the Palestinians and this is what is motivating Iran to fund anti-Israel pro-terror summer camps in Gaza. This is also why Iran supplies the Palestinians with arms and weapons, intelligence and military training, an annual budget for their living expenses and pays the Palestinians to kill Israelis.
Naturally, there are many parallels between how Iran is funding Hamas’s abuse of Palestinian children in these summer camps and how Iran commits horrific human rights abuses against their own citizens. According to Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, “A country that does not respect the rights of its own people will not respect the rights of its neighbors.” Sadly, Amin indicated in an exclusive interview that she witnessed numerous injustices first hand that were committed by the Iranian regime. When she submitted her first book for publication at age 18, she faced the opposition of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, an institution who decides for a writer, poet, a musician and whoever else wishes to create an art whether their work is in accordance with Islamic thought as understood in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Even though her work focused on social issues, animal rights and human rights, she noted that the Iranian regime decided to brutally repress her. They told Amin: “By questioning social issues, you are questioning the Islamic Republic and if you continue, this will be considered a political crime.”
The Iranian regime seeks to have both Palestinian children in Gaza and its own citizens serve as pawns in order to create the Shia Crescent from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. And just as Hamas murders Palestinians who are opposed to their tyrannical rule, the Iranian regime also does the same to its citizens. According to Amin, “My guilt was increasing by the day after every book I wrote. I was arrested, had to pay fines, was raped and beaten in prison and after I was sentenced to 2 to 3 years in prison, I had to flee the country. I sought refuge in Turkey but the Turkish government did the same thing that the Iranian government did plus a new charge of supporting Israel and writing for an Israeli news agency. After several interrogations and being threatened by Turkish intelligence agencies, I had to flee Turkey. They wanted to deport me to Iran, where they were already calling me a filthy Zionist Jew.” Fortunately for Amin, Israel accepted Amin as a refugee and her life was saved. Unfortunately, countless Palestinian children to date are still being utilized as Hamas’s cannon fodder under the patronage of Iran and most of them have not been fortunate enough to escape that fate
