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(All pictures: The Conqueror)
The upcoming Palestinian parliamentary elections, scheduled for January 25, will see the Hamas terror movement running for the first time. The election campaign is already in full swing. But in addition to wooing potential voters, Hamas is also working on building its popularity among the next generation – the children.
Hamas has become famous for its ‘Da’awa’ (proselytizing) activities, which include such areas as social welfare, medical care, education, kindergartens, and soup kitchens. Another method, also used by other terror organizations such as Al-Qa’ida, is the Internet. Hamas has several websites, including monthly (Filastin Al-Muslima), weekly (A-Risala), and daily (Palestine Info) updated sites. In September 2002 the movement began publishing an online children’s magazine, Al-Fateh (The Conqueror). This website invariably portrays various methods of fighting the “Zionist enemy,” using cute cartoons alongside graphic photos of bleeding corpses.
In its current issue, The Conqueror explains more ways – some old, some new – to fight the enemy. It also expresses the wish that Islam will once again rule over the region of Andalusia, better known today as Spain.
“The stone is stronger”
“For thousands of years, precious Palestine was our sacred land, my land and my father’s – and grandfather’s – land. And for thousands of years, foreign invaders tried to occupy it by force. But Palestine remains proud and confident, and it wins over the greedy tyrants each time they try to pollute its pure land.” This is the opening of one of the stories in The Conqueror’s 66th issue. Following are a few excerpts from the story:
“The most barbarous of imperialists who try to conquer Palestine, are the criminal Jewish Zionists, who put in all their evil efforts to take it over, especially in the middle of the last century. They invaded Palestine with their murderous weapons, and their devastating fire, aided by the imperialist superpowers. And when the criminal imperialists invaded the country, they tried to erase its Arabic Islamic identity. Nevertheless, our Arabic Muslim people, the people of the proud Palestine, kept fighting the holy war against the occupiers until they became martyrs.”
The author goes on to commemorate those who have become martyrs. Any child in Gaza or Nablus knows that fighting the enemy and becoming a martyr usually involves exploding in a restaurant or on board a bus. But the author of this story, Shafiq Mahdi, probably feels that children are too young to be used for such acts. Instead, he glorifies a simpler task. “The stone revolution began years ago, and will – God willing – continue until the imperialists are expelled from our stolen land.” Mahdi promises that the stone will win over any kind of weapon used by the “rapists” – a common expression used by Hamas to describe Israeli soldiers or citizens.
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“Palestinian names”
In another story by Shafiq Mahdi, he suggests a different method to fight the Zionists.
“Since the evil Zionists conquered our precious Palestine, they have done whatever is in their power to change the names of everything in it – the cities and the villages, the mountains and plains, the water resources and many other sites. They are doing this in order to form a disgusting Zionist nature, and in doing so they are forging longstanding non-debatable historical facts.
“One of these Zionist names is Tel Aviv, which is the name the evil occupiers gave to the capital of their sinful [manifestation of] aggression (Israel).” Mahdi makes an embarrassing mistake here, replacing Israel’s actual capital – Jerusalem – with the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
“This Zionist name is an attempt to erase the historical and religiously sacred Arabic name of the capital of our beloved Palestine: Al-Quds A-Sharif [the Honorable Jerusalem]. That is why I myself, and other Palestinians, are doing the best we can to use the true names. We say ‘Occupied Al-Quds’ and not ‘Tel Aviv.’
“I am absolutely sure that you, dear people, will use only the Arabic names and not the Zionist ones. This way, we can fight our evil enemy, only by a different method,” Mahdi concludes.
What Mahdi is advocating is very common in the Palestinian territories, sometimes even in schools which are controlled by the Palestinian Authority, not by Hamas. Maps of the Middle East do not include Hebrew names such as Tel Aviv or Netanyah. In fact, they do not even include the word ‘Israel.’ Instead, they simply use the name ‘Palestine.’ Israel therefore, is not only portrayed as the enemy, but also as a temporary, illegitimate entity which does not deserve a mention on the map.
“I am the city of Seville”
The Conqueror takes us on another geographical journey to Seville, Spain. The writer of this story gives the children a short history lesson which begins as follows:
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“Peace upon you, my precious loved ones. Let me introduce myself: I am the city of Seville, the bride of Andalusia. In the past I was the capital of the Kingdom of Seville.” The writer goes on to recount the history of the city from when it was conquered by the Muslims in the year 713, until 1248, when it was conquered by Ferdinand III. “Then ended a long period of prosperous times for the Muslims. I was taken away from their hands, but their cultural features are still here, standing as a witness to the advanced culture the Muslims once had in my land.”
The author concludes by saying: “I hope that you, my beloved ones, wish for me that I – with the rest of the lost cities of paradise – will return to the hands of the Muslims, so that cheerfulness and happiness will spread in my land; and that you will visit me, as I am the bride of the land of Andalusia.”
Until now, Hamas has never said it has any aspirations of fighting anyone else but Israel. In this respect, Hamas is considered a national movement, with local aims. Nevertheless, Hamas also perceives itself as part of the global Islamic movement. “Our main goal is to establish a great Islamic state, be it pan-Arabic or pan-Islamic,” one of the movement’s leaders, Mahmoud A-Zahhar, told The Media Line in September.
Current events
The Conqueror likes to keep its young readers up to speed with current events. Following are the first three “most prominent events between November 27 and December 12, 2005,” as recorded in the current issue:
* On November 27 the Zionist Occupying Military admitted two of its soldiers were seriously injured during fights.
* On November 28 one of Al-Aq’sa Martyrs [Brigades’] activists died from wounds he suffered a week earlier during a gunfight with the occupation soldiers in Ramallah.
* On November 29 the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced that 25 Palestinian prisoners in the Zionist prison ‘Ofer’ suffered various wounds after the Zionist prison guards brutally attacked them.
According to recent opinion polls, one in five voters plans to vote for Hamas in the upcoming elections. That is a large percentage of the vote for a movement running for the first time. And as Hamas continues its activities in the spheres of education, health, welfare – as well as propaganda in mosques and on the Internet – many more Palestinians are being born and raised with the movement’s much needed support, which they do not receive from the Palestinian Authority, run primarily by Fatah. The Media Line’s analysts suggest that if this situation continues much longer, a growing portion of Palestinian society will learn to rely on Hamas in almost every aspect of their lives. This will, no doubt, manifest itself in the 2006 parliamentary elections, and even more so in the 2010 and 2014 elections, when many of the children who have been taken care of by Hamas will become eligible to vote.