Granada, after all, was the last Islamic emirate in Spain to fall to the Christians in 1492, so it would make sense to use it as the name of an Arab military camp, where training is given to Muslims bent on reconquering the Iberian peninsula. The camp of which we speak, however, is not for adults, but for children. It is run by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, somewhere in Judea and Samaria. A camp for older children, yes, but this is not a camp where the campers study crafts, or painting, or nature lore, or learn to swim, or play tennis or soccer, or sing camp songs, or roast hot dogs and toast marshmallows over a campfire. No, this Palestinian camp is run as a military training camp. The children who, to judge by their photos posted on social media, are in their early teens, learn to march, to carry and shoot rifles, to wield knives, to crawl over obstacles as if on a field of battle, to shout “Allahu akbar” as they surprise an enemy and make ready to kill him, to learn lessons on how they, these solemn young campers can best avenge, and ideally undo, the theft of their Muslim land by the cruel and corrupt Zionist enemy. It’s a lot less Camp Minnehaha and a lot more Camp Lejeune.
More on this camp can be found here:”Islamic Jihad military camp for kids: ‘Fighting the Jews is an act of worship,'” Elder of Ziyon, June 23, 2023:
It is summer, and that means that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are proudly parading photos of their violating the war crime of recruiting child soldiers, calling it “summer camp.”
These pictures from an Islamic Jihad “Revenge of the Free” training camp are not ambiguous.This is a war crime.As the ICRC says,The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child differentiates between States and non-State armed groups in setting the age-limit for recruitment and use in hostilities. For States, the age limit for direct participation in hostilities and for compulsory recruitment is 18. This means they can accept voluntary enlistment of persons between the ages of 15 and 18. Armed groups, on the other hand, are bound by a stricter prohibition, affecting both voluntary and compulsory recruitment of under-18s.There are no photos of the kids engaging in sports, playing games or otherwise having fun. Calling this a “summer camp” is a joke. It is a military training camp for kids. And Islamic Jihad makes this clear in their recruitment video.
According to the ICRC, the military training of children is a war crime. And while a state may under certain conditions allow the voluntary enlistment for such training of persons between the ages of 15 and 18, the rule is different for non-state actors, that are not permitted to accept for military training persons under the age of 18. The photographs of the campers released by Islamic Jihad, a non-state actor, show them all to range in age from 13 to 17, and therefore, giving them military training is considered a “war crime” by the ICRC.
Not only that, but Islamic Jihad freely admits that the targets of the weapons the children learn to use are Jews. Islamic Jihad official Darwish al-Gharabli said, “These camps qualify the generation to carry the banner after this generation, part of which has been martyred; it also establishes a generation that is aligned with the path of jihad and resistance; believing in this option and that Palestine is the central issue and fighting the Jews is an act of worship.”
These children are not just being trained to use weapons and to march. They are being indoctrinated in hatred of “the Jews” (a more inclusive category than “Zionists”), told that fighting (and killing) them has a religious dimension as “an act of worship.”
The UN and its agencies, and Defense for Children International Palestine, and other “human rights” NGOs are curiously uninterested in this incitement to violence and these violations of children’s human rights and international law….
Even if these “Palestinian children” who are being trained at a summer military camp to kill “the Jews” are underage, why should anyone find fault? Certainly not the UN, nor the International Committee of the Red Cross, nor Human Rights Watch – they’re on board with that kind of training, for that very special kind of enemy. Who could object to happy campers singing in the gloaming, by the campfire, that beloved old tune “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall soon be free”?
Jim says
It reminds me of how Hitler and the Nazis recruited and trained children for war. The jihadis ignore that almost all Islamic countries were created through conquest of other cultures and their lands. Somehow it is all right for them to conquer and destroy cultures of other countries. Much as Putin wants to conquer and annex or dominate Ukraine and other countries on Ruuian borders. The same impulse is present.
gravenimage says
Jihadists don’t ignore this, Jim–they just hope we do.
Jim says
It almost seems that everywhere in the world where there are members of this ideology, they try to indoctrinate the young in their military methods and propaganda. And naive people in the West keep harping on how they just want a peaceful two-state solution. But the groups that would lead the Palestinian state would want it to serve as a staging ground for continued efforts to create a one-state solution without Israelis or Jews. It is so obvious,but people who do not follow the history continue to fall for this deceptive easy system. Moderate leadership might seem a solution, but what of the successors to the moderates? As in South Africa, democracy has led to a single ruling party with a lack of sympathy for minority populations like the white farmers.
Kathleen Adamson says
Hello Jim,
Great to read your comments and you are right on. People in the West are naive idiots who think the whole world is full of equally naive and benevolent people. Having studied the Middle East for years and lived there, despite the nice individuals I met, the events of recent years have shown me that Jihad is alive and well and increasing. Have you read the two books we are reading , one entitled The Sword and Scimitar, and the other entitled Defenders of the West, both by a Muslim named Raymond Ibrahim? He is a savvy realist and forcefully brings to the attention of the dormant, that Jihad has been part of Islam since day one and still is. In addition to the egregious attacks and murders we see all too often, there is a silent Jihad going on in the press, the judicial and educational systems and worst of all, our political establishments where they have crept into positions of power. I have always thought it appropriate that the old story of the camel who creeps bit by bit into the owner’s tent until it displaces him out into the desert night, was such a warning- and from their own mouths! This too, is Jihad.
gravenimage says
Kathleen, good comment. But Raymond Ibrahim Is *not* a Muslim–he is American, and his parents are Coptic Christian immigrants from Egypt. He is a staunch anti-Jihadist who has contributed many articles to Jihad Watch.
davidafoot says
According to Islamic Law, once a territory is made Islamic it should always be islmaic so Granada and Spain need re-coquest.
gravenimage says
Yep–this is how Muslims think.
gravenimage says
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, Here I Am At Camp Granada
……………………………………..
This makes the “Camp Grenada” of the novelty song pretty innocent.