That Summer Camp Experience

It would be so very interesting to read the reactions of anti-Israel groups so anxious to reveal to the world at large their contempt for Israel and their brave support of Palestinians in Gaza, their solidarity with Hamas controlling Gaza, were they to read the latest news coming out of the Strip. Not that minds set in stone with respect to their dearly-held beliefs would take much notice of such news in any event. Any news that paints Hamas in the smudgy light of unreason and totalitarianism does not sit well with a mindset acclimated to believing otherwise.

But there the news is, available to anyone for whom it might be of interest. After all, the well-being of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children living in Gaza is involved. There is the little matter of the humanitarian UN-mission in Gaza and its summer camps installed there for the purpose of giving Palestinian children the child-friendly experience of summer holidays, a carefree summertime environment.

In May, the UN children's camp program suffered a bit of a set-back when the largest of the camps was set afire and a note left threatening to kill the UN Relief and Works Agency head in Gaza. This is the same UNRWA head who so very often comes across as anti-Israel; in fact anti-Semitic, but then such sentiments are often quietly cloaked in the larger picture of an agonized humanitarian working on behalf of an embattled population. Victimized by Hamas, and as a result targeted by a country which takes exception to being the recipients of armed attacks by Hamas.

And now there's been a second children's camp attack. Fatah officials were convinced, at the time of the May attack, that Hamas operatives were involved. Hamas, needless to say, denies any such thing. Yet Hamas is not inordinately fond of the UN's children's camps' agenda, and they have set up their own, alternative camps, which reflect the Hamas agenda. Inclusive of propaganda of a quite incendiary nature, teaching children to hate 'the enemy' and building future support for their annihilation-of-Israel mandate.

On this second occasion, masked gunmen expressed their fanatical Islamist Salafist disgust at the presence of Western-oriented camps designed to help children have fun in the summer sun, with swimming and sports, and art activities planned to give them an experience approximating a normal childhood. The attackers tied up and beat the camp guards before setting fire to chairs, tables, tents and other summer fun-in-the-sun appurtenances.

UNRWA's Gaza director, John Ging, understandably is less than thrilled with the attack on the camp. "This is another example of the growing levels of extremism in Gaza and further evidence, if that were needed, of the urgency to change the circumstances on the ground." The urgency to change the circumstances would not reflect a need to remove Hamas by any means possible, or to urge it to find peace with Israel. Rather, it would reflect Mr. Ging's apprehension that Israel's blockade of Gaza, meant to protect Israel from Hamas's threat to remove it from the geography, must undergo a change of some kind.

Fling open all the crossings. Israel has ample experience with what occurs when crossings are opened. They become a direct and violent threat to Israelis with violently predatory Palestinians seeking every opportunity to demonstrate their hatred for the Jewish state and its Jewish inhabitants. There are more than enough threats from within Israel itself, with the presence, among Israeli-Arabs, of individuals intent on bringing harm to Jews. Vigilance has its limits; the security of Israel and its inhabitants is always uppermost in the minds of its government, and it can stretch only so far, and no further.

Separation of the antagonists is a necessity, to secure the safety of those who are targeted. The ideas of John Ging and others who represent the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees always seem to give short shrift to the security needs of Israel; the fact that Jews are targets of hate and violence does not seem quite to impinge on the consciousness of UN types. Nor does it ever seem to occur to them how peculiar it is that an entire population has, in the most supine manner conceivable, lent themselves to the status of 'homeless' and 'refugees', hugely dependent on foreign largess rather than their own independent spirit.

Palestinian 'refugees' have traded their pride and honour for the title of pitiable 'refugees', when time has given them ample opportunity to demonstrate that those who govern them have the will and the capacity to erect civil structures reflective of a civil society, one that takes the opportunities life offers and makes the most of them. Where enterprise and the potential to conduct a meaningful lifestyle, growing businesses and employing people, and building a viable state is demonstrably desirable and possible.

Shedding the mantle of 'refugee', and proudly taking on that of a people determined to aspire to a worthwhile future. Rather than nursing an aged grievance and refusing to surrender the sense of themselves as helpless victims, as ill-done-by and uprooted by a vicious conspiracy to deprive them of their heritage and geography. Because sharing that geography was never seen to be in their interest, and no more does it at the present time. Reflected by the rejection on countless occasions, of accepting Israel's presence and moving on from there, to build their own state by accepting peace.

UNRWA operates over a thousand summer camps, for a quarter-million Gaza children. Hamas too, operates summer camps and they focus on teaching the Koran and the philosophy behind their purpose. Central to their philosophy, for any that might not imagine it, is inciting hatred of Israel, complemented by paramilitary training. About one hundred thousand children from Gaza attend these Hamas-run summer camps. And, as Hamas is the ruling authority in Gaza, it 'responded' to the attack on the UN's summer camp. For which prompt action after the fact, Mr. Ging complimented Hamas, just as he had formerly, after the May attack.

Mr. Ging obviously cannot conceive of any reason why Hamas or any other terror-inclined group would take umbrage at the UNRWA curriculum and Western-oriented education process. Teaching young children art and theatre arts, and giving them the opportunity to play organized sports is obviously not reflective of a more relevant teaching opportunity, one that might involve the correct handling of firearms, for example, and teaching military drills, related to the vital importance in Islam, of jihad. But Mr. Ging has vowed to see that the camp is repaired and that summer camp experiences offered to children from Gaza by the UN is not impaired.

Perhaps Canadian 'pro-Palestinian' activists are aware that compared to other Salafi-Muslim groups which consider Hamas 'moderate' in their mandate and inclination, Hamas has its own detractors from within the fundamentalist Arab-Muslim jihadist tribes. On the other hand, Hamas too, has been urging Palestinians in Gaza to observe more strict Islamic rules on mode of dress, on rejecting Western-style films, art, music and those Internet cafes and restaurants that do not confine themselves strictly to Islam's strict face of demeanor and public attire.

On the other hand, even if they did become more knowledgeable about the nuances of the rising tide of Islamist fanaticism, it would only spur those Canadians who so vociferously espouse their support for same, and rejection of all that Israel represents in mirror-reflection of their own country's democratic values and system of legal human rights guarantees, to find ever more reasons to admire the fundamentals of Islam.