"The Palestinians Make Cynical Use Of Children"--A Post From Lawrence of Cyberia

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Portion below; whole thing here: http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/

Th[e] title comes from a comment an IDF spokesperson made last August, following an incident in which the IDF killed three Palestinian children (shown below) who were initially alleged to be legitimate targets because they were retrieving a Qassam rocket launcher, but who were subsequently found to have been playing tag.

Sarah, Mahmoud and Yehya Abu Ghazal. Photo: PCHR, via ei

The comment is particularly ironic in view of the fact that if you were compiling a list of organizations that have no standing whatsoever to talk about the cynical exploitation of children, the Israeli military would surely be right up there.

When Israel exploits children for military purposes, it's usually Palestinian children on the receiving end: e.g. in the form of children used as human shields, or child prisoners being recruited as informers (link opens MS Word file). But a report I watched this morning on Ha'aretz/Channel 10 - New program to allow mentally challenged to enlist in the IDF, read the print version here or watch the video here - reminded me that IDF exploitation can be a multicultural phenomenon. Today's report is about how the IDF is enlisting about 200 mentally challenged volunteers into the army, in a project designed to allow the participants more "meaningful integration into Israeli society". It highlights the story of Shimrit, who has Down Syndrome, and concludes with her joyful exclamation: "It's fun to be in uniform!".

Now, I should say at the outset that Shimrit is not a child, and all the individuals who enlist in the IDF under this program will be at least 21 years of age. But the recruitment into the armed forces of the mentally challenged raises some of the same issues raised by the recruitment of children. Furthermore, the IDF actually does use children to perform non-combat tasks at its military installations. ...