Tiny terrorist: like mother, like daughter?

A four-year-old girl vowed to become a suicide bomber just like Mommy in a Hamas TV show, according to Itamar Marcus, who monitors the airwaves for Palestinian Media Watch.

The disturbing broadcast on Hamas television today purported to show Duha, the four-year-old daughter of the notorious female suicide bomber Reem Riyashi, singing to her dead mother and promising to carry on her terrorist agenda. In 2004,Reem Riyashi killed four Israelis and wounded at least ten people at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel. She had gained the sympathy of the checkpoint soldiers by claiming she had a metal plate in her leg that would set off the metal detector. After she was taken to a cubicle to be searched privately, she detonated the bomb stashed under her clothes. The reenacted video clip ends as the orphaned little girl picks up explosives left behind in her mother's dresser drawer.

In the Al Aqsa TV children's program, a child actress plays the daughter, and while watching Riyashi prepare the explosives, she pipes up: "Mommy, what are you carrying in your arms instead of me? A toy or a present for me?" She later sees a TV news story about her mother's suicide mission and gory death, and realizes her mother was the bomber.

"Only now, I know what was more precious than us..." she sings of the martyrdom.

Although Duha misses her mother, she vows to follow in her footsteps. The video ends as she opens her mother's drawer and picks up a stick of dynamite her mother had left there.

It is unclear if this is supposed to be a recruitment video or act as a warning to the guardians of those left behind. Izzy would like to confirm the context of this unsettling propaganda clip. Women suicide bombers do not share identical motives. Personal tragedy is often interwoven with frustration, nihilism, or revenge, and results in these subversive act of terror by young females, according to analysts. Last summer, a gruesome Palestinian grandmother blew herself up as well.


Song lyrics sung by little Duha, Reem's daughter, are below:

[Daughter sees mother preparing explosives sticks]

"Mommy, what are you carrying
in your arms instead of me?

[Mother turns to hide bomb]

A toy or a present for me?...
Mommy Reem!
Why did you put on your veil?
Are you going out, Mommy?...
Come back quickly, Mommy
I can't sleep without you,
unless you tell me and Ubaydah [her brother] a bedtime story.

[Daughter sees mother's picture and news story about bombing on PA TV]

My mother, my mother,
Me and Ubaydah are awake and waiting for you
to come to put us to sleep.
Me and Ubaydah, oh Mommy,
still need you to wipe our tears...
Instead of me you carried a bomb in your hands.
Only now, I know what was more precious than us...
May your steps be blessed,
and may you be flawless for Jerusalem.
Me and Ubaydah wish we were there with you.

[Images of her mother's grave and the graves of other terrorists,
including Aayat Al-Akhras, 17-year-old female suicide bomber and Fatah operative]

Send greetings to our Messenger [Muhammad] and tell him:
'Duha loves you.'
My love will not be [merely] words.
I am following Mommy in her steps.

[Finds explosives that mother left in her drawer,
picks up stick of explosives]

Oh Mommy, oh Mommy."

It's about time somebody puts some more positive role models on the kiddy shows. Apparently, Seinfield and Mr Bean reruns don't do the trick. Young Palestinian children, who have minimum contact with Israelis other than with soldiers, have been the target of an outreach program by some of the militias since 2002. Could increased education and exchange programs counteract the seeds of hate that result in sick images like the one below? No, it's not a bad taste Purim costume.


photo courtesy World Net Daily