PARENTS OF CHILD TERRORIST LASH OUT AT PALI BRAINWASHERS

'Would I have sent my son to his death?'
The family of the 15-year-old boy who was arrested last week by IDF soldiers when he tried to carry out an attack at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus has condemned those who sent him as "criminals."

Mohammed al-Nadi, a ninth grader from Askar refugee camp near Nablus, was carrying pipe bombs and a lighter when he approached the soldiers at the checkpoint.

The IDF and the family have accused Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, of dispatching the boy on a suicide mission. However, Mohammed Subuh, a senior official with the Palestinian Authority's Information Minister, claimed that Israel was behind the incident, staging the near-attack in attempt to undermine PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas's talks with US President George W. Bush.

This is the fifteenth incident in the past two months in which Palestinian youths under the age of 18 have attempted to detonate explosive devices at checkpoints or smuggle weapons via the crossings.

Leaders of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus have denied that the group was using minors for launching attacks on the IDF. But several sources in the city, including the boy's family and PA security officials, insist that the group was behind the botched attack.

They said members of the group in Balta refugee camp, which is also in the Nablus area, had recruited Mohammed after persuading him that he would be rewarded in heaven for killing Jews. They also promised to support his family after he becomes a shahid (martyr).

The boy's grandmother, Aziza, said the family was very angry with those who sent Mohammed to attack the soldiers. "They have no fear of God," she said. "They let us suffer because of our children, they don't respect God; they don't have a conscience. I hope that God will punish them because they are sending children this age, God will punish them. I'm suffering pain every day, crying every night before going to sleep. God knows how many tears there are on my pillow every night."

The father, Mustafa, who sells vegetables in the open market, said he had no idea that his son had been recruited to launch an attack on IDF soldiers. "I didn't have any idea," he said. "He was going to school, coming back home, doing his homework and going outside to play with kids half an hour and coming back home."

He expressed hope that the IDF would release Mohammed. "I hope that he will come back home," he added. "He's a child; he can't differentiate between good and bad. And he and others like him were brainwashed. I don't know what they were promising them or telling them - they didn't know what they were going to do and this is what happened with him."

Mustafa denounced his son's dispatchers as "spies and collaborators." He said he supported the truce and was strongly opposed to the resumption of terror attacks on Israel. "It's not a nationalistic action," he said, referring to his son's plan. "There is truce agreement between Israel and the Palestinians and no one is doing anything. There is a ceasefire between both sides, so I think those who sent him are collaborators. Maybe it's for some sort of personal benefit which they got from these actions. I hope God will punish them."

The father said he went to Balata camp last week to inquire about those who sent his son. There, he said, the Fatah gunmen denied involvement in the case.

His wife, Dalal, was far more critical of the dispatchers. "They are criminals," she complained. "They are not human beings. This is a crime - they have no feeling, no religion. They don't fear God. He's just a child. If he was a child from a rich family they would not have sent him there. But because he is poor and he's from the refugee camp they play with his head. I hope that God will avenge this."

[ED. THIS IS ALL VERY ENCOURAGING.... UNTIL THIS PARAGRAPH:]

The mother said that if she had known about her Mohammed's scheme she would have stopped him. "He's like any Palestinian child – he loves his homeland and wants to be a martyr," she said. "But if he would have told me that he was going to do that I would have prevented him. Would I have sent my son to his death?"