Hezbollah indoctrinates children for martyrdom via its scout program, report alleges
(SeaPRwire) - A recent report aired on Lebanon’s MTV television network claims that the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hezbollah uses its version of the scout movement to prepare children for jihadist missions that often end in their deaths.The Lebanese media outlet’s findings, translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), have emerged amid ongoing U.S.-mediated peace negotiations between Israel and Lebanon.According to the MTV report, Hezbollah honors child fighters with ceremonial funerals and publicly celebrates them in front of other young members to inspire further participation. The network asserts that Hezbollah views every death involving child soldiers as a step closer to victory.The report further states that Hezbollah’s scout programs aim to indoctrinate an entire generation of children into obedience and readiness for martyrdom, using rhetoric that glorifies death. Citing the MEMRI translation, the MTV report notes that “Hezbollah child soldiers have been utilized since the 1980s by this outlaw armed group—not only as combatants but also as Khomeini-loyal scouts.”The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, reportedly employed Iranian children during the country’s war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988.Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute specializing in Hezbollah, stated that “Hezbollah's recruitment and radicalization of youth through its Mahdi Scouts is well-documented,” a view shared by other experts contacted by Digital.Mideast expert Walid Phares told Digital, “Hezbollah has boy scouts, and they are taught about jihad—it’s widely known in Lebanon.”Phares described these scouts as potential “children jihadists” who are being trained to become full-fledged Hezbollah fighters. He noted that their typical assignments include espionage and transporting ammunition. If these scouts receive funding from a Lebanese ministry or national scouting association, he argued they should be sanctioned if sufficient evidence exists.Multiple requests sent via email and phone to the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) were not answered promptly. The U.S. branch of WOSM directed inquiries to the international headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Sarit Zehavi, a Hezbollah expert at the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, called for action against the exploitation of children by the terror organization.“The only effective solution is to designate all of Hezbollah’s alleged civilian activities as illegal and shut down its scout movement,” she said. “This would allow Shiite communities in Lebanon to access educational and social services provided by the Lebanese state instead of Hezbollah. Such services should foster loyalty to the Lebanese nation rather than to Khomeini or the Islamic Republic.”She added, “Achieving this requires significant international pressure—ideally led by the United States—and must originate from within Lebanon itself.”An Israeli diplomat, Tammy Rahamimoff-Honig, posted on X: “Hezbollah sacrifices Lebanese children to advance the goals of the Iranian regime. This is not resistance—it is child abuse.”Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States declined to comment on the matter. This article is provided by a third-party content provider. SeaPRwire (https://www.seaprwire.com/) makes no warranties or representations regarding its content. Category: Top News, Daily News SeaPRwire provides global press release distribution services for companies and organizations, covering more than 6,500 media outlets, 86,000 editors and journalists, and over 3.5 million end-user desktop and mobile apps. SeaPRwire supports multilingual press release distribution in English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Chinese, and more.
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