When the family of kidnapped and lynched Palestinian teen
Mohammed Abu Khdeir recently grieved together
with the family of abducted and murdered
Israeli teen Naftali Fraenkel, we were
reminded that the loss of a child is both
painful and universal. All mothers mourn in
the same way, and no child’s death is any less
tragic than another.
The recent events in Gaza and in Israel also serve to
caution us of the consequences of policies
that emanate not from a place that regards the
interests of all children, but from a toxic
space laden with tribalism, hate, greed and
hubris. Cold hearted and cold blooded
decisions are made by hotheads. What if the
purveyors of policy would treat all children,
particularly “other” people’s children as
their own?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his backers
have waged another war on the civilian
population of Gaza - an open air prison where
people cannot escape - in an operation which
is killing
for the sake of it. As of publication, nearly
200 people, all Palestinians, have been killed by Operation
Protective Edge, and thousands injured. Of
these fatalities, 80 percent are civilians
according to the UN, including over 30
children.
Israel’s purported target is Hamas, and while Hamas is no
innocent bystander, control
of the oil and natural gas reserves discovered in the Occupied Territories is a more
plausible backstory to the recent assault.
After all, Operation Cast Lead did not
eliminate Hamas in late 2008 and early 2009,
but according to the human rights group B’TSelem it did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians, 773 of
whom were civilians, including 320 children
and 107 women over the age of 18. Meanwhile,
three Israeli civilians and six soldiers were
killed, while four soldiers were victims of
friendly fire.
Time and time again, these operations are a lesson in
disproportionality. After all, Israel is a
first rate military power thanks to American
largesse and the F-16
jet fighters that are bombing Palestinian homes in densely
populated urban areas.
Ultimately, the Occupation is the elephant in the room, a
policy which deprives the occupied of their
dignity and right to self-determination, and
denies the occupiers their humanity and robs
them of the opportunity to become a truly
democratic state. In the end, both
Palestinians and Israelis are imprisoned. And
the Israeli government is attempting to do the
untenable, which is pulling off colonization -
against a soon-to-be
Arab majority - in a post-colonial era, all while painting itself
through propaganda as a defenseless victim, or a humanitarian who bends over backwards to spare
innocent lives.
The Occupation cannot succeed without the dehumanization
of the other. The nationalist
extremists, settlers and theocrats among Netanyahu’s base believe in
a Greater
Israel extending from Egypt to Iraq, and an open
Jim Crow system where Palestinians are disenfranchised. Netanyahu
recently said himself that Israel can never
unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank. Meanwhile, characterizing the Palestinian people as
terrorists, including children, or even worse
as animals that should be killed, the Israeli
right justifies all of the violence and human
rights violations visited upon Palestinians,
whether by mob or by military. Separation
walls, travel restrictions, the displacement
created by the bulldozing of homes,
encroaching settlements, and vengeance
killings are all a reality of an unjust
occupation.
“My
mom told me that it feels and looks like a
tsunami has hit the neighborhood. I
thought if it was a tsunami; maybe the
International community would have acted fast
to save innocent lives,” said Safa'
Abdel Rahman-Madi, a Palestinian woman
originally from Gaza who now lives in Ramallah.
“I
do not understand how Israel is defending
itself by killing entire families and
children. If Israel has a right to defend
itself as an occupier, why we are denied the
very same right as the occupied,” the mother
of three girls wrote in conjunction with an open
letter campaign by
U.S.-based Jewish
Voice for Peace.
Safa’ said the root of the recent attack is
the notion that Jewish lives matter more than
Palestinian lives. Further, she believed
things will not change until the U.S. takes a
strong stand against Israel’s human rights
violations.
If you want to judge a policy and the intent of those who
promote it, observe its impact on the
children. We must strive for a world where we
protect all children as if they were our own.
