Killing Children
I have mentioned before the IDF's steady loss of moral clarity in its actions against the Palestinians and its out of proportion reaction to the most minor of infractions. This piece in the Haaretz talks about how easy it has become for Israeli troops to shoot and kill Palestinian children, how it's done with scant concern or fear of repercussion, under the guise of fighting the intifada and crushing the terrorists in the occupied territories and the Gaza strip.

More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It's no wonder that many people term such wholesale killing of children "terror." Whereas in the overall count of all the victims of the intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1. According to B'Tselem, the human rights organization, even before the current operation in Gaza, 557 Palestinian minors (below the age of 18) were killed, compared to 110 Israeli minors.
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Muatez Amudi and Subah Subah were killed by a soldier who was standing in the village square in Burkin and fired every which way in the wake of stone-throwing. Radir Mohammed from Khan Yunis refugee camp was in a school classroom when soldiers shot her to death. She was 12 when she died. All of them were innocent of wrongdoing and were killed by soldiers acting in our name.

At least in some of these cases it was clear to the soldiers that they were shooting at children, but that didn't stop them. Palestinian children have no refuge: mortal danger lurks for them in their homes, in their schools and on their streets. Not one of the hundreds of children who have been killed deserved to die, and the responsibility for their killing cannot remain anonymous. Thus the message is conveyed to the soldiers: it's no tragedy to kill children and none of you is guilty.

The relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinians is a constantly deteriorating mess and I don't see it moving toward any kind of resolution any time soon. posted by ubaid - Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 11:36 PM - 0 comments - post anonymously