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Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation
Because the Jewish group prepares to watch Passover this yr, I’m considering a terrific deal in regards to the centrality of kids to the Exodus story we inform across the seder desk. Specifically, I’m struck that this narrative from the Torah begins with a terrifying description of atrocities dedicated in opposition to youngsters. As Exodus opens, a brand new pharaoh arises over Egypt who overtly dreads the demographic progress of the Israelite minority. After oppressing them with compelled labor, he orders Hebrew midwives to kill new child male youngsters. After they resist his demand, he prices the Egyptians to throw all child boys into the Nile. Shortly after, Moses is born and is saved from this decree of dying by his mom, his sister and the pharaoh’s daughter, who adopts him.
Amongst different issues, the Exodus story drives residence the tragically acquainted fact that youngsters aren’t mere casualties of wartime atrocities, however are literally focused by state violence. In accordance with a 2014 report in The New Yorker, “The precise concentrating on of kids is among the grimmest new developments in the way in which conflicts have been waged over the previous fifty years.”
Those that take part within the Passover seder are required not solely to learn the story of the Exodus, however to look at its relevance, because the Haggadah instructs us, “in each era.” As such, the opening of the narrative presents us with all too disturbing parallels — and a important ethical problem. This Passover — the second to come back amidst the continuing genocide perpetrated by Israel in opposition to Palestinians in Gaza and mass compelled displacement within the West Financial institution — we’d be grievously remiss if we did not acknowledge the scores of kids who’ve been killed, maimed and traumatized by Israel’s ongoing navy onslaught.
The official dying toll in Gaza has now broken the 50,000 mark, together with more than 17,000 youngsters. (The medical journal The Lancet has concluded that the full variety of these killed is probably going 40 p.c larger.) On March 18, the day that Israel broke a two-month ceasefire, the Israeli navy killed greater than 400 Palestinians, together with 183 youngsters and 94 girls — on what observers name the only bloodiest day of the genocide.
Extra not too long ago, on April 3, Israel bombed the Dar al-Arqam Faculty-turned-shelter in Gaza Metropolis, killing 29 folks, 18 of whom have been youngsters. In its report on the assault, Al Jazeera quoted a spokesperson from Gaza’s emergency rescue employees: “What’s going on here’s a wake-up name to your entire world. This conflict and these massacres in opposition to girls and kids should cease instantly. Youngsters are being killed with chilly blood right here in Gaza.”
For individuals who stand in solidarity with Palestinians, sure studies and pictures have develop into seared into our hearts and minds. For a lot of, the tipping level second into the abyss occurred in early 2024, with the telephone recording of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, pleading together with her mom for rescue earlier than the Israeli navy shot 335 bullets into her household’s automotive. One month later, the world was horrified by the picture of Sidra Hassouna, a 7-year-old Palestinian lady from northern Gaza, hanging lifeless off the ledge of a destroyed home with half her physique lacking.
On Could 26, 2024, a 1-year-old child, Ahmad Al-Najjar, whose headless physique was held aloft by a terrified, grief stricken man following what has come to often known as the Rafah Tents Massacre — an evening through which 45 Palestinians, most of them girls and kids, have been killed, burned alive and beheaded. One physician who witnessed the carnage commented, “In all my years of humanitarian work, I’ve by no means witnessed one thing so barbaric, so atrocious, so inhumane. These photographs will hang-out me ceaselessly… And can stain our conscience for eternity.”
Denial can take many types. For some, it’s rooted in racist dehumanization of the opposite; others could also be simply too overwhelmed to permit themselves to grasp the huge slaughter of kids in such a heinous trend; nonetheless others rationalize the reality of it away, dismissing mass homicide as “collateral injury” or Hamas’s use of “human shields” (a cynical declare that has been constantly debunked by human rights observers).
For Israel’s supporters, it’s much more unthinkable to face the growing proof that the Israeli navy may effectively be deliberately concentrating on youngsters for mass homicide. A latest Al Jazeera “Fault Strains” documentary, “Kids Under Fire,” makes a compelling case for this declare, with intensive eyewitness interviews with volunteer American well being care employees and human rights specialists. Their accounts, corroborated throughout hospitals and over time, recommend a scientific sample: growing numbers of kid victims weren’t injured because of bombing raids, however of direct gunshot wounds, usually to the pinnacle. One of many docs interviewed within the movie, Tammy Abughnaim, an American emergency doctor from Chicago, commented:
An increasing number of, I began to see youngsters with penetrating accidents like gunshot wounds. After 5, six, seven, eight, I got here to the conclusion that any person is taking pictures youngsters. I didn’t wish to imagine that youngsters have been being shot. No one needs to imagine that. No one needs to suppose that different people are able to annihilating youngsters in that method.
Abughnaim’s testimony is corroborated within the movie by Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina: “The goal on the finish of a scope is unmistakable. They’re a younger human being, and when that set off will get pulled on that focus on, it’s not by chance. In any respect. Ever.”
At one level, the interviewer requested Miranda Cleland of Protection for Youngsters Worldwide – Palestine, “The way you ever thought by way of ‘what’s the strategic cause to shoot a toddler? What message ought to we take from a navy that will goal youngsters?’” Cleland’s reply: “I’ve thought of it so much and the one conclusion I can come to is that Israeli troopers are taking pictures Palestinian youngsters as a result of they wish to. And I feel they do it as a result of they’re allowed to and no person has stopped them.”
Nabeel Rana, a vascular surgeon from Peoria, Illinois, put a finer level on it: “You’re wiping out a sure quantity, maiming a sure quantity and completely mentally and emotionally disabling the remainder. And that’s going to be handed right down to the following era. So, that is the way you cripple a society.”
As centuries of state violence in opposition to oppressed communities have lengthy demonstrated, probably the most direct approach to undermine and even eradicate a society is to focus on its youngsters. In December 2024, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) launched a report, “Era Wiped Out: Gaza’s Youngsters within the Crosshairs of Genocide,” analyzing Israel’s crime of genocide in opposition to Gazans, together with the genocide of kids. The PCHR report concluded:
The killing of kids, infliction of great bodily and psychological hurt, and subjection to harsh residing situations that destroy their lives can’t be dismissed as mere collateral injury of navy assaults. As an alternative, these actions are a part of a scientific technique geared toward erasing Palestinian identification and annihilating future generations.
There are ominous indications that this annihilation is effectively underway. A Reuters evaluation of information from the Gaza Well being Ministry revealed that at the very least 1,238 households — outlined as married {couples} and any youngsters they could have — have been completely erased, with no survivors. In an AP article on this concern final yr, Omar Shabaan, a Gazan researcher and economist, noticed that of Gaza’s 400,000 households, none have been spared, inflicting everlasting hurt to Gaza’s society, historical past and future. “It’s turning into clear,” he mentioned, “that it is a concentrating on of the social construction.”
This dramatic upsurge within the killing of Palestinian youngsters just isn’t restricted solely to Gaza. In accordance with a latest report on the “Gazafication” of the West Financial institution, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem found that Israel is now utilizing the navy ways of its assault on Gaza all through the Occupied Territories, “the place Palestinians face mass compelled displacements, a surge in airstrikes and a pointy rise in assaults on youngsters and different civilians.” B’Tselem reported that 180 youngsters have been killed by Israeli forces within the West Financial institution because the Gazan genocide started, making it the deadliest interval of Israel’s practically 60-yearlong occupation for adults and kids alike.
Reviews of violence in opposition to youngsters are certainly paying homage to studies from Gaza. In an article entitled “Baby Deaths Surge Amid ‘Gazafication’ of the West Financial institution,” the Guardian, interviewed Rigd Gasser, the daddy of 14-year-old Ahmad Rashid Jazar, who was shot within the chest within the village of Sebastia by an Israeli soldier whereas on an errand to get bread in January. Gasser was in a restaurant when he heard the gunshots and rushed out when he heard requires assist. “I bought nearer and acknowledged my son. I knew him by his garments, his physique was all lined in blood,” he mentioned.
The article additionally studies on the killing of cousins Reda Basharat (8) and Hamza Basharat (10) who have been killed close to residence by an Israeli drone strike on January 8. The kids have been sitting outdoors with their 23-year-old cousin Adam when Hamza’s mom Eman heard the explosion. When she ran outdoors, she discovered Hamza injured and struggling to breathe. “He died in my arms,” she mentioned. Eman added, “Once I take into consideration what occurred to my son and keep in mind the photographs of their our bodies, and I see what is occurring in Gaza on TV, I felt instantly that they’re doing the identical factor.”
Whereas these particular person studies painting unspeakable cruelty, it’s vital to remember that it in the end serves a bigger goal. Identical to the violence inflicted by the pharaoh within the Exodus story, Israel’s violence towards youngsters stems from the view of a complete folks as a “demographic menace.” This view itself stems from Zionism: an ideology and motion that seeks to create and keep a majority Jewish nation-state in historic Palestine. As such, the concentrating on of kids is a component of a bigger effort to ethnically cleanse Gaza by way of quite a lot of means, together with demolition of properties, inhabitants switch and, because the PCHR report places it, “erasing Palestinian identification and annihilating future generations.”
On this regard, Israel’s open fire policy towards Palestinian youngsters is inseparable from different draconian actions that clearly search the depopulation of Gaza and the West Financial institution. As of this writing, the AP has reported that Israel now controls 50 p.c of Gaza because it enlarges its buffer zone, razing Palestinian properties, farmland and infrastructure to “the purpose of uninhabitability.” The navy has additionally destroyed 90 p.c of the southern metropolis of Rafah, after issuing evacuation orders to its residents.
If there might be any doubt as to Israel’s intentions, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi, of the Likud celebration, like so many other Israeli politicians and navy leaders earlier than him, not too long ago made Israel’s finish recreation all too clear. In a radio interview he mentioned pointedly that Israel ought to “wipe Gaza off the face of the earth,” including, “There aren’t any innocents there.… I’ve no mercy for many who are nonetheless there. We have to get rid of them.” Extra not too long ago he commented in a TV interview: “You’ll be able to’t reside with these creatures subsequent to us.… There isn’t any peace with anybody right here.… Each baby born now — on this minute — is already a terrorist when he’s born.”
Notably, Vaturi has additionally made comparable comments in regards to the West Financial institution area of Jenin, the place 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced by Israel within the month of February alone. “Erase Jenin. Don’t begin on the lookout for the terrorists — if there’s a terrorist in the home, take him down, inform the ladies and kids to get out.” Whereas Israel’s apologists dismiss feedback similar to these as hyperbole, it’s important to notice that these very clear statements of intent are being backed up by very clear motion.
As a congregational rabbi, I’ve been requested recurring questions during the last two Passovers. How can I have a good time this vacation whereas a genocide is being dedicated in my title? How can I observe a competition of Jewish liberation whereas a Jewish nation-state is appearing as a pharaoh over a complete folks? Whereas I perceive the anguish behind these questions, I imagine the Passover ritual truly affords us an vital alternative: to squarely face the way in which the Exodus narrative is taking part in out in a really possible way in our personal day, to ask onerous questions and keep away from the easy, pat solutions.
In his searing book about Israel’s genocide, One Day, Everybody Will Have At all times Been In opposition to This, author Omar El Akkad writes:
A lady’s leg amputated, with out anesthesia, the surgical procedure carried out on a kitchen desk. A boy holding his father’s shoe, screaming. A woman whose jaw has been torn off. A baby, nonetheless in diapers, pulled out of the tents after the firebombing, his head severed from his physique.
Is there distance nice sufficient, to be freed from this? To be made clear?
This Passover, the season for asking questions, El Akkad’s problem kilos insistently on the collective conscience of the world.
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