Well, not so if they are Palestinian children that Israelis keep killing time and time again. It is part of what Israelis calls ‘mowing the grass’.
I wrote the following nine years ago.
At last counting there were 1,230 Palestinians killed in Gaza as a result of 3,000 or more air and artillery strikes. 56 Israelis have died. Close to 1,000 of those Palestinians killed were civilians, including children. Only three Israeli civilians died. Just imagine the outcry of the Israeli lobby if those figures were reversed and 1000 Israelis had been killed… Clearly the Israel lobby and many others don’t regard Palestinian civilians and children of equal value to their own.
In her article ‘Grief grips Gaza’ in the SMH on August 2, Ruth Pollard tells the searing story of the carnage in Gaza. For link to story, see below.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/
The Israelis and their apologists around the world, including President Obama and Prime Minister Abbott, say that Israel has a right to defend itself. That may be true, but it is only a very small part of the truth. They refuse to honestly admit that the core of the problem in Palestine is that land was stolen by Israel from the Palestinians in 1967. There will be no peace without justice. There will be no justice until Israel withdraws from the land it has stolen from the Palestinian people.
But whilst this political impasse continues with the support of the Israeli lobby, the people of Palestine are suffering an appalling fate.
And it is happening again in 2023.
This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against the Palestinian people. This war with its occupation, ethnic cleansing and terror has been ongoing for almost 60 years.
It feels cruel to count the number of children killed, for every one of them is precious. The Israeli propaganda machine disputes the numbers as mere Hamas propaganda.
But at last count over 6000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel in carpet bombing in the last two months. More precious young souls are dead under the rubble.
In addition to deaths many children will be orphaned, displaced and denied food, water and health care.
UNICEF has described Gaza as ‘the most dangerous place in the world for a child’.
The Secretary General of the UN calls Gaza ‘a graveyard for children’.
And it is not just in Gaza that war crimes are being committed by Israel. Palestinians are continuing to be killed on the West Bank by the Israeli Army and by settlers supported by the Army.
While 150 Palestinian women and children, the great majority held without charges or trials, have been released during the past four days, Israel has taken 260 new hostages in the West Bank during these same four days.
There are over 6000 Palestinians in Israeli jails. Most are tried in a military court or not even charged but held indefinitely at the pleasure of the IDF, that ‘moral army’.
Many of the young prisoners/hostages in Israeli jails are in prison for throwing stones at their occupiers in military vehicles.
The IDF shoots at their legs to maim.
A senior Israeli military commander hopes for a plague, epidemic or other contagion to sweep though the people of Gaza. It will reduce the risks to the IDF. Others call the Palestinians ‘animals’.
Our ‘leaders’ in Church and State are sitting out this Palestinian tragedy. As quiet as church mice.
For God’s sake, for the children’s sake and for our own sake, stop this inhumanity. The tears of the children will not wash away our guilt.
Israel has no sense of shame. And the US, the land of the free, is complicit in the massacre of children.
A repost from August 3, 2014.