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Our problem with selective sympathy for young victims
http://972mag.com/our-problem-with-selective-sympathy-for-young-victims/92798/When our sympathy only reaches out to the children of one nation alone, we have condemned all of them to this atrocious cycle of violence.
The news spread in a flash. After 18 days of tense waiting, the three bodies of the abducted Israeli boys were finally discovered, with their families’ worst fears realized. Gilad Sha’ar, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, were murdered in cold blood, not far from the site where they were snatched as they hiked home together.
There aren’t enough words to express the loss of a child. It is a language that only those families can understand and that writers can only attempt to describe. It is also one of the few pains that many Israeli and Palestinian families can mutually feel. Unfortunately, however, it is uncertain if both would fully recognize that same pain in the other. Many public responses from Israelis and Palestinians have been indifferent to the deaths of the others’ children. Even worse, many would blame those children and parents themselves for their own deaths – for resisting a raid on their home, for living in an illegal settlement, for being ruled by Hamas, for serving the military occupation.
The apathy towards the “other child’s” suffering is painful to watch, including in this latest saga. In the two to three weeks following the abduction of the three Israeli boys, at least eight Palestinians were killed during Israel’s military responses in both Gaza and the West Bank. Among them were 10-year-old Ali al-Awour, 15-year-old Mohammad Dudeen and 22-year-old Mustafa Hosni Aslan. Ali died of wounds from an Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza; Mohammad was killed by a single live bullet in the village of Dura; Mustafa was killed by live bullets in Qalandiya refugee camp during clashes with an Israeli military raid.
The news spread in a flash. After 18 days of tense waiting, the three bodies of the abducted Israeli boys were finally discovered, with their families’ worst fears realized. Gilad Sha’ar, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, were murdered in cold blood, not far from the site where they were snatched as they hiked home together.
There aren’t enough words to express the loss of a child. It is a language that only those families can understand and that writers can only attempt to describe. It is also one of the few pains that many Israeli and Palestinian families can mutually feel. Unfortunately, however, it is uncertain if both would fully recognize that same pain in the other. Many public responses from Israelis and Palestinians have been indifferent to the deaths of the others’ children. Even worse, many would blame those children and parents themselves for their own deaths – for resisting a raid on their home, for living in an illegal settlement, for being ruled by Hamas, for serving the military occupation.
The apathy towards the “other child’s” suffering is painful to watch, including in this latest saga. In the two to three weeks following the abduction of the three Israeli boys, at least eight Palestinians were killed during Israel’s military responses in both Gaza and the West Bank. Among them were 10-year-old Ali al-Awour, 15-year-old Mohammad Dudeen and 22-year-old Mustafa Hosni Aslan. Ali died of wounds from an Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza; Mohammad was killed by a single live bullet in the village of Dura; Mustafa was killed by live bullets in Qalandiya refugee camp during clashes with an Israeli military raid.
There has been a lot of back and forth on the internet about all these murders, and nobody can claim the moral high ground or that somehow the deceased deserved it.
The families of all these youth grieve and more killing, as self-righteous and self-justified as it may sound, will not change that.
It really does not matter if the deceased were 10, 15, 22 or 40. When a parent loses a child it is always a tragedy, and it doesn't matter what age they are. They are always look upon as their babies.
For the parents, for the families of those lost to violence. 