How To Explain American Apathy Over Israeli Killings of Palestinian Children?

By Stephen J. Sosebee

Nothing has deepened the collective despair that is life in Palestine today more than the killing of children, nor has any one dimension produced greater anger and fuel for the intifada. Though it may be so common now that it is hardly noticed in Israel, every injured or dead child is mourned by the 1.7 million Palestinians resisting occupation.

"They steal our land, imprison our leaders, and deny us our flag and peace, but we will forgive them when we have our state," said the father of Said, a boy killed in Rafah. "But to keep shooting our children; this I cannot forgive, especially since they suffered from the Nazis in Europe. They should feel our pain because it happened to them."

A week after Said's death, his 19-year-old brother was also killed by IDF troops in Rafah.

Some places in Palestine seem to have become Israeli free-fire zones for children. In the Shatti refugee camp in Gaza, for example, 10 of the 19 civilians shot dead by the IDF during the uprising have been under 16 years of age. Among them were three girls, a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old and a 10-year-old, all shot to death within a three-month period at the end of 1989.

"Do the Israelis think that by shooting our children they can make us submit?" asks Ahmed, a Shatti resident. "Is it supposed to cow us or lessen our resolve? Every new martyr confirms again to all why we must rid ourselves of this occupation."

While the blood of Palestinian children obviously seems cheap to the Israeli soldiers spilling it, Palestinian parents are at a loss to understand how the Israeli public justifies and the American public ignores the killing of their children.

"When my son was killed the entire camp defied the curfew and beatings to pay him respect," says the mother of Bassani, a 12-year-old killed by an Israeli Defense Forces sniper while tending sheep during the curfew last February. "The people know his blood is for Palestine and they supported us during our pain and loss. There is no greater sacrifice than to lose your child, and there is nothing greater to sacrifice for than your freedom and country. Still, it hurts so."

Whether American correspondents are to blame, or whether the fault lies with dishonest editors, US newspapers are not informing the American public concerning the frequency with which Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli soldiers over the past four years. From Dec. 12, 1990 to April 1, 1991, for example, 14 Palestinian children under the age of 16 were shot dead. During the same period of time in the first year of the intifada, 15 kids were killed by gunfire. In all, 239 children have been killed by Israeli forces during the uprising, while more than 55,000 more have been seriously wounded.

"What is the most disturbing fact about the numbers concerning injured children is that the soldiers don't seem to care who is in the sight at the end of their rifles when they pull the trigger," says Dr. Adnan Marshoud, a physician at Shifa Hospital in Gaza. "To most of them, we must be animals, not living and breathing human beings. They don't consider that we love our children, or the pain and anger that burns us when our children are killed or injured."

According to UNRWA statistics compiled just in the Gaza Strip from the start of the intifada to the first of March this year, 19,715 children under the age of 15 required medical attention due to IDF acts of violence. Of these, 2,590 were wounded by live ammunition, not rubber bullets.

"What do they say in America to justify shooting our children?" is perhaps the most common question asked of foreigners in Palestine. Always, I wonder if "they don't know" can really be an acceptable answer.

Rivaling the absolute evil in any situation in which soldiers kill unarmed civilians (not to mention children) are the tactics of hard-line supporters of present Israeli government policies. It defies logic to claim moral superiority and refuse to talk with the PLO because it is just a "terrorist organization," while Israeli troops continue to entrap and shoot children on a rather consistent basis.

Even more sickening is the hypocrisy displayed by all sides of Israel's political establishment, as if Israel's leaders are not really responsible for the acts that take place on the ground in Palestine. How is it Defense Minister Moshe Arens can call the Arabs "an uncivilized people" who "don't value human life, " when Israeli troops have killed dozens and maimed hundreds of children just in the period he has been minister of defense. Is he really such a hypocrite, or does he truly think the circumstances and manner in which his troops have shot children indiscriminately go unnoticed?

And who can still believe Yossi Sarid, a left-wing politican from the "peace camp, " when he writes that the "stray bullets" that "find" Palestinian children "pierced our hearts as well"? Leaders with "pierced hearts" would demand that their own children stop the slaughter in which more than 10,000 Palestinian children have been shot over a four-year period.

Four years is enough time for both Israelis and Palestinians to contemplate the directions in which they are heading, and to alter their course if it involves acts for which they do not wish to be held responsible.

Zion has decided that land is of greater value than the lives of those living on it. For its part, the occupied population has pledged not to submit to foreign domination, whatever the costs and suffering.

Thus, it seems the unequal relationship that has spilled so much needless blood is to continue to be one based on domination and hatred. And, unless Israelis come to their senses, or Americans refuse to further condone their actions, the killing of Palestinian children will continue unabated.

Stephen J. Sosebee is a free-lance writer who divides his time between Ohio and occupied Palestine.