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A Palestinian girl translates the suffering of the children of Palestine in a comprehensive study
A study conducted by a 13-year-old Palestinian girl Yasmeen Ghassaan Shamlaawi, from the city of Nablus revealed interesting and distinctive facts about the plight of Palestinian children. Suffering at the hands of the occupation like other Palestinian children, Yasmeen has successfully attempted to translate this suffering in a comprehensive study based on the information provided by Israeli opinion polls and mass media as well as Palestinian statistical data. The study indicates that a large proportion of soldiers from the Israeli occupation -- more than 55 percent -- prefer targeting children. More than once, the Israeli military has devised programs and plans designed to terrorize Palestinian children.
The study starts by mentioning the case of an Israeli military judge who prosecuted a 13-year-old boy named Maajid Jaraadaat from the city of Hebron, and sentenced him to imprisonment for one year for his use of catapults in throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. The judge said to the child, "Do you not know that the young David killed the great Goliath with a small catapult?" The study then quotes the statement of an Israeli military commander addressing his soldiers: "We must sow fear and cowardice in the hearts of Palestinian children in order to kill the spirit of resistance in the future generations."
According to the study, 38 percent of the victims of the Palestinian Intifada are children who constitute 52 percent of the Palestinian population. The percentage of children who have been killed in the Intifada has reached 19.2 percent [until the time of conducting the study], whereas the percentage of Palestinian children living in poverty is 56.8 percent. The study shows that during the first seven years of the Intifada, and according to more than one statistical source, about 1000 children were killed and more than 18,800 were wounded -- out of which 750 suffered permanent disability. More than 6000 children were arrested and 500 of them are still in Israeli prisons, the youngest of whom is a 13-year-old boy named Muhammad Nimr Al-Khawaaja from the village of Bil‘in in Ramallah.
Yasmeen says, "When I started collecting material for this study, I was full of energy and activity, hoping that I would contribute to exposing the brutal military establishment, which – according to its unethical laws – targets Palestinian children. The more material I obtained, the more pain and anger I felt. It was as if I was hearing about them for the first time and some of these scenes would pass in front of my eyes to remind me of loved ones who used to visit me in the past."
She adds, "I was appalled by the magnitude and nature of these practices and became speechless and helpless many times to find the words to describe the scenes or put titles to them. Although I have an extensive vocabulary, it does not include the lexicon of murder, oppression and war crimes."
Yasmeen goes on to say, "At this stage, faced with lack of restraint and feelings of apathy, anxiety, and absence of mind, I recalled the words of the late Yasser Arafat when he said: 'It is the eyes of the Palestinian children that make me resolved and give me strength. I feel the burden of responsibility in front of them.' These words inspire responsibility and honesty towards these children and sharpen my resolution to move forward in exposing the systematic Israeli atrocities carried out against our innocent children, perhaps they would be heard in a deaf and dumb world."
Children are victims of Israeli policies
According to the study, all the statistical data and implications of opinion polls and media reports, particularly those from Israel, indicate that Palestinian children have been victimized by Israeli policies that are deliberately programmed to target and oppress them. It confirms that the Israeli military does not act spontaneously; rather, it emphasizes targeting Palestinian children by all the possible means of killing and destruction, using them as the ground for experiments of the "Black Death" mission and for showing off its military power and lethal weapons.
According to the study, it is no coincidence that 38 percent of the victims of Israeli oppression are children who fall victim to the Israeli soldiers' expertise at murder, torture, abuse and sadism, all aimed at achieving "victory", even over innocent children. In doing so, they intend to weaken this active group, kill the spirit of resistance which rejects the occupation, and thus break their will and stop their number from increasing.
The study adds: "According to countless proofs and documented data, the Israeli massacre against Palestinian children is unrelenting, long and continuing with criminal premeditation, aiming to turn the lives of Palestinian children into an eternal hell and [a source of] constant anxiety, and at killing their dreams and aspiration for freedom, life, and independence. In this mission, they do not differentiate between an infant and a boy or a girl in a manner that makes the diary of the Palestinian child riddled with various forms of endless pain, torture, and suffering with no limits."
Religious verdicts permit the murder of children
Yasmeen mentions something that she considers evidence to expose the Israeli establishment, in the form of a piece of writing by the Israeli journalist, Kobi Yaniv, wherein he unveiled the danger of the religious edicts that have turned into military instructions that permit hunting Palestinian children. He specified that there are special courses for snipers whose graduates have an expertise in targeting children's heads and killing them, and receive great appreciation and respect for doing so. To support this, the graves of the Palestinian territories are filled with children who were killed with plastic bullets.
The study adds, quoting an Israeli journalist: "As long as we follow the policy of 'kill them when they are young', so why should we wait until they reach the age of eleven? Why do we not kill them when they are three or four years old or even a few months old? Why do we not kill them, even before they are born when they are in their mothers' wombs?"
Yasmeen continues, "Therefore, it is clear according to the data on the Palestinian situation that the days of the Palestinian children are dyed in red and daily registers of Palestinians have not witnessed a single day throughout the occupation without an incident of killing or wounding or terrorizing a number of children. Moreover, these children have not been excluded from being targeted with tank shells, sniper fire and helicopter rockets even when they are playing in front of their homes or in their gardens or behind their desks in class."
Scenes of suffering
The study contains a number of incidents related to the killing of Palestinian children by Israeli forces. Here we will mention the full text of these incidents written in the study.
Scene no. 1
Maariyya Amn is a 6-year-old girl. She does not know any security except what is reflected in her family name (Amn is the Arabic term for security). She is undergoing the effect of one of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity and childhood. Her body was completely paralyzed after she and her family were exposed to an Israeli bombardment in May 2006, which targeted one of the Palestinian resistance leaders, Muhammad Dahdooh. A rocket fired by the Israeli army hit the vehicle they were riding, killing her mother, brother, grandmother and maternal uncle. Maariyya was hit by shrapnel from the blast which left her completely paralyzed, except for her head. Even today, Maariyya is unable to breathe normally, and since then, she sits in a wheelchair in Alin Hospital in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Her features imply that she regrets being alive and pleads for her Creator to let her join her family and loved ones.
Scene no. 2
The series of incidents targeting children did not stop with Maariyya. In another incident in 2007, the family of Abu Ghazaalah, living in the northern Gaza Strip was bereaved of their children Yahya (12 years), Muhammad (9 years) and Sarah (9 years) as a result of an Israeli shell that blew up their bodies on August 29. At that time, they were playing in the agricultural land owned by their parents. The shell buried their innocent dreams, reduced their ambitions and zest for life to ruins and blacked out their innocent features. According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, the children Yahya Ramadan Abu Ghazaalah, Mahmood Sulaymaan Abu-Ghazaalah, and their cousin Sarah were playing with a group of children east of Beit Hanoun when an Israeli tank fired a deadly shell at them. The three children died and were taken to the hospital as mutilated remains of bones and flesh mixed together.
(To be continued)
