On Israel’s Destruction of Young Palestinian Lives: Controversy Is Not in Speaking Out, Controversy Is in The Silence

Have you read the new report on Gaza by Save The Children?

Can you believe what it says?

I’m not saying that in any conspiracy theory way, or in a Zionist way, so often equating any criticism of Israel as, you know, being Hamas.

By ‘Can you believe it?’ I mean can you actually imagine the horrors described.

You can read the report called Gaza’s Missing Children here. It sheds light on the true – or, rather, closer to describing the scale of destruction of human life – situation in Gaza, especially as it relates to its most vulnerable population.

What I’d like to share from it are several quotes. I have to admit that it took me some time to process them, though I honestly don’t know how this kind of information can actually be processed.

At least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated
and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble,
with an unknown number also in mass graves.

An unknown number of children in mass graves.

Children are also among those recently found in mass graves, according to UN experts, with many showing signs of torture and summary executions, as well as potential instances of people buried alive.

Many showing signs of torture.
Summary executions.
Buried alive.


At times I don’t know what what further “analysis” is needed after one reads such a report. What else is needed to condemn it, to cut through Israel’s deep-seated propaganda, to see through decades of dehumanisation. What other horrors need to be described?

Yet if there is a piece of analysis we can engage in here, I think it’s this:

The disregard for and the destruction of young Palestinian lives by Israeli governments and its army is not new.

It’s not new, it’s not sporadic, it’s not unintentional, and it’s not even hidden.

I myself wrote about it in my article for Mondoweiss called Israel’s War on Children of Gaza back in 2021, I recorded a podcast episode on Israeli state policies that target children in 2022, and my most recent podcast episode is about what the UN designation of Israel as a party that harms children in conflict means.

Everything – everything – is in the open. Even Israel’s mass graves are being uncovered.

If there was a time when talking about Palestine was considered “controversial”, “uncomfortable”, “why to go there, really?”, I think we are way past that.

The controversy now is not in speaking out.
It’s in the morals of those who choose to stay silent.


As always: stay strong, check on others, and keep your heart open.

❤️💔❤️

Justina

I invite you to contribute to my fundraiser to translate Where Olive Trees Weep, a beautiful movie on Palestine, to Lithuanian (my native language), so it’s available for broader audiences at home.

Find all my work on Palestine here.

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