By Terry Hansen
Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war. I want to say it because it touches my heart.
— Pope Francis, condemning the bombing of children in Gaza
Rachel Corrie was a young American peace activist who, in 2003, was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli armored bulldozer while trying to protect the home of the family where she was staying. In an interview just two days before her death, Corrie explained:
“In the time I’ve been here, children have been shot and killed. I feel like what I’m witnessing here is a very systematic destruction of people’s ability to survive. And that is incredibly horrifying.”
Notably, this was before Hamas came to power in 2006.
Gabor Maté is a Jewish-Canadian physician, Holocaust survivor and trauma specialist. His grandparents were killed at Auschwitz. According to Maté:
“In 2005, there was a study that appeared in the Journal of World Psychiatry looking at traumatized populations under war conditions. The most traumatized children in 2005, this is before Hamas gained power…The most traumatized kids were in Gaza.”
A recent Associated Press article is titled, “Tens of thousands of Palestinians seek shelter after Israeli assaults across the West Bank.” Moreover, a February press release by the humanitarian aid organization, the International Rescue Committee, states:
“Children in the West Bank are facing increasing levels of violence, displacement, and deep trauma. The very places meant to protect and support them—schools, safe spaces, essential services—are disappearing before their eyes.”
Remember that Hamas is in power in Gaza, not in the West Bank.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists committed horrific crimes against humanity in Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
On October 8, 2023, The Times of Israel published an article titled, “For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces.”
The article explains how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bolstered Hamas, even allowing millions of dollars of “Qatari cash” to enter Gaza. The ultimate goal was to foster divisions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, thus thwarting the development of a Palestinian state.
A December needs assessment sponsored by the charity War Child Alliance found that death feels imminent for 96% of Gaza’s children.
In addition, almost half of the children in Gaza want to die as a result of war-related trauma, 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality,” 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.
Author Adam Hochschild wrote that “The politics of empathy are fickle.” Citing Hamas should not be a get-out-of-jail-free-card for committing crimes of war. This includes Israel’s bombing of hospitals and depriving civilian populations of food, water and medical supplies.
In the words of United Nations Humanitarian Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher:
“Parties to conflicts must protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. Even wars have rules… If your principles apply only to your opponents, then they are not humanitarian principles.”
The Leahy Law, named after Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), asserts: “No assistance shall be furnished to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”
Annelle Sheline was a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State, who resigned in protest over the Biden administration’s unconditional support for the war in Gaza. In her April 9 report for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Sheline wrote:
“Congress has still never successfully voted to block a weapons sale. Today, the myth that American power upholds human rights lies buried beneath the rubble of Gaza.”
Terry Hansen is a retired educator. He lives in Milwaukee.