In Gaza, Killing Children And The Burdens of Conscience

History makes clear that the creation of graveyards for children has a long legacy and is deeply rooted in the language of war, militarism, forced detentions, occupation, blockades, and violence.

War breeds depravity and vague appeals to morality give way to a politics soaked in blood and destruction.[1] Too often it is the most innocent who pay the price. The most recent and tragic example is the death and violence that has been waged on the children of Israel and Gaza. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, when violence first erupted on October 7th with Hamas’s brutal and heinous attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians, 29 Israeli children were killed.[2] The killing of innocent children continued in shockingly accelerated numbers with Israel’s policy of collective punishment. By November 26^th, a staggering 5500 Palestinian children had been killed in Gaza, an additional 1800 are missing, and nine thousand were injured.[3] About half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are children.

For the children killed in both Israel and Gaza, history did not begin on October 7^th. History makes clear that the creation of graveyards for children has a long legacy and is deeply rooted in the language of war, militarism, forced detentions, occupation, blockades, and violence.[4] It is a language that pushes aside the rhetoric and value of human dignity, social responsibility, compassion for the other, and democracy itself. The killing of children in war is overlooked when human dignity succumbs to nationalistic passions and militarized machineries of violence.

calls for ceasefire and to save the lives of children in Gaza outside White House

Amid the current Israel-Hamas war, images of children covered in blood, limbs missing, bodies robbed of life are forgotten amidst the calls for security and revenge “created and maintained by planes and weapons of war.”[5] This is especially true for the children of Gaza. Under such circumstances, memory fails, and history no longer serves as a warning and moral witness to the depravity of sacrificing children to the cruelty of prioritizing war over peace. When history, ethics, and respect for human dignity disappear in the framing of violence, especially with regard to the killing of children, silence becomes both a form of betrayal and an accessory to ignorance and violence.[6] Whether by Hamas or Israel, the killing and wounding of children will continue, and must be condemned.