Photo Shared from Mohammed Salem/Al Jazeera
Ismail, Zakaria, Ahed, and Mohamed are four names that appear random and have no particular significance to the average person. However, these four names are well known and engraved into every Palestinians consciousness.
They are the Bakr family children - each of them between nine and eleven years old. I donât blame you for not recognising their names. The truth is - Palestinian names, families, and faces are not remembered in a world where public opinion and awareness is dictated by a 24/7 news cycle. Their story wasnât spread. Their loss wasnât humanised; interviews with their loved ones werenât conducted. So no one learned of their joys, their dreams, or their aspirations.
A year ago, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was burned alive by Israeli terrorists in Jerusalem in a âprice tagâ revenge killing. The horrific burning of an 18-month-old toddler, Ali Saad Dawabsheh, due to an arson attack by racist settlers on the family home in the Duma village, marks Abu Khdeirâs one-year anniversary.
Graffiti was left on the wall reading ârevengeâ and âlong live the Messiah kingâ in Hebrew, a calling card for racist settlers. Aliâs parents and older brother are all in critical condition in the hospital with burns covering 75% of their bodies.
The truth is we donât mourn the loss of Palestinian lives. We donât pause to remember the families wiped out, the homes and schools systematically blown up, the hospitals and ambulances surgically targeted, or the countless innocent individuals murdered while simply trying to live their lives. The killing of Cecil the lion had far more global coverage and calls for investigations than the Bakr children, Mohammed Abu Khdeir and the 18 month old Ali.
The world is resoundingly indifferent to Palestinian suffering and demonstrates that policy of indifference daily.
But how can we do this? How can we turn a blind eye to the constant and systematic eraser of Palestineâs woes from the global consciousness?
How do we excuse Israelâs holding of 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners - some as young as 11 years old - and one out of four elected Palestinian parliament members being locked-up?
How do we explain the disproportional response of diplomats flocking into Gaza seeking the release of one Israeli soldier captured in the aftermath of Israelâs summer assault on the Strip?
Where are the delegations seeking the release of 1.4 million Palestinians from Israelâs open-air âconcentration camp-likeâ the Gaza Strip?
In frustration, I digress. The Bakr children deserve their moment of remembrance.
They were playing soccer on the beach on a sunny day - a brief respite from a childhood in Gaza which is innately characterized by oppression, fear, and violence - when an Israeli shell fell on their game.
Journalists nearby, who themselves were playing soccer with the children just a few minutes before, witnessed the carnage. They testified that no military activities were present in the area, but regardless, the Israeli military held resistance soldiers responsible for the incident - stating resistance forces were the intended target.
This is not the first, nor the last murder carried out by the Israeli military in broad daylight with cameras rolling - yet they are never held accountable or responsible for their actions. The violent loss of these four children continues to weigh heavily on my own conscience.
I, too, avidly played soccer growing up. Every open space, courtyard, and stairway was my field. For my childhood friends and me, any free time before and after school meant an open-ended pick-up game with a metaphorical halftime reserved for a run to the nearby mosque for prayers.
Soccer made everyone equal on the field and created a bond among all the neighbourhood kids. We often pooled our pennies together to purchase a new communal ball. As children growing up during war, protests, and political instability, we did not stop playing. For those few moments during the game, we were able to put aside the violent world around us and enjoy running freely after a ball.
Periods of ceasefire were always an opportune time to start a quick game and release some of our pent-up childhood energy after long hours of hiding behind closed doors in the basement during times of fighting.
The terrifying truth is, the Bakr children could have been my friends. They could have been my family. I, too, could have tragically lost my life while running, laughing, and playing on the beach during a quiet and sunny day.
The loss of the Bakr children is really just one more drop in a sea of Israeli injustice. Their case will be lost in the stacks of evidence against Israel and their illegal occupation. But while the world may forget the Bakr children, Palestine will not.
The facts are clear. The last assault on Gaza was the third in eight years - 1.4 million Palestinians were besieged. Within a span of 51 days during the summer of 2014, Israel conducted more than 6,000 airstrikes, which targeted residential and other buildings.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 142 Palestinian families had three or more members killed in the same incident owing to the destruction of residential buildings, for a total of 742 fatalities.
According to the UN OCHA report, the Palestinian death toll stands at 2,220 Gazans killed; and 1,492 of them were civilians, including 551 children and 299 women.
The percentage of civilian casualties is almost 70 percent. Iâm left grasping for some kind of understanding of how any regime could get away with such atrocities. Who will hold Israel responsible?
In addition to the killings and maiming of Palestinians, the Israelis heavily damaged 9,644 homes, and there are around 90,000 partly damaged houses in the Gaza Strip.
At present, some 100,000 Gazans are still living as refugees within their own lands or are living in dangerously damaged buildings - simply to have shelter. No reconstruction or aid has been allowed into Gaza, so efforts towards recovery are halted before they begin.
When children are being targeted and slaughtered for political gain, decisive and bold action must be taken. We simply cannot stand to let such injustices continue.
As we mark the first anniversary of Israelâs last operation in Gaza (this article was written August 2, 2015), more than ever, the world must support efforts like Boycott Divest Sanctions (BDS). Systems must be put into place to hold Israel accountable for the suffering of millions.
International attention must be called to the plight of the Palestinians. But more simply, children must be allowed to be children. They should never have to live in fear, huddled in basements, hiding from gunfire, scared to play their games or to laugh too loudly or to run in the sun. The Bakr childrenâs story stands as a monument to the worldâs indifference to Palestinian suffering. The children and all Palestinian people deserve justice.
(This article was written August 2, 2015, and I am reposting it again for historical context and continuity in discussing the ongoing genocide)
