As an NC woman with deep ties to Palestine, I’m haunted by one image from Gaza | Opinion
As I watch the atrocities happening in Gaza, one of the many images I am haunted by is that of a Palestinian woman pulling her two children behind her, with a rope tied to each child’s infant carrier, as they escape the bombing of Gaza City. Strapped to her back are two bags with all their belongings. Where will they end up? How will the children grow up?
The image hits me hard. My father and husband are Palestinian. The image conjures up stories from relatives who were similarly forced to leave their homes in 1948 to make way for the state of Israel.
Will Palestinians who recently fled their homes in Gaza be allowed to go back? What will they go back to?
Israel is destroying Gaza. Aside from the thousands of people killed, homes have been demolished, the infrastructure is gone. Schools, hospitals, churches, and mosques are obliterated. Even if foreign aid is promised, it will be almost impossible to rebuild because Israel has had a blockade on Gaza since 2006, preventing building materials and supplies from getting in.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is not new. Israel has bombarded Gaza many times before — in 2008-9, 2012, 2014 and 2021. Half the population of Gaza are children. Imagine being a 15-year-old living through a lifetime of blockades and bombardments.
It’s heartbreaking to realize children will adapt to their conditions. They grow up in the worst of circumstances, not realizing how horrible it is. For children in Gaza, it’s normal to have bombs dropped down on them, destroying their homes and belongings and killing their families. To them, it’s normal to not have basic needs of food, water and shelter met.
Israeli children are also suffering, not only from the attacks of Oct 7, but from the insidiousness of antisemitism. Whenever there is hostility against Israel it’s usually framed as being due to antisemitism. Israeli and Jewish children are left to believe that Israel’s Jewish identity is the reason for attacks, overlooking the circumstances leading to such events.
There is no denying that antisemitism is atrocious and that it led to the horror of the Holocaust, but that is not what is driving the most recent attacks in Israel. Instead, they are predicated on 75 years of Zionist Israeli actions against Palestinians. This includes ongoing displacement from their homes, having their land stolen, being imprisoned, brutalized and even murdered.
Children will need help to get through the trauma they are experiencing. In 2022, research by a U.S. psychologist who visited Gaza often showed that 95% of children there showed symptoms of anxiety, depression, and trauma. That trauma is ongoing. Imagine what it must be like to watch your home destroyed, and your parents, siblings, and extended family killed. These children will be scarred for life.
The trauma the children in Palestine and Israel are experiencing did not start with the devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The attack on civilians that day, like violence against all civilians, must be condemned. Some believe that conflicts in the area are religious based. While historical wars, such as the Crusades, have occurred, the current situation is different.
What’s happening now started in 1948 when the state of Israel was created on land lived on and owned by Christian and Muslim Palestinians. Palestinian are waiting, house keys in hand, for the right to return, which they were granted by UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194 on Dec 11, 1948.
Palestinian children live in a state of limbo, waiting to go home, not knowing the comforts of home, but knowing it is called Palestine. The children are traumatized, broken, homeless, orphaned, but they still have hope that one-day justice will prevail, and Palestine will be free.
The solution to the conflict is justice. I pray the people of the Holy Land will soon have justice so they can have peace.