7. February 10-year-old Sadam Rajab He died at a hospital on the occupied west coast after the Israeli soldier shot him days earlier. Saddam stood on the street in front of his house when Israeli soldiers attacked his village near Tulkarem and started shooting.
CCTV shots show the moment when he was shot. He fell to the ground, tightening his stomach and twisting into the fetal position. The first hospital he hurried he did not treat him to, so he had to be transferred to the second in Nablus. On the way, the ambulance held for hours at a checkpoint in which the Israeli soldier engaged in Saddam’s father, saying, “I am the one who shot your son. God willing, he will die.”
Saddam is one of 13 Palestinian children that the Israeli army was killed on the occupied west coast since the beginning of the year. The number of children killed by Israeli soldiers and immigrants on the occupied west coast shockfully exceeded 220 since January 2023.
Saddam’s story – like the stories of other Palestinian children’s victims – never made international titles. There was no reaction of the international community to his murder. This is because Palestinian children experience relentless dehumanization.
This is obviously even in a few stories that enter the media light, such as a case of a six -year -old Rear rajab, who was killed in Gaza on January 29, 2024, almost exactly one year before Saddam shot. Together with his aunt, uncle and relatives, Hind was trying to evacuate from the city of Gaza in a car when they were surrounded by Israeli forces, which fired at them.
While her relatives were killed, Hind survived the initial blow of the fire and managed to get in touch with the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS). Published recording of her phone calls PrC seeking help because the Israeli tanks closed the world on it.
An ambulance sent to save her never returned, and hindi calls for PrC stopped. Almost two weeks later, HIND bodies, her relatives and two ambulance workers were found, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun. Later investigation They showed that the Israeli army shot an ambulance and a car in which Hind was stuck, despite their coordinates.
While the story of Hindo’s brutal death made international titles – a rare case among more than 17,000 children killed in Gaza – there were still an attempt to dehumanize and denied the status of a child’s victim. For example, when reporting a student camp of Columbia University who called the building on it, CNN explained “Hind’s Hall” was a reference to a “woman” killed in Gaza.
Another particularly awful example of denying the Palestinian Child’s Child’s Status is a Sky News report in January 2024. In which the show manager claimed that: “Incidentally, a stray bullet found himself in a van in front, and was killed three or three or killed tri- or a three -year -old young lady. “
These examples illustrate what Palestinian academic Nader Shalhoub-Kevorkian called “unauthorized”. She came up with an expression to expose a dehumanization that accompanies violence against children in a colonial context. In occupied and colonized Palestine, Palestinian children were taken from childhood to justify the brutality that was inflicted on them.
For decades, Palestinian children have been displayed by the Israeli regime, and west or inferior to other children or not children at all; They were often equated with adults who have the potential to be “terrorists”. In this way, they are seen as inherently dangerous and denied the status of a “child” and a connotation of innocence that is provided to him.
Unchilding not only covers the murder and reinforcement of Palestinian children; This also facilitates their abduction, detention and abuse in Israeli prisons.
Last year, Ayham al SalaymehThe 14-year-old Palestinian boy from Silwan, Jerusalem, became the youngest Palestinian to withstand a prison sentence in the Israeli prison. Ayham was arrested two years ago and is charged with throwing stones at the illegal Israeli settlers.
He was questioned and placed in house detention for two years before being convicted New Israeli legislation This allows the Palestinian Children to Prison for Capital Acts classified as “terrorism”. Israel The only country in the world This systematically prosecutes and closes children.
Israeli media routinely mark Palestinian children like Ayham as potential security threats, minors or human shields, in an effort to justify their prison and torture.
As genocide spreads across Palestine, the terrible reality is that the Israeli army will kill more Palestinian children and adults while watching the world. Their murders will not be covered by Western main media, there will be no segments that interview their families with childhood paintings, nor will there be a statement of condemnation from the world leaders. Palestinian children are effectively taken away from childhood, their humanity.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeere.
