The concern Israel demonstrates for the fate of one Palestinian boy touches
the heart: Again, note what a fuss is being made about the case of the killing
of Mohammed al-Dura. Our heart is impervious to the fate of other children who
have been killed. Just little Mohammed continues to haunt us. But the question
of who killed al-Dura is not important. And maybe he is even alive, as some
eccentrics claim. Perhaps he committed suicide, as the strange investigations
are liable to suggest.
All of these are tasteless questions designed to divert attention from the truly
important issues: According to data collected by human rights group B'Tselem,
Israel is responsible for killing more than 850 Palestinian children and
teenagers since al-Dura was killed, including 92 in the past year alone. Last
October, we killed 31 children in Gaza. This is what should have raised a storm
and not the measurements by the former head of the Israel Defense Forces'
Southern Command, Yom Tov Samiyeh, aimed at proving that his soldiers did not
kill al-Dura, or the "investigations" by the physicist Nahum Shahaf. In an
eccentric obsession, Shahaf has devoted the past years to this affair, after
previously having also obtained "amazing material" on the murder of Yitzhak
Rabin.
Al-Dura refuses to step down from the stage because he has become an icon of the
Palestinian struggle and a symbol of Israeli brutality. A thousand Nahum Shahafs
will not succeed in blurring the unequivocal fact that a scandalous killing of
children is taking place in the territories.
Even if the director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman, is right in
determining that the film made by the reliable and experienced French journalist
Charles Enderlin was "staged," and even if he succeeds in clearing Israel from
responsibility for this killing, what will we say about the other children who
have been killed? That their killing was also "staged?" That the IDF did not
kill them through carelessness and contempt for their lives; by being
trigger-happy and even acting with premeditation? If Israel were really
interested in improving its "public relations," it would embrace the al-Dura
family instead of all the foolish investigations. It would provide compensation
to the family and show the world that it is truly and sincerely sorry about the
death of one child.
The question of who killed al-Dura is like the question of what Joseph
Trumpeldor mumbled before his death. The myth in both cases is already stronger
than any investigation. Al-Dura became a symbol because his killing was
documented on videotape. All the other hundreds of children were killed without
cameras present, so no one is interested in their fate. If there had been a
camera in Bushara Barjis' room in the Jenin refugee camp while she was studying
for a pre-matriculation test, we would have a film showing an IDF sniper firing
a bullet at her head. If there had been a photographer near Jamal Jabaji from
the Askar camp, we would see soldiers emerging from an armored jeep and aiming
their weapons at the head of a child who threw stones at them. But these
children did not become symbols; there are no stamps bearing their portraits, no
streets named after them and no songs composed for them as with al-Dura because
they were not filmed at the time of their deaths.
Al-Dura became a symbol because every struggle needs a symbol, a shrine for the
masses of dead and the anonymous heroes. The assumption that the IDF soldiers
firing at Palestinians at the Netzarim junction killed the boy cradled in his
father's arms exactly seven years ago is the most reasonable one. As far as we
can remember, there has been no other case in which Palestinians fired at the
IDF and hit a Palestinian child.
But even if there is some doubt, it is certain that the IDF has killed and is
killing children. So this ridiculous focus on who killed al-Dura, a question
that will never be resolved, is no more than a tempest in a putrid teapot. There
should be a tempest, a great and mighty one, but one focused on an entirely
different issue: Why is the IDF continuing to kill children at such a
frightening pace, and why doesn't Israel take responsibility for this and
compensate the families of those killed? But no one is conducting
"investigations" about this.
Click here the view this article at Haaretz's Website
Post Your Comment
*It should be NOTED that your email address won't be shared, and all communications between members will be routed via the website's mail server.