Israel is rightly on the UN blacklist of countries that harm children

Somalia, Syria, Myanmar, Boko Haram and Israel. Together, and this is no coincidence. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' decision to add Israel to the blacklist of countries that harm children has insulted and shocked Israel. Us and Syria? Yes, us and Syria. In Israel, everyone went on the attack, but no one asked questions: what were we thinking while the army was killing thousands of children? That the world would remain silent? That the UN would show restraint? Her role is to shout and that’s what she did this weekend.

When it comes to the massacres of children, all excuses disappear, even those from Israel. Gilad Erdan can continue his grotesque shenanigans at the United Nations if he released a video recording yesterday of his conversation with the secretary general, an unprecedented act under the diplomatic code of conduct, all intended for the ears of the Likud central committee , in anticipation of Erdan's next post. Benjamin Netanyahu can continue to assert that “the UN has put itself on the blacklist of history.” The UN?

How many children were killed? The IDF killed 15,517 children, according to Gaza's health ministry. Some 8,000 of these deaths have been verified by the UN. Many children are still missing. Some 17,000 children have lost at least one parent; 3000 lost at least one limb. Nine out of ten children in the Gaza Strip suffer from “acute nutritional deficiency,” according to UNICEF. The World Health Organization has established that four out of five children eat nothing at least one day out of three. In January, the international organization Save the Children established that ten children lost at least one limb every day. On Saturday, Al-Jazeera aired a video of a boy asking his mother if his arm would grow back.

Everyone is on the blacklist of history except Israel. Everyone is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, only Israel is innocent. “The most moral army in the world,” Mr. Netanyahu proclaimed again on Saturday, which could only elicit an embarrassed smile from his listeners around the world. The evidence is solid, it accumulates unequivocally, it is unforgivable. Eight months of war against children. Eight months of children with amputated limbs, orphans, starving, sick and in shock, dying and dead. The numbers are horrifying, but what is equally horrifying is the complete denial of any responsibility on the part of Israel. Responsibility for the deaths of at least 10,000 children lies with their parents, Hamas and UNICEF, but not with their killers, nor with the soldiers and pilots of the most moral Israel Defense Forces in the world. When you reach such levels of suffering inflicted on so many children, one might have expected a certain degree of shock in Israel as well. After all, we have children too. But here, grief is prohibited by decree, compassion is no longer acceptable, protests only concern the fate of our children, since there are clearly no others, while the hundreds of thousands children on the other side are invisible, not worth considering.

The children of Gaza, those who survive, will never forget. Today they search through the rubble of their homes, mourn their parents and brothers and sisters, try to treat their wounds and stumps in a country where there is not a single functioning hospital, and are rendered crazy from nightmares. But they will grow up and not forget. Humanitarian aid continues to trickle in, settlers sabotage aid trucks, violently blocking their entry into Gaza, and Israel remains silent on this issue as well. But the children will never forget what Israel did to them. How could they? Not for generations. The world is now joining them. Even the cold, cynical world is shocked by such a massacre of children. Erdan, Netanyahu and other Israelis can continue to plead innocence and wash their hands of this affair, but their hands are stained with the blood of children, which no apology can hide. We have to start getting used to it: Somalia, Syria and Israel. This is the club. There is no need to be shocked by its composition, but only by what caused Israel's entry into the club. A justified addition, it must be admitted.