Our children were created for life... and our people for freedom

Written by: Nihad Abu Ghosh
Amid successive waves of recent resistance operations, which came as natural and expected reactions to the crimes of the occupation, the occupied territories witnessed some emotional operations carried out by a number of children under the age of eighteen, that is, under the age of majority, and under the age of legal and penal responsibility in accordance with all national laws. and international. This in itself raises a number of political, legal and moral questions, which require from us as Palestinians, factions, individuals and institutions, a clear, bold and categorical stance towards this phenomenon. There is no need to stress more than what is known to each of us that the crimes of the occupation do not differentiate between old and young, nor between men and women. Every Palestinian is a permissible target for the weapon and uncontrollable killing tools carried by the soldier or the settler, who is protected and supported by a fascist government, and legislated by a system of laws of racial discrimination.

Resistance is the noblest phenomenon of political struggle that people have known, and it is often the weapon of the weak and defeated in the face of the tyranny of the strong aggressor. It was guaranteed by international charters and laws, and it constituted an undeniable lever to restore our Palestinian national identity. It also constituted in colonial countries the noblest method of liberation from colonialism, as practiced by it. Developed countries and peoples when they were subjected to external invasion, as happened with most of the peoples of Europe in the face of Nazism.

But resistance must be guided, and it is a means and not an end in itself, and our cause is the equivalent of truth and justice, and it is a fortiori that we elevate the morals of our struggle and struggle to the level that befits the great values of freedom, and we have in the heroes of a number of recent operations an example of the chivalry of our fighters and their lofty morals, When they intentionally avoided harming children and civilians, as was recognized by a number of eyewitnesses in the fields of operations, although no one would blame those "who went to their death in two names", confident in the justice of their cause.

Israel, according to the testimonies of local and international human rights organizations, applies two parallel legal systems: one for the dominant party, who are the Jews to whom the Convention on the Rights of the Child and international treaties on minors under the legal age apply, and the second does not recognize international covenants and applies the laws inherited from the era of the British Mandate and Israeli military orders against our youth and children. The result is that a child like Ahmed Manasra (who has become a young man) is arrested at the age of twelve, and he spends more than half of his life until now being deprived of treatment and care, while the criminals who burned the Dawabsha family and the martyred child Abu Khudair escape punishment, taking advantage of the applied racist laws. Because some of them were under eighteen days at the time of committing the crime.

Let us be clear and firm about the phenomenon of children’s participation in operations, and say it out loud: No to the participation of our children in the armed struggle as long as they are below the age of legal responsibility. their contribution to the struggle of their people. We are fully aware that these children who participate in the operations are mainly victims of the crimes of the occupation, and it is responsible for pushing them and other young people to choose this way to respond. The occupation commits it, so they respond with whatever makes it possible for them to respond, with scissors or a screwdriver, without planning or training, resorting to the nearest available means, after which they become a target for field executions that the occupation propaganda calls “neutralization.”

It is true that our distant and recent history is full of stories of heroism and sacrifice of young men and children that we have begun to sing of, such as the phenomenon of RPG children and children of stones, but each time has its own circumstances, our people, factions and adult fighters did not hide behind children or watch them carry out operations to praise them afterwards.

It is strange that the national factions race to glorify the phenomenon of child operations and describe it as a natural phenomenon and a response to the crimes of the occupation, and even call for more of these sacrifices, without highlighting that these children are practically victims of the Israeli killing machine. It is better for these factions, as long as they are convinced of the armed struggle, to take the initiative To mobilize its members and affiliates and push them to carry out these tasks instead of glorifying what the children are doing, no one denies that these factions have a glorious history of sacrifice and redemption, and they individually and collectively provided thousands of martyrs on the path of freedom and independence, but they cannot cover the crisis of their relationship with the current wave of resistance with statements Glorifying the martyrs, including children.

There is no natural person who would like his children to go to battle instead of him, let alone see them killed, whether for the sake of the homeland or for any lofty idea, so it is logical to complete this by saying that we do not wish to see our children or children of others sacrifice their lives and become martyrs. This simple fact is not canceled by our convictions about the fate of the martyrs and their reward with God and in the Hereafter, nor the forms of condolence with which we console ourselves. His bereavement, but all the following days of her life will not extinguish the oppression, pain and anguish of loss that will accompany her for life.

Death cannot be a goal for us, neither for our youth, nor for our children who were created for life and for the future. Let us protect them with the pupils of our eyes and spread awareness and culture that protects their childhood, so that they live in a free homeland. We and all our institutions must ensure that the detained children receive Muhammad Aliwat and Muhammad Abu Qutaish And Muhammad Basil Al-Zalbani, the care and protection they deserve as children, so that the scenario of oppression and abuse to which the detained child Ahmed Manasra was subjected will not be repeated.