Israel is killing the Palestinian children of Gaza because they represent the future of Palestine, a reality that Israel does not want to see realized. For this reason, Israel is massacring children and destroying everything necessary to keep them alive, while the entire world watches immobile at this methodical and systematic killing. There is a thirst for blood among the youth and children of Palestine, and a policy, supported by the West, that kills, kidnaps, abuses, and starves them. Israelis openly declare what they are doing: they want to kill Palestinian children to eliminate a future Palestine. Children are the future, so they eliminate the future.
The data published by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor as of May 13, 2024, reports 43,640 people killed in Gaza, including 15,971 children and 10,382 women.
I have tried to rationally understand the why of all this, analyzing two points of view: on one side, the theory of imperialism, and on the other, the resistance of the Palestinian people.
First, within Greater Israel, there are about 7.3 million Palestinians and about 7.3 million Israeli Jews, creating almost equality between the two populations. According to this theory, Israelis are trying to avoid being demographically surpassed by Palestinians. This leads to thinking that genocide and ethnic cleansing are the most suitable tools to achieve this goal, rather than continuing with the method of apartheid. According to Professor John Mearsheimer, there are four options for Israel.
- The first is to have a democratic Greater Israel. This will not happen because, with current demographic trends, Palestinians have more children than Israeli Jews, and therefore Israel would no longer be a Jewish state.
- The second possibility is a two-state solution, much discussed but practically unfeasible, especially after the events of October 7. Even before then, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli elite had no interest in a two-state solution.
- The third possibility is apartheid, which we have witnessed so far. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights group, have produced lengthy reports explaining why Israel is an apartheid state.
- The fourth option is ethnic cleansing, which involves getting rid of most of the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank to create a Greater Israel completely dominated by Israeli Jews, with very few, if any, Palestinians within it.
Apartheid and genocide are therefore the only two possible choices in the deeply twisted minds of Israelis. Before October 7, Israel had chosen apartheid while defining itself as the “only democracy in the region.” A democracy that cages the Palestinian population, deprives them of all rights and terrorizes them.
Second is the theory of resistance. Despite Western imperialist propaganda trying to codify everything Arab as barbaric, Palestinian resistance is composed of extremely clear-minded political thinkers. Hamas outlined its theoretical and practical framework in the document “Our Narrative. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” This document outlines the context well beyond October 7, characterizing what happened on October 7 as “a defensive act in the framework of liberation from Israeli occupation, claiming Palestinian rights and on the path to liberation and independence as all peoples of the world have done.”
The document argues that, after 75 years of occupation and incessant suffering, after failing all initiatives for the liberation and return of the Palestinian people, and even after the disastrous results of the so-called peace process, what was expected that the Palestinian people would do in response to various factors:
- Israeli plans for the Al-Aqsa Mosque attempts at temporal and spatial division, as well as the intensification of Israeli settlers’ raids into the mosque
- The practices of the extremist right-wing Israeli government taking steps to annex the entire West Bank and Jerusalem to the so-called “sovereignty of Israel” along with official Israeli plans to expel Palestinians from their areas and homes
- Thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons suffering deprivation of their basic rights, assaults, and humiliations under the direct supervision of Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
- The unjust air, sea, and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for over 17 years
- The unprecedented expansion of Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank, as well as the daily violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians and their properties
- The seven million Palestinians living in extreme conditions in refugee camps and other areas, desiring to return to their lands from which they were expelled 75 years ago
- The failure of the international community and the complicity of superpowers in preventing the creation of a Palestinian state
In this context, and according to the document, the operation of October 7 was a necessary step and a normal response to address all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people and their cause. It was a defensive action in the framework of liberation from Israeli occupation, claiming Palestinian rights and on the path to liberation and independence, as all peoples of the world have done.
The crucial point of the Greater Israel framework was that the Palestinians would sit back and accept everything, but October 7 broke this scenario. What happened in the last seven months has changed the paradigm. Israel has lost its deterrent power at the regional level and has seen a decrease in devotion and respect from the “international community,” which is imploding under the weight of its hypocrisy on human rights.
Israel will continue to commit war crimes, but now it is a wounded animal. The collapse of the apartheid state is only a matter of time. This surprises many, but Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the martyred founder of Hamas, predicted it before he died. In an interview, he said:
“Israel was founded on injustice and plunder. Any entity founded on injustice and plunder is destined to be destroyed. No one’s power in the world lasts forever. You start as a child, then you become an adolescent, a young person, then you become an old man, and then it’s over. The same goes for countries. They progress little by little until they become extinct. This cannot be avoided.”
The region seemed to have “normalized” apartheid, but it was about to explode. This is the shift that occurred on October 7, when Israel decided to annihilate two million people in the Gaza Strip. Complete ethnic cleansing, in front of the entire world.
Israel fights against the future and the past, killing as many children as possible in a vain attempt to prolong the abomination. If you want to apply ethnic cleansing, the best investment is children. In terms of years of life destroyed and people traumatized, children are the most valuable targets. That’s why Israel targets them so much.
The Israeli military forces of the IDF avoid battles with men as much as possible and prefer to massacre hospitals, refugee camps, and homes. None of this is collateral damage. The cruelty is the point. The real objective is to ethnically cleanse Gaza. The reason they want to ethnically cleanse Gaza is that this is how they escape apartheid. Many have understood that Israel is an apartheid state. Even Israelis understand that Israel is an apartheid state. The issue is that the way to escape apartheid is to eliminate the Palestinian population, and one of the most effective ways to do this is to kill children because this eliminates future generations.
This leads to a clear conclusion: the future of Palestine and its people is being systematically undermined. Every Palestinian child killed represents not only a life cut short but also a piece of the Palestinian future destroyed. The Israeli strategy, as evidenced by the facts, is therefore not only genocidal but also aimed at erasing any possibility of a Palestinian future.
In this context, the operation of October 7 is seen by Palestinians as a defensive and necessary act, a response to the continuous oppression and systematic destruction of their people and their future prospects. The resistance, as outlined by Hamas, is not seen as an act of terrorism but as a struggle for liberation and independence against an unjust occupation. According to this view, Israel is not sustainable in the long term because it is built on foundations of oppression and injustice. The Palestinian resistance, despite the difficulties and losses, continues to fight for justice and the liberation of its people.
The entire geopolitical context is changing. Stubborn imperialism clashes with an even more stubborn resistance. The “normalization” of Israeli apartheid seems to be only an illusion, as the situation is explosive on various fronts. The paradigm shift that occurred on October 7 demonstrated that the Palestinians, far from being defeated, are still determined to fight for their freedom.
Israel continues to commit war crimes, but its position is increasingly precarious. The international community, though complicit and often silent, is beginning to recognize the brutality and injustice of the situation. The collapse of the apartheid state seems inevitable, and the struggle for justice and the liberation of the Palestinians continues with renewed determination.
The tragedy of Palestinian children is not just a matter of broken lives but represents a systematic attack on the future of Palestine. The resistance against this oppression is seen not only as a right but as a necessity for the survival and liberation of an entire people.
Dan ROMEO