On Thursday, January 21 children from Bethlehem’s Aida and Beit Jibrin refugee camps talked to Mondoweiss about their life in the camps. We wanted to know exactly how much the children understood about the military occupation going on around them, and how normal they believed their lives were. With their parents permission, we asked five children from the streets of the two camps what they thought. All of the answers were spontaneous and unrehearsed, and as it turned out, the kids understood — and have experienced — quite a lot.
Many of the children talked about tear gas, soldiers, and being scared of going outside. All of the children have seen family members killed, injured and detained by Israeli forces — as is the life in the occupied West Bank’s many refugee camps. Still, the children have high hopes, telling Mondoweiss they want to be doctors, lawyers and engineers when they grow up.
Video: Sheren Khalel and Abed al Qaisi
Music: Bakr Khalifa
what a devastating video. these kids — what a tragic life.
What lovely children, so sweet and trusting, look how they smile at the interviewer as they answer questions about the frightening things they’ve seen.
What is so inspiring to me are the aspirations these children have for their future and the professions they desire to help their people. They are beautiful.
Every day we see another moving report here about the conditions of the Palestinians. Just now I heard BBC report that a 14 year old Palestinian girl has been shot dead by Israelis, “because she attacked with a knife.” If it is in fact true that she did, I imagine it was due to desperation born of such conditions. The U.S. government does much to enable those conditions with our financial and diplomatic and military support for Israel. The U.S. government has done nothing to end them. At most some of our leaders make a few comments about the problem that indicate they know the truth.
Yesterday the NY Times published an editorial about the Flint water crisis. The Times used the phrase “depraved indifference” to describe the response of government leaders to that problem in Michigan. We learned from the Freddie Gray case that “depraved indifference” can be a legal, as well as a moral term. It can be a criminal offense. It seems that our government leaders are guilty of that with respect to the Palestinians.
I hope these children have a path to achieve their dreams. Really, I hope the occupation is over and done with before they reach adulthood. Stranger things have happened.
On a side note, the daughter of a Mossad chief has become a refusenik:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1002104419831886&id=744471302261867