Friday, March 23, 2007

Children of Gaza

By  Laurence M. Hazlewood

It is many years since I visited "The Holy Land" but I still retain the image of the setting sun casting a blood-red glow over the landscape as my plane took off. I thought then 'this is the reality of this supposed Land of the Children of God, a land drenched in blood and misery'. All those who wield a gun and inflict death and injury on innocent children should see your report. They should be made to carry every coffin and care for every maimed child that their macho actions have hurt. The plight of the Palestinians is awful enough, but to have such death and destruction wrought by their own people is criminal. I was once a great supporter of the Israelis and sympathised with their struggle, but they have long since forfeited my support. It is tragic that the Palestinians now risk losing what support they had through the myopic attitudes and actions of those they choose to represent them.
Your report illustrates how the cycle of violence is perpetuated from one generation to the next and I despair for the offspring of those children we saw living a life filled with such terror and pain.
What chance do the Palestinians ever have of developing a viable and worthwhile State of their own when they themselves destroy the minds and bodies of the very seed-corn of such a State?
I remember from my studies in psychology reading of rats subjected to close and traumatic confinement, they ended up turning on each other. Perhaps this is what Israel is cynically counting on, a people who turn their hatreds and fanaticism in on themselves and wipe themselves out in an orgy of nihilism and despair.
The courage of those social workers and therapists seeking to help the little ones must be praised but I fear they are fighting a losing battle.