To: Steven Rogers who wrote
(86902)
From: E
Tuesday, Nov 7, 2000 7:01 PM
Reply # of 86942
Hi, Steven. I believe this is the first time i've ever disagreed with you on
a political issue. Maybe on anything...
......
Below is a more-than-interesting interesting piece...
It relates mainly to whose moral responsibility it is that those children are
in harm's way, and being harmed.
The article ends by talking about the psychological scarring of the
children who participate. It begins with an interview with a Palestinian
woman who is involved in family planning programs in Gaza City. There is
astonishing information in between.
sightings.com
Excerpts. I will bold some phrases that were particularly striking to me.
GAZA CITY (AFP) -
Family planning
programmes in the Gaza Strip have all
but come to a halt, with Palestinian
women expecting some of their
children to be killed anyway in the
fighting against Israel...
"If you ask them now to follow a
family planning programme, they
refuse outright, saying that producing
more children is one way to keep the
intifada going."
Muhanna contemptuously denied claims by the Israelis that
Palestinian women lack feeling and
deliberately send their children to
throw stones and Molotov cocktails at
Israeli soldiers, knowing they might
die.
"That's a lie," she said.
She did not know of a single mother,
she added, who had deliberately sent
her child to go throw stones. "The
choice was left entirely to the child."...
Muhanna claimed that some women
struggling with families of 10 children
or more felt "relief" when a child died
in the fight against Israeli occupation.
Not only did a "martyr" bring honour
to the family, it also brought cash
compensation from the Palestinian
Authority -- of up to 1,000 dollars...
[Steven, the average annual income for a Palestinian is under $2000. If 5%
of that can be saved (and saving is hard on 2k a year) the PA (subsidized
by us) is paying the equivalent of 10 years of savings for each martyr, if
this information is correct.]
"But...Palestinian women don't want their
children to die."
She added, however, "Many women
are so disempowered that they feel
producing boy babies is their only way
of contributing to the intifada."...
"All Palestinians encourage
stone-throwing, because we can't
make the Israelis change without
this."
Muhanna said children from all social
and economic strata are to be found
throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in
the daily clashes in the Gaza Strip,
although children from poorer families
tended to dominate the crowds."
[I should think so, wouldn't you, Steven? A thousand dollars! And if the
average income is $2000, there are a lot of $1000 a year parents whose
rock throwing son, if killed, will bring them a year's income, or an amount
equivalent to a life's savings. This is unacceptable of me to point out, isn't
it? Even if it's true. Especially if it's true. You will never, ever hear this
on the radio or mentioned in the news. This is hideous, IMO a virtual war
crime against their own children, but mentioning it is extremely un-PC.]
[Something just occurred to me. A detail. I want to know if those children
who are transported to the areas of confrontation are given pocket money
or bagged lunches. I have handled large groups of children. You don't go
anyplace without food and/or pocket money. Just curious. Anybody know
how I could find out? It gives me a strange feeling to visualize the
distributing by adults of lunch bags to the small martyr-prospects.]
"It is left entirely up to the children." |
