yNet.com reports “48 Gaza orphans to travel to Israel for 2-week rest”
Forty-eight Palestinian orphans whose parents were killed in bombings during Operation Cast Lead were planned to arrive in Israel on Wednesday for two weeks of rest and recovery from their grim reality at home.
If these kids weren’t orphans, no doubt they would never have been allowed out because their parents would have feared retribution from Hamas.
Propaganda exercise? All such gestures can be characterised as such by cynics and bigots.
The groups who have organised the visit to Haifa see that the only hope for the future is children who are taught to love and respect and not to kill. That goes for both sides but is especially true of children in Gaza who are fed a diet of Jew-hating vitriol in schools and on TV.
Children whose parents were killed by Israelis would have a natural animus against the country of their killers. They will be especially vulnerable to the death cult of Hamas.
Does this not demonstrate that Israelis and Jews are not taught to hate and do not rejoice in the blood of their enemies children (as Caryl Churchill suggests in her play, “7 Jewish Children”). At least a portion of Israeli society is making an effort to bring the children of enemies together to try to make a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.
The children who have received love from us will remember this experience for many years and when they grow up will reach out for peace. I believe the change will come only from the youth out of will and recognition and not from treaties.
said Yoel Marshak, one of the organisers. This is a left-wing narrative, it is unlikely to make a difference, but it can’t do any harm.
It demonstrates that Israel is a free and plural society where many views are tolerated. It gives the lie to genocidal narratives.
Now we need similarly aged Israeli children to visit Gaza for the sake of their education, perhaps.