Recently, I've argued in favor of peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. And I still desire peace. However, I made the mistake of equating Israel and Hamas, and believed that Israel was acting mostly in self defense - Even if they seemed to be using an unnecessary amount of force, they had been fired upon. But what they're doing in the West Bank? Well, I didn't realize how bad it was until today. It goes beyond self defense. It goes beyond even oppression. The red line for everyone should be the intentional harming of children, and Israel has crossed that line.
For those unaware, the West Bank is an area and a people Israel is occupying. They're also moving settlers into the area, which could very well be in violation of international law, but that's another subject.
On topic, Israel has used some rather awful tactics to attempt to keep the people of the West Bank subdued. UNICEF released a report which isn't new, but it recently came to my attention. It highlights the fact that Israel has been targeting children in the West Bank for beatings and arrests. Which, in and of itself, is bad enough. But it gets worse.
The children are commonly arrested for throwing rocks, which they should be disciplined by their parents for doing. Israel instead pursues legal action against them, and they try to get a confession of the crime. And the way they try to get said confession is honestly the most disgusting and disturbing thing I've read in a long time:
The interrogation mixes intimidation, threats and physical violence, with the clear purpose of forcing the child to confess. Children are restrained during the interrogation, in some cases to the chair they are sitting on. This sometimes continues for extended periods of time, resulting in pain to their hands, back and legs. Children have been threatened with death, physical violence, solitary confinement and sexual assault, against themselves or a family member
That's right. They
INTERROGATE the children, and threaten to rape and kill them and their families to get a confession.
Keep in mind, in 2011 the U.S. paid for 18% of Israel's military. So you and I? The money the government collects from us as taxes is being used to interrogate and torture children, instead of help our own. Oh, and just to make people question why the confessions even MATTER:
Most children confess at the end of the interrogation. The interrogator prints out some forms and orders the child to sign them, though the child often lacks a proper understanding of their contents. In most cases the forms are in Hebrew, which the overwhelming majority of Palestinian children do not understand.
So they make them confess by signing papers they can't even read. Right. This is absurd. The world cannot stand by as Israel bombs U.N. Shelters and systematically targets children for arrest and imprisonment. And you'd think they wouldn't. You'd think the U.S. Congress would be up in arms and appalled at these things happening. Nope. They voted up a resolution declaring support for Israel. And then Israel demonstrated its worthiness of our support by
bombing a U.N. school.
Israeli shelling killed at least 15 Palestinians sheltering in a U.N.-run school and another 17 near a street market on Wednesday, Gaza's Health Ministry said, with no ceasefire in sight after more than three weeks of fighting.
I don't know when the world will tell Israel to stop. And I don't know if Israel will pay for what it's done. But I do know the IDF are monsters, and we're buying them the weapons to terrorize innocents. The line has been crossed, and the world hasn't responded. What will it take? Will ANYTHING make the U.S. and the rest of the world stand up for the oppressed? I hope the answer is yes. But I'm losing hope. The Monsters of the IDF have been exposed, but not one leader of America seems to care. No senators, not Obama. If they can get away with this, what can't they get away with?