Knowing is not enough

There is nothing more terrible than war and its effects, especially when innocent victims such as children are involved. Everybody knows, but knowing and seeing is different, as well as it is different to just see such effects and to live them.

In the last few days, a video (do not click unless you are prepared to heavy images) showing a very young child, completely burned, probably by a white phosphorus-based weapon, was uploaded on various sites as YouTube, Facebook, and many others. In most cases it was immediately removed because it was too strong, impressive, really unsuitable for children and faint of heart people.

I have to be honest: my first reaction was «Well, it is really too hard for our children. It had to be removed.». But later I told myself: «So what about those children, the ones living in Gaza? What about their friends, their brothers and sisters, their parents, their relatives? Isn’t it too hard for them too?» They have no choice: they cannot decide to ignore such deaths, because every day new children are harmed, killed, burned.

Please, understand: it is not a matter of estimating responsibilities. I do not care now if it is Israel’s fault only or that fault has to be shared with Hamas that takes advantage of bombing Israel from Palestinian towns. Does not matter, at all. I do not want here to find real culprits. I simply want that YOU see, not just know, what is happening in Gaza.

As I said before, seeing is very different from simply knowing. If you watch at that video, it will hit you in the stomach, it will let you feel really bad. But we cannot escape our responsibilities, because we cannot simpy say: «We do not want that our children could see that video, since they might be shocked by it.», because if Palestinian children can die in that way, our children have to know it. Since we do not protect those children from an horrible death, we have not the right to protect our children from those images. Period.