On Monday, as the number of children killed in Gaza approached 1,000, Knesset member Meirav Ben-Ari declared “the children of Gaza have brou
It really is hard to imagine a more malicious statement than “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves” when children in Gaza are now being massacred by the hundreds. But this was actually said in a recent Knesset session. And it wasn’t someone considered an extreme right-winger, but a liberal centrist – Meirav Ben-Ari from Yair Lapid’s opposition party Yesh Atid. [...]
These words have not gotten much attention, as far as I can see. It is enough to reflect upon what would happen if a Palestinian leader said Israeli children brought it upon themselves. Can we even imagine the outcry and condemnation, the cries of antisemitism and Holocaust tropes? It would be deafening. But this passes quietly. [...]
Children have often been a marker for whether one has gone too far. Once children are explicitly framed as “not innocent,” you know that all-out genocidal warfare is possible.
