We grew up with images of the second intifada engraved in our memories.
We grew up watching Mohammad Al-Durra, clutching his father Jamal's shirt. Jamal's hand waving. Agonizingly slow moments, echoing, "The boy died. The boy died," as Mohammed lay in his father's lap for the last time.
The peaceful sleep of baby Iman Hajjo, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, shattered by the shards of an IOF rocket.
Faris Odeh's hand gripping a stone, defiantly facing a tank, fearless, until martyrdom: the quintessential David versus Goliath image of the intifada.
The occupation deprives our children from childhood because it fears them. How criminal and yet fragile is the entity that fears children?
All three children were martyred in Gaza in the first year of the intifada. All three, icons of it.
History repeats itself. Rayyan Suleiman was martyred three year ago, his little heart stopping out of fear as he was chased by IOF soldiers. Mohammed Tamimi was martyred in Ramallah two years ago after he was shot by IOF soldiers in Ramallah. Hind Rajab was shot over 350 times by the occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, as thousands of children continue to be starved and murdered by the IOF.
Palestinian poet Tamim Al-Barghouthi once wrote to the enemy:
"I've known that you don't fear the child alive,
But I sincerely urge you, fear the dead children."
The occupation thinks it will deter our people by targeting the most vulnerable, precious members of our society. They do not realize that their criminality will be their own demise. These images fuel the revolutionary anger that drives resistance.
Mohammed Al-Durra's martyrdom, on the second day of the intifada, changed its course dramatically. For once, the crimes of the occupation were on full display for an international audience.
The uprising raged for five years. Gaza launched its first missiles: Faris' rocks turned into rockets.
On the wall where Mohammed and his father took shelter, graffiti read: "What was taken by force." Land. Lives. Children. Our people are all too familiar with the end of that quote; it is written daily in every step of resistance. What was taken by force, can only be brought back through force.
