Irtif Lone
Everything is fair in love and war, is an old adage which we have been hearing since the times I remember. In times of school, at least this was one idiom which everyone remembered. There of course was love and lots of it but on the name of war there were just school fights. The fair part of the school fight unlike the war ended at making a complaint or in worse conditions hiding the enemy’s text book or his note book. And this fair thing in such a war seemed so much fair, indeed.
In ancient times, when wars would take place it had a certain code. One, that the wars were fought in battlefields. Both the parties would bring their soldiers and start killing each other with swords and other technology less weapons which needed one human to kill other human. But, the fact that most of the times the children and women were left out of it. As the time went and we read about these wars in history books, the historians often referred to them as brutal and inhuman and called the people uncivilised.
But then, I have been thinking what they would call a war in which children and infants are targeted. Yes, that’s the story of Gaza today. Every day children are dying and many are losing their tiny arms, and small legs. Yesterday, I saw a picture which was uploaded by someone on a social networking site. A body of a child was torn apart; even a stone hearted person would not have been able to stand the sight, not even to see the photograph twice. The schools are being bombed.
While reading about these events, it brought back the memories of a nine year old kid who was killed in the streets of Batamaloo. The kid had a bubble gum in his mouth when he was trampled upon by CRPF men in the most brutal and inhuman way. Then a couple of days latter while on a social networking site, I saw hundreds of comments and one of them said, how would the Indian Army know he was not a suicide bomber. More than anything that comment disturbed me for the coming days. It gave me sleepless nights. Could anyone really think that way? Is there no humanity left on the face of earth.
‘Tomorrow there’s no school in Gaza, they don’t have any children left’, were the chants heard from Israel mob. A well-known Israeli politician, a woman parliament member branded all Palestinians as terrorists, and said mothers of all Palestinians should also be killed during the ongoing Israeli assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. That statement showed the Israeli mentality which looked no different than that of Hitler.
And the worst of all has been the silence of the international community, who has not spoken much except the few. The self proclaimed prophets of peace let the children and old die in Gaza and dint even raise their voice, but it surely would have repercussions serious then could ever have been imagined.