Glorifying Child Martyrdom? How Dare You! That’s- Oh, By Palestinians? Cool.

By Ken Roth, Director, Human Rights Watch

President Erdogan of Turkey crossed all lines of decency and morality when he encouraged a young girl to sacrifice herself in combat for Islam and for Turkey. Children must remain outside the boundaries of warfare, as victims but especially as combatants, and praising the involvement of children as soldiers represents one of the basest, vilest- wait, I’m getting some new information here, hold on… it appears the incident on which I was expected to remark involves Palestinian children confronting Israeli soldiers, even attacking those soldiers, which of course represents a refreshing manifestation of the desire for freedom and pluck. Carry on.

If I were indeed discussing child soldiers in other contexts, such as Sudan, for example, I would now invoke myriad arguments and adduce copious evidence to demonstrate how such exploitation of minors lies beyond the pale of acceptable human behavior. Children must be allowed to have serene childhoods, permitted to develop healthy relationships and a sound grounding in civilized mores. They cannot do so when drafted into military activity at such a tender age, and all governments must make efforts to- excuse me again, I forgot we were discussing Palestinian children. I’m sorry. Palestinian children may be encouraged by whatever means, including invocations of violent “martyrdom,” to resist occupation. Such a noble cause!

Placing children in harm’s way constitutes a cynical, exploitative policy that must be eliminated. There are no exceptions, but for the glorious Palestinian struggle in which all measures will be tolerated, even encouraged. I have denounced the use of human shields, but perhaps should have made clear that such a denunciation applies only outside of Palestinian contexts.

Even if they do survive, children drafted into conflict will fail to adjust to life as adults outside of conflict. How can any thinking, feeling person subject children to such depredations? It destroys the lives of those the children destroy and it destroys the children themselves, who will never be able to mediate life except through the lens of violence. We must stamp out this evil phenomenon everywhere except Palestine, where it becomes a shining example of a society’s laudable commitment to liberty.

My organization has always stood on the side of the children, who are innocent and must be kept out of conflict and the politics surrounding it. We will continue to advocate for children and their right not to be indoctrinated into violence. Now go forth, Palestinian children, and rape those 72 virgins in the afterlife!

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