Killing in War
In 2009, Jeff McMahan published a book with the title above. In “Killing in War”, McMahan presents us with a revolutionary theory about the ethics of war and the general understanding of the law that governs the way in which war is conducted.
Many believe that in a war scenario, what we understand as morality is transformed. The concepts of innocence and self-defense are modified in favor of a nation and what they analyze as right. This is one of the concepts of an armed conflict and from that point on, there are no limits to the use of lethal force, as long as it is against your enemy.
From a brief contact with the history of Israel and Palestine, you, the reader, will be able to demystify in a more comprehensive way what is actually happening between both nations. This article is also based on an interview conducted with Danielle Bastos, a professional advocacy in Brazil of the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF – Doctor Without Borders), an international, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides medical and humanitarian aid in emergency situations.
In this logic, according to which immoral acts committed in war would not be classified as crimes, the childhood of millions is lost due to trauma or mortality itself. Based on Agência Brasil, more children have died in Gaza than in the world in four years. When asked about how the MSF approaches physical and psychological treatment in scenarios where trauma is a constant factor, Danielle answered: “What we do is try to provide stabilization through what we call ‘grounding techniques’, which are the stabilization and reduction of acute stress. It’s a whole process of acute stress management so that the person returns to the minimum level of functioning for them to survive.”
She continues: “The war now is a terrible thing, but the occupation has been going on for many years. Generations are living under an aspect of loss of human rights that is beyond imaginable. The mental health rates in Gaza were already alarming even before this last conflict, because they were already living under an occupation and a blockade. So, in this sense, whatever the stabilization treatment is, it also has to have a component of how they survived for so many years, how the families have been rebuilding themselves.”
A Little bit of History
The Israeli colonial expansionist process began in 1948, with the creation of the State of Israel. Today, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are considered territories inhabited mainly by Christian and Muslim Palestinians. Despite this, Palestine, considered a non-observer Member State, is militarily occupied by Israel, a declared independent country. Isolated enclaves, without green spaces or possibility of urban expansion, are populated mainly by non-independent Palestinian Arabs.
War is capable of generating countless types of revolts. In view of this, Palestinians have sought revolution throughout their history. Both nations – since the creation of a Jewish state in that territory – have lived in disharmony and conflict.
The Fatah group, the largest group within the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), recognizes the existence of the State of Israel and calls on Israel to comply with the resolution established by the UN – that means the existence of two states. On the other hand, Hamas, considered a terrorist group in turn, does not recognize the State of Israel at all. In other words, there is a difference of ideas inside the Palestinian territory itself.
The current bombings in the Gaza Strip was initiated as a retaliation in response to the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas on Israeli territory in October 2023 – which killed more than 46,000 people: 60% of whom are women, children and elderly people over the age of 65. “We have children with suicidal ideation and attempts, which is very uncommon in Muslim countries”, continues Danielle.
According to Bastos, “the biggest challenge is how to provide psychological care in a war zone where there is no escape.” But, it’s not impossible. What the professionals do is follow the IASC pyramid (Inter-Agency Standing Committee). The base of the pyramid – which would be the first step – is to try to reduce the anxiety and the suffering of the victims, giving them back the control of understanding that they are now safe. An IASC pyramid is composed of four divergent steps: (1) basic services and security, (2) family and community supports, (3) focused non specialised supports and (4) specialised services.
First of all, your basic needs are surely managed, such as food, water, shelter and wash. Then, the social workers take action incorporating games, art and physical exercises. The third level includes individual face-to-face work. The support is based on therapy sessions that care about specific protection cases, like the children’s safety, survivors of gender based violence, people with disabilities, unaccompanied or separated children and so on. And after all, the fourth phase is taken, besides counsellors, psychiatrists and mental health trained doctors help by offering necessary medication and specialized care. However, due to the restrictions of access for humanitarian aid in the crossings, the possibility of obtaining the medicines has become a challenge. But again, not impossible.
“Women and children are the easiest targets.”
Danielle Bastos, MSF
Humanitarian Drama
Since October of 2023, more than 18,000 Palestinian children have been murdered in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, according to Brasil de Fato, making it the largest infanticide in recent decades. Families in Gaza suffer from all kinds of shortages. They get water from mud, their hospitals are bombed, they do not have access to basic food, and so on. In a report in the Brazilian newspaper, O Globo, many Palestinians resort to turtle meat in search of a source of protein in their daily meals.
The numbers of murders have been increasing constantly, considering that the ceasefire was interrupted in March of this year, after only three months of truce. Children continue to suffer from diseases, malnutrition, dehydration, scabies, and many other diseases and comorbidities. The list of traumas is extensive. According to UNICEF, almost all of the 1.2 million children in Gaza need some kind of professional psychological support.
“There were times where we followed the same child for months. From surgery until the day they could, finally, walk again. There were homes for hospitalized children who had no contact with their families, and we looked for other organizations to monitor them, and the children who were really in serious condition, with signs of suicide, we had teams that had psychiatrists who were authorized to work there”, reveals Danielle.
“Mommy, I’m tired, I want to die”, declares Sama Tubail for CNN. Sama is an eight-year-old palestinian girl who went through the process of losing her hair, due to what professionals believe to be “post-traumatic stress”. “I hold the mirror because I want to brush my hair. I really want to brush my hair again.” Now, she brushes the doll’s hair, to remind how it was to brush hers.
Sama is just one of the cases reported. Every day, children are suffering from a lack of basic survival supplies. Their homes have been bombed, their bodies have been injured, and many have watched with their naked eyes the loss of their family members. The war is against them and will never be in their favor. “When you talk about the long term, it doesn’t exist in Gaza. You live one day at a time and make decisions about what is most necessary”, reinforces Danielle.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the documentary Promises (2001), where Palestinian and Israeli children present their views on the long-lasting war to the world. In the documentary, the children expose their conflicts, their pain, their fears, their prejudices and anxieties. At the same time, their perspectives remain pure and true. Innocent. In the end, all they want is to love, play soccer, dance in their school performances and be with their parents. They are children. And nothing, ever, will serve as justification for the genocide to which they are victims – nothing will be reasonable.
I asked Danielle about one memory that marked her for life, and she replied: “What I remember now are the visits of this little girl who came to our dressing room sometimes. We were trying to manage and understand her fears. Her injuries hurt less than the trauma.” The girl’s mom said that was the best part of her day: seeing her daughter being taken care of. “You’re the only people who see my daughter as a child. And it hurts me a lot, because it’s like we’re everyone’s enemy, but here you see that she’s just a child.”
The Challenge of Mental Health
According to a report released by the War Child Alliance, 96% of children in vulnerable situations felt that death was imminent, and almost half (49%) expressed a “desire to die” after Israeli attacks. More than 1 million children live in makeshift tents or are constantly on the move to neighboring territories – the main destinations are Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Today, especially after almost two years of intense conflict between Israel and Hamas – and the return of the conflict after a two-month truce -, the situation is more out of control than ever. The role of institutions such as UNESCO, UNICEF, WAR CHILD and Médicins Sans Fronteières (Doctors Without Borders) is essential for international humanitarian aid. We do not know when a conflict will end or temporarily stop. Therefore, psychological help, discussion groups, school help, support for families, all of these efforts will serve to keep the victims hopeful.
They´ve seen Everything
They are only kids, but they have already seen everything. We haven’t. Danielle was asked about the thoughts of someone who works with humanitarian aid in carefree places in relation to what the media reports from their newsrooms thousands of kilometers away from the epicenters of calamity. She states: “There are several groups that talk about the decolonization of health. They talk a lot about how the media could collaborate in trying to connect with this emotional side that these children live. They have the right to live and they have the right to be protected.”
Danielle also commented about the suffering of the elderly population in Gaza and how that’s not talked about enough. “Few people talk about the elderly, about the stories that pass through generations. It’s an interesting question to think about how we can build futures for children and adults who don’t want war, don’t want to kill each other, but want to survive with dignity.” Thinking of that, Gaza really is a land of young people, where almost half of the residents are under 18 years old. With a frightening number of children and young people on the list of victims, the small aged population ends up suffering invisibly from the same war. They’ve become hidden victims, also reflecting an ageist way of thinking about the value of life.
Finally, I ended up asking what message the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) would like to spread for the world, and Danielle responded: “I’d like it if the teachers and schools showed solidarity with Palestinian children, especially in Brazil. They could create a ‘letter project’: the Brazilian students talking to the Palestinian children. There could be exchanges, so that children from the rest of the world could understand what is happening to the children in Gaza.”
Today, Palestinian children do not dream big. Many do not even dream of anything, unless about the end of this war. They dream of keeping their homes, their bodies functioning and their families by their side. Many dream of playing again. Or combing their hair again, as they once did. Of playing football in the streets and cheering for Brazil in some World Cup. However, their land is being torn apart and all they really want is to be safe and live in peace.
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The article below was edited by Isabela Theodoro.
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