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Our office is on the Mount of Olives. I hear the loud pops echo and pause to try to discern their source. Did they come from a nearby stun grenade, possibly from the clashes at the Al Aqsa mosque? Is it the distant sound of the Iron Dome intercepting a rocket? Are they just a firecracker to celebrate Ramadan? I acknowledge that I am a newbie, although my knowledge has increased over the last 12 days.
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The challenge of living in Jerusalem and working in the occupied Palestinian territories is that you never know what will happen. Clashes between the Israeli military or settlers and Palestinians are the norm. The daily question is whether it is the small altercations that usually occur every day or if it is something else, ready to turn into the violence that we have seen in recent weeks or, worse still, into a war.
As a seasoned adult, I know the causes. As the world tries to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I watch it closely. Although the problems are complex, the underlying foundation is very simple: people are made to live in freedom, and as long as there is an occupation, there can be no lasting peace or lasting solution.
However, the boys and girls I meet on a daily basis cannot live in freedom. In recent weeks, they have been lying in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the border cities of Israel, to the sound of loud and incessant airstrikes and with great uncertainty about what will happen to them and their families. Will they wake up?
My colleagues who reside in Gaza tell me about their own fear, not to mention that of their children. When I call to see how they are doing, they tell me that they wake up every morning to call their friends and family to see if they are still alive. I also realize that I have called you for the same thing. There are posts on Facebook of families exchanging the little ones so that, if a house in Gaza is hit by an airstrike, at least one child from each family will survive.
Although the childhood of Gaza has lived through the most intense period, that of the West Bank has also known daily trauma. As the conflict escalated, so did the reaction of Israeli settlers and Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank. For those unaware, the West Bank is divided into three areas that form a dizzying mosaic of small enclaves designated as Area A, B or C. While Area A is controlled by the Palestinians, Area B is shared by the Palestinians and the Israeli military and Area C is entirely owned by the Israeli military.
Of the 131 villages in the West Bank where World Vision works47 have suffered heavy fighting in the last 12 days. More than 17,000 children with whom we work directly have been affected. Violence varied in each community; clashes between Palestinians and Israeli military sometimes occurred, usually due to the presence of a military checkpoint nearby or because the road leading to the Palestinian village was closed, preventing their access to essential services and supplies. Other times it is because young Israeli settlers came to burn farmland or damage houses and the people reacted to defend themselves. Furthermore, violence involves all three, as fighting intensifies and the Israeli army defends the settlers or the Palestinians directly attack the occupying soldiers.
Whatever the cause, the results are always the same. Children suffer. According to our February 2020 research, 85% of children in the West Bank have suffered some form of psychological or physical violence. It is well known that many of them here have nightmares. Ten-year-old Dalia told us that every time she closes her eyes, she sees the image of another child running to see his dying father for the last time.
85% of children in the West Bank have suffered some kind of psychological or physical violence
Children know what it is like to be searched by military personnel carrying M-16s when they pass through checkpoints on their way to school. They know what it’s like for the military to come into their school during school hours. They are not unaware of house demolitions or tear gas. Seven-year-old Zein told us this past week: “I was very scared when we passed an Israeli checkpoint at the entrance to my village. I was afraid that the soldiers would shoot me and my parents. I started crying and told them to go home, I didn’t want to go out anymore ”.
In the past 12 days, 43 boys and 23 girls from Gaza have lost their lives along with two others from Israel. They do not have running water in most areas and they tell us that in Gaza City there is no flushing because of the damage to the sewage systems. There are schools that need to be rebuilt. Covid-19 remains a major concern. Humanitarian organizations are rushing to deliver much-needed aid to Gazans during the fragile ceasefire.
In the West Bank, we are conducting assessments to see what critical damage is to the homes of affected villages and what services children need after violence. I suspect that these evaluations will reveal the need for psychological first aid and psychosocial support, that is, humanitarian aid of first need. These services will be a beginning to help children process their experiences, their fears and their terror, like Dalia and Zein.
Lauren Taylor is the director of World Vision in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/the-fear-of-not-waking-up-of-palestinian-children/
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