I have a question about Palestinian children.

[Rainbowsandbutterflies1990]

What I've been wondering if an innocent child has just had their whole family killed by a bomb, there whole city bombed so they have nothing, how r they going to not being against who is bombing them. There is going to be trauma. They could be against what hamas belives, but they equally could be angry and understandably just in being anti Israel (goverment as that's who is carrying out this) how is it realistic to expect the Palestinians to be happy Israel is taking out hamas. And killing their families, their friends and flattening their cities in the process.

I copied this from another thread as think it's a valid question I have no idea why it's highlighted.

I copied it but I asked it

Yes of course, this is a massive recruiting tool for Hamas. Why else did Hamas commit the atrocity that it did? This is exactly what they wanted. Played out on the world stage. Israel has fallen into their trap.

Equally, why would they support Hamas for its evil and idiotic attack on Israel, it’s mandate to wipe out all Jews, it’s decision to base its military operations in civilian areas, it’s lack of any plan that would help its population and it’s refusal to return those it has kidnapped which would immediately result in a ceasefire? These issues are complicated and there is scope for anger to be levied in multiple directions. It is utterly tragic for the children whose lives are caught up in this and who will just reap more suffering now.

But this is separate from Hamas, They do not need to be associated with hamas. They could not want to be part of Hamas. should they just be grateful that Israel is trying to get rid of Hamas?

There is enough wrongdoing for the children in this terrible mess to be indoctrinated with hate in multiple directions. I wish we could help them to have a different future

There was a news few days ago about children in Palestina how most of them suffer from ptsd

Around 90% of children visiting paediatric hospitals complain of anxiety. Many are suffering from anxiety, and it’s certainly something we haven’t seen in the past. The recognition is beginning to dawn that this issue will be much more prolonged than before,” Grossman said.
In Gaza, a child aged 15 has experienced five periods of intense bombardment in their life: 2008-9, 2012, 2014, 2021 and now 2023.
Studies conducted after earlier conflicts have shown a majority of children in Gaza exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
After Operation Pillar of Defence in 2012, Unicef, the UN children’s agency, found that 82% of children were either continuously or usually in fear of imminent death.
Among Unicef’s other findings were: 91% of children reported sleeping disturbances during the conflict; 94% said they slept with their parents; 85% reported appetite changes; 82% felt angry; 97% felt insecure; 38% felt guilty; 47% were biting their nails; 76% reported itching or feeling ill.
After Operation Cast Lead, the three-week war in 2008-09, a study by the Gaza community mental health programme (GCMHP) found that 75% of children over the age of six were suffering from one or more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, with almost one in 10 ticking off every criterion.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/22/children-in-gaza-developing-severe-trauma-after-16-days-of-bombing

I'm just trying to empathise with them. I don't think I could be not angry at what's happened to me and life and I genuinely don't belive any indoctrination needs to happen. Surely that's just a natural response.

You don't seriously expect a 5 year old to either understand or process the politics of this do you? All they will know is that they have lost their family and they are terrified.

I think you think you sound compassionate but you don't, you sound utterly callous.

I would no more expect a Palestinian child to rationally analyse the causes of the violence than I would an Israeli child who survived Oct 7th.

Yes it all feels so hopeless as surely just perpetuating hate or at least ill feeling on both sides. How many generations will this take to solve? If ever?

I am also curious about the comment above re Hamas in civilian areas as thanks to Israeli occupation the whole of Gaza is civilian areas as it's so utterly overcrowded that people are living everywhere. I absolutely abhor Hamas and everything they stand for but suggesting there is space for them to go and build their big terror HQ elsewhere is misunderstanding the geography of Gaza.

I really hope amongst the devastation emerges the new political leaders of the future who want to see an end to Hamas and a bright future for Palestine.

Yep. This is why the whole idea of ‘bombing Hamas’ is a nonsense. For every Hamas member they manage to bomb, a hundred little boys are injured or lose a parent and grow up wanting revenge. If you were a Gazan child right now, what would you want to be when you grow up?

What Israel is doing in Gaza makes no sense unless their plan is to kill everyone there. I hope that is not the plan.

I was just thinking that your question is probably pointless as it seems there won't be any Palestinians left soon.

Israeli children also suffer from PTSD. Sderot was one of the places attacked on October 7th, but even before then up to 94% of children there were found to show signs of PTSD due to the level of rocket attacks and alerts in the region. I imagine that all of the children who have been kidnapped or who witnessed their families and neighbours being tortured and murdered will be severely traumatised. The two children who were held at gunpoint by the men who had just executed their 18 year old sister in front of them and who later frogmarched their father away to who knows what fate will never get over that.

I actually think there's a kind of racism in the narrative of radicalisation. The people who use the term seem to consider some races as being governed by emotion and as people who need to be treated as tinderboxes of anger, waiting to explode. Other races are treated as people of reason and rationality who are expected never to react with violence no matter how badly they are assaulted. Islamofascism is afforded the excuse, understandably, that bombings and settlers cause radicalisation, but then even satirical cartoons or 'blasphemous' books are seen as grounds for provocation. Meanwhile, despite centuries of pogroms, the Holocaust, the neverending terrorist attacks in Israel and October 7th, Jewish people are condemned for any feelings other than suicidal pacifism.

I read on here (so haven't verified it) that 85% of Hamas fighters have at least one parent killed by Israel.

They grew up angry and so will surviving children here.

After reading ur comment a few times , I'm struggling to find out it relates to my question. I could be talking about any city/country/race/religion. If someone comes to bomb and wipe out ur family ur friends ur city your existence, I doesn't need to be radicalisation or indoctrination.

it could be just a natural response to be angry and hurt and have trauma and not agree/not want or feel anger at the people who did this. And yes it can turn in to radicalisation where for example u want revenge to everyone who is from that country who has just bombed u that would be more radicalisation. But im just struggling and dont belive the natural human response is to be grateful and accepting. I also don't belive these children will automatically join Hamas. Or that should be what is only thought or expected.

Hamas has between 30 000 and 40 000 fighters and not all of them are Palestinian. Some people are just committed jihadists, they don't have some poetic origin story. Jihadists have felt this way about Jewish people for centuries.

My MIL who is a psychologist worked in Israel for a few years and her focus was on children who had witnessed terror attacks. Obviously no child should witness anything like that. I will however say that during her time in Israel she got well and truly sucked into the government propaganda machine and has some very questionable views as a result.

I am absolutely shocked and horrified by the extent of the bombing in Gaza and am so sad those poor kids will be so affected. It also must be devastating that no one is helping them! Imagine being ignored by the international community when your country is dying.

It's truely horrific, I'm so sad for the innocent children. They do not have anything to do with Hamas. I have found it pretty shocking some of the responses to my question, basically assuming that all children who are angry about their lives being ruined would just automatically join Hamas.

@Rainbowsandbutterflies1990
It's an important question, OP. Israeli journalist Gideon Levy described Israel's 16-year siege of Gaza as "an experiment in human beings". This infographic on the way it impacts children might help address your question:

Israel is very clearly acting on emotion, there does not appear to be anything strategic about their campaign unless the objective is genocide.

What is Israel's excuse for the violence in the West Bank. Are you saying that all Palestinians are Islamic extremists? Sounds a bit racist to me.

The Palestinians are not responsible for the Holocaust. Are you suggesting they should pay the price for all the antisemitic persecution carried out by anyone else?

The Israeli government are extremists but for some reason they seem untouchable and any criticism of them is labelled antisemitic so it's a bit rich to accuse Muslims of being easily provoked.

The Islamic extremists kill more Muslims than anyone else, your average Muslim is no more impressed by them than you or I.

Here is a (actually not at all) "fun" thing I observed upon first arriving in Palestine some 20 years ago - it might answer some of the question in the OP, but not definitively so:

You see, I am a woman of pretty much exactly average height for someone of my exact demographic. Not short, not tall, just ... average!

Palestine, for me, was the first time I, literally, got to speak with men "eye to eye", as in: men my age were the same height as myself! Other women were just tiny!

But the same was not true about their younger brothers, who towered over me!

I mentioned this, as a side remark, to an acquaintance of mine, a Palestinian doctor. She said "oh, but, yes, of course! That would be because the men your age will have spent their formative childhood years during the 1st intifada. They were malnourished and traumatised. Their younger brothers grew up in relatively more peaceful times."

That shocked me!

I find it so hard to imagine any kind of a future for these poor children - the ones that actually survive that is. They will be so damaged, and so many of them will be orphaned, not just orphaned but no extended family left alive either. The scale of their trauma and loss is just enormous 😢

How do you know there's nothing strategic about the Israeli campaign? Are you involved in their intelligence meetings?

Christian Palestinians say "martyr" ("shaheed" in Arabic), too! While we tend to translate it as "martyr" in English, the connotations are not quite the same. In fact, etymologically speaking, a "shaheed" is someone who "bears witness" (as opposed to someone willingly dying for their religious belief, which is what the English word "martyr" implies).

Long story short: more complicated than and, no, you cannot take a poor translation that misses out on nuance as the basis for "Palestinians are a death cult" - they are not! They cry and suffer as much as we do when their loved ones die!