Motherhood in Gaza

[Everexpanding]

A very moving article that spoke to me

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/sep/03/motherhood-gaza-palestinian-children

Thank you for sharing.

@Everexpanding
Thanks for sharing.

There were two quotes that stood out, for different reasons.

Firstly- in 1969 by female Israeli prime minister Golda Meir:
“[W]e will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.”

The suffering of Palestinians always seems an after thought to some, not to be dwelled on for too long nor felt too keenly.

Second quote:
“I see my children and every child in the children of Gaza,” says the woman who teaches my daughter nursery rhymes.

I can’t understand on a mothering website that one would not but empathise with the suffering of the mothers and their children. This came home to me when I appreciated how hard it would be feed my child with Coeliacs in Gaza at present.

That second quote is lovely. I see my children in every child that I see suffering, most mothers do I think. Children are innocence itself. And it really hits you differently once you become a mother. I don’t understand anyone trying to dismiss or minimise the suffering of children.

A car was set on fire in front of our house last week and my children were all petrified. I think it’s probably the most frightening thing that happened to them. I can’t even imagine how traumatic it is to be a child in Gaza today.

@PaxAeterna
I think it is things like that help us to imagine what it might be like.

I could not get close to understanding what it’s been like to try and survive in a tent without adequate water over the last few months, in the intense summer heat, with inadequate food supplies, the sound of drones and bombs, knowing friends and family have died.

However - I could imagine my child crying for food and not being able to feed them, as the only thing available contained wheat flour. Helplessness.