Two Pictures Of Kids In Gaza

Brett Singer — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Warning: These shots will probably make you want to hug your kids immediately.

For me, the hardest part of any war/conflict/disaster is the human side. Now that I'm a parent, if that human face belongs to a child, it's that much harder to see.

This photo was on the front page of the New York Times today. Here's the caption: "A Palestinian boy with Russian citizenship was among the foreigners whom Israel allowed to leave Gaza on Friday." (source)

Here's another shot of kids leaving Gaza. (source)

MSNBC is reporting that Israeli ground troops are crossing the Gaza border (source, breaking news). Regardless of how you feel about the situation, seeing these photos of kids caught up in the whole thing should make you wish for a speedy resolution to it all. Or at least one that lets the kids get out while they still can. I never really understood the idea of "women and children first", something that I remember hearing a lot on old cartoons and disaster movies (and cartoons that were parodies of disaster movies). These pictures definitely drive that point home.

Photos: New York Times

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Political Propaganda Directed at Children

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:18:00 GMT

My grandfather, a lifelong Republican and World War II Vet who proudly raises his American flag every day, recently told me he is disgusted with the current leadership of our country. These are words I never imagined would come out of his mouth. So at this point almost all institutionalized expressions of the outside world’s hatred of our current regime are, in my opinion, worth taking seriously. But what if this criticism comes in the form of a children’s puppet show promoting murder at the hands of a young boy?

A Hamas-owned children’s television has broadcast a puppet show in which a Palestinian boy murders President Bush to avenge his parents, who were killed in the wars in Iraq and Lebanon. “I place my trust in Allah,” the boy says before stabbing the president. “I need to kill you.” (Islam permits murder only when one is being oppressed or directly attacked).

Leaving aside the fact that this slapdash presentation is unlikely to hold the attention of any child for longer than ten seconds, the video raises concerns about the use of propaganda to politicize youth. This is a rather clear-cut example of teaching unhealthy values to children—no matter how opposed one may be to the war in Iraq or how fervently one hopes that the next election lands us a president who will not appear as the villain in any children’s shows, it’s hard to get behind a production that shows children committing murder. But many subtler forms of propagandizing to kids exist in every country in the world in the form of movies, TV shows, and history books. For instance, the maps in Israeli history books fail to mark the boundaries around the West Bank and Gaza, which some argue teaches children that the occupied territories belong to Israel.

Do you parents out there have any reports of what you viewed as propaganda being taught in your children’s schools?

Photo: alarabiya.net

Strollerderby : hamas