Remember the Children

They May Save Ourselves from Self-Genocide

A Crèche in Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank

“Christ in the Rubble” was a nativity scene in Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, just a short walk from the Church of the Nativity, the recognized birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. Last year, the pastor of that church, Reverend Isaac Munther, gave the sermon: “Christ in the Rubble.” As the bombardment of Gaza nears 450 days, with well over 45,000 Palestinians killed since October 2023, Munther’s Christmas sermon this year is entitled: “Christ is Still in the Rubble.”

That the very heart of humanity is at stake becomes clear in how we are treating children. Three separate reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières in the last month agree with major Holocaust and genocide scholars, including Israelis: that genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza is well underway.

The Genocide Convention spells out how genocide is unique: it is not just the killing, or the serious bodily or mental harm to a group, that counts, but inflicting life conditions calculated to bring about destruction of the entire group; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group—so that the entire “national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,” may disappear. It is an elimination of their future—our future.

In its nearly 300-page report, “You Feel like You are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,” Amnesty International notes that the armed conflict in Gaza has seen some of the highest known death tolls among children—13,319 by October 7, 2024—journalists, as well as health and humanitarian workers of any recent conflict in the world. Having detonated more explosive power than two nuclear bombs, the level and speed of damage to and destruction has similarly not been seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, with remote sensing experts noting that it was “much faster and more extensive” than anything they had mapped before. About 62 percent of all homes in Gaza were damaged or destroyed within the first three months, and some 625,000 students missed out on an entire academic year, with an estimated 85 percent of schools having sustained some form of damage. Month after month, the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity has demonstrated an intent to destroy.

In its nearly 200-page report, “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water,” Human Rights Watch found intentional deprivation of Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation needed for basic human survival. Cutting off and later restricting piped water to Gaza has rendered most of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure useless. There has also been cutting off or restricting of electricity and fuel, deliberate destruction and damage of water and sanitation infrastructure, and blockage of the entry of critical water supplies. The catastrophic levels of hunger and alarming spread of diseases have an especially harsh impact on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their health.

Through an eyewitness report, “Gaza: Life in a Death Trap,” Médecins Sans Frontières spells out how a scorched-earth military offensive has included systematic attacks on hospitals and humanitarian assistance. Children, in particular, are disproportionately affected by ongoing violence, lack of healthcare, and disruption of education, which translate into long-term damage to children’s physical and mental development, exacerbating their suffering and leading to years of healthy life lost. The collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system has also left an estimated 50,000 infants born during the war without crucial immunizations, such as the polio vaccine. According to the medical teams, “What [they] have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”

Genocide is perhaps the greatest act of separation human beings can commit. It is a statement that a group is apart from ourselves, altogether should not exist, and must be eliminated—down to the children, the infants, and even the unborn. The separation is greater still when we decide that this group does not deserve even to be designated as victims of genocide, because of inconvenience, a desire to deny, or even complicity and active support—through an endless supply of weapons, intelligence, and diplomatic cover that allow for the extermination. What we do not recognize is that the separation is a problem of our mind—and, ultimately, we are doing this to ourselves.

The story of Jesus is that he came, not as a prince on a chariot as those awaiting the Messiah were expecting, but as a vulnerable child, born in a manger, himself fleeing from another homicidal “leader”, King Herod. Herod, upon hearing that a “king of the Jews” was born, gave orders to kill all the boys two years old and under, in Bethlehem and its vicinity, in order to ensure his “reign”. This became “the Massacre of the Innocents.” However, the humble child who grew up to be a Jewish rabbi had no such takeover in mind. Instead, he preached that we love one another and that, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

Will we realize in time that we are One Humanity, so that we may save ourselves?

Announcement:

There will be no live session this Friday; live sessions will resume next week.

Dr. Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist, president of the World Mental Health Coalition, and cofounder of the Violence Prevention Institute. She became known to the public through her 2017 Yale conference and book that emphasized the importance of fit leadership. In 2019, she organized a major National Press Club Conference on the theme of, “The Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” In 2024, she followed up with another major Conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” She published another book on fit leadership, in addition to a volume on how unfitness in a leader spreads, and two critical statements on fit leadership. Dr. Lee authored the internationally-acclaimed textbook, Violence; over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters; and 17 scholarly books and journal special issues, in addition to over 300 opinion editorials.