Israel views children’s lives as irrelevant by Haidar Eid

In its latest attack on Gaza, Israel killed at least 33 Palestinians within five days. The attack was accompanied by calls from Israel’s government ministers – including the overt fascists Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – for greater violence, in effect the intensification of genocide. Gaza has long been acquainted with Israel’s policies of extermination.

…To “justify” the dehumanization of Palestinian children, Maurice Hirsch, who spent almost two decades in Israel’s Military Advocate General Corps, tweeted that “while the incidental loss of life of non-combatants is always unfortunate, the Laws of War take into account that this is a possible & even legitimate result.” And in a much worse tweet, he goes further: “Considering the military advantage gained by eliminating these senior terrorists, it is irrelevant to ask how many children were incidentally killed.” Hirsch’s words encapsulate Israel’s ideology. Under Israel’s genocidal, settler-colonial doctrine, the lives of the natives are “irrelevant.”