Written by: Rola Salameh
It is no longer strange to hear about a problem between two young men, which resulted in one of their death. It is also no longer surprising to hear about an argument between two children over a game, which lead to their families’ intervention and the murder of one of them by the side of the road, and the other in a juvenile institution with a dark future ahead of him. The Palestinian society no longer claims that it is dominated by a state of fraternity and solidarity, as it is not like how it used to be thirty or forty years ago. The occupation and its crimes, psychological, social, economic and political pressures, insecurity and the loss of hope are all factors that contributed to tension, pressure and violence towards one another within the society. We, the mothers and fathers, may have failed to raise the generation that was brought up in the street or via the Internet, due to the lack of supervision, for they have learned that force is the only way to solve problems or differences of viewpoints. Perhaps they are convinced that what was taken by force can only be returned by force, which is an example of what we learned from our reality under occupation.
The events of Ramadan during this year are strange. We learned from an early age that Ramadan is a month of fasting, obedience and worship, a month of tolerance, solidarity and social solidarity. We have never heard that it is the month of murder, bloodshed and disputes that end in tragedy or catastrophes, where often a third person pays the price. A few days ago, a dispute occurred in the neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz in East Jerusalem between neighbors over a parking lot, followed by fighting and the use of firearms, where a bullet was fired to a girl’s chest, who was watching what was going on from her window. The mother of the deceived young woman, Maryam Al-Takrouri, said: “Maryam was standing by the window while I was near her. Suddenly, she screamed and said something entered my chest, and immediately after that she fell to the ground, and I started screaming and calling out for the youth to come and save her life. But Maryam is gone now.”
This is where the tragedy of a girl and her family began. She paid the price of recklessness and the use of illegal weapons. The reform committees began to move and compensate the family of the victim, for this is what usually happens. Movement always takes place after the occurrence of the disaster rather than before it. If there were wise and honest people and leaders amongst us, then this matter would have been avoided, for how many problems, firing, burning of homes and attacks of innocent people happened in the city of Jerusalem? Is it possible for us to confront the occupation and defend our homeland, while fighting and killing one another? Is it conceivable that we compete with those in occupied Jerusalem in the number of deaths and the high number of injured, and be silent while burying our dead one by one?
As I was listening to the story of the Palestinian child, Abdul Rahman, who was killed two days ago while he was returning from his school at the entrance to the Shuafat camp near the Apartheid Wall, I began to feel the extent of this tragedy. Where are we from our children while they carry knives between their books and pens? How do we allow a child to kill an innocent child just because of a dispute or an argument between them? How can this child bear what his hands have done when he wakes up from his anger and thinks? How can he return to his childhood that was stolen from him?
Now is the time for action, serious work, reckoning and admonition, the time for drawing up plans to move and protect generations. The tragedies and sorrows that have passed over us are sufficient, what we have lost in our lives is enough. There is no room for allowing violence and murder to dominate our lives and for us to lose and cry more. There is no way for us to be satisfied with drinking a cup of coffee after burying the victim. We must call on all religious authorities, legal figures and clerics, both Muslims and Christians, institutions that are still operating and still standing in occupied Jerusalem, everyone who lost a loved one, a relative and/or a friend. Let us rebuild humanity and the moral system that we lost and buried years ago. Let us confront violence, revenge and the use of weapons, and let us focus on working with students in schools and teaching them. Today’s youth are our hope and future. Let us spend our time with what is useful by volunteering to serve the society and participating in building institutions. Let us share our worries and sorrows and be of help to one another. Let us draw with the youth the way for tomorrow, for there will not be a tomorrow without them.
