The telling of children

On the news we hear that two Israeli children, held hostage by Hamas, but also by Isreal in its avid pursuit of genocide.  Perhaps they were murdered by Hamas, perhaps they died of starvation like many Palestinian children.  Food and health care are both more than scarce. The death of these children is heart-breaking news.  We saw their pictures.  We imagine the grief.

What we seldom hear, in the midst of the banality of so much news casting is that more than 18,000 Palestinian children have been murdered in Gaza.  There would be too many pictures to show.  And many of the parents who would show us these pictures, are themselves gone.

Padraig O’Tuama writes in his poem, The Pedagogy of Conflict,

When I was a child,
I learnt to count to five
one, two, three, four, five.
but these days, I’ve been counting lives, so I count

one life
one life
one life
one life
one life

because each time
is the first time
that that life
has been taken . . .*

We need to know the weight of that counting.

The weight of one Palestinian life is not less than the weight of one Israeli life.

Two Israeli children have died in Gaza since October 7, 2025 and the deaths of 38 children have been reported as a result of the attack on Israel.  This is heart-wrenching.

It is less often reported, the tale is less often told that nore than 18,000 Palestinian children have died since October 7, 2025, and this is inexpressible.

We must not look away.
We must imagine their eyes,
their small, soft fingers,
the warmth of them pressed against those they loved
We must listen to their lives.
The meaning of humanity depends on it.
Say it again, The meaning of humanity depend on it.

One life, one life, one life . . .

Israel in Zionist progression (and Zionism is not the same as Judaism) calls it self-defence.  The United Nations calls it genocide.  No one is held accountable.

“The Pedagogy of Conflict” Originally published in Sorry for your Troubles (Canterbury Press, 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Pádraig Ó Tuama.