Dual Realities of Childhood: Innocence and Resilience in a Broken World
A weekend of laughter and innocence in Tabarka collides with haunting reflections on the resilience of children enduring unimaginable loss and genocide in Gaza.
I was blessed to spend this weekend staying in a stunning Maison d'Hôte in the even more stunning Tabarka with some equally stunning friends.
I was all the more blessed to be joined by their rambunctious kids.
Admittedly, sometimes the sheer amount of explosive energy that manifests when a bunch of kids play together — not to mention the constant shrieking — can be exasperatingly exhausting, even just to observe.
But much more importantly, spending time with children is an exceptional way of lifting the spirits and healing heartache.
And God knows my heart has been aching as I witness Israel continue to mass murder children, bombing them to bits, week after week for over a year.
I watched the kids play all around the property, framed by a breathtaking backdrop. They climbed on walls, jumped from stone to stone, aware that they had imagined an entire world I was oblivious to, despite my best efforts to be included in theworld of make believe they magically created and existed so joyously in.
I watched them use their arms and legs to leap towards the sky and dive into each other’s shadows, twisting and jiving, overlooking the ever-so romantic Mediterranean bay.
While observing them express their unfiltered wonder in a million different ways, I suddenly started sweating, as my mind filtered through the footage of the countless children left disfigured, legless or limbless by Israel in Gaza I see in my feed.
I would chuckle when the kids accomplished acrobatic movements in the garden thanks to an unshaken belief in their limitless possibility, and again I’d chuckle at the way they expressed pure joy in the simplest of things, like dipping a pretzel stick in a jar of chocolate.
And just like, suddenly my mind was racing again, replaying footage of displaced children screaming and crying to get their share of soup from a soup kitchen.
Children remind us of the beauty all too often lost as we navigate the complexity of adult life.
Yet, as they drew me closer to the present moment with their curiosity and laughter, offering a respite from the weight of this painful year, I found my entire being struggling to marry the reality around me, with the reality of Gaza: a reality in which malnutrition is rampant, bombs drop relentlessly, and deadly disease spreads amidst a health system in complete collapse.
“Gaza has the highest number of children amputees per capita anywhere in the world with many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anesthesia,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today.
Israel bans the importation of anesthetics into Gaza so that the scores of children who are amputated daily, after losing limbs from Israel’s bombings are forced to undergo surgery without anesthesia, that is if they are fortunate enough to ever make it to one of the few remaining functioning medical facilities.
Exactly one year ago, in December 2023, children in Gaza held a press conference in English begging the world to stop Israel’s relentless bombardment.
Israel forces have already killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children. That is one child every 30 minutes.
In just the past 48 hours Israeli forces have also killed 4 WCK aid workers, a Save The Children staffer, a Gaza Soup Kitchen chef, an ICU director, attacked and killed hundreds of displaced Palestinians and shot a 10 year old girl.
Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's Former Defense Minister who was in the job when Israel killed 500 children in Gaza in 2014, doubled down on his statement that the army he once led is committing “ethnic cleansing” and war crimes in Gaza.
“I speak on behalf of the commanders serving in northern Gaza, where war crimes are being committed,” Ya’alon told Israeli media. “Israeli soldiers … will face lawsuits in the Criminal Court.
As we got in the car to drive back to Tunis, with the kids uncharacteristically quiet in the backseat tapping on a screen and integrating all the weekend’s adventures they had, I caught a glance at one of them in the rear view mirror, and as our eyes connect, instantly, I am reminded of our innate capacity for hope and resilience.
I close my eyes and lay my head against the window, and suddenly the faces of children in northern Gaza start streaming through my mind.
These little heroes, who amidst the rubble, still carry their schoolbags as if filled with the weight of the world, smiling at whomever snapped their photos, embody the extraordinary power of little human beings to love life, despite having every reason to despise it.
Bless all the little heroes that remind us of our own humanity, and to connect with our inner child.
amazing one.
thx, Anwaar