Full of Love They Live, and Full of Life They Die

On the same day GOP clowns and yahoos played out an evil, vapid game of condemning the only Palestinian-American member of Congress for opposing genocide and insisting "we cannot lose our shared humanity," Palestinian doctors facing "an avalanche of human suffering" unveiled their grisly new acronym for a kind of war victim "unique to the Gaza Strip": WCNSF, for "Wounded Child No Surviving Family." One doctor: "(This) should be seared into our collective conscience, and haunt us."

In its grotesque distortion of a righteous stand, the House finally censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib for denouncing a savage Israeli assault that has killed over 10,000 Palestinians - most civilians, almost half children - in a month. Twenty-two Democrats joined Republicans to vote for a resolution that falsely accused Tlaib of calling for the "destruction of the state of Israel"; its sponsor Rep. Rich McCormick also charged Tlaib “levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel." In fact, Tlaib has painfully, repeatedly mourned the loss of civilian lives on both sides while decrying a brutal apartheid system that gave rise to it and an ongoing, anti-Palestinian bigotry that has sustained it. In a tearful speech, she argued she seeks only to ensure that all people can live "in peace and equality." "I can't believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable," she said. "The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you." Insisting "no government is beyond criticism," she noted a majority of Americans support a ceasefire, "but this Congress isn't listening to their voices."

This was the second censure effort after Marjorie Space-Laser Greene unsuccessfully charged Tlaib led "an insurrection" by joining a peaceful protest of Jews demanding a ceasefire; Greene tried (and failed) again by changing the language to "illegal occupation," evidently without irony. Still, critics blasted the malevolent idiocy behind GOP efforts to silence Tlaib rather than save lives, and their partisan, unprecedented wielding of censure to do it - especially after they remained silent when GOP colleagues compared all Palestinians to Nazis and called for turning Gaza into "a parking lot." In stark contrast, argued supporters, "Congresswoman Tlaib's moral courage will never be extinguishable." "Tlaib should ask for a copy of the censure resolution, dip it in bronze, and hang it on her office wall," wrote Derek Davison. "Being condemned by this abhorrent mob of sociopaths is a badge of honor if ever there was one." Others blasted Dems who joined in the bigotry. "It is clear that while Israelis and Palestinians may be equal in the eyes of God, they are not in the eyes of the U.S. government," wrote Waleed Shahid. "It's now up to Democrats of conscience to dismantle the horrific hierarchy of human value that has taken hold at the highest places in our party."

Meanwhile, the killing goes on. It has been a month of "unimaginable loss" in Gaza, with deaths creeping up toward 11,000. UN and other rights workers describe "disastrous" and "catastrophic" conditions: No food, power, clean water, flour for bread; infectious disease "surging" from failing sanitation systems; hospitals overflowing with patients on floors as depleted doctors perform surgery without anaesthetic. Relentless Israeli airstrikes hit a humanitarian convoy of trucks carrying vital medical supplies to hospitals; unfathomably, they also hit Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital, including the pediatric cancer ward, reportedly twice. Wrenching videos show civilians fleeing Gaza City on foot, white flags and hands in the air, and the aftermath of a bombing in al-Maghazi refugee camp that killed nine members of one family - people weeping, yelling, running with small bodies to an idling car hoping to get them to a hospital alive. Media coverage often worsens the crimes: Talk of a "conflict," use of a passive "were killed" with no mention of the killers, like an act of God; disbelief about the devastation - "We must verify our deaths as we die" - amidst the grim reality that, "There is not a single person who will come out unscathed, physically or psychologically."

As always, the true victims are children. Israel has now killed over 4,200 Palestiniain children, one roughly every 10 minutes, and twice the total killed since 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza combined. Thousands more remain missing under rubble, presumed dead - another unfathomable. Those are just the "lucky" ones; many more now die slowly of hunger and thirst, of infections from drinking sewage or sea water, of cancer untreated and disease left to spread. These were children already broken, scarred, their lives convulsed by violence, whose mental health has been "pushed beyond breaking point." Since the 2007 blockade, 80% of Gazan children have reported feeling perpetual fear, grief, anxiety; now, with death on all sides, there is no safe place to take their trauma. "There is a lot of loss and a lot of pain," says a UN staff member and father of three young children. "We are fearful of what the coming hours will bring, what tomorrow will bring. My children look into my eyes every day. They are searching for answers. I have no answers for them." So many children have lost so many family members, says Jason Lee of Save the Children, "We are running out of words (to) articulate the scale of children’s suffering."

Language falters. Brutal necessity pushes on. Doctors are seeing so many wounded children without any family left to care for them they've had to coin a new term to identify these singularly grievous war victims: WCNSF - Wounded Child No Surviving Family. In a grim interview from Jordan, Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care doctor and co-founder of GazaMedicVoices, said colleagues have been using it "not infrequently" for a few weeks; the "collective stain on humanity" it represents, she added, "should not exist as an acronym.” And she brusquely dismissed talk of a humanitarian "pause": "A 'pause' to me makes no sense. You pause to nourish and hydrate a population before you kill them? You stop the bombardment." It is "the children of Gaza's cursed fate" who have given birth to a name that should not exist, writes Mahmoud Nasser, who has sought to chronicle the loss of "the innocent souls, the ones who do not hurt a living thing" by photographing those who remain, for now. Of those gone, he writes, "They will no longer play their games or follow their football heroes. These children knew their Ronaldos and their Messis. Yet they were targeted. Why? We ask that question. But we are answered only with silence. Full of love they live, and full of life they die."

The true victims of Israel’s bombs: Palestinian childrenvideopress.com

Randa, five years old. Still alive, for now.Photo by Mahmoud Nasser