The Children of Gaza

As a father and grandfather, it has been harrowing to see the daily suffering experienced by the children of Gaza.

It has deeply affected me. What has been the most distressing is to know their pain and suffering can be averted. Their fear, hunger, sadness, and injury are not caused by a natural disaster or an unforeseen event. It is suffering imposed by adults who see and understand their distress but do nothing to end it. It seems so heartless, pointless and lacking in compassion for the most innocent of bystanders. The children are the blameless victims of an endless adult game of devastation, with no apparent resolution.

It has become hard to watch their suffering on my TV screen. I now struggle to read how many children have died, are fatherless, motherless, or totally alone. It would be easy to turn away from it all, but to do so is not right. They can’t be left to suffer alone with no one to care about them, even if that care is no more than a heartfelt embrace from the other side of the world.

It fills me with sorrow to know such hurt is not unique to them, as there are too many children around the world faced with abuse, mistreatment and the challenges of war.

I’ve often wondered what paralyses us from action. What prevents each of us and our nation from screaming stop? It’s difficult to understand how our world can see the unthinkable taking place and allow it to happen without expressing its outrage.

It’s hard to accept that we aren’t acting to end inconceivable distress, but it’s hard to deny it as well. Maybe I have it all wrong and need to accept that the abject distress of Gaza’s kids is not enough to move the hearts and minds of those who are able to bring peace to their lives.

There is something in me which refuses to believe we don’t care enough to end the suffering of Gaza’s children. There are too many people in the world who care for others. I’d like to think my distress is shared by them. Like me, they must often wonder how they can help. It’s a question we each need to answer and answer it we must. There’s too much at stake not to.

If we value children, not just our own, we need to do all we can to ensure peace again reins in Gaza. Peace will allow its children to once again play their favourite games, enjoy their beloved toys and cry out with laughter, rather than terror. Peace will allow children to rediscover their childhood and teach us all how to live in harmony.

By Tony Pietropiccolo AM.

Tony Pietropiccolo is an Adjunct Professor at Notre Dame University, Fremantle, a director of the not-for-profit Centrecare Inc, and the founder of the Valuing Children Initiative, a project that seeks to highlight the value of children.