"Your dad is sleeping now." This is what was said to comfort the young daughter of the 36 year old paramedic Mohammed al-Judeli. Video
An Israeli sniper killed him as he was tending to the wounded at the Gaza separation fence last month. The sniper shot him in the face. The snipers have now killed 4-medics.
If this little girl's weeping doesn't break your heart, then I feel sorry for you for you have lost your way. Whatever your politics, whether you believe the army is responding appropriately to the protests or not (I believe it is responding inappropriately), you have to feel compassion for this little girl.
"You should pray for the welfare of the whole world and feel other's pain. This is the way of the righteous. David HaMelech said, "And I, when they were ill, dressed in sackcloth, I afflicted myself with fasting." (Tehillim 35:13) Do not pray and beseech God only for your own needs. Pray also that all humanity should live in peace. When there is peace among governments, there is peace in the world."
(Rabbeinu Yona of Girona, on Pirkei Avos 3:2. Rabbeinu Yona, d. 1263, who is referenced several times in Tosfos, was the teacher of the Rashba. He is the author of the classic Gates of Repentance.)
"The land of the Divine Torah is there for the people who live in it. Its most valuable product, the purpose and goal of the whole of God's Blessing directed to it, is every human life nourished by it, through its means able to dedicate itself to making God's Torah into a realisation. The land is only given on the condition of every human life respected as being unassailably sacred to the Torah. One drop of innocent blood shed and no notice taken of it drops a stitch in the bond which connects the land with the nation and both with God. (see verses 33 and 34). This holding human life to be so sacred is to be made evident immediately on taking possession of the land in the division of it by instituting the arrangement which the Torah had already referred to in the fundamental laws of Torah social life." (Ex. XXI, 13, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on Bamidbar 35:10)
“Compassion is the feeling of sympathy which the pain of one being awakens in another; and the higher and more human the beings are, the more keenly attuned they are to re-echo the note of suffering, which, like a voice from heaven, penetrates the heart, bringing all creatures a proof of their kinship in the universal God. And as for man, whose function it is to show respect and love for God's universe and all its creatures, his heart has been created so tender that it feels with the whole organic world bestowing sympathy even on beings devoid of feeling, mourning even for fading flowers; so that, if nothing else, the very nature of his heart must teach him that he is required above everything to feel himself the brother of all beings, and to recognize the claim of all beings to his love and his beneficence.” (Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch, Horeb,125)
So you have evidence that these snipers killed the medics on purpose? Was this part of a pattern for each of these snipers?
ReplyDeleteThe IDF said the killing of the lady medic was accidental. In general, the shootings are done with a team, where targets are carefully selected. But what has that to do with a little girl crying? It seems as if the only topic you care about in life, is getting everyone to think the IDF is perfect. Nothing else matters in the whole world to you.
DeleteWould you use quotes by R' Hirsch against American and Brittish soldiers during World War II who accidentally killed innocent Germans? Or do you only do this against Jews who risk their lives to protect other Jews?
ReplyDeleteDo you have any evidence that R' Hirsch would approve of your use of his words in this situation? Are there any Hirschians who agree with this?
The main point of the post is to feel compassion for a 4 year old girl who lost her father. Evidently you are incapable of doing that.
DeleteA similar thing happened about a year ago, and later it was reported that the victim was not the saint they were made out to be. See https://www.cufi.org.uk/news/medic-killed-in-violent-gaza-protests-was-used-as-human-shield-idf/
ReplyDeletehttps://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-spokesperson-slain-gaza-medic-no-angel-of-mercy/
This case may be similar, and you should not jump to conclusions.
Better leave knee-jerk reactions to jerks, and be deliberate in judgment.
You should do some reading on that case. The lady picked up a used gas canister that the IDF shot at the Gaza protesters and threw it about 4 meters into an open space in Gaza far from any Israeli soldiers. It was obviously a symbolic act of protest not any threat to anyone. It was about as dangerous and violent as you throwing a used Coke can in your backyard. You should read the NY Times analysis of the killing. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/30/world/middleeast/gaza-medic-israel-shooting.html "The bullet that killed her, The Times found, was fired by an Israeli sniper into a crowd that included white-coated medics in plain view. A detailed reconstruction, stitched together from hundreds of crowd-sourced videos and photographs, shows that neither the medics nor anyone around them posed any apparent threat of violence to Israeli personnel." But all that is besides the point. The point is are you capable of feeling compassion for a little girl? And the answer seems to be no.
DeleteThe IDF admitted that the killing was a mistake. "Israel’s military said Tuesday that the killing of a young Palestinian volunteer medic at a Gaza fence protest last week was unintentional and that only “a small number of bullets were fired” by its soldiers." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-najjar.html?module=inline So I guess your judgement that she must have been guilty of something was a little knee-jerk. Next time please be more deliberate in judgement.
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