Re: "Muslim boy killed and woman wounded in Illinois hate crime motivated by Israel-Hamas war, police say"

"Can any of us pretend that the West has, in its reactions, placed as much value on lost Palestinian lives as on lost Israeli lives? This is where the road of dehumanization leads. Let us stop the march down this road, and instead think, act, and struggle in more inclusive directions."


October 16, 2023

This killing in Chicago of a six-year-old Palestinian child should give our fire-and-brimstone newspapers real reason for pause. The Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, has this week referred to Palestinians as “human animals.” The United States President, Joe Biden, has said of Palestinian actions that “this is not even human behavior.” And this week alone, Israel has killed nearly three thousand Palestinians in Gaza, several hundred of them children. Can any of us pretend that the West has, in its reactions, placed as much value on lost Palestinian lives as on lost Israeli lives? This is where the road of dehumanization leads. Let us stop the march down this road, and instead think, act, and struggle in more inclusive directions.

Sincerely yours,
Dan Freeman-Maloy