Is there no greater dream than to return home?

November 3, 2023 7:08 AM

The dreams of Gaza's kids (NYT SL)
posted by bluesky43 (5 comments total)

There are the dreams of kids in the middle of a war (becoming an engineer to help build the country) but the dreams that got through my current emotional barriers* were the 21st century social media mediated dreams, to become a Youtuber, to have a car like Ronaldo.

* I must admit that I hesitated before clicking play on the video (direct link to the Youtube version), but then I realized that these are video interviews from 2021. And then I thought a bit more and wondered how many of these kids have survived. Will survive. GODDAMN IT 99% of U.S. politicians, even the Financial Times is calling for a cease fire.
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:20 AM on November 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

status: crying
posted by kensington314 at 11:01 AM on November 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

> but then I realized that these are video interviews from 2021.

If you are avoiding seeing sensitive scenes, keep in mind Israel was bombing Gaza in 2021 as well, with hundreds killed. You can see in the video the destruction behind the children.

:(
posted by mulligan at 11:11 AM on November 3, 2023 [5 favorites]

Thank you for posting this. I visited an UNRWA girls school at the south end of Gaza about 15 years ago. I remember the vividly the dissonance I experienced listening to optimistic, confident 8 year olds talking about wanting to be doctors etc, and realizing that they were all trapped between internal actors who preached an Islamist state achieving total victory rather than peace, and external actors who just wanted to seal up the frontier and forget about who was inside. I have wondered many times how those girls feel today, in their mid-20s, about what is possible in their futures.
posted by senor biggles at 12:39 PM on November 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Israel was bombing Gaza in 2021 as well,

there isn't a single year since 2008 where at least dozens and upwards of thousands of Palestinian civilians haven't been murdered by the IDF
posted by paimapi at 12:42 PM on November 3, 2023 [7 favorites]