IS OUR CONSCIENCE DEAD? – by Major General Rajiv Edwards, VSM (Retd)

IS OUR CONSCIENCE DEAD? – by Major General Rajiv Edwards, VSM (Retd)

The ‘Gaza Strip’ or ‘Azzah’ as it is referred in the Bible, is a mere 1.6 percent of Israel’s land mass; a narrow piece of territory 40 kilometer in length and 6-8 kilometer in width. With a population of about 2.3 million living in an area of 365 square kilometer, it is one of the mostly densely populated places in the world @ roughly a little over 6000 people per square kilometer. Collateral damage is unavoidable in war; in Gaza it is inevitable! In International Humanitarian Law, if there is anything called the Principle of Distinction, Proportionality or Precaution in Attack, in the ‘Strip’ it doesn’t apply!

1. On 07 October, it will be a year since the ‘Kargil-ish’ miscalculation by Hamas….some may even term it as Carlo Cipolla’s ‘golden law of stupidity’!  Be that as it may, the ferocity of relentless ‘collective’ retribution by Israel in its so called ‘war of no choice’ on Hamas, seems to suggest, at least for the time being, that, no matter what the costs and clamour, closure is nowhere on the horizon!  In the context of the avowed end state, both sides would do well to remember that often times, ‘disappointment resides in the gap between expectations and reality’!
2. Just like everything else in this brutal war, the casualty statistics too are contentious…as if a couple of thousand less or more would provide solace to the soul!  In Gaza as on date, it is about 41.000 dead and over 95.000 injured. But then, if you are chasing ‘whole’ numbers, you would be missing the woods from the trees!  An autopsy of the figures reveals that the dead in children are over 16.000, which has exceeded the most in one year, than in four years of conflict worldwide.  Add to this, approximate 34,000 injured, 21,000 missing (half conjectured to be still buried under rubble), 17,000 orphaned and 1500 with permanent disabilities; the largest cohort of pediatric amputees in human history.  To all intents and purposes, this is not collateral damage!  And, death is only the tip of the iceberg….children who survive are not unscathed; they are  likely to pay a high price psychologically, emotionally and behaviourally.  UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres remarks that, ‘if there is hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza’.
3. Fatalities to children in any conflict, in any part of the world, and there are many, is most contemptible…….in Gaza it is the frequency and the disproportionateness which is so horrific! The irony amidst the despair is the verbal jousting between the belligerents to apportion blame ….. as if seeking ‘acquittal’ for the  macabre carnage of  children!  The most heart rending  images of children shock us into disbelieving the most plausibly constructed justification for continuation of the bloodbath. Paradoxically, there appears to be more number of people theorizing and dissecting the ongoing war, than those lamenting the consequences on the children!  As Aesop stated, ‘the injuries we do and those we suffer are seldom weighed in the same scales’. 
4. The ongoing conflict is driven by several factors and religion is perhaps one predominant element. Elie Barnavi, a former Israeli Ambassador to France avers, that his country, ‘has gone through the entire sequence of European wars, but in reverse order’, implying what began as battle between states, is now more religious in character. Be that as it may, the instinctive behavior to take sides in any conflict based on Tocqueville’s ‘enlightened self interest’ is quite understandable.  However, the impassiveness on the suffering of children due to their religious identity is utterly inexplicable and indefensible.  It is what psychologists call, ‘schadenfreude’ or the absence of empathy…..the joy and satisfaction over the misfortune of others.  Woefully, most toddlers would never know the sordid truth, that they were ‘branded’ for the faith, which they knew nothing about!  True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.
5.   Research reveals that globally there is an overall decline in empathy, with the average person being less empathetic than a decade back. Several factors have contributed to this phenomenon. The complex transformation in society and technology, including perhaps COVID, are namable. Digital technology can numb users on biological, cognitive and social levels preventing empathy and compassion.  Social media in particular, has sought to isolate users by being addictive and constricting and ‘breeding narcissists’, who reflect hypersensitivity towards themselves and insensitivity towards others.  We cannot sit by and ignore what is happening in other parts of the globe simply because we exist on the ‘right’ continent…..if not financial or material assistance, we can at least learn, as a civilization, to empathise and have compassion. The situation in Gaza is ostensibly a growing stain on our collective conscience!
6. Ironically, those who justify atrocities on children on ‘absurd’ and ‘dangerous’ assumptions, are mulishly bigoted!  Not only that, the incautious use of isolated biblical texts or decontextualised themes also can be perilous! The fact is that the cumulative impact of sustained ethnic-political violence on children is likely to make them  grow up with high levels of post traumatic stress disorder……the psychic numbing to violence, compassion collapse and  aggression  as a preferred way to solve problems. The children in conflict zones urgently need ‘psychological first aid’, not more violence!  The warring sides need to take heed that, ‘violence begets violence’ or as the scriptures reveal, ‘sow the wind, reap the whirlwind’!  In their uninhibited and punitive tit for tat, they may well be queering the pitch for many future generations.  This is likely to further widen the civilisational divide, which as  Samuel Huntington posits, will be, ‘the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order!
7. Ironically, it is in the interest of the global powers to segregate lives into those who can be grieved and those who cannot; those whose mourning justifies the influential global defense-arms industry and those whose mourning undermines it.  To put it simply, it is the censorship of grief.  Little wonder then, that the voices of concern seem to be like whistling in the wind! Our capacity to mourn lives that are geographically displaced from us reveals a lot about who we are as people. If we are not feeling outrage, distress and grief, then maybe something is wrong, and we must question why we are not moved to action.
8. Many nights as I lie in bed, the blood smattered faces of the innocent children in conflict zones criss-cross the smiling images of my two grand children, and my heart is weighed down with deep sorrow! Long after the war in Gaza gets over, ‘the true cost will be measured in children’s lives – those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it’.  I for one cannot even fathom the helplessness and rage I would feel if I were on the receiving end in such a conflict zone!

(Major General Rajiv Edwards, VSM** (retd) is a historical researcher and commentator on societal issues.  He is apolitical. Views expressed are personal)