Open letter to children of Gaza..

Dear Children of Gaza,

I do not want to fall in to the trap of pointing out which of your killings deserves more sympathy or condemnation. Or to deliberate here, who are the victims and who the perpetrators in that great theatre of human tragedy called Gaza. Both, the militant Palestinian groups and Israeli Defense Forces are guilty of violating your rights and causing you grievous injury and unwarranted death. It is not my wish to add fuel to the fire by picking sides or apportioning blame.

History and the courts of men will sift through the rubble of dates and laws and borders, failed agreements and UN by laws and will separate the strands of good and evil from this conflict and name the villains and the victors.
To me, as to most of the civilized world, you are all children.

The same innocent smiles and tender faces; the same preferred choice of attire, the same interests in games and music and movies. And when you fall to a sniper or die in your homes or schools attacked by a missile launcher – your bodies crumple the same way, and the same patterns of blood form around your corpses.
I watched an attack on one of your homes on Youtube yesterday. I could not believe what I heard and saw. An ordinary building in an ordinary neighborhood. Suddenly from deep within the walls of one building amongst a row of many, an explosion. And then as if a cosmically malevolent eraser had got to work, before my eyes, I saw the whole building disappear in smoke and fire.

And after a minute when the smoke had cleared up, only an empty space left where it had been. An empty space and the sobbing of your mothers.

I will never forget the sound of that sobbing.

I have heard that your killers have begun to specially target the places that you are known to inhabit. Schools, beaches, the wards of hospitals where you are placed. I have heard that they sit and watch your extermination as if they are watching a spectacle or a movie.

I have heard that the children of the two opposing sides have been so steeped in war and hatred, in violence and bloodshed that they grow up indoctrinated in hate and fear. Tragedy has seeped into their blood lines. Fear has been transmitted through their umbilical cords.

Fear and violence exist where love, laughter, hopes and dreams ought to.

Children of Gaza, believe me when I say that you are not a statistic. What use is it to count on our fingers or computers how many of you have been killed, maimed, lost orphaned or rendered homeless and future-less?
Counting is not a valid response in a situation like this. Counting is for bankers and shopkeepers, for accountants and actuaries. Who wants to know how many children have died in the Gaza conflict?

Tell them, too many. Tell them that if one mother loses her child to war and violence it's one too many.
Tell them the killing of one child is the killing of all children and that the world cannot afford even one child 's life lost in vain.

Children of Gaza, what can I say to you that will make the killings stop? All I have are my words. I send these to you in the hope that I never have to write any child a letter such as this again.

And I hope to God the sobbing of your mothers stops.

Yours sincerely etc

Malavika Sangghvi 

The writer believes in the art of letter writing