‘It makes sense to kill children if you’re trying to target the future’
The Essence of Zionism:
The essence of Zionism is occupation. There is no separation. There is no peace with Zionism. Without dehumanisation and the slaughter of innocent civilians, Zionism could not survive. Without land theft, apartheid and displacement, it cannot exist.
For years, the Israeli government and its supporters, in an attempt to justify their aggression, levelled charges such as ‘Hamas beheading babies’, of ‘human shields’ and militants ‘hiding in hospitals’. Yet these same forces are responsible for the verified and ongoing killing of hundreds of children every day1 —not speculation, but in verifiable, documented fact.
Beheaded babies. Human shields. The same cycle of misinformation and deception. These baseless accusations are designed for a single purpose: to distract from the systematic violence produced by the Israeli state. So horrific and so calculated that they could only come from the ones committing them. Their accusations and lies expose their own authors.
The violence does not end with bullets and bombs. It infiltrates the media through dehumanisation and desensitisation. It numbs us to the horrors, reducing children to numbers. Families reduced to debris with their stories flattened to simple statistics.
Consider the imagery they use: the slaughter of residents, decapitated women and children. Dead babies. The smell of death. A bloody Aftermath. Ironic isn’t it. All the words we would use for everything they actually do. Not something hidden or speculative, but fact.
Yet, no matter how many lies told, no matter how many missiles are fired, no amount of bombs can erase truth.
Dehumanisation
To understand how this violence is not only tolerated but celebrated we must return to its roots: dehumanisation.
From their earliest steps and first words, Israelis are taught to view Palestinians as inferior2. Supremacy becomes instinct, embedded early. Even among so-called “liberal” Israelis, the recognition of Palestinian humanity is a taboo3. Simply acknowledging that Palestinians suffer is enough to be branded a ‘traitor’.
This is by no accident. Dehumanisation is the foundation of the Zionist project. The logic is simple: make the Palestinians’ suffering invisible, and their oppression becomes not only acceptable but justified. Without it, Zionism would cease to exist.
This is why they watch bombs fall like fireworks. Why they celebrate and cheer, write messages on missiles, it's a joy for them. And we ask how could they?
The answer is unfortunately simple; to them, we are not human.
When an entire society is conditioned to see an entire people as less than human, slaughter becomes inevitable. Massacres not only become possible, but become morally justifiable, within the logic of such a system. A system working exactly as designed.
This was no mistake, it is not a reaction to terrorism, or a byproduct of reactionary defense. It is deliberate institutionalised dehumanisation. And it is this very structure that allows for atrocities to continue unchecked, that enables massacres to be committed with no remorse, no accountability, and with no end.
But that end will come. By Allah Al-Haseeb, Ash-Shaheed, that day will come.
Understand, they see no wrong in their actions. To them, what we see as atrocities is simply the exercise of democracy. The killing of children, the erasure of entire bloodlines, the levelling of neighbourhoods—this is the law for them. It seems their definitions of law and justice differ from ours.
In reality they have never denied it. It’s the media that work tirelessly to sanitise their crimes, attempting to blind the world from their actions. Manufacturing excuse after excuse, they frame Palestinian resistance as terrorism, framing state violence as legitimate self-defence, blurring the reality of apartheid into ‘conflict’.
“One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.”
In the case of Palestine (and let this not be limited to them), it is not the act, but the narrator, that defines the label. Resisting occupation is cast as terrorism, while nuclear-armed powers flattening cities in the name of self-defence are framed as heroic for surviving a supposed “threat”.
Zionism thrives on this narrative, it cannot survive without it. It feeds on it, ensuring that even moments of joy, like the celebration of Eid, are tainted by slaughter and drowned in mourning. Because in a system built on such cruelty and dehumanisation, even joy itself becomes a threat.
Eid in the shadow of Occupation:
As with the past Eids under the Zionist occupation of Palestine, this beautiful day is not celebrated in the same way as elsewhere in the world.
Eid is a day of celebration, where children wake up to new clothes, sweets and barakah (blessings). For many Palestinian mothers, Eid is a reminder of all that has been stolen from them. Yet woven into their hands and hearts is the resilience Allah has ordained for them. Stitches that once traced their pain now hold together the remnants of a broken world. Gathering what remains, they thread together their love, faith and resilience to bring joy to their children, even in the bleakest of times.
Each seam, a sacrifice. Each pulled thread, a quiet du’a. This was their test, their battle, and they rose with grace.
While many of us sat comfortably around our families, celebrating Eid al-Fitr with sweets and gifts, we momentarily scrolled through our phones to see more families being pulled from the rubble. That flicker of guilt must not be dismissed, for that guilt produces change. For this too is our test.
How could we truly enjoy such a day when so near to us, our brothers and sisters bleed under the weight of bombs? May we never forget that our Ummah is bleeding. And may we ask Allah and only Allah to relieve their suffering and grant them the justice that no worldly court ever will. For verily, Allah sees what the world ignores, His reckoning will be complete where all others fail.
اللَّهُمَّ أَصْلِحْ أَحْوَالَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانٍ
O Allah! Rectify the affairs of the Muslims in every place
اللَّهُمَّ كَمَا آوَيْتَنَا آوِهِمْ، وَكَمَا أَطْعَمْتَنَا أَطْعِمْهُمْ، وَكَمَا آمَنْتَنَا آمِنْ رَوْعَاتِهِم، اللَّهُمَّ احْمِهِمْ وَاسْتُرْهُمْ وَاجْبُرْهُم
O Allah, as You have sheltered us, shelter them. And as You have fed us, feed them. And as You have granted us security, ease their fears. O Allah, protect them, cover them, and mend their wounds.
اللَّهُمَّ لُطْفَكَ بِاُأمَّةِ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم
O Allah, show Your kindness to the Ummah of Muhammad, peace be upon him
وَصَلِّ اللَّهُمَّ وَسَلِّم عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُلِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ
And blessing and peace be upon our prophet Mohammad, his family and his companions. And the last of our call be, "Praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds”.
‘UN says 100 children killed or injured in Gaza every day since war resumed’, Al-Jazeera (5 April 2025) <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/5/un-says-100-children-killed-or-injured-in-gaza-every-day-since-war-resumed>
Or Kashti, ‘From the First Grade to the Grave, Israelis Are Taught to Dehumanize Palestinians’, Haaretz Analysis (3 August 2023) <https://archive.is/0D4pJ>
Hanin Majadli, ‘Even Anti-war Israelis Are Scared to Say Gazans Are Human Beings’, Haaretz Opinion (21 March 2025) <https://archive.is/f0wvB>