A Palestinian, one-and-a-half year old infant, Ali Dawabsheh, was killed in a house that had been torched in an attack by Israeli assailants in Duma village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, July 31, 2015. Heart wrenchingly, the baby boy died in the fire whilst being asleep. His four-year-old brother and parents were left emotionally broken and wounded.
As a mother of four children, one of whom is the same age as Ali Dawabsheh, it breaks my heart to hear such brutality occurring without proper interventions to bring those accountable to justice. The attack, which threatens to set off another violent escalation, highlights the need to bring those accountable to justice and form regulations within the law to manage the extremists. However Israel is either unable or unwilling to stop it and has allowed the extremists to carry out attacks against Palestinians for years.
The attacks carried out by these extremists are known as "price tags" because they exact a price for Israeli steps and ignite fear in Palestinians. Frustratingly Israel has not done enough to quell the assaults, which has now left an innocent one- year old dead.
Ironically, the Israeli government condemns the attacks and has "distanced" themselves from the extremists, even though Mr Netanyahu himself has waged a war on Palestine, killing hundreds and thousands of innocent civilians in the war against Hamas. This is not about Jews or Jewish terrorists, I don't believe any terrorists who carry out such horrendous crimes in the name of religion truly belong or follow the tenets of that religion at all so it is unfair to use religion to describe the perpetrators.
However, this is about ensuring accountability and driving provisions so that innocent Palestinian civilians can feel safe and gain stability in their lives. This has not been the case for Palestinian families, living in fear and in constant need of rebuilding and rehabilitating their lives.
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, said that, "This is a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli government to settler terrorism," Erakat further went onto state that, "This is the consequence of a culture of hate funded and incentivized by the Israeli government and the impunity granted by the international community."
Ahmad Asaf, a spokesman for Palestinian political party Fatah, also blamed the attack on the Israeli government and urged the United Nations to take steps toward justice. It is devastating to see that that it is innocent families and civilians that have to undergo horrific crimes waged against them. My question remains answered as to when are we going to put a stop to it? When are we going to speak up against injustices the Palestinian families have to face and end the grievances of our fellow citizens in humanity?
There needs to be a solid measure of deterrence for those who commit crimes, in order to provide a basis on which to build reforms of state and international institutions. Efficient and effective mechanisms for accountability can help states to make better policies and laws, and monitor their impact on people's lives.
The atrocities that have taken place have heightened with this recent death and this is mainly due to the fact that Israeli is not accepting responsibility or being held accountable for the violation of human rights. The parents of the toddler who has been killed deserve justice; they deserve compassion and provisions to be able to move forward with the hope of a more stable future for their family.
There are many obstacles that we need to overcome in order to expose the intolerances of governments that remain in the world today. Powerful states continually manipulate the law and conceal their crimes from international criticism for their own political advantage, which makes it increasingly difficult for people to be brought to justice. The Israeli government need to do more to tackle these extremists, they have the ability to wage heavy wars with powerful military tanks against Hamas, yet they cannot create measures to prevent such acts of brutality that safeguard the lives of the innocent.
Every individual in the world has a right to live in peace and in order to ensure we must speak up on injustices and give a voice to those underrepresented communities in order to eradicate the bad and promote ways to facilitate a better future. I pray for little Ali Dawabsheh and his family and hope that this tragedy brings reforms so that one day they can lead a stable and prosperous life.