How Israel lost its way

This January, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers and later died during a military raid in the Dheisheh refugee camp, during which Israeli forces allege that Palestinians were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers. To be sure, the lives of the Palestinians in the occupied territories have become disposable and inconsequential. With every new generation that passes, the Israeli youth are becoming increasingly accustomed to a reality that further degrades their own humanity.

I challenge every right-wing Israeli leader like Netanyahu and his accomplices, who denies the Palestinian right to statehood, to tell me where Israel will be in ten to fifteen years under this environment that dehumanizes not only the Palestinians but also the Israeli youth who are trained to be their oppressors? They are deliberately instilling in the minds of young Israelis the belief that the Palestinians will never accept Israel's right to exist, and hence Israel is left with no choice but to view them as a perpetual enemy that must be dealt with accordingly.

As such, Israeli right-wing leaders systematically mislead the Israeli youth to believe that the continuing occupation is central to Israel's national security, when in fact the occupation itself is bolstering the Palestinians' national aspiration, nurturing and ensuring the next generation's resistance to the occupation.

It is nothing short of tragic that successive Israeli governments paid little, if any heed to what they have subjected the Israeli youth to. Short of annexing the West Bank, right-wing Israeli governments, like the current one led by Netanyahu, want to maintain the occupation and for that they need to prepare yet another generation of warriors to keep fighting and dehumanizing the Palestinians with whom they must co-exist. The question is, do they want to fight another 75 years or accept the unswerving reality of co-existence and live in peace?

This is how Israel lost its way as it raises one generation after another of warriors instead of peacemakers, robing millions of Israelis of their quest for peace. The Israeli public must now rise to restore the sanity that has eluded successive Israeli governments and save the country from its tragically misguided extremist leaders.