For a blog that began primarily as a discussion of different topics in Christianity, I’ve branched out over the years to include other areas of interest (such as travel, current events, heath, literature, history, science and politics.) I’ve also translated some posts into Chinese, Russian or German. I don’t believe this has come at the expense of my original focus. Someone who visits my blog to learn about Europa or the Chinese New Year may come across an appeal to experience a new life in Jesus Christ. I believe the dangers of a second Trump presidency, a Russian conquest of Ukraine, a planet (ours) that is starting to “cook in its own juices” and Islamic terrorism are important enough to me to speak out against. As furious as the ground war is in Gaza at the moment, there is even a more ferocious public affairs war going on about who is to blame, and I think it is important for me to take a stand. This post will be a short survey on the use of human shields (particularly of children) in war. Since 44% of the people in Gaza are age fourteen or younger, you can see why this age group suffers disproportionately from the casualties of armed conflict. In this essay we’ll look at the uses of children in war: a brief history.
Early uses
Mohandas Gandhi possibly coined the term “human shield” but the practice predates him by centuries. We find in the Gospel of Matthew (2:16-18) that Herod the Great ordered the deaths of all male children age two and younger who lived in or near Bethlehem when he learned that Messiah was born. This is not exactly how human shields are defined or used today, but it does illustrate how children have suffered deadly consequences for the political actions of tyrants. Often they are dismissed as martyrs to the Cause. Other similar cases would be children in the Middle Ages that were held for ransom for a sovereign or nobleman.
It was Julius Caesar who in 52 BC turned back the escapees of Alesia, an ancient city in Gaul about to be raized, forcing the refugees (children included) to face a violent death from his legionnaires.
Child soldiers were another way to expose children to certain death during battle. Those readers who are familiar with Shakespeare’s “Henry V” known how defenseless English children were slaughtered at the battle of Agincourt in October 1415. These and other children throughout the ages were employed as cooks, spies, soldiers and so on.
World War I
Fast forward to 1914, the Germans in World War I misused residents in Belgium when German troops were accused of the “large scale destruction of buildings, use of human shields, rape, mutilations and crucifixions of children.” The winner in a war gets to write the history, but I wonder how truthful or accurate these charges might be? Back then they did not have the videos of the actual massacres that we have today.
World War II
When Hitler ordered that his architect Speer implement Nerobefehl in March 1945, Speer was shocked. This was Hitler’s scorched-earth policy or “Nero decree.“ It ordered anything of value that still remained in Germany, including reservoirs, food warehouses, fuel reserves and so on to be destroyed, thereby consigning hundreds of thousands of German civilians—including children–to a certain death. When Speer mentioned to Hitler about these “innocent Germans” who would suffer, Hitler dismissed Speer’s concern by saying the real Germans were already dead, killed at the Russian front or on the beaches of Normandy, or at least dying like der Hitlerjugend, those eight-year-olds fighting Russian tanks with Panzerfausts in the streets of Berlin. The German people who survived to this day in April 1945 were not true Germans and were selected by nature to die in any event, according to the Führer. Hitler was a totalitarian dictator who believed that the end justifies the means. Hamas thinks somewhat, but not exactly, along these same lines. Their religion undoubtedly plays a role in defining what is or is not permissible in combat (including rewards and punishments in the afterlife.)
Recent examples of human shields
Recent examples of the use of children and civilians as human shields can be found in the recorfds of the the Lebanese Civil War, the Bosnian War of the late 1990s, the War in Afghanistan, the Syrian CIvil War and various other conflicts. For example Serbs in May 1995 used at least 156 captured UN personnel as shields by deploying them to observation posts and ammunition depots. Some were chained to a strategic bridge.
Now, you might ask whether Israel is behaving in a totalitarian way? This is a fair but complicated question. It is one thing for a soldier to have a person (a child) in the sight of his rifle. It is quite another thing to bomb a structure while flying 7,000 feet above it. I don’t believe Israeli soldiers are deliberately shooting children, unless the child is involved in an act of war against the Israeli Defence Force (IDF.) When, of course the Israelis discover Hamas is using ambulances to transport weapons or firing rocket-propelled grenades from the front steps of a hospital as they have, then civilian casualties likely follow. Then again, if Israel deliberately behaves in an immoral way, you can expect thousands of Israelis to protest in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, Haifa, etc. How many Palestinian protests were there in Gaza or the West Bank (anywhere) in response to the murder and mayhem of October 7th perpetrated by Hamas? Can a Palestinian doctor in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza acknowledge that terrorists have free rein to come and go in his facility? Or that there was a command center hidden deep in bowels of the hospital? Could he actually admit that past charges by liberal organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were actually true? If he did, he might likely be murdered, himself, by his employer (Hamas) for his candor. Note, too, from the horrible photos that we’ve all seen that Israeli troops have a distinctive uniform that they wear, as does Hamas. However, the Hamas mujahidin uniform has for the past month been nowhere in photos to be found. This is because the majority of the terrorists who are not hiding in the tunnels are trying frantically to blend in with the crowds in order to get safely from place-to-place for a new attack, or to try to leave the Gaza strip with the innocent evacuees.
Terrorists love children
This is Yasser Arafat in the photo. He was billed as a great Palestinian warrior, except for a few things. Having been born in Cairo, he was not actually Palestinian. Also, he was very adept at personally avoiding the violence he pushed others to commit. In his younger days (such as in 1977 when this photo was taken), he would surround himself with children thinking that Israel would not make an attempt on his life if innocent children might die. And it worked. He did this routinely while planning the next terrorist attack against the Jews. Recall the Munich Olympics as just one example? For the ten years following his move to Gaza and later the West Bank where he became terminally ill in 2004, Israelis would nervously check the news to see when Arafat was scheduled to fly from Ramallah to some other country on one pretense or another, because they knew that as soon as his aircraft left the ground, some Israelis and Palestinians would be killed (in that order.) Arafat could deny responsibility because he was in another country at the time. But while the Israelis might be victims, they were not fools. Eventually, the old “warrior” died, and the matter of his death is still controversial. Arafat’s cause of death was a stroke, but the Palestinians believe Israel poisoned him over time. Other causes of death floated at the time were AIDS, liver disease and a blood disorder. There were numerous investigations in the following years which did not conclusively settle the question. All we know for sure is the this “martyr” lived to be a ripe old age.
A prophecy from someone who is not a prophet
Despite Israel’s best ambitions and due diligence, it is possible that Hamas may survive to strike again. At the moment, Hamas seems to be ready to launch some new carnage on the West Bank, which will certainly lead to retribution among that population. Hamas will build new tunnels, and move back into the schools and hospitals, and the Palestinian people will look the other way. Maybe in 2025 there will be another massacre of Israelis (God forbid), and then Israel will swoop back into Gaza to finish what they started in 2023 before the public opinion around the world forced them to stand down. The world will once again blame Israel for the consequences of what Hamas started. More children will be killed. More human shields will be born in the years until then.
