Monday, December 04, 2006

Photographic evidence

When Israel was bombing Lebanon, I searched on the internet to see how the conflict was being reported and I came across an image which still haunts me.

This isn't the worst photograph I have seen. There are no dead bodies of children or bombed-out homes, but there is something shocking and brutal about the way the Israeli soldier's gun seems to be pointing at the boy. If you want to understand the source of the despair that makes young men blow themselves up, it is pictures like this that can help to illustrate the tragedy of the Middle East.

Whose side am I on? I'm on the side of the unarmed, the peacemakers, the people who don't think that any idea is worth the life of a child. Sadly, their voices are rarely heard above the shouting.

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