Adult hate: A Curse on Children

"Jeenak Bhaya" is an Iraqi song that has become quite popular. It is a perfect example of Iraqi tribal music; the traditional beat is catchy and the lyrics are strong and violent but in a way that is supposed to bring about smiles and laughs. It has been covered by many in the Arab world and by happy YouTubers performing it via the fun singing application Smule.
 
Conducting a search on YouTube with the song title and clicking randomly on the yielded results is what I do now and then.  That's part of my day's happy time. I recently did that again to see who has done a new cover and I stumbled upon a thumbnail that said "Palestinian Version" and I made the mistake of clicking it. I was in the kitchen doing the dishes and listening. The song's lyrics had been changed altogether. The melody was the same but now I heard extremely violent words that included killing and stabbing. 


I repeated the video again to see what was going on with this song and I saw horrible things. Young men and a boy in traditional Bedouin clothes waving knives and rifles. A Jewish civilian praying while they sang "O' enemy" and then "Your death is near". Worse of all, a Jewish child being taught how to kill and then a Palestinian stabbing a Jew in a half dark alley.  


The video has had just over 22,000 views since August, making it an average of approximately 209 clicks a day. That's because many people like me look for new versions and covers of a catchy song; so that makes this horrendous rendition, in a way, a clickbait.


This is, at best, not acceptable. Inciting violence against any political entity is a crime. It's a bigger crime when it's done against a faith and innocent civilians. Using children to do so makes it even bigger and bigger of a crime. 


What makes this phenomenon worse is the fact that it's not being perpetrated by just one side. It's more of a vicious cycle. Palestinians have a boy swaying a knife in the context of killing Jews and the Israelis have little girls signing death notes on artillery shells destined for Lebanese villages and towns. 


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PM Netanyahu addresses people on how broken hearted he is that children are being used by Palestinians to encourage violence and he probably expects the masses to take him seriously when he doesn't acknowledge that this is done by both sides of the conflict. I don't recall seeing any of the Palestinian officials discussing this topic but if they have ever given similar statements like that of Mr. Netanyahu then they would be just as unserious about resolving the issue of child incorporation in violence as he is. 


Children should be spending their time in learning and playing. I am sure that the majority of Palestinian and Israeli parents agree with this simple statement. I hope that those powerful politicians taking cheap swings at each other realize this too and actually do something about it.