Palestinian Children Shot in Jerusalem, One in Critical Condition

Palestinian children shot in Jerusalem. Do you care? — Photo: Illustration - Hadas Parush/Flash90

Two small Palestinian Arab children were shot and wounded, one critically, on the eastern side of Jerusalem on Wednesday night.

Most people reading that headline and opening paragraph will subconsciously assume these children were victims of the “Israeli occupation forces.” That’s how the mainstream media has trained us to think.

The fact of the matter, however, is that these two children are not being mentioned anywhere in the mainstream international media, because they weren’t shot by Israeli police or soldiers.

They were shot by fellow Palestinian Arabs. And therefore, no one cares.

Plagued by lawlessness

Both shootings took place in the Shuafat neighborhood on Jerusalem’s north-eastern outskirts.

Four-year-old Rafif al-Qara’in was sitting with her family for the festive evening meal to break the daily Ramadan fast when a bullet suddenly struck her.

It remains unclear from where the shot was fired. As there were no armed demonstrations happening at the time, the assumption at press time was that Rafif was hit by a stray bullet related to the gang violence that plagues the neighborhood.

She is currently listed in critical condition at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, where doctors say that there is “immediate danger to her life.”

The other wounded child is a three-year-old boy who likely would have died if not for the heroic actions of his father.

Closed-circuit television cameras caught a masked man entering the father’s grocery store and opening fire toward the boy. The father immediately jumped on his son, shielding him with his own body. The gunman shot both victims, left the store, then returned and opened fire again.

Both father and son suffered light injuries.

Local residents who spoke to Israel’s Ynet news portal said the store in question has been targeted before.