Hind Rajab was six years old when she was killed in Gaza. So why did a CNN host refer to her as ‘a woman’?... "It’s not just CNN, of course. There is a long history (one that stretches back way before October 7) of mainstream media outlets dehumanizing Palestinians. "

Students at Columbia University took over Hamilton Hall and named it after Hind Rajab, on 30 April 2024 in New York. Photograph: Marco Postigo Storel/AP

"Through no fault of their own, children in Gaza have never known a life without airstrikes and military incursions. The constant trauma means that – back in 2022 – four out of five children in Gaza lived with depression, grief and fear. Now, with Gaza in ruins, every single child in the strip has been robbed of a childhood."

The adultification of children has consequences from Palestine to the US

Arwa Mahdawi

Who gets to be a child?

Trapped in a bullet-ridden car in Gaza City, surrounded by her dead relatives, six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded with the Red Crescent for help. That help, in the form of a medical team, eventually came – only to be slaughtered on arrival. Hind was killed, too, her decomposing body found weeks later.

Back in January, little Hind died one of the most awful deaths imaginable. Unlike most of the more than 13,000 other dead children in Gaza, Hind has been written about extensively. Still, despite the fact that Hind said on a recorded phone call that Israeli tanks were firing at the car, Israel has refused to accept any blame. They’ve said that the IDF had absolutely nothing to do with Hind’s death and they weren’t anywhere near her. An Al Jazeera analysis and a Washington Post investigation, meanwhile, found that to be what some people might term “inaccurate” and what others might describe as a “brazen lie”. Satellite imagery found that Israeli armored vehicles were in the area and that the damage caused to the ambulance and the car was consistent with Israeli weapons.

Again, Hind isn’t just an anonymous statistic rotting in a mass grave, like lots of dead Palestinians. Her death has been documented and I encourage you to read about it if you haven’t already. I am not here to rehash the nightmarish details; I am simply here to say this: Hind was six years old when she was murdered. Six. She was a child. A six-year-old is a child.

Why am I spelling out the obvious? Because the fact that Palestinian children are children doesn’t seem obvious to many in the western media. It’s clearly not obvious to CNN host Kasie Hunt. During a segment on Columbia University students taking over Hamilton Hall and renaming it “Hind’s Hall”, Hunt explained to viewers: “Hind is a reference to a woman who was killed in Gaza.” A woman.... 

READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/04/adultification-children-palestine-us

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