More than 20,000 children are said to have disappeared in Gaza, which has become the real incarnation of “hell on earth”. In France, conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers shame our country.

The NGO “Save the Children” reported that more than 20,000 children are currently missing in Gaza, a region described by UNICEF as a veritable “hell on earth” for young people. Among them, thousands of children were buried under the rubble, while others were buried anonymously in mass graves. Thousands of orphans, searching for their missing families, wander among the ruins continually bombarded by the Israeli army.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder highlighted the case of Qamar, a seven-year-old girl injured during the bombing of the Jabaliya refugee camp. Due to a lack of medication, doctors had to amputate his leg, probably without anesthesia. The little girl, in a state of shock, was carried by her mother and sister, themselves injured, who had to walk to southern Gaza.

Righteous women and men in our country who denounce this overwhelming reality are regularly accused of being anti-Semitic by certain radical supporters of the Netanyahu government among French public figures. The latter prefer to maintain an abject denial of the atrocities and suffering endured by the Palestinian civilian population and actively propagate the infamous “Pallywood” theory insinuating that the Palestinian victims are actors miming their suffering and death.

Heartbreaking images of Palestinian civilians being burned alive during an Israeli bombardment of a refugee encampment inside a hospital compound in Gaza have sparked global outrage. The particularly poignant case of Shaaban Al Dalou, a 19-year-old young man filmed being burned alive, his hands raised to the sky in the middle of the flames alongside his mother, left its mark.

Despite the authenticity of these scenes confirmed by numerous international media including French media, discordant voices continue without any scruple to maintain denial about them. Thus, the vice-president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (CRIF) reacted by tweeting: “When we have put together all the videos with special effects, makeup, staging, we will discover Paliwood. “.

These comments, minimizing the suffering of Palestinian civilians, are part of a denialist rhetoric aimed at covering up war crimes and justifying the horrors suffered by innocent civilian populations.

We knew that Palestinians were being dehumanized by violent rhetoric that compares them to animals or insects and denies them their very right to exist. We now learn that they are dehumanized even after death.

Paris, October 21, 2024

French Council of Muslim Worship