Spiraling rage

The outbreak of violence last Saturday in Israel and Palestine has caught our attention in the Philippines, even making it to the front page headlines for several newspapers on Monday. The reason is that we have at least 30,000 Filipinos working in Israel, many as caregivers. As Hamas militants crossed over into Israeli territory in early morning raids last Saturday, they killed some 700 and took some 100 hostages to use to bargain later with the Israelis. Foreigners were known to have been among the hostages and our government is still verifying reports that there were Filipinos, too.

We need to better understand the conflict there and this latest outbreak and its consuming rage. Everyone I know—Israeli, Palestinian, and various nationalities—who has visited Gaza has been unanimous in describing it as a pressure cooker, waiting to explode and explode it did last Saturday.

The Gaza Strip is 365 square kilometers, about twice the size of Quezon City, with 2 million people packed in. The state of Palestine is split into two—the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In 2006, the militant group Hamas won in elections in the Gaza Strip. Israel reacted by imposing an economic blockade, trying to cut it off from the world. Even today, residents of Gaza need to get permits to cross over into Israel to work during the day, returning home to Gaza at the end of the day. Tensions are high and several wars erupted in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021.

Israelis have lived under a state of siege, resorting to extremely harsh punitive actions to retaliate against Palestinians. Whenever there are attacks against Israelis and their property, the Israeli military retaliates by demolishing the homes of the alleged terrorists. In a recent example, from January 2023, after a deadly attack on a synagogue, Israeli soldiers went to the home of the alleged terrorist and demolished it, then shot dead the suspect.

I had a student in UP who went to Palestine some 10 years back on a study visit and was very much moved, and disturbed, about the way Palestinians were treated. With this recent violence, many international newspapers have been using an often-quoted description of the Gaza Strip as “an open-air prison.”

This is not to justify the violence that has erupted, but we have to ask ourselves how Hamas could include, in their invasion, an early dawn rampage on the site of a song festival being held to celebrate the Jewish holiday Sukkot. Some 250 bodies of Israelis—men, women, children—were found afterward.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a hard-liner, vowed to reduce Gaza, which he described as “this wicked city,” down to ruins. Electricity has been cut off and the blockade on food and other goods has been made even stricter.

There are suspicions that Iran is involved, too, through its militant group Hezbollah. Lebanon is also suspected to be involved.

What will happen next?

It will be spiraling violence, retaliation after retaliation. World leaders have expressed concern, including those who usually fence-sit on the issue of Israel and Palestine, for example, China and India.

We Filipinos, thousands of miles away from the conflict, have again been made vulnerable, potential collateral damage.

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I wanted to write about another form of spiraling violence, right here at home.

I’m referring to the death of Francis Jay Gumikib, a 14-year-old student in a public school in Antipolo City. According to his parents, Gumikib began to complain about dizziness and intolerable pain, a blurring of vision, and vomiting a few days after being slapped by his teacher. The child also said the teacher pulled his collar and hair.

Vice President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte has given DepEd’s regional office until Oct. 9 to report back.

The Philippines still allows corporal punishment for children so it should not be surprising that we have parents, guardians, and teachers who are too quick with physical punishment. Add on ignorance about what physical violence can do, however “mild” it might be. Slapping, hitting the head, even shaking the body of anyone, young or old, can mean serious injuries, which is why someone who accidentally bumps his head should be observed for possible concussions. A whole cluster of “side effects” can follow, from impaired vision to recurring pain.

We may as well discuss here the problem of verbal abuse, which is very common in homes and schools. The potential adverse effects can be as bad or even worse than physical injuries because emotional damage can last a lifetime.

We tolerate physical and emotional abuse claiming that all this is good for developing “character.” No pain, no gain. And we start with seemingly “mild” forms of abuse, forgetting how easy it is for the abuse to build up, spiraling into raging violence.

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mtan@inquirer.com.ph