This week, Israel's state prosecutor's office announced that it is considering a plan that would declare "negligent" parents of minor children who are repeatedly arrested for taking part in protests against the government's withdrawal and expulsion plan from Gaza and northern Samaria.
In so declaring the parents, the state would pave the way for the forcible removal of these children from their homes and their transfer to state custody. That is, the Israeli government's newest way to fight opposition protests against its plan to forcibly remove 10,000 law-abiding Israeli citizens from their homes, farms and communities this summer is to threaten parents with the forcible removal of their children from their custody if their children don't agree to stop protesting against the forcible removal plan.
This child confiscation proposal, which was defended on Wednesday by Deputy Attorney-General Shai Nitzan, is more than simply controversial. It is totalitarian. It is not simply hard-hearted. It is inhuman. And in announcing it, the government showed that in light of the precipitous drop in public support for its plan, it has lost its connection to the principles of democracy, morality and simple human decency which are the outstanding characteristics of the Israeli public.
As a therapist, I've often worked with traumatized children caught in the Child Welfare system. Sometimes these kids were taken away for justifiable reasons, sometimes not. Regardless of the reason, the trauma to these children is quite real, and does not go away quickly, if ever. What is being suggested by the current Israeli administration is indeed totalitarian, and deeply disturbing. It's clear the Sharon government will not survive long. With the above suggestion, it can't end too soon.
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