Palestinian Supporters Seem to Think It’s Fine to Kill Children When It’s Called ‘Resistance’

The same voices that weep for Gaza’s children fall silent when Israeli babies are murdered, or when Muslim regimes massacre tens of thousands. If killing children is wrong, it’s always wrong, no matter who pulls the trigger.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people labelling Israel as “child killers.” The deaths of children are always tragic, and no moral person should ever be comfortable with innocent lives being lost, regardless of where or how. But what strikes me is the sheer imbalance in how this outrage is expressed. It’s loud and unwavering when the deaths are Palestinian children, but almost completely silent when the perpetrators are Muslim-majority governments or militias. If we’re going to be consistent, then we have to be consistent. If we care about children, we must care about all of them, not just the ones that suit our political narrative.

Let’s go back to 1971, when Pakistan launched a brutal military operation in what was then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. According to the BBC, between 300,000 and 3 million people were killed. According to human rights groups and historical investigations, many of those killed were women and children. The UAB Institute for Human Rights notes that the Pakistani army engaged in mass rape, torture, and executions, with entire villages wiped out, and the death toll likely includes tens of thousands of children. Yet Pakistan, one of the loudest voices accusing Israel of genocide today, has never been held to account for one of the largest genocides of the 20th century. There is no reflection, no apology, and certainly no global campaign to boycott Pakistan. They refuse to recognise Israel, even though their state was carved out and established on similar grounds. The hypocrisy is staggering. 

The same silence surrounds Sudan, where Arab Muslim militias backed by the government carried out genocide in Darfur. According to historical estimates, over 300,000 people were killed. Human Rights Watch documented widespread atrocities including the systematic targeting of children through rape, mutilation, and murder in what it described as an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Then there’s Syria. Bashar al-Assad, a Muslim leader, has bombed, gassed, and starved his own people since 2011. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 500,000 people have been killed in the conflict. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, over 26,000 children have been killed since the war began. Schools were reduced to rubble. Children suffocated in their sleep from chemical weapons. Yet the outrage from many of the same groups who cry “genocide” over Gaza is curiously absent when the perpetrator is Assad, a Muslim leader backed by another Muslim state, Iran.

In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition backed by several Muslim-majority states has bombed hospitals, markets, and schools. According to UNICEF, more than 11,000 children have been killed or injured since the war began in 2015. According to Save the Children, over 85,000 children under the age of five have died from hunger and disease caused by the war and ongoing blockade. These aren’t just deaths by crossfire. These are children who starved to death because of a war. Yet Saudi Arabia still faces no protests, no boycotts, no international condemnation from the same activists who campaign relentlessly against Israel.

In fact, many of those who scream these accusations at Israel actively stay silent about Syria and Saudi Arabia and play the ignorant card. It begins to look less like a principled stand against violence and more like a targeted campaign against one state. And when that state happens to be the world’s only Jewish state, it raises deeply uncomfortable questions and the first thing that comes to mind is antisemitism.

Beyond war, children in many Muslim-majority countries continue to suffer in silence through abusive cultural and legal practices. According to Girls Not Brides and the United Nations Population Fund, child marriage remains common in countries like Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Iran, and Pakistan, with girls as young as nine married off to much older men. In Sudan, Somalia, and Egypt, female genital mutilation is still widely practised, as documented by the World Health Organization. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, children have been publicly flogged and imprisoned for moral or religious offences, according to Amnesty International. These are not fringe acts. These are embedded legal or cultural practices.

Even in the West, there have been serious failings. According to the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, networks of Pakistani grooming gangs operated in towns and cities across Britain, exploiting underage girls. The report found evidence that these crimes were often overlooked or downplayed by authorities and sometimes ignored by parts of the communities involved.

I say all this not to attack Muslims as a group. Many Muslims have been victims of these abuses, and many speak out bravely against them. But I cannot stay silent when those who claim to stand for human rights do so selectively. Just as I have consistently called out far-right activists who pretend to care about child abuse only when the perpetrator is Muslim or brown, I must also call out those who cry for Palestinian children but say nothing for Yemeni, Syrian, or Bangladeshi children when their killers are also Muslim. If I care about children, then I care about all of them. That’s what moral consistency demands.

And what about the Israeli children? On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a coordinated attack on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at least 36 children were among the dead. Families were executed in their homes. Infants were murdered in front of their parents. While some early claims, such as the beheading of babies, remain unverified and were not confirmed by Israeli officials, the documented killing of dozens of Israeli children is not in dispute. The infant Kfir Bibas, just nine months old, was among those taken hostage and later declared dead. Where is the outrage for those children? Where are the posters, the chants, the vigils?

Go back to 1948, during the Arab invasion of the newly declared state of Israel. Jewish civilians, including children, were ambushed and massacred. In 1974, the Ma’alot massacre saw 22 Israeli schoolchildren killed by Palestinian militants, according to multiple historical accounts. In 2001, ten-month-old Shalhevet Pass was shot and killed by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron, as reported by Haaretz. Again, the silence is deafening.

When I see people cry out about children but only post about one side, it becomes clear that this is not about the children. It’s about political propaganda. It’s about dehumanising one side to the point where the deaths of their children are excused, minimised, or even mocked. And that is not activism. That is hate in disguise. The suffering of Palestinian children is real and should never be ignored. But so is the suffering of Israeli children, Bangladeshi children, Syrian children, and many others. If you only grieve for some, then you are not standing for justice. You are standing for a narrative. And at times, that narrative is driven by antisemitism.

That’s not compassion. That’s propaganda.

So I will not stay quiet. I will call out this double standard wherever I see it. Because a child’s life matters whether they die in Gaza, Aleppo, Dhaka, or Tel Aviv. And if we forget that, we have lost our moral compass.

Let’s also ensure our own hands are clean when we are pointing the finger. To world leaders and terrorist groups like Hamas and to all those who pick up arms and pull the trigger first, know that children are the most likely the first and last victims.