What conflicts mean and do to children

READING about this latest conflict in Israel/Palestine, and all the concerns about children killed in the conflict, I wondered about the lives that children lead in such zones, through the years of conflict. I remembered a children’s book I read a while ago written by an Israeli author. It is set in a Jewish hospital where a Palestinian child has come to get treatment, waiting for an American doctor to arrive (if only USA was interested in resolving matters!). It gave, what seemed to me, realistic accounts of life under occupation — power cuts, scarcity, explosions, soldiers and jeeps patrolling the streets, the curfews… I couldn’t remember the name of the book but Google came to my rescue. I found that the book I wanted was Daniella Carmi’s ‘Samir and Yonatan’, first published in 1994 and translated into English in 2000. Some readers may feel that the Palestinian voice has been appropriated by this Israeli Jewish author. However, no one will contest that the book is clearly located bang in the middle of this West Asian reality. Samir is from the West Bank and his brother was killed by an Israeli soldier. The book shows Samir’s fear and anxiety, ‘trapped’ in the Jewish hospital where no relatives can visit him because of the restrictions in place for Arabs. A soldier, another patient’s brother, visits the dorm, and Samir is traumatised. Yonatan is a Jewish boy who believes in the possibility of other worlds. The growing friendship between the boys gives us a glimmer of hope, the possibility of a distant better future.

We have children living and growing up in conflict zones in our own part of the world. Let me begin with a children’s book about Afghanistan. Rukhsana Khan’s ‘Wanting Mor’ (2009) is a novel inspired by a true event. Set in 2001, after the American invasion of Afghanistan, it revolves around Jameela, whose shattered family is struggling for existence in the drought-hit countryside of the post-Taliban times. The novel opens with the death of Jameela’s mother, which is followed by her father taking her off to Kabul. A confused Jameela, caught between orthodox Islamic practices and a westernised world, tries to hold on to her good moral values, even as she slowly shakes off the constrictions of tradition. She is shaken by the greed and the needs of her father, who does not hesitate to abandon his daughter. How she grows up as a person, making her way to independence is the story. It is a feel-good story but one which doesn’t flinch from describing the horrors and ironies of life in a conflict zone.

Next, I want to talk about two Indian novels. Paro Anand’s ‘No Guns at My Son’s Funeral’ (2005) is a gripping novel about a Kashmiri family caught up in the conflict. Aftab and his sister Shaiza are both seduced by the dangerous Akram, who wants to become a well-known militant. Shaiza is in a relationship with him (quite unknown to Aftab). Aftab has to lie to his parents — who are upset by the militants — and to his friends in order to pursue his life as an extremist. His friend Angad grows suspicious, as do others. The novel ends badly for the family and their neighbours. This is not a feel-good novel at all, for what is there to feel good about?

The last novel I will take up is Hannah Lalhlanpuii’s ‘When Blackbirds Fly’ (2022). This is about the impact of the beginning of war between the Indian military forces and the Mizo National Front on the young narrator and his friends and, indeed, on the civilians of Aizawl. The main incident is the bombing of Aizawl. The narrator is a typical schoolboy who dislikes school but likes his friends, has a crush on a classmate but can’t tell her, and does not believe in the talk of freedom or rebellion! The book is an eye-opener for all of us and stays close to the young narrator’s point of view. This again is not a feel-good story but one that should stand as a warning to all of us.

These books are good to start with to think about what conflicts mean and do to children and what impact it could have on their future. All four must be on every high school/college bookshelf.