THIS DEHUMANIZATION of Palestinians has led to barbaric killings of women and children in Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks that have destroyed countless homes. United States President Donald Trump has deplored such strikes while he continues to supply Israel with weapons that allow them to perpetrate mass destruction.
The statements from Israeli ministers are particularly shocking. For example, Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Knesset, said in a February 2025 interview with Kol BaRama radio that Palestinians were “scoundrels” and “subhumans,” adding: “We need to separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza.”
He also said, and erroneously so, that Gaza’s entire population was complicit in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel. Late that year, he called for the erasure of “the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth” in a social media post.
Another official, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, called on the Israeli government to starve the people in Gaza. In May 2025, he called on the government to “bomb the food stores in Gaza” and for forced deportation of Gazans by starving them.
He said, “the only aid that should enter Gaza is for the purpose of voluntary migration.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in August 2024 it might be “justified and moral” to starve 2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza to force the release of Israeli hostages.
He caused international outrage when he said there was “no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
Violent discipline
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the Philippine Social Science Council, primarily through the newly formed Philippine Children Research Network (PCRN), consolidates data from bodies like Unicef and the government to address child rights violations.
According to their records, as much as 80 percent of Filipino children experience some form of physical, psychological, sexual, or online violence in their lifetime, and that more than 23 million children younger than age 14 — roughly 60 percent in that age bracket — suffer from violent discipline within their own homes.
The Philippine Commission on Human Rights says there is an epidemic of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, with 2 million internet-using children aged 12 to 17 subjected to this.
Because many violations of this nature go unreported due to fear and stigma, cover-up and denial by family members, official government tracking captures only a fraction of this abuse and exploitation.
According to recent data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Department of Social Welfare and Development handled 2,864 documented cases of child abuse — 1,967 girls and 897 boys — in a single year cycle, with the majority of these involving severe sexual abuse, neglect and child labor trafficking.
The good news is that early this June, the Regional Trial Court Branch 61 in Angeles City, Pampanga, headed by Judge April Joy B. Magsayo-Aguila, sentenced a child sex offender to between 12 and 31 years in prison for sexually assaulting his 11-year-old granddaughter, whom we shall call Nancy.
In a dramatic turn of events during the hearing, when Nancy’s mother was about to testify, the defense lawyer intervened and announced that the accused had changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
Nancy won after bravely fighting for justice during her stay at the Preda Foundation’s children’s home. A victory for justice and the courage of Nancy./PN
