{"id":8874,"date":"2018-06-07T17:25:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T17:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/?p=8874"},"modified":"2018-06-07T17:25:28","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T17:25:28","slug":"in-memory-of-razan-al-najjar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2018\/06\/07\/8874\/","title":{"rendered":"In memory of Razan al-Najjar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 21-year-old paramedic was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while trying to aid wounded protesters near the Gaza-Israel separation fence. Many Israelis either refuse to believe she was actually killed or claim that her killing was somehow justified.<\/em>
\nAround two weeks ago, a Facebook friend of mine proposed an experiment to a small group of us. Social media has become a boxing ring, she said. The two sides, left and right, dig into their positions and slug it out in the comments \u2014 and that\u2019s if they don\u2019t just \u201cblock\u201d each other. My friend suggested that for a month, we try to engage in a productive dialogue with right-wingers on Facebook, even with the most combative of commenters. After all, our aim is to change what and how people think, and to do that, we need to speak to other side. Let\u2019s try it, I said, if only for a month \u2014 to see what happens.
\nFor the past two days, I\u2019ve been thinking about Razan al-Najjar, the 21-year-old paramedic shot and killed by Israeli soldiers Friday near the Gaza-Israel separation fence. According to witnesses, she was wearing her white paramedic\u2019s uniform, attempting to treat protesters near the fence when she was shot. Immediately following Razan\u2019s death, her picture appeared everywhere on my Facebook newsfeed. I, too, shared a post with her picture.
\nThe angry responses came quickly.
\nHere was an opportunity to try out the dialogue experiment my friend had suggested, I thought. Maybe because Razan in her white uniform was so different from the image of the terrorist that the Israeli collective imagination assigned the protesters in Gaza, I hoped there would be an opening for compassion, for second thoughts, for a discourse free from blind hatred.
\nI was wrong.
\nInstead, the following responses came pouring in: \u201cWhat was she doing there in the first place? \u201cWhy didn\u2019t she wait for the wounded in the hospital?\u201d \u201cYou really think our soldiers kill protesters on purpose?\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s how it is in war.\u201d \u201cHamas makes them to go to these protests.\u201d
\nI tried to respond with calm, level-headed answers.
\nShe didn\u2019t wait for the wounded at the hospital because the Israeli army\u2019s massive use of live fire made it necessary for first responders to be in the field \u2014 just like Israeli medics would at a mass casualty event.
\nAnd no, this is not \u201chow it is in war.\u201d Firstly, this is not a war. This is heavily armed soldiers facing down unarmed protesters. Secondly, even in war there are rules, and sniper fire against medics, journalists and children is a war crime. Hamas did not force her to be there, either; numerous interviews with Razan were published in recent weeks in which she explains why she volunteered as a medic during the protests.
\nThen the more violent responses came, in public and in private messages \u2014 bizarre death threats, a lot of toxic invective. What kind of a dialogue is possible when faced with that?
\nSomeone asked, \u201cHow do you know this is true, were you there?\u201d He added a picture from 2001 suicide bombing of the Dolphinarium, a beach-front nightclub in Tel Aviv, to prove some inexplicable point. Another commenter responded, \u201cHow do you know there was an attack on the Dolphinarium, were you there?\u201d
\nAnother yet claimed that the entire story of Razan was fabricated, that they put a paramedic\u2019s uniform on her body only after she died. No amount of photos showing Najjar treating wounded protesters over the past month could convince him. Palestinians, to him, are liars by definition.
\nTaken together, the responses reflected the depressing fact that for most of the Israeli public, Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers are guilty by default. The identity of the deceased or the circumstances of the killing are irrelevant. Many of the commenters who responded to my post made the effort to stress that they were were not right-wingers. One even identified as a supporter of Meretz, the dovish left-wing party.
\nI gave up on the conversation because it was too frustrating and instead continued to look for interviews conducted with Razan. There are quite a few online. The young medic, it seems, was of significant interest to numerous international media outlets. In one of the interviews, Razan says:
\n\u201cPeople ask my father what I\u2019m doing here, and getting a salary. He tells them, \u2018I\u2019m proud of my daughter, she provides care to the children of our country.\u2019 And because in our society, women are often judged, but society has to accept us . If people don\u2019t want to accept us by choice, they will be forced to accept us. Because we have more strength than any man. The strength that I showed as a first-responder on the first day of the protests \u2014 I dare you to find it in anyone else.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 21-year-old paramedic was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while trying to aid wounded protesters near the Gaza-Israel separation fence. 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