The short video clip shows Mia Schem lying on a bed, her right arm being bandaged by someone out of the frame. A long, fresh scar is clearly visible.
Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman, is being held hostage by the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The video released by Hamas on Monday is the first footage of any of the dozens of people held in the enclave.
Speaking into the camera, Schem, who looks pale, but is sitting up straight with her head held high, says she was injured and taken to Gaza, then pleads to be returned to her family.
As she speaks, loud rumbling can be heard in the background.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, Schem’s mother urged the government and world leaders to bring her daughter back home.
What worries me is what they’re learning as children. Indoctrination is a powerful and despicable tool. I heard, but cannot verify, that Hamas shows radicalizing cartoons to them. It certainly seems likely that they are influenced to see Hamas favorably.
So even if they do support Hamas, they’ve been brainwashed into it, and their daily reality reinforces it. This doesn’t excuse anything at all but man. I just want those kids to have a peaceful life, free of hate and free from attacks. They need to be hugged and deprogrammed.
This situation has been going on for 18 years. 50% of the population doesn’t know everything else in their lives. From their point of view, they are fully justified to hate Israel, without the help of any doctrine, religion or anything else - and they can do so without shame.
Gaza’s children already lost. It’s too late for them to experience a life without fear or not being hungry. They were raised in a vacuum and have no reference of anything else in life.
Fuck everything happening around the only ones, that really didn’t have the slightest chance in life, of not living there.