Graeme Wood in The Atlantic: A Rulebook on Legally Killing Gazan Kids

By Tala Alayli

Source: Al Mayadeen English

27 May 2024 20:40

A recent op-ed published by Graeme Wood for The Atlantic garners a flood of backlash for justifying the murder of Gazan children by "Israel".

Amid a flood of statements trying to justify "Israel's" gruesome genocide in Gaza, The Atlantic's Graeme Wood is at the forefront of backlash for claiming "It is possible to kill children legally", referring to the tens of thousands of children murdered by Israeli occupation forces invading the Gaza Strip. 

Wood's remark came in an op-ed published on May 17, titled "The UN’s Gaza Statistics Make No Sense". 

Initially, Wood kickstarted his article by painting a discrepancy in the death toll presented by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), specifically the reviewed numbers of deaths of children and women. 

Between May 6 and May 8, the UNOCHA revisited its previously declared death toll [of women and children in Gaza], initially standing at 24,000. However, the Office then clarified that 12,756 identified women and children had been killed by "Israel" in Gaza.

Despite clearly noting that the newly declared death toll was of those "identified", the author and the magazine failed to consider the shadow death toll in Gaza, which includes martyrs who are trapped beneath the rubble and those who are missing and presumed dead. 

What is Wood's argument? 

Wood argues that the UN is misleading the global populace by releasing inaccurate numbers or figures that rely on Hamas' estimations. 

However, it has been universally acknowledged and established that "Israel" did kill over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom were women and children.

But it does seem ironic - when Wood reports, without calling to question the Israeli military's statistics, that 16,000 martyrs of the 30,000 were Resistance fighters. It does seem like Wood is trying to question or instill doubt that the Israeli occupation was not actually genociding Palestinians in Gaza, and trying to paint the horrific death toll as "Hamas propaganda" which the "UN is relaying". 

However, according to Feroze Sidhwa, an American doctor who volunteered in a Gazan hospital during the genocide, the reason why the UN was relying on the Gazan Media Office's numbers was extensively reported. He affirmed that the figures came from accurate reports provided by hospitals partially operating across Gaza and estimates from media reports to assess deaths in the north of Gaza. 

'Reality tainted by the absence of journalists'

Wood's argument is then cut short when he decides to show the difference in the conduction of war between Hamas and "Israel". He claims Hamas, since October 7, has disregarded the law of war and any moral values. "Israel" on the other hand, deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt. 

Reportedly, "Israel has conducted its war opaquely", he wrote, noting that the global public watching the genocide unfold trusts that the occupation that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians dropped every bomb and drew every weapon while adhering to international law. 

He also says the reports of journalists must paint the reality of the IOF's conduct in Gaza, but "Israel" does not allow journalists in. Again, Wood and The Atlantic then fail to account for all the journalists "Israel" deliberately killed in an attempt to conceal its crimes in Gaza. 

The Government Media Office in Gaza revealed on May 17 that "Israel" killed 147 journalists in Gaza. Under international law, journalists are a protected entity, and killing them would be considered a war crime. 

The Main Event

The statement that garnered the most backlash came when Wood wrote that even if journalists were allowed into Gaza to disprove Hamas' descriptions of the crimes "Israel" has been committing against Palestinian civilians, women, and children, it would not necessarily prove anything because "it is possible to kill children legally". 

With that, Wood justifies the genocide that has consistently targeted children in Gaza by pulling the "Hamas uses civilians and children as human shields" card. It does not matter to Wood that children have been killed, it is how they were killed, that determines whether the death of a child is legal or not. 

If Wood had done his research before publishing an article that would display his apathy to genocide without any bias, he would have found that there are no verified instances that prove that Hamas had used children as human shields. He would have found that "Israel's" indiscriminate carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip, however, does kill children who have nowhere else to go. 

He would have also found reports published on May 13, 2024, of IOF soldiers using three children in the West Bank as human shields while conducting raids, and the testimonies of Palestinian children from years earlier detailing their experiences when the IOF used them as shields to their tanks and their personnel. 

A columnist for The Atlantic

Author Graeme Wood is a professor of Media and Conflict at Yale University and has been the target of online backlash since his blatantly biased article was published. 

While he has been coined a genocide apologist and exposed for his disregard of facts, social media users began questioning how such a piece was approved and published by The Atlantic. 

User Louis Allday found that a former IOF prison guard runs the magazine itself, Jeffrey Goldberg, who assaulted Palestinian political prisoners. 

Goldberg publically admitted to his crimes in a 2006 book titled "Prisoners", describing scenes from the Ktzi'ot prison where he covered up his friend's crime after the latter beat up a Palestinian detainee with a sharp army radio against his head. Goldberg does not stop the other guard but instead assumes that the prisoner likely provoked him to garner such a beating. He later says he delivered the beaten prisoner to a third guard, claiming he "fell".

He also admitted to physically assaulting and beating up Palestinian prisoners, before ending his term as a prison guard. Right after, Goldberg published an article for the Jerusalem Post titled "More Tear Gas, Please?" in which he identifies as an Israeli "participating in the armed administration of Palestinians in occupied territories." 

In the same article, he proudly acknowledges the average Israeli crime in Gaza, by saying: "Arab women ... compete in 'Miss Gaza Refugee Camp' and 'Miss Mother Who Sends Her Children into the Street to Catch Israeli Bullets with Their Heads' contests."