EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / A relative mourns over the body of 17-year-old Fadi al-Naasan during his funeral in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on July 18, 2026, after he died from wounds sustained about a week ago during clashes with Israeli forces. The occupied West Bank has been gripped by almost daily violence involving Israeli troops and settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP via Getty Images)
Please pray that West Bank children may be spared the horrors of destruction, violence, and loss. Please pray that they might have a childhood.
If there has ever been a time for prayer, this is that time.
If there has ever been a place forsaken, Palestine is that place.
Lord who is the creator of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to these, the children of Palestine, that they may know your blessings, and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin.
Almighty who makes exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception of the children of Palestine. Shield them from us and from their own. Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. Deliver them from us, and from their own.
Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven…
Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and the fragility of every life, send these children your angels. Save them, the children of this place, Palestine the most beautiful, and Palestine the damned.
In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you, the Lord whose name is Peace: Bless these children, and keep them from harm.
Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, as if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness. Look up at them, O Lord. Let them see your face. And, as if for the first time, grant them peace.
With thanks to Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman of Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem.
Context: Implications of Israeli policy on West Bank Palestinians
B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, founded in 1989 by a group of Israeli academics, attorneys, journalists, and politicians published in September 2026 a major report and human rights analysis. Titled “The Elimination Project,” the report argues that Israeli policy in the West Bank is not a series of isolated incidents, security measures, or administrative errors, but an intentional, systematic "elimination project" designed to dismantle the conditions for continued Palestinian collective existence while permanently establishing exclusive Jewish-Israeli sovereignty and control. The Elimination Report is based on approximately 2,000 testimonies from Palestinians in the West Bank, additional field research and decades of documentation.
The report describes a dual process where Israel dismantles Palestinian society, culture, economy, and physical presence while simultaneously reorganizing and colonizing the land for permanent Israeli control.
B'Tselem links the West Bank policies to the broader framework of Israeli apartheid and notes that the logic of elimination parallels the genocidal destruction documented in Palestine. The report emphasizes that state authorities and armed settler militias increasingly operate in tandem with official backing to enforce displacement and violence.
According to the report, the project is carried out through five interconnected and reinforcing mechanisms: Violence and Intimidation, Ethnic Cleansing and Territorial Takeover, Movement Restrictions, Economic Strangulation, and Social and Political Destruction. Go to https://www.btselem.org/the_elimination_project/
Additional Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJAHQ1pGVoQ
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/opinion/israel-violence-palestine.html
https://thejewishindependent.com.au/btselem-west-bank-elimination-report/
