#BringBackOurBoys: On The 3 Students Who Were Abducted In Israel Last Week

Of all the tragedies that receive signal boosts on the Internet, I’m surprised I haven’t seen much about the devastating news that has occurred in Israel this past Thursday. On June 12th, 2014, three Yeshiva students, Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali were kidnapped on their way home from school by Hamas terrorist organizations.

Let me repeat this — a terrorist group kidnapped three INNOCENT boys the other day. You may have your beliefs about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I would feel just the same if these were three Palestinian boys being kidnapped for absolutely no reason by Israeli officials.

What makes this story any less important than the kidnapped girls in Nigeria? Maybe the amount of children taken is less in comparison to those Nigerian girls, but the human life should never be devalued.

There are so many different opinions on the Middle-East conflict that so many individuals refuse to expose their opinion. One reason may be to avoid a heated debate. However, this situation has only one purpose, regardless of anyone’s belief. That duty is to promote awareness to bring the boy’s home to safety. Additionally, one of the kidnapped boys is a United States citizen. The U.S. government must do everything in their power to keep their child safe. It is America’s duty to protect each one of their citizens.

It gets worse when you look through the Internet and see that there are images that promote this horrendous act. For example, there is a picture posted all over the Internet that portrays the three abducted Jewish boys as rats that needed to be caught. And while some people have been hastagging #giladeyalnaftali and #bringbackourboys on Instragam, many supporters of the kidnapping have been posting images to Instagram using the same hashtags to demonstrate how they are happy that these boys have been abducted. They believe that these boys will achieve freedom again once Israel decides to release Palestinian prisoners. For one, Israel has captured individuals who pose a threat to their country. I do not believe that young boys, who attend school, pose a threat to Palestinian territories. If Palestinians are angry with the government, they should convey their issues onto the Israeli government and Israeli Defense Force, not innocent children.

Have they forgotten that those boys are human beings? I can’t help but wonder what is going on through these boys’ heads. Have they eaten? Showered? Slept? Are they being tortured? The thought is outrageous and it disgusts me that there are people out there who don’t care about the lives of harmless civilians. I understand it may be hard to fathom that the world breeds individuals with different ideologies and religions, which can result in much turmoil. But, it’s unfair to those families of those poor children. I can guarantee those boys have no thorough views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so why should they be taken for something they barely understand?

Recently, I watched a video of Naftali’s mother, who expressed her gratitude to the Israeli government for doing the best they can to bring her son home. As I watched this video, I saw the sorrow in her eyes, but she stayed strong. After watching that video, however, I was uncontrollably crying. A mother hasn’t seen her son in six days. A son has not eaten properly in six days. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I was abducted and was unable to see the outside world or hear from my parents. Can you?

All we can do now is pray that these boys are okay. We need prayers from the entire world to keep these boys out of harm’s way. Everyone needs to know about this problem. Share this story with others, so that hopefully, we can bring our boys back home to their families.