Respecting a minute of silence to mourn the children who were killed in cold blood is not as simple as some might imagine. Indeed, the position toward this show of grief, toward the children and their identities, could summarize the coarseness with which we perceive ourselves firstly, and the world around us secondly. Some teachers at the Lycée Français in North Lebanon opposed the call made to their students to abide by the decision of the French Foreign Ministry and respect a minute of silence to grieve for the children who were killed in Toulouse, and this revealed the wide discrepancies affecting the meanings of belonging to Lebanon and the perception of this country as being part of the modern world. Let us first recognize that the request itself was not judicious and did not take into account numerous Lebanese sensitivities in regard to anything related to Jews and Israel. And while many Lebanese considered that the burial of the victims of the attack in Jerusalem constituted a desecration of the occupied territories, the French official responsible for the mourning decision did not establish a link between the reality of the occupation and the Palestinian children who were killed by the Israeli bombings in Gaza a few days earlier. This prompted the teachers to brandish the weapon of equality between the children in Toulouse and the children of the Strip. That same official also did not heed the fact that the Israeli politicians, ministers and prime minister will rush to exploit the crime in a contemptible way. This was seen in Benjamin Netanyahu's statements about Israel's role in the protection of the Jews, as he appeared to be similar to a salesman in an oriental bazaar, standing over the heads of the dead to promote his cheap merchandise. On the other hand, what was noticeable was this scandalous language used by the Lebanese local newspapers in their attempts to appear as though they had exposed – via the request of the French school's administration – an Israeli spy network trying to brainwash the upcoming Lebanese generations. It is as though we have become light-years away from the networks of collaboration with Israel, most of which are concentrated within a “supportive environment” that is closer to the traders with rejectionism and resistance. Between the ruggedness of the caller for mourning without taking into account the local sensitivities, the lowliness of the abusers of the tragedy and the stupidity of the promoters of the “scandal”, a wide faction of Lebanese is standing defenseless in the face of the facts rushing out of a world that keeps putting forward new questions and problems. For several years now, this issue has become closer to blackmail than to the proclamation of a moral or political stand. And following the series of actions that led to prohibiting Western singers and artists from performing in Lebanon under the pretext of their support to Israel, we are no longer in the presence of efforts to back up the Palestinian right to freedom and self-determination, but rather in the presence of powers trying to impose their climate and cultural options, to compensate for the fact that their political and ideological rhetoric has reach the dead end of bankruptcy. For Lebanese children to respect a minute of silence at their school to express solidarity with their counterparts who were killed with immense violence on all levels (despite the impact of the Toulouse crimes on the electoral campaign and the benefits which the extreme right wing quickly started to reap) is not the end of the world. The teachers concerned about distancing their students from the suspicion of solidarity with Jewish children, should have asked their administration to adopt a similar step when children were killed in Gaza for example (so as not to open the doors of the daily massacres in Syria). But these teachers – as the product of their environment - did not waste the opportunity to introduce confused and wretched messages into the minds of their students, without taking the time to explain the difference between a murdered child and a murderous Israeli politician, thus making us expect new generations of suicide-bombers and desperate citizens.
