Israel violates the rights of the child

Genevieve Cora Fraser

Israel often portrays the children of Palestine as terrorists, as 
faceless stone throwers. Yet they are much like children anywhere 
else. However, due to Israel's highly complex matrix of control 
and imprisonment, the health, education and overall well-being of 
the 1.8 million children of Palestine are at severe risk, 
according to a children's rights expert.

Adah Kay, co-author of the recently published book, Stolen 
Youth, spoke at the UN Conference on Palestine in New York 
City in mid-September. Stolen Youth is the first book to 
explore Israel's incarceration of Palestinian children based on 
first-hand information from international human rights groups and 
NGO workers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"Through law, politics and economic restrictions Israel governs 
Palestine with thousands of military orders controlling every 
aspect of their lives", Kay explained, adding, "The use of prison 
is central to the occupation". Particularly harsh punishment is 
handed out to Palestinian children, a clear violation of Article 
3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, she said.

Article 3 states that "the child, by reason of his physical and 
mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including 
appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth". The 
article says the family, as the natural environment for child 
rearing, also merits special protection and assistance.

"Since 1967", Kay said, "Israel has detained more than 600,000 
Palestinians. Since the intifada until June 30 of this year, 
2,650 children have been arrested and imprisoned." Under Israeli 
laws, Palestinian children  who make up 53 percent of the 
Palestinian population  have no right to a lawyer, nor are they 
permitted to know what the charges are.

"Children of 16 and 17 are treated by the military as adults, 
contrary to international law", Kay reported. "Palestinian 
children once arrested are subject to torture, including severe 
beatings, exposure to extreme temperatures and forced into 
extreme positions. They are blindfolded, shackled and put into 
detention centres in military camps or in settlement outposts 
where the Israelis force them into signing confessions and 
attempt to recruit them as collaborators. They are almost always 
sent on to prison."

Conditions in Israeli prisons are overcrowded and unsanitary, she 
said. They lack supplies and medical care. Children are isolated, 
lonely, and abused. Many attempt suicide. Once incarcerated, 
children have no access to formal education, which historically 
has been highly valued in Palestine, according to Kay.

Kay, a professor at London's City University, described how 
Palestinian education in general is under attack because of 
restrictions on movement. "Children and teachers are stopped at 
checkpoints and mounds of dirt block roadways. They are gassed, 
shot at and injured going to and from school", she said. Between 
2000 and February 2003, 132 students have been killed on their 
way to and from school.

"Schools and universities have been broken into, shelled and 
bulldozed by the military. Because of the constant disruptions 
there has been a decline in concentration. Absent-mindedness, 
panic attacks and requests for frequent breaks are on the 
increase", the professor stated.

The overall health of Palestinian children is also deteriorating, 
with death, injury and disability on the rise. Poverty has 
significantly increased along with severe malnutrition. In Gaza, 
malnutrition now equals that in poor sub-Saharan countries. 
Vitamin A deficiency is on the rise, there is insufficient access 
to safe water, and immunisation rates have dropped from 90 
percent to 50 percent due to Israeli sieges, closures and 
movement restrictions.

Despite the violence that has become a fact of life under 
Israel's brutal occupation, Palestinians still display a 
remarkable resiliency and strong coping mechanisms, she said. 
However, the children are fearful for themselves and their 
families, with Gaza and the refugee camps displaying the greatest 
stress.

With death, disease, and disruptions, including homelessness, 
common, parents are experiencing increased difficulty controlling 
their children as well as a decreased ability to care for them. 
Social opportunities are rare for these children and their vision 
for a future is bleak.

"With the future of Palestine's children and society at risk, how 
much longer will the world stand by?" Kay asked.

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People's Weekly World