Crimes Against Children

[ibrodsky]

from HonestReporting.com PART 1

===== (1) PALESTINIAN CHILDREN ON THE FRONT LINES =====

Justus Weiner has authored a comprehensive issue brief entailed, "The Recruitment of Children in Current Palestinian Strategy." Weiner is scholar in residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (http://www.jcpa.org), headed by Dore Gold and Lenny Ben-David. To subscribe to the Jerusalem Issue Brief, please send a blank email message to: brief4-subscribe@jcpa.org

Weiner cites recent examples of how Palestinian children and teenagers have assumed an integral role in the murder of Israeli civilians:

- February 2002 - Nora Shalhoob, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl, was killed while charging a group of Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint with a knife in her hand.

- March 2002 - A 16-year-old Palestinian girl named Ayat Akhras walked into a Jerusalem supermarket and detonated a bomb concealed under her clothing, killing two Israelis and wounding 22 others.

- April 2002 - 17-year-old Andaleeb Taqataqah was recruited by a terror squad and sent to her death in a suicide attack on a crowded Jerusalem market.

- April 2002 - Three teenagers - Anwar Hamduna, Yusef Zakut, and Abu Nada
- from Gaza, attempted to crawl under the perimeter fence and attack the residents of the Jewish community of Netzarim, only to be shot dead by guards.

- May 2002 - For over a month, Palestinian children as young as 10 barricaded themselves in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, alongside Palestinian gunmen.

May 2002 - A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was arrested in a taxi near Jenin with a suicide bomb on his body.

- June 2002 - A 15-year-old Palestinian girl, arrested for throwing a firebomb at IDF soldiers, admitted during interrogation that she had previously been recruited as a suicide terrorist.

- July 2002 - Israeli security forces arrested another 15-year-old
Palestinian girl who admitted to having agreed to carry out a suicide attack in Israel.

Early in the current intifada, Weiner writes, children acted as decoys, burning tires and shooting slingshots to attract TV cameras while making it harder for the world to identify the gunmen lying in ambush. Knowing that Israeli soldiers are ordered not to shoot live ammunition at children, Palestinian snipers hide among groups of youngsters, on rooftops
or in alleys, often using kids as shields when aiming at exposed IDF soldiers. On some occasions, these gunmen apparently have inadvertently shot Palestinian children from behind.

USA Today correspondent Jack Kelley reported:

"Children serve as infantry in the confrontations between Israeli and Palestinian soldiers. In scenes reminiscent of Iranian children sent to the Iraqi front equipped with plastic keys to heaven, Palestinian children are sent close to Israeli positions with rocks and Molotov cocktails, while the gunmen and snipers fire from positions hundreds of yards back." (Oct. 23, 2000)

The Jordanian newspaper "Alrai" (citing an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper "Alzaman" on 20 June 2002), quotes Abu Mazen, Deputy Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, who spoke of how Palestinian children are being exploited into carrying out terror attacks:

"At least 40 children from the city of Raphah have lost their arms as a result of the explosions of pipe bombs. They received five Israeli shekels (about one U.S. dollar) for throwing them." (see original article at http://honestreporting.com/graphics/abumazen.gif)

The Palestinian Authority has provided children with military training. The New York Times reports that 25,000 children were trained in the summer 2000 in PA camps in the use of firearms, the making of Molotov cocktails, the methods of kidnapping Israeli leaders, and conducting ambushes. (New York Times - Aug. 3, 2000)

The use of children reflects a long-time Palestinian strategy in the fight against Israel. In June 1982, the PLO issued a military call-up order for all boys aged 12 and older whose fathers served in Fatah units. The children were promised $80 a month and were attached to regular PLO battalions, each serving in his father's company.


===== (2) MILITARY AND P.R. TACTIC =====

A Palestinian Authority tactic is to encourage children to seek heroic Shahada (martyrdom) -- and then use the numbers of dead children in their PR war against Israel. Sam Kiley describes in The London Times:

"Since birth, Palestinian children have been pumped full of religious fundamentalism which promises paradise for those who die for the cause of free Palestine... Approving or not, the Palestinian authorities have done nothing to stop children playing with their lives. Let's face it, dead kids make great telly." ("A Deadly Game" - Oct. 19, 2000)

The average Western mind has trouble comprehending a society that might intentionally seek death, in order to advance a political cause. Reporters assume that if Palestinian children are being killed, it can only be Israel's fault.

Yet as Arafat adviser Bassam Abu Sharif told Time magazine: "If he knows he will achieve a political point that will get him closer to independence and if that will cost him 10,000 killed, he wouldn't mind."

Indeed, fault for most of these casualties lies strictly with the PA.
Salah Shehadeh operated from a heavily populated neighborhood, precisely because he knew the civilians would serve as a human shield against any Israeli attempt to assassinate him. Writing in the NY Post, John Podhoretz
explains:

"The Fourth Geneva Convention goes into great and elaborate detail about how to assign fault when military activities take place in civilian areas... Hamas is at war with Israel. But instead of separating themselves from the general population in military camps and wearing uniforms, as required by international law, Hamas members and other Palestinian terrorists try to use civilians -- the "protected persons" mentioned in
[The Fourth Geneva Convention] 3:1:28 -- as living camouflage. To prevent such a thing from happening, international law explicitly gives Israel the right to conduct military operations against military targets under these circumstances."
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/op...ists/53201.htm

Speaking about another region of the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said:

"Let there be no doubt, the responsibility for every casualty of this war, lies with the Taliban. They use civilians as human shields, and place their arsenal among their homes. We did not look to commence this conflict
-- the war was thrown at us, and we are defending ourselves."

[ibrodsky]

===== (3) PALESTINIAN CULTURE OF MARTYRDOM =====

In recent searches of Palestinian homes, the IDF has discovered disturbing "family photos": One shows a Palestinian baby with a semiautomatic pistol and machine gun, and another shows a baby wearing a pretend explosives belt with red wires strapped to his waist.
http://www.honestreporting.com/graphics/babies.jpg

The Palestinian media is a primary vehicle used to promote the martyrdom of children. In Sept. 2002, the PA renewed broadcasting of one of the most odious PA video clips, the "Farewell Letter." In the clip, a child writes a farewell letter to his parents, glorifying his desire to die, and then places himself in front of Israeli soldiers during a violent riot where he is shot and dies, achieving his goal. The words are sung: " For my country, I shall sacrifice myself... How sweet is Shahada [martyrdom]...
Be joyous over my blood and do not cry for me." (source: IMRA.org)

Another Palestinian Authority TV program clip, aimed at young viewers, features a boy killed in Gaza arriving in heaven where there are beaches, waterfalls, and a Ferris wheel. He is saying, "I am not waving goodbye, I am waving to tell you to follow in my footsteps." On the accompanying soundtrack, a song plays, "How pleasant is the smell of martyrs, how pleasant the smell of land, the land enriched by the blood, the blood pouring out of a fresh body."

Religious leaders also encourage the martyrdom of children. Sheik 'Ikrimi Sabri, the Palestinian Authority-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, declared: "I feel the martyr is lucky because the angels usher him to his wedding in heaven... The younger the martyr, the greater and the more I respect him."
("Al-Ahram Al-Arabi" - Oct. 28, 2000)

Parents are also portrayed in Palestinian society as supporting their children's death. "Al-Ayyam" newspaper quotes a mother who encouraged her sons to sacrifice themselves for Palestinian beliefs:

"The danger of injury to the boy Tzabar Ashkaram, 18, paralysis and permanent disability, just added to his mother's determination to encourage her sons to participate in the intifada riots... the fact of his injury by a live bullet did not cause her to mourn. She said she had previously lost her older son, Iyyad." (Nov. 1, 2000)

Another Palestinian mother was quoted in the London Times: "I am happy that [my 13-year-old son] has been martyred. I will sacrifice all my [12] sons and daughters to Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem."

The tactic extends into Palestinian classrooms and textbooks as well. Palestinian Brig. Gen. Mahmoud M. Abu Marzoug reminded a group of 10th grade girls in Gaza City that "as a martyr, you will be alive in Heaven." After the address, a group of these girls lined up to assure a Washington Post reporter that they would be happy to carry out suicide bombings or other actions ending in their deaths. (Washington Post - April 24, 2002)

Ramahan Sahadi Abed Rabbah, 13, when asked why he participated in clashes with soldiers, was quoted in "Al-Hayat" as saying, "My purpose is not to be wounded but something more sublime -- martyrdom." (Nov. 8, 2000)

The problem has infested all parts of Palestinian society. Suicide bombing is considered a source of neighborhood pride, as streets are named after the perpetrators of these atrocities. Signs on the walls of kindergartens proclaim their students as "the shaheeds [martyrs] of tomorrow." Some children draw pictures and fantasize about the day when they achieve their goal.

"When I become a martyr, give out Kannafa [sweet cake]," one 14-year-old boy was reported to have told his friends in the days prior to his death in the riots. A 12-year-old boy who died in the fighting was reported to have so yearned for martyrdom that he wrote his own death announcements on the walls of his home.

Under these cultural influences, many children readily admit that they want to become suicide bombers. In June 2002, a documentary on PA television presented a survey conducted by Dr. Fatsil Abu Hin, a lecturer in psychology in the Gaza Strip. He interviewed 996 children between the ages of nine to 17. Ninety percent expressed their desire to participate in intifada activities, and 73% expressed a desire to become martyrs.

"Muslim Fun," a CD-ROM produced in the UK, includes a game called "The Resistance" in which "you are a farmer in south Lebanon who has joined the Islamic Resistance to defend your land and family from the invading Zionists." The Islamic Fun Web site recommends the game for children ages five and up and says: "Your child will learn about Islam by playing lots
of exciting games, full of colourful animations and cute sounds effects." http://www.inminds.co.uk/islamic-fun.html

Palestinian children at the Balata camp have thrown away their Pokemon cards in favor of necklace-pendants with pictures of Palestinian suicide bombers. The children spend their meager allowances to collect and trade them, hunting for prized martyr pictures like a vintage baseball card.

One Palestinian parent told the Toronto Star (June 17, 2002): "I opened my son's closet and found it full of martyrs posters and necklaces. I said to him... `Ultimately, you'll be rewarded with your picture hanging from a necklace, and we will have lost a son.'"

"These children are convinced that martyrdom is a holy thing, something worthy of the ultimate respect," said Munir Jabal, head of a Balata teachers association. "They worship these pictures. I think it will lead them in the future to go out and do the same thing."

Weiner reports that a another reason Palestinian parents allow and even encourage their children to get involved is the financial incentive offered to families of "martyrs." Thus, the Palestinian Authority furnishes a cash payment -- $2,000 per child killed and $300 per child wounded. Saudi Arabia announced that it had pledged $250 million as its first contribution to a billion-dollar fund aimed at supporting the families of Palestinian martyrs.

In addition, the Arab Liberation Front, a Palestinian group loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, pays generous bounties to the injured and the families of the dead according to the following sliding scale: $500 for a wound; $1,000 for disability; $10,000 to the family of each martyr; and $25,000 to the family of every martyr suicide bomber -- lavish sums, given the chronic unemployment and poverty of the majority of the Palestinian
residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.


===== (4) VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS =====

Yet not everyone agrees with the PA's techniques of child abuse.

Fox News quotes Atta Sarasara, a father of a 16-year-old suicide bomber, who Fox says "is angry with not just the Israelis, but also with the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades for preying on impressionable teenagers and giving his son a bomb. 'They used a child. He was very kind, handsome, smart. They used him,' Sarasara said." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,60395,00.html

Sweden's Queen Silvia raised the issue at a meeting of the World Childhood Foundation at the United Nations. She strongly criticized Palestinian parents and leaders for "exploiting them [the children] and risking their lives in a political fight... As a mother, I'm very worried about this. I'd like to tell them to quit. This is very dangerous. The children should not take part." (Jerusalem Post - Nov. 27, 2000)

Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Condoleezza Rice said:

"What does that picture of a baby dressed as a suicide bomber say about the hopes of Palestinians for life with the Israeli people as good neighbors? You know, we've all, in our lives, had experiences with hatred. I certainly have in Birmingham, Alabama. And it all starts with recognizing that the other person is human and deserves a future. If you're going to send your babies and your teenagers to kill other teenagers, something has broken down in this concept of humanity."

The editorial board of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram wrote:

"According to the AP, polls repeatedly have recorded majority Palestinian backing for suicide bombings, with a recent survey indicating more than 60 percent approval. In such an atmosphere, amid accounts of parents piously sanctioning the idea of their offspring becoming instruments of civilian
death, perhaps the idea of an infant swaddled in guerrilla's clothes should not be so shocking after all."
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/...al/3626469.htm

For a comparative perspective on the Israeli attitude toward Palestinian children, the media can look at an event this week in Israel: A 7-year-old Palestinian girl from Jerusalem is recovering well after receiving a kidney from Jonathan Jesner, the Jewish student from Scotland who was killed in a recent Palestinian suicide bombing. http://honestreporting.com/a/r/302.asp

(Ironically, earlier this year, the Islamic Association for Palestine
reported that Yasser Arafat "has accused the Israeli apartheid regime of murdering Palestinian children and youths and extricating their vital organs for organ transplants.")


===== (5) IDF RESPONSE TO AMNESTY REPORT =====

Following are excerpts from the IDF response to Amnesty International's recent report.

The Palestinian terrorists are solely and unequivocally responsible for the injuries caused to Palestinian children. Since the beginning of the conflict two years ago, the Palestinian terrorist factions have cynically exploited children in terrorist activity, in violation of international law. Children are groomed and dispatched to carry out suicide attacks in the centers of the Israeli civilian population; positioned at the front
lines of demonstrations to hide snipers behind them; and used to plant explosives and deliver weapons.

[L@mplighterM]

I suppose I should say that I’m speechless after reading the article but that isn’t the case. If I lived in Israel I’d be gone money permitting. A friend had considered going to Israel on holidays but decided against it and I can’t say that I would blame anyone for not going. Still there are those that holiday there without fear.

I had a neat little .22 cal hole put through my windshield once when I was driving. An event like that never truly leaves your mind even with the passing of time.

Any peace to be found with the Arabs won’t last long.

[Jorge]

The images and situations described in ibrodsky post #1, are deeply disturbing. The picture that emerges is that of a society where hate seems to become predominant. There is not much point in discussing whether the cases described illustrate marginal or common behavior. I suppose we all agree in that they are becoming more and more widespread as time goes on; two years ago they were certainly exceptions and two years from now they are likely to become the norm. This seems to be how the arrow of time is pointing for the palestinian society.

But the picture presented is not only disturbing, but alarming in extreme. Those children represent the next generation of palestinians; in say, 10 years time they will be the adults confronting Israel. If we see that the palestinians don't like us now just imagine how much more intense the hate may be then. The future palestinian adults will be the children who are now looking at a present of punishment and repression
and who look at the future with eyes devoid of hope.

A few kilometers away from those children, others are also starting their lives. They are our children. They don't hang pictures of terrorists on their walls, the posters are from soccer players, rock singers, camera stars and even of Bill Gates or of a learned rabbi. These, our children will also be the next generation of adults facing "the others".

One looks at the children here and at the children there, over the fence, and the first question that comes to mind is : Why are they so different? Not an easy question to answer but one we all should try to answer because if we want to save all those children, ours and theirs, from a gruesome future, we have to find a solution and soon, not in 50 years time, but now. We cannot improve the situation if we don't understand what led to it and it has to be a honest search; slogans and myths and legends will lead as nowhere.

Israelis and Jews in general have to address their share in the responsibility for the present situation. The prevalent attitude of throwing the whole guilt package on Arab hands and go home to bury our heads in the sand is futile. We are, at the very least, partly to blame for the children described in ibrodsky's comments. It is our responsibility to change course, so as to help ourselves and the palestinians to break this cycle of violence.

To be continued…

[L@mplighterM]

Originally posted by Jorge
.
The future palestinian adults will be the children who are now looking at a present of punishment and repression
and who look at the future with eyes devoid of hope.



Israelis and Jews in general have to address their share in the responsibility for the present situation. The prevalent attitude of throwing the whole guilt package on Arab hands and go home to bury our heads in the sand is futile. We are, at the very least, partly to blame for the children described in ibrodsky's comments. It is our responsibility to change course, so as to help ourselves and the palestinians to break this cycle of violence.

To be continued…

I don’t see it that way at all. I can’t in my wildest fantasy imagine how Israelis are responsible for the situation in the WB, GS or anywhere else in the Arab/Muslim world.

Your assessment of the situation is one that is becoming more and more prevalent in the world. If you and all the others want to lay some guilt trip upon yourselves go right ahead but I will not. Arafat and his likes are mass murderers and killers of dreams. They have changed what could have been to what is.

Go ahead and punish yourself if you want and uphold the thought that you and your countrymen are somehow partly responsible for the behavior of Palestinians. I’m certain that many shared your philosophy in pre war Germany and perhaps even during the holocaust.

The Jews in Germany and Europe weren’t guilty of anything and neither are the citizens of Israel. As far as I’m concerned the Nazis were deranged evil bastards as are the new Nazis.

Germany had the Hitler Youth and the Palestinians have the Arafat Youth and as far as I’m concerned they ate one and the same.

[danholo]

I myself believe that Israel can do something to improve the situation. But the terrorists are making it very difficult for the Israeli government to improve the conditions of the Palestinians. I mean, seeing an IDF tank rolling down the street or sitting in position when curfew is in place (Pretty scary when a tank is sitting in position at almost every street corner. I saw this on TV two months back.) isn't really making the kids love Jews now is it? Mostly though I think that PA "education" and similar indoctrination by parents is to blame too, since they teach that killing Jews is "good" and that Allah will be pleased.

[L@mplighterM]

Originally posted by danholo
I myself believe that Israel can do something to improve the situation. But the terrorists are making it very difficult for the Israeli government to improve the conditions of the Palestinians. I mean, seeing an IDF tank rolling down the street or sitting in position when curfew is in place (Pretty scary when a tank is sitting in position at almost every street corner. I saw this on TV two months back.) isn't really making the kids love Jews now is it? Mostly though I think that PA "education" and similar indoctrination by parents is to blame too, since they teach that killing Jews is "good" and that Allah will be pleased.

Besides painting the tanks hot pink and handing out flowers what exactly can Israel do to make the Palestinians love them?

Hand out Arafat bars?

You stated that you feel that the IDF could improve the situation so how exactly could this be achieved?

[danholo]

Originally posted by L@mplighterM
You stated that you feel that the IDF could improve the situation so how exactly could this be achieved?

No I did not. I said Israel. The IDF isn't Israel.
I said Israel can't help the Palestinians now because the terrorists are sabotaging every attempt at peace. Without the terrorists, the Palestinians wouldn't have to be "occupied" or under curfew etc.

[TheTruth]

Besides painting the tanks hot pink and handing out flowers what exactly can Israel do to make the Palestinians love them?

It is very simple, End occupation of Palestine, give Palestinain their complete rights, Isrealis will live in peace with Palestinians.

[Mediocrates]

Originally posted by TheTruth



It is very simple, End occupation of Palestine, give Palestinain their complete rights, Isrealis will live in peace with Palestinians.

Just like that - magic. Hamas and Hezbollah and the 17 other terrorist armies suddenly realize the error of their ways and open up Burger King franchises and go home.


Magical thinking.

[Miriam]

Originally posted by TheTruth
It is very simple, End occupation of Palestine, give Palestinain their complete rights, Isrealis will live in peace with Palestinians.

There is one serious logical mistake in this statement: if Israel pulls out, Palestinians will have to take care of their rights by themselves, there will be no one to "give" them "their complete rights" anymore, no external force to blame when things will go wrong. Are you hoping to receive your "rights" from the currently existing power structures, as they are known in my part of the world, i.e. PLO with its spin-offs, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.?

[L@mplighterM]

Originally posted by danholo


No I did not. I said Israel. The IDF isn't Israel.
I said Israel can't help the Palestinians now because the terrorists are sabotaging every attempt at peace. Without the terrorists, the Palestinians wouldn't have to be "occupied" or under curfew etc.

I see the IDF and the Israeli Government as one of the same. The IDF is merely an arm doing the bidding of the Government.

If I understand you correctly you are now saying that there should be no change in the position of the IDF.

[Jorge]

Originally posted by TheTruth
It is very simple, End occupation of Palestine, give Palestinain their complete rights, Isrealis will live in peace with Palestinians .

Well I don't think it is that simple. Suppose we have the good sense of ending the occupation, what about those kids we were talking about? You have to open for them a future with at least a glimmer of hope. You'll have to procure work opportunities, higher education and decent standard of living for that next generation. How do you propose to go about it?

Quote from Lamplihgter post #5

I don’t see it that way at all. I can’t in my wildest fantasy imagine how Israelis are responsible for the situation in the WB, GS or anywhere else in the Arab/Muslim world.

Apparently your wildest fantasy is not wild enough. It just so happens that Israel has been occupying the WB and GS for more than 30 years. In those 30 years there was no consistent effort to develop the territories, what we did instead was to establish a number of prosperous settlements in their land. In the last two years, the israeli army managed to destroy what little was created during those 30 years and now all the towns are in ruins.
Doesn't all this mean to you that Israel is at least a tiny bit responsible?

You may say that the palestinians are to blame and that they deserve what happened to them. OK, they got the punishment they supposedly deserve; what now? Do you propose to keep punishing them till those kids we were talking about become old enough to be suicide bombers and breed another generation like themselves. Can't you envisage some way of ending this madness?

For, Lamplighter post #7:

Besides painting the tanks hot pink and handing out flowers what exactly can Israel do to make the Palestinians love them?

No one in his sane mind expects the palestinians to love us. Neither it is reasonable to expect that they will suddenly stop hating us; the damage is done. What we are discussing, or at least what I think we are discussing, is what can be done so that those palestinian kids may have a future other than blowing themselves and ourselves. A future so that they may become teachers or gardeners or nurses or artists so that they may feel there's something worth living for.

If not them, may be for the ones that are now starting to understand. A few days ago, in some village in the Gaza strip, our tanks went over a kindergarten and reduced it to shambles. It wasn't done on purpose of course, it's just that the streets are narrow and the fragile structure was on the way to wherever the tanks were going. The children keep coming every morning to the ruins, where else can they go to? Soon they'll have "the rain of our land in its season" upon their heads.

You go and explain them that there's no reason to hate us, "it wasn't done on purpose".

[L@mplighterM]

Originally posted by Jorge
Originally posted by TheTruth
[COLOR=orange]
You go and explain them that there's no reason to hate us, "it wasn't done on purpose".

Children go home and tell your mommies and daddies that love you very much that they must not indoctrinate you to hate Jews. Tell your mommies and daddies not to follow the advice of the current Palestinian leadership that tells you to throw stones at Israeli tanks. Tell your mommies and daddies that you don’t want to grow up to be suicide bombers.

I could write a book for the Palestinian children but I’m afraid that it wouldn’t change a thing. The Israeli government has an obligation to protect its citizens and that’s exactly what it’s trying to do.

There’s nothing stopping you to promote your ideas to the Palestinians. Why don’t you ask Arafat if you can have a speaking engagement in the Palestinian schools?

It’s easy to condemn the Israeli government but in almost a year on this forum I haven’t read one concrete proposal to end the conflict that doesn’t include war. I’m all ears so why don’t you list some viable suggestions that can be implemented?

[michael]

Just so we all know what we are talking about, this is an excerpt from the AI report that ibrodsky is indirectly referring to.

"Since the beginning of the intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip which broke out in September 2000(1), Palestinian and Israeli children have been targeted in an unprecedented manner. In the period from 29 September 2000 to the end of August 2002, some 1700 Palestinians, including more than 250 children, were killed, and more than 580 Israelis, most of them civilians and including 72 children, were killed.(2)

The overwhelming majority of Palestinian children have been killed in the Occupied Territories when members of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) responded to demonstrations and stone-throwing incidents with excessive and disproportionate use of force, and as a result of the IDFs reckless shooting, shelling and aerial bombardments of residential areas. Palestinian children have also been killed as bystanders during Israels extrajudicial execution of targeted activists, or were killed when their homes were demolished. Others died because they were denied access to medical care by the IDF. At least three Palestinian children have been killed by armed Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories.

Israeli children have been killed in direct and indiscriminate attacks, including suicide bombings, and shootings by members of Palestinian armed groups and by Palestinian individuals who may not belong to armed groups(3), both inside Israel and in settlements or on roads leading to settlements in the Occupied Territories.

The patterns of killings described in this report show how the right to life of Palestinian and Israeli children has been repeatedly violated as a result of the systematic failure of the Israeli authorities, Palestinian armed groups, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to comply with the obligations and safeguards set down in international human rights and humanitarian law."

- Amnesty International Report.



And some commentary from Ha'aretz.


"The number of Palestinian children who have been killed is divided almost evenly between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, 141 children have been killed; in Gaza, 127; and three in East Jerusalem. Of them, 131 were killed in the first year of the intifada and 140 in the second. On average, about 11 children have been killed every month. The record months for the killing of children were the first months of the intifada, October and November, 2000, with 28 and 38 children killed respectively, along with April, 2002, the month of the Defensive Wall campaign (at least 29 children killed).

IDF bullets killed 231 Palestinian children. That is, 85 percent of the children who were killed were shot. An accusation that has been appearing in all the reports published by human rights organizations in Israel and internationally is that IDF soldiers are "trigger-happy" and that during the suppression of demonstrations and various kinds of protest actions, in which children also participate, the IDF "employs exaggerated force that is deadly and disproportionate."

For example, the Amnesty reports cites testimony by members of its delegation who witnessed a demonstration in Rafah on October 10, 2000, in which about 200 people participated, most of them elementary school students, who threw stones. According to the Amnesty representatives, even though there was no danger to the lives of IDF soldiers, the soldiers used unjustified deadly force, firing live ammunition at the demonstrators. The shooting injured Sami Fathi Abu Jazar (12) in the head; he died the following day of his injuries. Six other children were also wounded.

Fourteen Palestinian children (5 percent) have been killed during the intifada as a result of IDF aerial attacks in residential areas or as bystanders during attacks from the air on intifada activists. The most outstanding example occurred on July 22 of this year, when the Air Force dropped a 1-ton bomb on a populated neighborhood where senior Hamas operative Salah Shahadeh lived. In the bombardment, 17 people were killed; of them, eight were children.

Among the others killed were seven children killed by tank shells. And in November, 2001, five youngsters were killed when a booby trap blew up as they were on their way to school in Khan Yunis. A boy of 12, Fares Housam Fares al-Saadi, was killed on the evening of June 21 this year when IDF soldiers blew up an uninhabited house near his family's home in Jenin. According to witnesses, the IDF soldiers gave no prior warning before they demolished the house. Three Palestinian children were shot and killed by Jewish settlers in the territories.

According to the B'Tselem data, in addition to the 271 Palestinian children who were killed by Israelis during the intifada, another nine Palestinian children were killed by Palestinians. One of them, a 12-year-old boy, was killed "during the course of a clash between armed Palestinians and Palestinian civilians who tried to prevent them from firing at IDF positions," and eight other minors were killed "by Palestinian security forces in circumstances unconnected to suspicion of having collaborated with Israel."

According to Amnesty, in most of the cases in which Palestinian children were killed by Israelis, the Israeli authorities did not conduct appropriate investigations. Amnesty charges: "The large numbers of children killed and injured and the circumstances in which they were killed indicates that little or no care was taken by the IDF to avoid causing harm to children."

The report of the international organization quotes statements made at official meetings between its representatives and officials of the Israeli government and the IDF. The Head of the Legal Department of the IDF is quoted as having said at a meeting on January 16, 2001: "No army carries out investigations in warfare." At another meeting that was held on May 14, 2002, another IDF representative is reported to have said: "I don't need to investigate. We made mistakes that caused casualties on both sides but no Palestinian was killed deliberately." And on August 5, 2002, the Deputy Director of the Human Rights Division in the Israeli Foreign Ministry told Amnesty International delegates that in an armed struggle, "Investigations are not opened unless it is suspected that something is wrong... usually investigations are not opened unless it is known that it was deliberate."

The day after the publication of the Amnesty report on the killing of children, in response to a question from MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) on this matter in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said that after every incident of this sort the IDF conducts an investigation. The statement by the Defense Minister contradicts the statements by IDF representatives cited above. Gal-On demanded of the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Haim Ramon (Labor) that he summon the Head of the Legal Department of the IDF to the committee to deal with the accusations brought up by human rights organizations, including those in the latest Amnesty International report, according to which the IDF does not take care to preserve the lives of Palestinian children, and those who are responsible for harming Palestinians - both soldiers in the IDF and among the Jewish settlers in the territories, enjoy impunity.

The Amnesty report's criticism of the armed Palestinian organizations and the Palestinian Authority in the matter of killing children is also severe. The report charges: "Palestinians who were responsible for the killing of Israeli children after the establishment of the PA in 1993 also benefited from impunity." "

Joseph Algazy (Ha’aretz 7/10/02)