AK2004 > It is obvious that you take the side of the murderers no matter what. All I can do is wonder why.......
Likewise you. But since you ask, I believe in justice and the rule of law and, as far as I am concerned, Israel has taken Palestinian land and refuses to give it back. To me, that is the basis of the argument and everything flows from that. It is also my view that the polemic will not be solved by confrontation and violence but by negotiation. It is also my opinion that Israel, because it refuses to give back the occupied territories, prefers confrontation since it allows for the continuation of the status quo.
Apropos the deaths of the children, here are two sources which I do not think you can argue with but which support the view that many hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed in the conflict (I'm not talking about Jenin so I wonder why you keep referring to it, specifically?) I also refer to the Israeli children who have suffered unnecessarily because of the never-ending conflict.
en.wikipedia.org
>>Data before the beginning of the first Intifada is unreliable, and thus will be omitted from this record. During the first Intifada, 237 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) [2]. On 13 September 1993, the Oslo accords were signed, marking the end of the first Intifada. Between 13 September 1993 and the beginning of the Al-Aqsa (second) Intifada, 44 Palestinian children were killed by IDF soldiers, and another 10 by Israeli civilians. During the same period, 13 Israeli children were killed by Palestinian civilians [3].
Since the beginning of the violence of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, there have been 603 Palestinian children killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights monitoring group, reported that of these 603 Palestinian children killed, 529 (87.7%) were not involved in any hostilities when they were killed, with ambiguous data on another 31 children.
According to the Palestine Section of Defence for Children International, of the "595 children killed [by 30 June 2004], 383, or 64.4%, died as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks, during assassination attempts, or when Israeli soldiers opened fire randomly" and "212 children, or 35.6%, died as a result of injuries sustained during clashes with Israeli military forces" [4].<<
ynetnews.com
>>Children on both sides suffer in conflict
Statistics show 787 children killed since second intifada began in September 2000; vast majority of them Palestinian. Association for Civil Rights in Israel: Rights of Palestinian children during intifada have been severely and traumatically affected
The most fundamental human right is the right to live in security. In Israel this right is breached on a daily bases, affecting adults and children as the Middle East conflict continues to swirl and claim more lives every day.
Human right law places great emphasis on children’s right to live in security, yet as in most conflicts, the Israeli-Palestinian battlefield indiscriminately steals the lives of old and young.
Statistics published by B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights, show that 787 children have been killed since the first stones were hurled and the first shots fired on that day in September 2000.
Some 668 Palestinian children died in Israel Defense Forces activities in the territories, with one child killed in Israel, in comparison to 38 Israeli children killed by Palestinians in the territories and 80 in terror attacks in Israel.
But that’s not the whole picture. Other children rights are violated as the conflict continues to blight thousands of children, depriving the region’s most vulnerable of basic rights such as education, medical care, and the right to be a child.
“The rights of Palestinian children during the intifada have been severely and traumatically affected,” said Attorney Limor Yehuda of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Yehuda told Ynet that her organization’s work centers on the protection of the Palestinians' right for free movement, severely violated by IDF curfews and checkpoints, and the prevention of settler violence against Palestinians living close to Jewish settlements in the territories.
Prof. Charles W. Greenbaum, Deputy Chairman of Defense for Children International – Israel, urged both Israeli and Palestinians to take precautionary measures to protect children.
“Each side, Palestinian and Israeli, should do more to protect the children of the other side. Yet also each side needs to protect its own children,” he told Ynet.
'Israeli-Jewish children are deprived of many rights'
Israel for example should prevent children from going to settlements where the risk of coming under Palestinian attack is high. The Palestinians should keep their children away from military vehicles and prevent them from playing with toy guns.
Children’s right to education is no less problematic than the basic right of living in security, despite Israel being a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Attorney Sawsan Zaher of Addalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, claims that the priority attached by the State of Israel to security impinges on education and welfare as the Ministry of Defense gets the lion’s share of the state budget each year.
“The breach of children’s rights is centered in social and economic issues. We see this in practice by looking at the budget allotments --- cuts in children allowances, minimum income allowances, major cuts in the Education Ministry which affect the quality of education,” Zaher said.
The right to be a child bans the use of children in conflicts for political and military gains. Amnesty international has repeatedly condemned the involvement of children in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, citing the recruitment of Palestinian children to perpetrate suicide and other terror attacks.
Long-term effects
A number of international organizations have also argued that Jewish children are equally victims of the conflict as they are educated to become soldiers in the future.
“Israeli-Jewish children are deprived of many rights - such as the right to choose, the right to live without fear and the right to be a child,” said Rola Mazli of New Profile, Movement for the Civilization of Israeli Society.
“From a young age children are exposed to a twisted world view that deprives them of a real choice in the future. Education today prepares children for military draft at age 18, because we are taught that we are ever in danger, with no other possibility for an alternative or a different reality,” Mazli said.
New Profile works to reduce militarism in Israel in general and in the education system in particular.
In addition to the risk of physical harm, children in conflicts also suffer psychologically, as they are much more likely to witness traumatic events than other children.
A series of studies conducted in Israel and abroad show that children suffer psychological injuries when they witness traumatic and violent events.
“The influence on children and youth exposed to violence in Israel creates trauma on the long term and has a direct effect on them,” Dr. Michelle Slone of the Department of Developmental and Child Psychology at Tel Aviv University.
A survey conducted by Dr. Slone in 1998 showed a direct link between exposure to violence and trauma to anxiety, eating and sleeping disorders and distress.<< |
