Children Under Occupation

by Susan Howard-Azzeh. May 7, 2004. (pre Rafah)

( susanha103@yahoo.ca )  

Paper presented at Marxism 2004 in Toronto

(An accompanying power point slide show is also available, e-mail author.)

The conditions of Palestinian children living under Israeli Occupation are brutal.

As a result of Palestinian children being shot at, wounded, permanently disabled and killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces; because of house demolitions and subsequent homelessness; because of the lack of access to food, schools, medical and psychological care; lack of access to friends and family on the wrong side of the wall; and because of child imprisonment and torture - Palestinian children in particular suffer greatly under Israeli Occupation.

Despite resisting occupation in the only way they are able, by throwing stones at Israeli tanks, "Palestinian children are tense and dominated by the violence that surrounds them. They are frightened, resigned, anxious, uncertain and demoralized." (Growing Up Under Curfew: Safeguarding the basic rights of Palestinian Children", Save the Children UK, April 2003) They are also being killed in devastating numbers.

This paper is not a political analysis; rather it is an attempt to draw a rough picture through statistics of the day-to-day hardships imposed on Palestinian children by the official policies and actions of the state of Israel. In an effort to provide the most recent figures, the statistics presented are from a variety of sources and are generally taken from the end of March and April of this year 2004, and covering a 3 ½ year time period from the beginning of the Al Aksa Intifada in September 28, 2000 until March 2004. When referring to the Occupied Territories, this means the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Contents:

1. Nidah Azzeh
2. Palestinian Child Deaths and Injuries
3. Health - Food – Malnutrition
4. Home Demolitions
5. Education
6. Child Prisoners
7. Responses to Occupation - Suicide Bombers
8. International Responses to Occupation
9. Summary of Statistics
10. What You Can Do
11. Information and Charitable Resources

First I would like to give you an update regarding Nidah Azzeh. Many of you may know of my husband’s 14-year-old cousin Nidah who was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper March 9, 2002. At the time I first spoke about her, we did not yet have all the information about her death. We have since spoken to Nidah’s mother. She tells us that October 22, 2001 her home was hit by Israeli tank-fire or a missile while she and all of her 4 children were inside. The blast destroyed the house and everyone inside was injured. The family moved in with generous relatives across the road, which is where they still live. (The father Suleman Azzeh died at age 56 in 1999 of cancer.) Five months later, on March 9, 2002 Nidah and her brothers were playing in front of the house with 4 other children. The Israeli Occupation Forces had taken over 2 Palestinian hotel buildings across from Nidah’s refugee camp. The afternoon that Nidah died, the camp was quiet, the air was clear and calm, and there was no unusual activity in the camp. An Israeli sniper on the 3^rd or 4^th floor of the adjacent hotel opened fire on the children and shot Nidah. The bullet went in and then through her heart and out. She died before reaching the hospital. (She is buried in Beit Zahur near Jerusalem. She was not allowed to be buried closer in Bethlehem where she lived.) Since then Nidah’s Uncle-in-law is re-building the house. Nidah’s mother has no income and cares for her family with food rations from the UN and donations from friends and relatives. All of the family saw Nidah shot. Since then her younger brothers Fahmi 10 and Mohammed 7 have become very quiet and withdrawn. Nidah had been the sparkle in the family. She was very enthusiastic, outgoing and intelligent. Everyone liked her. She was good at poetry and science and wanted to become a doctor or lawyer to help other Palestinians. She was a leader among her age group and participated in every demonstration. There is a Handala Youth Centre in the Azzeh (or Beit Jibrein) Refugee Camp where Nidah used to read her poerty. Nidah’s best friend Merna attends this centre, as does Nidah’s little brother Mohammed. Supporters of the Handala Youth Centre are currently fundraising to build another two floors to the centre. The additional space will be used as an academic centre and as a vocational training centre for women. They are thinking of naming the centre after Nidah.

There are further ramifications to Nidah’s death. Nidah had a best friend, Merna. Isobel Mathews, chair of Lessons With Love, Handala Youth Center Fundraising Committee tells us this about Merna, "Merna is 15 years old and has lived in the Beit Jibrin or Azzeh refugee camp all her life. She has a sensitive nature and finds the situation in the occupied territories extremely difficult to live with. It was Nidah that Merna played with, gossiped with, and went to school with. After Nidah’s funeral Merna suffered a mental breakdown. She had attended the Handala Youth Centre with Nida, but became housebound, too scared to leave her house to attend the Youth Centre or school anymore. During the summer of 2002 the volunteers and children from the Centre visited Merna every day, bringing her drawings, and telling her of the activities they had been up to. In August, 5 months after Nida’s death, Merna finally took some tentative steps outside her front door for the first time. She decided that she wanted to catch up with her studies. Going to school was an impossibility, due to the occupation of Bethlehem and Merna’s complete fear of leaving familiar and safe ground. With support, Merna now attends the Handala Youth Centre twice a week. She has begun to smile again. The Youth Centre gives her hope to strive for a future and some much needed respite from thinking about all the tragedy around her."

2. Palestinian Child Deaths and Injuries

Nidah was just one of many Palestinian children killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces. In the past 3 ½ years September 2000 until March 2004, there have been 3,045 Palestinian deaths and 38,809 Palestinian injuries. (According to Palestinian medical officials 150 of these deaths have been militants killed in Israeli raids, 344 have been Palestinian Police forces.)

Israelis and Israeli children also suffer as a result of the Occupation. In the same 3 ½ year time period 2,500 Israelis were injured, and 840 Israelis were killed (soldiers, settlers, civilians and 460 Israelis from suicide bombings), including approximately 100 Israeli children. (Red Crescent Society, Palestinian Ministry of Health, Palestinian State Information Service (SIS), Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0403/S00381.htm March 29, 2004; Xinhua, Gaza www.iap.org April 5, 2004; and Khalid Amayreh, al Jazeerah, April 13, 2004).

Of the 38,809 Palestinians injured between September 2000 and March 2004, approximately 36% or 13,971 Palestinian children have been injured. (Palestine Monitor). Numbers of injured Palestinian children range as high as 20,000. (Khalid Amayreh, al Jazeera, April 13, 2004). Of the 3,045 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in this time period, 651 have been Palestinian children. (Palestinian Health Minister Jawad al-Tibi, Xinhua, Gaza, April 5, 2004 www.iap.org).

The 651 Palestinian children killed by the Israeli army were all below the age of 18 years. (Palestinian Health Minister Jawad al-Tibi and the Palestinian National Information Centre (PNIC)). Of these, more than half were aged 14 years and younger. (Child deaths under 14 years of age were 266 out of an earlier figure of 557 Palestinian child deaths. (Khalid Amayreh, al Jazeera, April 13, 2004)).

Israeli officials vehemently deny targeting children. Amira Dotan, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that it was inconceivable that the Israeli army targets Palestinian civilians, let alone children. She states, "We are a democratic state, our government would be toppled if it was proven that our defense forces had indulged in targeting Palestinian civilians and children. This sort of thing just doesn’t happen in Israel." She claims the children killed since 2000 were "accidental, collateral but not deliberate." When asked about dropping one-ton bombs from F-16 airplanes on apartment buildings in Gaza and carrying out air-strikes in densely populated neighbourhoods and crowded markets, she replied, "Yes, we knew there were children but we had to kill the terrorists… If we hadn’t killed those Palestinian children, then the terrorists would have killed three or four times as many Israelis." (al Jazeerah). Death tolls do not support Dotan’s justification and blatant disregard of international law and the lives of children. In the 2 ½ year period between September 29, 2000 and February 28, 2003, violence in occupied Palestine and Israel claimed the lives of 415 Palestinian children and 93 Israeli children under the age of 18, a four to one ratio in the opposite direction as claimed by Dotan. Either direction, there is no justification for targeting children. (www.whowillsavethechildren.org and www.rememberthesechildren.org )

In the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, November 20, 2000, Israeli journalist Amira Haas quotes an Israeli sniper as saying that, according to Israeli Defense Forces regulations, Israeli soldiers do have orders to shoot children. As the soldier said, "Twelve and up is allowed. He’s not a child anymore; he’s already after his bar mitzvah. Something like that. Twelve and up, you’re allowed to shoot. This is according to what the IDF says to its soldiers. I don’t know if this is what the IDF says to the media."

Unfortunately, it is much too easy to find examples of Palestinian children, including many below the age of 12 years, being killed and wounded by the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories. And the numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. In 2000, 13% of Palestinian children killed were 12 years old and younger; in 2001, 35% of children killed were 12 years old and younger; and in 2002, 48% of children killed were 12 years old and younger. ("Killing the Future: Children in the line of fire." Amnesty International.)

The majority of Palestinian children killed have been killed when the Israel Occupation Forces responded to demonstrations and stone-throwing incidents with excessive and disproportionate use of force, and as a result of reckless shooting, shelling and aerial bombardment in residential areas. Palestinian children have been killed as bystanders when Israel carries out extra-judicial executions rather than arresting wanted men. More than 30 children have been killed during Israeli state assassinations. Children are also killed when their homes are demolished, often while still in them. Amnesty International has investigated cases of children being killed or buried alive under the rubble of demolished houses, where no warnings were given for the safe evacuation of civilians and children. (Killing the Future: Children in the line of fire. Amnesty International, September 30, 2002) Many of the children have been killed on their way to and from school, and during normal childhood activities such as playing soccer and playing in front of their homes. One child Khalid Moghrabi was shot and killed while sitting on a hill watching the sunset. More than 30 newborn babies have died while being stranded at Israeli military checkpoints. Women in labour are held up at checkpoints and delayed or even prevented from passing through to reach hospitals. Most of the children were killed when there was no exchange of fire and in circumstances where the lives of Israeli soldiers were not at risk.

Following are examples of Palestinian children killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in just one week in April 2004.

Six year old Khalid Mahir Walwil from the Balata refugee camp near Nablus was shot in the back and killed as he turned away from the window on the second floor of his home. Khalid had stayed home that day, too frightened to go to school because Israeli soldiers were operating in the area.

(April 16) 17 year old Hussein Mahmoud Hussein Aweideh was shot dead during an anti-wall protest in Beitunia, west of Ramalah. The army denied using live bullets, but were contradicted by medical sources, eyewitness accounts and video footage. (www.palsolidarity.org, April 18, 2004)

(April 18) 15-year-old Mohammed Hamed was shot by an Israeli soldier in the abdomen during an Israeli incursion into Selwad refugee camp near Ramallah, soon after the assassination of Dr. Abdel Aziz al Rantisi. (WAFA news agency, April 18, 2004)

(Also April 18) 13 year old Islam Zahran was shot critically in the head when Israeli soldiers, stationed in the guard posts near the village of Deir Abu Mishaal north of Ramallah, opened heavy gunfire at him as he was walking down a street in his village. (The same soldiers killed a child and wounded another child two months ago while they were walking, claiming the children intended to target the soldiers in the fortified post.) (WAFA news agency, April 18, 2004)

(April 21) Two Palestinian girls and a teenager were killed, while another 30 Palestinians were shot and wounded during an Israeli incursion into Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. 4 year old Asma Abu Klek died from tear-gas inhalation inside her home. 11 year old Mona Abu Tabak died in hospital after being shot in the chest. (Dr. Mahmoud Alaa Assala of Jabalya hospital). Mona had been allowed outside to buy cookies after the media reported that Israeli troops had pulled out of the city and the area was calm. As Mona was leaving her home, intensive gunfire from the Israeli forces shook the neighbourhood. Eyewitness Hussam al- Toli, aged 18, said, "Mona and I were the only persons at the corner of the building, everything was calm and serene, she was talking to a girl on a balcony when the Israeli tank opened fire at us". An ambulance was able to reach Mona. The driver parked close to her but when the medics tried to get down, the tank opened fire and the ambulance was damaged. (Gaza, WAFA 3, 2004)

16 year old Mohamed al Mafouh was killed on the same day by a large-calibre bullet shot in the back of his neck. Israeli troops were firing at young stone throwers from tank-mounted machine guns. Mohammed was 300 meters away from the tank and unarmed, so obviously he was not a threat to Israeli soldiers. Mohammed had been on his way to a private math tutorial, when he stopped to throw stones at departing Israeli tanks. Schools are closed in Beit Lahiya as they are too close to Israeli tank positions. The Israeli military said they were firing at armed men, not young stone throwers. Girati Brigade commander, Colonel Eyal Eisenberg told Maariv News, "We will not kill any child trying to harm an IDF soldier. We would not hurt a child because that would delegitimize our struggle in the area." (Maariv News, April 23, 2004) Mohammed was the third young stone-thrower to be killed in three days. 15 Palestinians, including 5 children were killed in this three-day Israeli incursion. (Reuters/Associated Press, http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2818880 and http://story/news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040422/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestin )

April 22, the UN News Centre reported that 5 children under the age of 5 years were killed in Gaza by Israeli forces. (UN News Centre, April 22, 2004)

(Therefore between 9 and 14 children were killed in one week in this incomplete search. That’s more than one child a day killed by Israeli forces.)

It is also not difficult to find examples of young Palestinian children seriously injured in the same randomly selected week.

(April 17) A 5 year old girl, Batool Tibi, was injured by Israeli tank fire in Tulkarem. She was being driven home from school with her two sisters by her father. The father saw an Israeli tank in the road ahead and turned onto his street. Batool turned around to look at the tank. The tank fired shots at the car, which went through the car, through the car seat, and into Batool’s chest. The father kept driving to the hospital. An ambulance was in the area. The tank smashed the ambulance, crumpling its wheels. The Israeli military denied having any forces in the area. (www.palsolidarity.org/reports/writings/17Apr04_14_33_30TulkaremPhyllis.htm )

(April 18) 14 year old Ahmad Jaradat was wounded with a bullet to the head in Dura after Israeli troops responded with live ammunition and tear gas to Palestinians demonstrating against the assassination of Dr. al Rantisi. (WAFA news agency, April 18, 2004)

(Also on April 18) A 7 year old and a 9 year old were injured in Khan Younis (www.xinhuanet.com) and 13 year old Mohammed Daghlas was injured with a so called rubber bullet to the head when Israeli soldiers stormed Barqa village of Nablus and opened fire on civilians and school children. (WAFA News Agency, April 18, 2004)

Palestinian children are also at risk from Israeli settlers. For example April 22, 10 year old Rana Jaber was wounded and suffered bruises to her face and different parts of her body as a band of settlers assaulted her family as they were walking home in Hebron. http://english.wafa.ps/body.asp?field=tech_news&id=544. According to the Palestinian National Information Centre (PNIC) 43 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers since 2000. (Press Release, Palestinian National Authority, March 29, 2004)

One of the most surreal scenes during that week (April 15) was that of 12 year old Mohammed Said Beduan from the village of Biddu. Non-violent protesters were demonstrating against the separation wall, which cuts them off from their land. Protesters were beaten with gun butts, dragged, charged at by a soldier on a horse, and had tear gas fired at an ambulance rescuing a demonstrator. 11 people were arrested. 12 year old Mohammed was beaten and then tied onto the hood of an Israeli Border Police jeep as a human shield, with one of his arms tied to a wire mesh screen that blocks the windshield from incoming stones. Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, a Swedish volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, and another Palestinian who intervened to protect the boy, were also arrested and tied to another jeep as human shields. (Press Release: Rabbis for human Rights, April 16, 2004, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/418705.html and http://www.palsolidarity.org/pictures/PHOTOS_15Apr04_17_14_21JerusalemAssociatedPress.htm )

Child deaths are one of the motivations for Israeli army reservists who refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Jonathan Ben Artzi, a reservist refusing to serve in the territories, speaking to the Israeli Occupation Forces (or IDF) stated, "According to Amnesty International, more than 50 children under the age of 12 have been killed by Israeli army fire, during the first seven months of 2002 alone. You have not sentenced even one of the perpetrators of these crimes. But you are sentencing me… just because I refuse to take part in such activities." (www.rememberthesechildren.org )

3. Health - Food - Malnutrition

The presence of the Israeli separation wall, the checkpoints, and curfews impact on every aspect of Palestinian life – especially food.

Palestinian children are suffering from malnutrition. High unemployment both within the occupied Palestinian territories and outside, contribute to this crisis. And military checkpoints and the separation wall block access to jobs, food, and Palestinian farms and orchards; from distributing their industrial and food products to both internal and external markets. Factories and farms have been driven out of business. Israel has placed 2,137 military checkpoints in the occupied territories since October 2001. (PNIC, March 29, 2004). (People have no freedom of movement. For example, my husband’s Uncle Ayoub has the wall right between his house in Beit Jalla and Gilo settlement. He said that last week when he drove from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, a trip that normally takes 15 minutes, it took him 9 hours because of the checkpoints. It’s just not worth trying to go anywhere.)

Random and lengthy curfews or house arrests of entire villages also prevent people from obtaining food. At one point the entire city of Nablus in the West Bank with 115,000 inhabitants, was under 24 hour curfew or house arrest for 4 months. The curfew was lifted for less than 100 hours during that entire time. (Jewish News, Jewish Federation of Greater Albuquerque http://www.jewishnewmexico.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=60556 )

In a report released by Jean Ziegler, the UN Human Rights Commission’s special rapporteur for the right to food, it states that 3.5 million Palestinians living in the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. 9 % of Palestinian children under the age of 5 years suffer from some form of brain defect from chronic malnutrition because of Israel closing off the occupied territories. (UN Human Rights Commission, April 26, 2004 www.amnestyinternational.org ) 30% of all Palestinian children suffer some degree of malnutrition evidenced by a shorter height than is normal for a child’s age and various health problems.

.A World Bank report issued in May 2003 estimates that about 60% of the Palestinian population is living below the poverty line of 2.1 US dollars per day and that real per capita food consumption has dropped by 30% in the past 3 years. (Israel/OT, Children Under Siege, www.amnestyinternational.org )

Despite this disturbing fact, UN food aid to the occupied territories is jeopardized.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) tries to alleviate some of this suffering, but even they cannot always get through to hungry Palestinians. April 1^st of this year, UNRWA had to stop distributing emergency food aid from Ashdod Port to 600,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip, following restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities at the only commercial crossing through which UNRWA is able to bring humanitarian assistance. (These 600,000 refugees constitute half of all Palestinian refugees receiving UNRWA food aid in all the occupied territories). Israeli authorities would not allow empty food containers out of Gaza to be refilled at Ashdod Port. 11,000 tons of food sat idle, and UNRWA incurred $130,000.00 in extra port fees. Under normal circumstances UNRWA delivers 250 tons of food aid per day, such as rice, flour, cooking oil and other essentials to Gaza since the outbreak of strife in the West Bank and Gaza in September 2000. Since then Gaza has been locked into a deep socio-economic crisis resulting from the prolonged closure of its border with Israel, and resulting from the destruction of thousands of homes and agricultural and local industrial assets. Almost two out of every three households in Gaza live below the poverty line and more than half of its workforce is unemployed. (80% of Gaza are refugees.) UNWRA’s Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said, "The suspension of UNRWA’s emergency food aid in the Gaza Strip will further distress communities already struggling to cope with unrelieved economic hardship and malnutrition." (Press Release, UNRWA, April 1, 2004 www.unrwa.org and UN Human Rights Commisssion)

April 21 UNWRA was able to recommence food aid (Press Release # HQ/G/07/2004, UNRWA, April 21, 2004 www.unrwa.org ) The Israeli authorities were now operating workable arrangements as required by international humanitarian law at the Gaza entry point. However, future food assistance remains in doubt because of new restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities, who are insisting that holes must be drilled in the two inch thick food containers leaving Gaza so that the Israeli military can search the containers by mini-cameras inserted into them. The containers do not belong to UNRWA and such procedures add extra costs and delays to vital food delivery.

Of course Palestinians could grow food for their families and children, however, Israeli Occupation Forces have bulldozed vast areas of cultivated land, greenhouses and fields of growing crops. Since 2000, Israeli forces have bulldozed 62,044 dunums or 15,511 acres of land, uprooted 991,581 trees, destroyed 12,892 live stock, 9,738 beehives, 1,014 water wells, and 714,719 meters of water lines. 201,696 dunums or 50,424 acres of Palestinian land, much of it farm land, has been expropriated by the Israeli separation wall. (PNIC, March 29, 2004, and www.icahd.org ).

Outside the territories children also suffer. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics 55% of Palestinian children and 20% of Jewish children outside the territories live in poverty. The infant mortality rate of Palestinian infants outside the territories is double that of Jewish babies. (Maariv International, May 5, 2004)

4. Home Demolitions

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions reports that more than 10,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967. Even during the Oslo negotiations 740 homes were demolished. During the 18 months of the first Intifada from September 2000 to spring 2002, 2,000 Palestinian homes were demolished (http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=133 , February 19, 2004 )

Homes are often demolished supposedly because the owners did not have a building permit. Permits are difficult to acquire, cost about $5,000. and can be refused, as in the case of the Shawamre family, for something so unbelievable as that their stony plot was zoned agricultural land, that the slope was too steep, and then because the file was lost. (ICAHD, March 19, 2003) Homes have been demolished, without recompense, to make way for the separation wall. And 61,513 Palestinian homes have been partially or completely damaged since 2000 by Israeli shelling and gunfire (Palestinian National Information Services). It is not unusual for homes to be demolished while people are still inside as was the case with Nidah Azzeh and her family. 12,000 Palestinians have been displaced by home demolitions in the past 3 years. Displaced Palestinians live in tents, tin shacks, with relatives, or simply start to re-build all over again. According to UN figures, less than 600 of the 10,000 houses demolished since 1967 involved security suspects. All the rest, 94%, were simply houses that did not suit Israeli purposes. Palestinian home demolitions serve to confine Palestinians to tiny crowded enclaves on non-viable islands of land, to make way for illegal Israeli settlements, and to persuade Palestinians to leave Palestine.

5. Education

Under Israeli Occupation it is almost impossible for Palestinian children to receive an education. Although they certainly show amazing determination to either attend school, private tutors, or to study at home. (Israeli barriers to education effect both children in elementary and high school and young people trying to attend college and university.)

Since the year 2000, 5,660 teachers and students have been wounded. In the same time period 696 college students and more than 600 children and other students have been killed. (Palestinian Minister of Education Dr. Na’em Abu al-Hummus, KUNA, April 23, 2004) As mentioned earlier many child deaths occur while children are walking to or from school. And young people in college and university are always very vulnerable. In the past three years 12 schools and universities have been frequently closed, 1,125 others, including educational buildings have been denied normal activities. (PNIC, March 29, 2004). 302 schools, educational offices and universities have been exposed to Israeli shelling. Of these, 182 schools have been destroyed (Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA, April 23, 2004 http://www.kuna.net.kw/english ). 43 other Palestinian schools have been turned into Israeli military outposts. (PNIC, April 5, 2004.)

6. Child Prisoners

There are 7,500 political prisoners in 22 Israeli jails. Among these prisoners are 1,252 students, and 196 school and university teachers. As of April 5, 2004 there were 336 children being held as child prisoners. (PNIC, April 5, 2004)

Since the start of the Intifada the Israeli Occupation Forces have intensified its arrest campaign, particularly targeting Palestinian children below the age of 18. Over the first 35 months or 3 years of the Intifada, 2000 Palestinian children were imprisoned by Israeli forces. 80% of Palestinian child prisoners were exposed to torture. (Report by the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs). (Out of 346 Palestinian child prisoners held in August 2003, (Al-Awda-Canada) 31 child prisoners were administrative detainees with no charges laid against them and no trials, 215 child prisoners were on remand, and 96 were convicted by military courts and arbitrary military orders in grave breach of international conventions, in particular, article 14 of the Geneva Convention.) Israeli Occupation Forces issued military orders, which regarded minors under the age of 16 as being non-children, blatantly contravening Article 40 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Palestinian children below 18 years have been banned contact with their families, advocates and legal representatives during the inquiry stage of their detention. The children’s detention locations have been kept unknown to parents and legal representatives. Once families are able to discover where their children are being held, they must obtain permits to visit their children in detention. Permits are usually denied or delayed until the child’s first court appearance weeks later. This practice breaches Article 40 Item 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which ensures a prisoner’s right "to be informed promptly and directly of charges against him or her, and, if appropriate, through his or her parents or legal guardians and to have legal or other appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of his or her defense." Typically children are held for two weeks before parents or legal representatives know where they are. It is during this time that torture is used. Children are beaten both on the trip to the detention centre and in the interrogation rooms. With their heads covered with a sack and their hands tied behind their backs or to a chair, child prisoners are beaten with boots, rifle butts, straps and fists. They are spat upon, sworn at and belittled. They are left for days in either continuously lit or continuously dark, cold cells with little or no food and with either no blankets or with filthy ones. Children will generally have begun to heal before their parents, lawyer or the Red Cross are permitted to see them. During the time period of what was called the policy of breaking bones in the 1990s, it was not unusual for a child to have their upper arm, femur or hip broken. (First hand accounts from known child prisoners; Al Birah, Palestine, International Press Centre, August 26, 2003. www.ipc.gov.ps ; and "Stolen Youth", Pluto Press.)

To learn more about child prisoners, and to read first hand accounts from the children, I strongly recommend that you read, "Stolen Youth – The Politics of Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Children" by Catherine Cook, Adam Hanieh and Adah Kay. Published by Pluto Press, 2004. ISBN 0 7453 2161 5

7. Responses to Occupation - Suicide Bombers

Now how do children respond to all of this abuse under a life of occupation? One response is to become a suicide bomber. Personally I find the use of teenagers and young adults as suicide bombers very upsetting and morally reprehensible. There are those who feel it is a legitimate and effective form of resistance. However, I feel that the adult leaders of the Palestinian resistance are taking advantage of the young people’s despair, depression, and lack of hope for the future, to use them as a military weapon. Israel has already taken so many young lives, why give them even one more? The adults have already lived and experienced life, so if they really believe that suicide bombing is strategically such an effective weapon of resistance, then why don’t the adults be the suicide bombers, if at all? However, I am not a Palestinian teen or student, I do not live under occupation, and so I don’t know what the young people are feeling that would make them decide to take their life in this way. A close Palestinian friend who was a child political prisoner and severely injured after being arrested and badly beaten for throwing stones at Israeli tanks, explains it this way, "Resistance evolves within a life of it’s own. No one told the kids to start throwing rocks at tanks but they did. Death is with them always, interwoven into their every day. While throwing rocks in the first Intifada many children were arrested, many were injured, and many kids were died. So if the kids were dying throwing rocks anyway, then they, not the adults, thought, "If I’m going to die throwing rocks, I may as well die as a suicide bomber and take some Israelis with me. The adults will remain as the kids’ source of keeping the kids’ memories alive. "

8. International Responses to Occupation

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees the fundamental rights of all children. The State of Israel willingly signed and ratified this agreement in October 1991. Since that time Israel has failed to comply with the convention’s provisions, and has consistently and systematically violated Palestinian children’s rights, safety, security, and lives in every way possible.

Palestinians do stand up for themselves and resist this oppression. Many Palestinian governmental, civil and non-profit organizations, and individuals serve the needs of Palestinians created by the occupation – whether those needs are economic, educational, health, psychological, food, political, spiritual, or cultural. Palestinians do not present themselves as victims. And one cannot help but look upon Palestinian children throwing stones, resisting as they are able and going to school in these conditions, as child heroes. But how can Palestinians overcome this oppression by themselves when it is perpetrated by the 4^th largest military in the world, with the financial backing of the world’s only superpower, and with the complicit silence of most world leaders? We mustn’t leave Palestinians to struggle on alone. We have a duty to assist Palestinians in whatever way we are able.

If you feel grief or rage at the devastating conditions of Palestinian children, do not give in to despair or frustration. Work on behalf of these children. In whatever way you choose or create, smaller acts or addressing systemic causes, it is our business to protect children’s lives, security and rights. Add your voice and your efforts to call for an end to the killing of children, for an end to the illegal 35 year occupation, and for a just peace.

As Dr. Nurit Peled el Hanan, the mother of 13 year old Smadar el Hanan who was killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 said, "For me, to end the war means to understand that all bloods are equal and that killing in guerrilla fighting is not more cruel than killing by tanks and airplanes; that sophisticated rockets and home-made bombs all kill just the same, and that it takes so little to kill a child, and so much to keep her alive." www.whowillsavethechildren.org )

SUMMARY OF STATISTICS (pre-Rafah)

September 28, 2000 to March 2004 (3 ½ years)

3,045 Palestinians killed and 38,809 Palestinians injured

840 Israelis killed and 2,500 Israelis injured

13,971 – 20,000 Palestinian children injured

651 Palestinian children killed under age 18

(of these more than half of the Palestinian children killed were aged 14 years and younger)

Approximately 100 Israeli children killed

(Above from: Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0403/S00381.htm March 29, 2004; Xinhua, Gaza www.iap.org April 5, 2004; and Khalid Amayreh, al Jazeerah, April 13, 2004).

30 Palestinian newborn babies died while at Israeli military checkpoints

43 Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers

50 children under the age of 12 years been killed by Israeli army fire, during the first seven months of 2002

In 2002 48% of children killed were 12 years old and under, compared with 35% in 2001 and 13% in 2000. (Killing the Future: Children in the line of fire." Amnesty International.)

In March 2004, 21 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli army, 16 from the Gaza Strip and 5 from the West Bank. (Palestinian Health Minister Jawad al-Tibi, Xinhua, Gaza, April 5, 2004, http://www.iap.org )

2,137 military checkpoints built in the occupied territories from October 2001 to March 2004

9 % of Palestinian children under the age of 5 years old suffer some form of brain defect from chronic malnutrition because of the occupation

Israeli Occupation Forces have bulldozed 62,044 dunums or 15,511 acres of agricultural land, uprooted 991,581 trees, and destroyed 12,892 live stock, 9,738 beehives, 1,014 water wells, and 714,719 meters of water lines. 201,696 dunums or 50,424 acres of Palestinian land, much of it farm land have been expropriated by Israeli for the separation wall.

More than 10,000 Palestinian homes demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967. During the Oslo negotiations 740 homes were demolished. During the 18 months of the first Intifada from September 2000 to spring 2002, 2,000 Palestinian homes were demolished. (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions http://www.icahd.org/eng/news.asp?menu=5&submenu=1&item=133 , February 19, 2004 )

5,660 teachers and students wounded.

696 college students and more than 600 children and other students killed. (Palestinian Minister of Education Dr. Na’em Abu al-Hummus, KUNA, April 23, 2004)

12 schools and universities frequently closed, 1,125 others, including educational buildings have been denied normal activities. (Palestine National Information Centre, March 29, 2004)

302 schools, educational offices and universities exposed to Israeli shelling.

182 schools destroyed (Kuwaiti News Agency (KUNA, April 23, 2004 http://www.kuna.net.kw/english )

43 Palestinian schools turned into Israeli military outposts. (PNIC, April 5, 2004.)

7,500 political prisoners in 22 Israeli jails. Among these prisoners are 1,252 students, and 196 school and university teachers.

As of April 5, 2004 there were 336 children being held as child prisoners. (PNIC, April 5, 2004) Al-Awda-Canada figures put the number of child prisoners a little higher at 346 child prisoners.

2000 – 2004, 2000 Palestinian children imprisoned by Israeli forces. 80% of Palestinian child prisoners exposed to torture (Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs)

Out of 346 Palestinian child prisoners held in August 2003, 31 child prisoners were administrative detainees with no charges laid against them and no trials, 215 child prisoners on remand, 96 convicted by military courts and arbitrary military (Al Birah, Palestine, International Press Centre, August 26, 2003. www.ipc.gov.ps )

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Call upon your political leaders to demand an end to the occupation of Palestinian Territories, and the unequal treatment of Palestinians in Israel.

Call upon Ministers of Immigration to grant sanctuary to Palestinian refugees who have applied for asylum outside of Palestine.

Call on the United Nations and the World Health Organization to intervene to avert the deteriorating food and health situation in the Palestinian territories.

Make food aid donations through UNRWA. A donation of $30 US will provide a one-month food parcel for a family of eight containing 50kg of flour, five kg of rice, five kg of sugar, two liters of cooking oil, one kg of powdered milk, and five kg of lentils. Visit http://www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/donation/index.html .

Make a donation, buy Palestinian embroidery or plant an olive tree through the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund at www.pcwf.org.

Send donations directly to families in Palestine, and to organizations you know well in Palestine which provide food, education, medical and psychological care to children, and which advocate for Palestinian child prisoners.

Make generous donations to credible organizations. Some non-profits put a large percentage of donations towards administrative costs. A good strategy is to give donations to a friend who is visiting or living in the territories, so that they can give the donation directly to a family in need or to a reputable organization.

Expose the conditions of Palestinian children through media awareness campaigns and through daily conversations with friends.

Join organizations such as the International Solidarity Movement or the Palestine Monitor to document continuing abuse of Palestinian children under occupation and to participate in non-violent direct action and aid.

Perhaps, call on Canada to send international observers or peacekeepers to the region to create a buffer between Palestinians and the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Join campaigns to stop the separation wall, which expropriates Palestinian lands and cuts Palestinians off from farms, jobs, schools, medical aid, and family.

Campaign to oust Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister of Israel, and to bring him to a war crimes tribunal.

INFORMATION AND CHARITABLE RESOURCES

Remember These Children 2003 – Reports from American Educational Trust, Americans for Middle East Understanding, Black Voices for peace, Jews for Justice in Palestine and Israel www.rememberthesechildren.org

Stolen Youth – The Politics of Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Children" by Catherine Cook, Adam Hanieh, Adah Kay. Pluto Press 2004. ISBN 0 7453 21615

Susan Howard-Azzeh, May 7, 2004 susanha103@yahoo.ca

Niagara Coalition for Peace http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/NC4P/