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.
