Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Encyclopedia
Children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict refers to the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
on minors in Israel
and the Palestinian territories
.
, thirteen Palestinian children were killed by the IDF, while five Israeli children were killed by Palestinian militants. Between September 13, 1993 and the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, ten Palestinian children were killed by IDF soldiers and two by Israeli civilians. During the same period, thirteen Israeli children were killed by Palestinian militants.Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada
in September 2000, 954 Palestinian
and 123 Israel
i children under the age of 18 have been killed, according to B'Tselem
, an Israeli human rights
monitoring group.
The first acts of Palestinian violence specifically targeting Israeli children were committed in the 1970s. Notable examples include the Ma'alot massacre
in which 22 Israeli high school students, aged 14–16, from Safed were killed by three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Avivim school bus massacre
in which 9 children were killed, and the Kiryat Shmona massacre
in which 9 children were killed.
About 70% of the Israeli children were killed in Palestinian suicide bombings. Others were killed in shootings and attacks on cars and buses. Examples include:
According to Amnesty International
, between 2000 and 2004 "more than 100 Israeli children... [were] killed and hundreds of others injured in suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks carried out by Palestinian armed groups in Israel and in the Occupied Territories."
In 2008, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed 8 teenagers at the Mercaz HaRav
religious school in Jerusalem, and wounded 11. A 2009 poll found that 84 percent of Palestinians supported the attack. Support was 91 percent in the Gaza Strip compared to 79 percent in the West Bank.
aged 8, 10 and 12, were shot near Dayr Ayyub
in the Latrun
salient. According to adult witnesses, "only one man fired at them with a sten-gun but none of the detachment attempted to interfere." In February 1953, one of five Arab shepherds shot in al-Burj
was 13 years old. During the 1952 Beit Jala raid
, 4 children ranging in age from 6 to 14 were killed by machine gun fire.
According to the Defence of Children International (DCI), of the "595 children killed [29 September 2000 to 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". The DCI estimates that from the 1 January 2001 until 1 May 2003, at least 4,816 Palestinian children were injured, with the majority of injuries resulting from Israeli army activity while the children were going about their normal activities.
According to Amira Hass, 54 minors were brought to UNRWA clinics with head wounds from August 1989 to August 1993. The Association of Israeli and Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights (PHR-Israel) estimates that a child under the age of six was shot in the head every two weeks during the Al Aqsa Intifada.Amnesty International accused Israeli forces of inadequately investigating killings of children during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, while also condemning the killings of Israeli children by suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinians.
"2004 Global Report on the Use of Child Soldiers", there were at least nine documented suicide attacks involving Palestinian minors between October 2000 and March 2004. According to the Israel Defense Forces
from September 2000 through 2003, 29 suicide attacks have been carried out by youth under the age of 18, 22 shootings attacks and attacks using explosive devices were carried out by youth under the age of and more than 40 youths under the age of 18 were involved in attempted suicide bombings that were thwarted. According to the Coalition, "[t]here was no evidence of systematic recruitment of children by Palestinian armed groups. However, children are used as messengers and couriers, and in some cases as fighters and suicide bombers in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. All the main political groups involve children in this way, including Fatah
, Hamas
, Islamic Jihad
, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
."
According to Mahmud Abbas, Palestinian children are given $1 for each pipe bomb they throw. Former UN Under-Secretary General Olara Otunnu
declared:
In 2009, Hussam Abdo
, 16, was given $23, a suicide bomber's vest containing 18 kilograms of explosives, and sent to kill Israelis. His family said he was gullible and easily manipulated: "He doesn't know anything (about politics), and he has the intelligence of a 12 year old."
According to the British TaxPayers' Alliance Coalition against Hate Education, bilateral British and EU aid is being used by the Palestinian National Authority
to fund textbooks, television programs and educational activities promoting hate and violence.According to the report,
The report cites the case of a television program, in which the female terrorist, Dalal Mughrabi
who participated in the murder of 12 children and 25 adults in a bus attack on Israel in 1978 is celebrated as the "beloved bride, daughter of Jaffa, jasmine flower." In another case, in a school in Tulkarem, a soccer tournament was named after Ziyad Da’as, who planned the 2002 Bat Mitzvah massacre in which a gunman opened fire at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera, killing six and wounding 30.
The Hamas' on-line magazine for children, al-Fatah (The Conqueror), published since 2002, encourages children to become suicide bombers and promotes hatred of Jews. Al-Fateh (Arabic for "the conqueror"). The bi-weekly magazine features stories and columns praising suicide bombers and attacks against the "Jewish enemy."
(UXO) has been a low-level but recurrent threat. The majority of incidents involving unexploded ordnance occurred in the Gaza Strip.
report, Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler
claimed that over 22 per cent of children under 5 in the Palestinian territories were suffering from malnutrition and 15.6 per cent from acute anaemia." According to the World Bank
, food consumption in the Palestinian Territories fell by more than 25 per cent per capita, and food shortages particularly of proteins, were reported.
in the West Bank, to be 42.3% among Palestinian children. The rate was 46.3% for boys and 37.8% for girls. These rates, the study reported, were twice the rate of psychological morbidity in the Gaza strip.
According to an Israeli child psychiatrist, about half of the children in Jerusalem, the city hit hardest by Palestinian violence, experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, two to three times higher than the rate of children suffering from other causes of trauma. A recent study by Herzog’s trauma centre found that 33 per cent of Israeli youth have been affected personally by terrorism, either by being at the scene of an attack or by knowing someone injured or killed by terrorists. Seventy per cent of those surveyed reported increased subjective fear or hopelessness.
About 26% of Israeli minors killed lived in the Israeli settlements in West Bank and Gaza. According to Miriam Shapira, the director of an emergency crisis centre for West Bank settlers, "Almost every school has students who have experienced close losses. One school had 20 students who had lost a parent in terrorist attacks. About half of the teachers also have had a close relative killed or were themselves involved in an attack."
Herzog Hospital's Israel Centre for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, in Jerusalem, and the UJA-Federation of New York held a conference to examine the effects of terrorism on children in Israel and the United States. Their study shows that despite nearly four years of ongoing terrorism, Israeli children have shown resilience for coping with trauma and pressing on with their lives.
(UNICEF), some 300 Palestinian schools have been damaged in the conflict. In 2003, 580 schools were periodically forced to close, and some schools were closed after being declared military outposts by the IDF.
, many human rights
and non-governmental organization
s have raised concerns over Israel's treatment of Palestinian civilians, specifically children. UNICEF, Amnesty International
, B'Tselem and individuals such as the British
writer
Derek Summerfield
, have called for Israel to protect children from violence in accordance with the Geneva conventions
. The European Union has linked the suspension of Israel/Europe trade agreement talks to human rights issues, especially in regards to children.
However, Georgetown University
professor William O'Brien wrote about the active participation of Palestinian children in the First Intifada: "It appears that a substantial number, if not the majority, of troops of the intifada are young people, including elementary schoolchildren. They are engaged in throwing stones and Molotov cocktail
s and other forms of violence."
The Code of Conduct of the IDF explicitly prohibits targeting non-combatants and dictates proportional force. It also stipulates that soldiers "use their weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary extent and will maintain their humanity even during combat. IDF soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property."
The Israeli government and the IDF have expressed sympathy but deferred responsibility and blame to the Palestinians. They say the deaths of children are a regrettable consequence of war;
Islamic militants use children as human shields or deliberately locate themselves in civilian areas during fighting; children are used as child suicide bombers by Palestinian militant organizations;t children engage in acts of extreme violence toward Israeli forces and civilians.
Israeli and international human rights groups claim that show the majority (between 64.4% and 87.7%) of Palestinian child fatalities occurred in circumstances in which the children were clearly not involved in hostilities or clashes with Israeli forces.
"Palestinians receive care in Israel that they could not receive in any neighboring Arab country. In the last few months alone nearly 200 Palestinian children who were referred under a joint Israeli-Palestinian programme to treat children with serious medical conditions have already undergone major surgery at Israeli hospitals at no cost to the families. Another 350-400 Palestinian children have undergone free diagnostic testing."
Saving Children, established by the Peres Peace Center, enables hundreds of Palestinian children to receive free medical care, in particular cardiac surgery, from Israeli surgeons."
"Save A Child's Heart" is a program in which any child with heart problems can receive free medical attention and surgery from select doctors and hospitals within Israel. From 1996 to 2007, 4,591 children had been examined world wide, of the 1848 children treated 828 (45%) were Palestinian.
to children from the opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yoni Jesner died in a suicide bombing in 2002, while Ahmed Khatib was killed by IDF gunfire in 2005. Ahmed Khatib's story was the subject of a PBS
documentary "Heart of Jenin".
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
on minors in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the Palestinian territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
.
Casualty figures
During the First IntifadaFirst Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
, thirteen Palestinian children were killed by the IDF, while five Israeli children were killed by Palestinian militants. Between September 13, 1993 and the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, ten Palestinian children were killed by IDF soldiers and two by Israeli civilians. During the same period, thirteen Israeli children were killed by Palestinian militants.Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada
Al-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Oslo War, was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...
in September 2000, 954 Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
and 123 Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i children under the age of 18 have been killed, according to B'Tselem
B'Tselem
B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization . It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories"...
, an Israeli human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
monitoring group.
Israeli children
Ma'alot massacre
The Ma'alot massacre was a terrorist attack which included a two-day hostage-taking of 115 people which ended in the deaths of over 25 hostages. It began when three armed Palestinian terrorists of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine entered Israel from Lebanon...
in which 22 Israeli high school students, aged 14–16, from Safed were killed by three members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Avivim school bus massacre
Avivim school bus massacre
The Avivim school bus massacre was a terrorist attack on an Israeli school bus on May 8, 1970 in which 12 Israeli civilians were killed, nine of them children, and 25 were wounded. The attack took place on the road to Moshav Avivim, near Israel's border with Lebanon. Two bazooka shells were fired...
in which 9 children were killed, and the Kiryat Shmona massacre
Kiryat Shmona massacre
The Kiryat Shmona massacre was an attack by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command on civilians in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona on 11 April 1974 which resulted in 18 deaths.-The attack:...
in which 9 children were killed.
About 70% of the Israeli children were killed in Palestinian suicide bombings. Others were killed in shootings and attacks on cars and buses. Examples include:
- A suicide bombing outside a crowded discothèque on Friday night, June 1, 2001 killed 21 teenagers. The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility.
- In 2001, 10 month-old Shalhevet PassShalhevet PassThe murder of Shalhevet Pass was a shooting attack which was carried out on March 26, 2001 in Hebron, in which a Palestinian sniper killed the ten-month-old Israeli infant Shalhevet Pass...
was shot in the head and killed by a Palestinian sniperSniperA sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
while sitting in her stroller in HebronHebronHebron , is located in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judean Mountains, it lies 930 meters above sea level. It is the largest city in the West Bank and home to around 165,000 Palestinians, and over 500 Jewish settlers concentrated in and around the old quarter...
.
- A suicide bombing on 2 March 2002, targeting a group of women and children next to a synagogue, resulted in the deaths of seven children.
- The Maxim restaurant suicide bombingMaxim restaurant suicide bombingThe Maxim restaurant suicide bombing was a suicide bombing which occurred on October 4, 2003 in the beachfront "Maxim" restaurant in Haifa, Israel. 21 people were killed in the attack and 51 were injured...
in 2003 claimed the lives of four children, including a two-month old baby. Oren Almog, 10, lost his eyesight and five members of his family.
According to Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, between 2000 and 2004 "more than 100 Israeli children... [were] killed and hundreds of others injured in suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks carried out by Palestinian armed groups in Israel and in the Occupied Territories."
Mercaz haRav
Mercaz HaRav , more properly, Mercaz HaRav Kook ), is a national-religious yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1924 by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. It has become synonymous with his teachings....
religious school in Jerusalem, and wounded 11. A 2009 poll found that 84 percent of Palestinians supported the attack. Support was 91 percent in the Gaza Strip compared to 79 percent in the West Bank.
Palestinian children
The first recorded incident of Palestinian children killed by IDF was in November 1950 when three Palestinian children from the village of YaloYalo
Yalo was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite city of Aijalon, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank...
aged 8, 10 and 12, were shot near Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramla. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 6, 1948 by the Givati and Sheva' brigades of Operation Nachshon. It was located 17.5 km southeast of Ramla, situated close to Bab al-Wad...
in the Latrun
Latrun
Latrun is a strategic hilltop in the Ayalon Valley in Israel overlooking the road to Jerusalem. It is located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast of Ramla.-Etymology:...
salient. According to adult witnesses, "only one man fired at them with a sten-gun but none of the detachment attempted to interfere." In February 1953, one of five Arab shepherds shot in al-Burj
Al-Burj
al-Burj is a Palestinian village located twenty kilometers southwest of Hebron.The village is in the Hebron Governorate, southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,578 464 in 2007...
was 13 years old. During the 1952 Beit Jala raid
1952 Beit Jala raid
The Beit Jala Raid was an Israeli attack on Beit Jala, an Arab town on the border between Jordan and Israel on January 6, 1952. Seven Palestinian Arab civilians were killed in the attack...
, 4 children ranging in age from 6 to 14 were killed by machine gun fire.
According to Amira Hass, 54 minors were brought to UNRWA clinics with head wounds from August 1989 to August 1993. The Association of Israeli and Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights (PHR-Israel) estimates that a child under the age of six was shot in the head every two weeks during the Al Aqsa Intifada.Amnesty International accused Israeli forces of inadequately investigating killings of children during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, while also condemning the killings of Israeli children by suicide bombings and other attacks by Palestinians.
Manipulation of children
In 2000, Arab journalist Huda Al-Hussein stated that: "While UN organizations save child-soldiers, especially in Africa, from the control of militia leaders who hurl them into the furnace of gang-fighting, some Palestinian leaders…consciously issue orders with the purpose of ending their childhood, even if it means their last breath."Child suicide bombers
According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child SoldiersCoalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers is a UK-based non-governmental organization that was formed to prevent the recruitment and exploitation of children in warfare and to ensure their reintegration into larger society by means of research, advocacy, and capacity building...
"2004 Global Report on the Use of Child Soldiers", there were at least nine documented suicide attacks involving Palestinian minors between October 2000 and March 2004. According to the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
from September 2000 through 2003, 29 suicide attacks have been carried out by youth under the age of 18, 22 shootings attacks and attacks using explosive devices were carried out by youth under the age of and more than 40 youths under the age of 18 were involved in attempted suicide bombings that were thwarted. According to the Coalition, "[t]here was no evidence of systematic recruitment of children by Palestinian armed groups. However, children are used as messengers and couriers, and in some cases as fighters and suicide bombers in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. All the main political groups involve children in this way, including Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
, Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad , is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been labelled as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel...
, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
."
According to Mahmud Abbas, Palestinian children are given $1 for each pipe bomb they throw. Former UN Under-Secretary General Olara Otunnu
Olara Otunnu
Dr.Olara A. Otunnu is a Lawyer and the President of the Uganda Peoples Congressand a Presidential Aspirant for the 2011 General elections in Uganda...
declared:
“We have witnessed both ends of these acts:children have been used as suicide bombers and children have been killed by suicide bombings. I call on the Palestinian authorities to do everything within their powers to stop all participation by children in this conflict.”
In 2009, Hussam Abdo
Hussam Abdo
Hussam Abdo was a Palestinian teenager, from the Masahiya area of Nablus, who made international headlines on 24 March 2004, when he entered the Hawara Checkpoint in the West Bank, with eight kilos of explosives strapped to his body as part of a suicide attack attempt.-The incident:Abdo, then...
, 16, was given $23, a suicide bomber's vest containing 18 kilograms of explosives, and sent to kill Israelis. His family said he was gullible and easily manipulated: "He doesn't know anything (about politics), and he has the intelligence of a 12 year old."
Child indoctrination
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
to fund textbooks, television programs and educational activities promoting hate and violence.According to the report,
"It is especially worrying that Palestinian children are often the main targets of this destructive
propaganda. Messages of murder and martyrdom appear in children’s television
programmes, radio and TV broadcasts, a school football tournament, and of course, school
textbooks. These are the textbooks that UK-funded teachers are using right across the
Palestinian territories."
The report cites the case of a television program, in which the female terrorist, Dalal Mughrabi
Dalal Mughrabi
Dalal Mughrabi was a Palestinian militant who was a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization and directed the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel. The attack resulted in the death of 37 Israeli citizens, including 13 children, and one American photographer. Mughrabi...
who participated in the murder of 12 children and 25 adults in a bus attack on Israel in 1978 is celebrated as the "beloved bride, daughter of Jaffa, jasmine flower." In another case, in a school in Tulkarem, a soccer tournament was named after Ziyad Da’as, who planned the 2002 Bat Mitzvah massacre in which a gunman opened fire at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera, killing six and wounding 30.
The Hamas' on-line magazine for children, al-Fatah (The Conqueror), published since 2002, encourages children to become suicide bombers and promotes hatred of Jews. Al-Fateh (Arabic for "the conqueror"). The bi-weekly magazine features stories and columns praising suicide bombers and attacks against the "Jewish enemy."
Accidents by unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnanceUnexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...
(UXO) has been a low-level but recurrent threat. The majority of incidents involving unexploded ordnance occurred in the Gaza Strip.
Minors under arrest
Between the ages of 12-14, children can be sentenced for offenses for a period of up to 6 months. After the age of 14, they are tried as adults.In October 2004, 338 Palestinian minors were reported by the DCI to be under arrest by Israeli security forces. DCI has estimated that there have been 2,650 Palestinian child prisoners since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.Malnutrition
In a 2003 United NationsUnited Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
report, Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler
Jean Ziegler
Jean Ziegler is a former professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris. He was a Member of Parliament for the Social Democrats in the Federal Assembly of Switzerland from 1981 to 1999...
claimed that over 22 per cent of children under 5 in the Palestinian territories were suffering from malnutrition and 15.6 per cent from acute anaemia." According to the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, food consumption in the Palestinian Territories fell by more than 25 per cent per capita, and food shortages particularly of proteins, were reported.
Post-traumatic stress
Researchers are finding high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder among Palestinian children. According to some researchers, the average rate of post-traumatic stress disorder among children from both sides of the Green Line is about 70 per cent. Gaza Community Health Programs carried out a study and found that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) rate for children in Gaza was that 54% suffered from severe PTSD, 33.5 % from moderate and 11 % from mild and doubtful levels of PTSD. In a report, published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, it was estimated that the rate of psychological morbidity in the southern region of BethlehemBethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
in the West Bank, to be 42.3% among Palestinian children. The rate was 46.3% for boys and 37.8% for girls. These rates, the study reported, were twice the rate of psychological morbidity in the Gaza strip.
According to an Israeli child psychiatrist, about half of the children in Jerusalem, the city hit hardest by Palestinian violence, experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, two to three times higher than the rate of children suffering from other causes of trauma. A recent study by Herzog’s trauma centre found that 33 per cent of Israeli youth have been affected personally by terrorism, either by being at the scene of an attack or by knowing someone injured or killed by terrorists. Seventy per cent of those surveyed reported increased subjective fear or hopelessness.
About 26% of Israeli minors killed lived in the Israeli settlements in West Bank and Gaza. According to Miriam Shapira, the director of an emergency crisis centre for West Bank settlers, "Almost every school has students who have experienced close losses. One school had 20 students who had lost a parent in terrorist attacks. About half of the teachers also have had a close relative killed or were themselves involved in an attack."
Herzog Hospital's Israel Centre for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, in Jerusalem, and the UJA-Federation of New York held a conference to examine the effects of terrorism on children in Israel and the United States. Their study shows that despite nearly four years of ongoing terrorism, Israeli children have shown resilience for coping with trauma and pressing on with their lives.
Schooling disruptions
According to the United Nations Children's FundUnited Nations Children's Fund
United Nations Children's Fund was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II...
(UNICEF), some 300 Palestinian schools have been damaged in the conflict. In 2003, 580 schools were periodically forced to close, and some schools were closed after being declared military outposts by the IDF.
International and Israeli response
Since the Al-Aqsa IntifadaAl-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Oslo War, was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...
, many human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
s have raised concerns over Israel's treatment of Palestinian civilians, specifically children. UNICEF, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, B'Tselem and individuals such as the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
Derek Summerfield
Derek Summerfield
Derek Summerfield is an honorary senior lecturer at London's Institute of Psychiatry and a teaching associate at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford....
, have called for Israel to protect children from violence in accordance with the Geneva conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
. The European Union has linked the suspension of Israel/Europe trade agreement talks to human rights issues, especially in regards to children.
However, Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
professor William O'Brien wrote about the active participation of Palestinian children in the First Intifada: "It appears that a substantial number, if not the majority, of troops of the intifada are young people, including elementary schoolchildren. They are engaged in throwing stones and Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s and other forms of violence."
The Code of Conduct of the IDF explicitly prohibits targeting non-combatants and dictates proportional force. It also stipulates that soldiers "use their weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary extent and will maintain their humanity even during combat. IDF soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property."
The Israeli government and the IDF have expressed sympathy but deferred responsibility and blame to the Palestinians. They say the deaths of children are a regrettable consequence of war;
Islamic militants use children as human shields or deliberately locate themselves in civilian areas during fighting; children are used as child suicide bombers by Palestinian militant organizations;t children engage in acts of extreme violence toward Israeli forces and civilians.
Israeli and international human rights groups claim that show the majority (between 64.4% and 87.7%) of Palestinian child fatalities occurred in circumstances in which the children were clearly not involved in hostilities or clashes with Israeli forces.
Israel medical aid to Palestinian children
The quality of medical care in Israel is significantly better than anywhere in the West Bank and Gaza. Irwin Mansdorf, a member of Task Force on Medical and Public Health Issues, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East wrote about routine care that Palestinians continue to receive in Israeli hospitals and from Israeli physicians."Palestinians receive care in Israel that they could not receive in any neighboring Arab country. In the last few months alone nearly 200 Palestinian children who were referred under a joint Israeli-Palestinian programme to treat children with serious medical conditions have already undergone major surgery at Israeli hospitals at no cost to the families. Another 350-400 Palestinian children have undergone free diagnostic testing."
Saving Children, established by the Peres Peace Center, enables hundreds of Palestinian children to receive free medical care, in particular cardiac surgery, from Israeli surgeons."
"Save A Child's Heart" is a program in which any child with heart problems can receive free medical attention and surgery from select doctors and hospitals within Israel. From 1996 to 2007, 4,591 children had been examined world wide, of the 1848 children treated 828 (45%) were Palestinian.
Organ donation
The families of Yoni Jesner, a Jewish teenager, and Ahmed Khatib, a Palestinian boy, donated their organsOrgan donation
Organ donation is the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation. Transplantable organs and tissues are removed in a surgical procedure following a determination, based on the donor's medical and...
to children from the opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yoni Jesner died in a suicide bombing in 2002, while Ahmed Khatib was killed by IDF gunfire in 2005. Ahmed Khatib's story was the subject of a PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
documentary "Heart of Jenin".
See also
- Civilian casualties in the Second IntifadaCivilian casualties in the Second Intifada-Israeli non-combatant casualties:The following is a partial List of Israeli civilian casualties in the Second Intifada.-Palestinian non-combatant casualties:The following is a List of Palestinian civilian casualties in the Second Intifada...
- List of Israeli civilian casualties in the Second Intifada
- List of Palestinian civilian casualties in the Second Intifada
- Child suicide bombers in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
External links
- Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes (British Medical Journal)
- British Medical Journal Engaging In Malpractice (Arutz Sheva) which is criticized at Israel Bitter Medicine: Inserting anti-Israel rhetoric into ostensibly neutral medical journals and academic literature (Honest Reporting)
- Israel slams UK medical journal (Jerusalem Post)
- Israel and the Occupied Territories: An ongoing human rights crisis (Amnesty International)
- Israel/Occupied Territories: Wanton destruction constitutes a war crime (Amnesty International)
- Palestinian girl shot while at UN school in Gaza Strip dies of injuries (UN News Center)
- Israeli gunfire hits 11-year old girl sitting at her desk in an UNRWA school (Electronic Intifada)
- Israel/Occupied Territories: Killing of children must be investigated (Amnesty International)
- Memorial to children killed in the Al-Aqsa Intifada
- EU investigation into Allegations of Incitement to Violence in Palestinian Authority textbooks
- IPCRI's, a joint Palestinian-Israeli public policy think tank, report to the US Consulate General in Jerusalem analysing the new Palestinian curriculum
- Media Watch International: The Use and Abuse of Palestinian Children by the PA
- The Use of Palestinian Children in the Al-Aqsa Intifada by Justus WeinerJustus WeinerJustus Reid Weiner is an Israeli-American lawyer at the firm of Geraldson, Marks and Xeno in Jerusalem and scholar. He is a UC Berkeley law school graduate, a Boston native, and a member of the Israel and New York Bar Associations. According to an interview by Salon books, Weiner worked at the...
(1 November 2000) - Child Abuse in the Palestinian Authority By Justus WeinerJustus WeinerJustus Reid Weiner is an Israeli-American lawyer at the firm of Geraldson, Marks and Xeno in Jerusalem and scholar. He is a UC Berkeley law school graduate, a Boston native, and a member of the Israel and New York Bar Associations. According to an interview by Salon books, Weiner worked at the...
(October 2, 2002) - PA Indoctrination of Children to Seek Heroic Death for Allah
- Palestinian Child Abuse
- Palestinian children in combat support roles by Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook (October 17, 2004)
- PA Academic on PA TV: Killing of Jews is Mandatory Bulletin by Palestinian Media Watch, December 27, 2004
- Remember These Children Listing of all children killed in the conflict since 2000.
- The exploitation of Palestinian youth by Palestinian terrorist organizations Bulletin by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S.) April 1, 2004 (PDF).
- Yoni Jesner Z"L HY"D, Yeshivat Har ʻEtsyon, 2002
- Ranking deaths in Israeli society: Premature deaths and organ donation, Orit Brawer Ben-Davida, Mortality, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 79–98, February 2006