Demand Freedom for the Children of Palestine

Urgent Action: Demand Freedom for the Children of Palestine

HEADLINES from In Occupied Palestine for 20, 21 and 22 June 2013

(See Palestine Human Rights Campaign's In Occupied Palestine newsletter: http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1651&Itemid=44)

Israeli Army orders destruction of nine Palestinian family homes

Occupation Court commits 14-year-old boy to prison in Israeli gaol

Israeli Army sabotages 19th annual Palestinian Child Festival

Night home invasions: Israeli soldiers abduct two youngsters aged 16 and 17

Israeli soldiers abduct 16-year-old youth for carrying Palestinian flag

Israeli soldiers terrorise four boys aged from 7 to 13

The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations in 1959, states that every child (regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, whether of himself or of his family) shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation (articles 1and 9). Furthermore, The International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force in 1990, sets out to further protect the rights of children.

Since its imposition in 1948 in Palestine, the Israeli state has not only neglected the rights of the child, but has killed, injured, imprisoned and tortured, and used Palestinian children as human shields. It has targeted playgrounds and schools. Just in the period between September 2000 and April 2013, the Israeli Occupation killed 1518 Palestinian children. This is equivalent to one Palestinian child killed by Israel every three days for almost 13 years! The number of Palestinian children injured by the Israelis since September 2000 has reached 6000 (four children physically injured every three days!) The number of Palestinian children imprisoned since September 2000 is 9000. That's six children imprisoned every three days!

In a 22-page report issued in March 2013, UNICEF described the ill-treatment of Palestinian minors held within the Israeli military detention system as "widespread, systematic and institutionalised". This month (June 2013), the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said it expressed its "deepest concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police." According to the latest reports, there are 236 Palestinian children (minors) currently detained in Israel's prisons.

ACT NOW

Please take a moment to write and call the White House and demand that the US administration put a stop to Israel's detention, abuse, mistreatment and torture of Palestine's children. Demand the administration use its considerable financial and military aid to the Zionist state to demand Freedom for all Palestinian Children and impose an end to Israel's abuse of the fundamental human rights of Palestine's children.

To write to the White House, please use the form at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

To call the White House: +1-202-456-1111

Thank you.

ENDS

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