Friday 5th April is the day devoted to the children of Palestine. World Children’s Day which is celebrated on the 20th November is a symbolic day for children round the world. But these two days are sadly used by the world leaders to cleanse their consciences rather than to tackle the problems faced daily by the children of Palestine. Is the Palestinian children’s day a symbolic to mask the impotency of the world towards fascist Israel? Is it another International Gimmick to proclaim rights for Palestinian children which do not exist in reality? I humbly believe that the different commemorations smack of hypocrisy (specially by the so called Independent media and the Arab world) opportunism (specially by some presidents of the western democracies who were injured to the core after the brutal assassination of Kashogi) and bad faith (all of us!)… Do we condone the colonial violence of Israel towards the children of Palestine by pretending things will be “Normalised”? or have we not been guilty by our “Total silence” about the plight of the children of Palestine?
In Gaza children are dying as a result of the impact of the Israeli blockade. In the occupied West Bank children are brutally arrested by the Israeli forces. In the West Bank illegal Jewish settlers are assaulting the children of Palestine without being called to Justice. According to the PALESTINIAN PRISONERS’ ASSOCIATION (PRA) atleast 6000 (Six Thousand!) Palestinian children have been detained by the Israelis since 2015. And among the children detained there are dozens who have been receiving gun wounds by the Israelis.
According to the PRA the total number of Palestinians currently imprisoned by Israel stands at 5,700 including 48 women and 250 children.
Children are:
- Arrested at nights;
- Brought to interrogation centres and interrogated without giving them the opportunity to have some hours of sleeping;
- Subjected to all sorts of abuses;
- Deprived of basic foods and water in very hot conditions for very long hours;
- Put into great stressed conditions e.g they will hear other children weeping…
- Not allowed to see their parents;
- Forced to sign statements written not in Arabic but in Hebrew, a language which they cannot read;
- Deprived of any right to lawyers…
And all the children who have been released show all sorts of signs of psychological scares… regular nightmares insomnia, decline in school achievement and react aggressively to friends and loved ones.
These consequences on the children are intended by the state of Israel. Do you know that over the past four years the state of Israel has passed more laws against children than any other state in the world? And please don’t fall into the quagmire of stupidity by thinking that the general elections in Israel will change something…
RAMA VALYDEN
