NOVEMBER 3 — Israeli occupation forces kill, maim, orphan and detain hundreds of children in the occupied Palestinian territory every year, said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
“The oppression and trauma suffered by Palestinian children, half of the Palestinian population under Israeli rule, is a unique stain on the international community,” said Albanese as she presented her second report to the UN General Assembly, and third as Special Rapporteur on October 24.
Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.
Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms. Special Procedures mandate-holders are independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.
Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent of any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.
Albanese’s report does not cover the horrific events of, and since, October 7. Yet up to October 6, 1,434 Palestinian children were reportedly killed, with an additional 32,175 sustaining injuries, primarily at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.
Of these, 1,025 children were killed in Gaza alone, since the unlawful blockade began in 2007. During the same timeframe, 25 Israeli children were killed, mostly by Palestinian assailants, and 524 were injured.
An average of 500-700 Palestinian children are reported to be detained by Israeli occupation forces each year, with an estimated 13,000 mostly arbitrarily detained, interrogated, tried in military courts and imprisoned since 2000.
Albanese details Palestinian children’s daily experiences of violence through the confiscation of family land and expropriation of resources, separation of communities, destruction of homes and livelihoods, and attacks on their education.
According to her, generations of Palestinian children, whether in the besieged Gaza Strip, the West Bank enclaves or annexed east Jerusalem, have seen their lives reduced to the bare minimum and, far too often, cut short as expendable.
Israel’s rhetoric and practices, framing Palestinian children as “human shields” or “terrorists” to justify the violence against them and their parents – often amplified in western discourse — dehumanise Palestinian children.
“This is profoundly ‘unchilding’,” she said.
Albanese must be lost for words that she coined a new one: “unchild”. To unchild is to take away the lightness of childhood and rob children of their future.
Palestinian children have been “unchilded from birth” — at least since 2008, if not earlier.
One of the most troubling requests Albanese heard from the Palestinian children was to ask the world why it continued to neglect them.
“Are Palestinian children less worthy?” “Are we less human?” asked the children.
What do we tell them? The children are awaiting our responses.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
