UN Condemns Palestinians' Use of Children in Conflict
[or does it? Editor]
Jerusalem Post/
NEW YORK Palestinian terrorist groups' use of children as human shields, gunmen, and suicide bombers, long a source of Israeli indignation, has come under attack by an unlikely source: the UN.
At a Security Council debate on measures to protect children in armed conflict, the UN's special representative on the issue, Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu, condemned Palestinian suicide bombings as destructive to both Israeli and Palestinian children.
"The use of suicide bombing is entirely unacceptable. Nothing can justify this," said Otunnu at the opening of Tuesday's day-long session.
"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," he said.
Israel, which was the only country to mention Palestinian terrorism in its remarks, also came under criticism by Otunnu, who reiterated concerns raised by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his annual report on children and armed conflict, released last month, that rates of immunizations among Palestinian youths are falling due to IDF closures and curfews.
"In this context, I call on the Israeli authorities to abide fully by the international human rights and humanitarian legal obligations concerning the protection, rights, and well-being of Palestinian children," he said.
Annan's report noted that at least 300,000 children are recruited into conflicts around the world. He listed 23 parties in five countries that recruit children into military service in violation of international humanitarian norms.
According to the report, children are being used for military purposes by 23 parties in Afghanistan, Somalia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia. He also named Sudan, northern Uganda, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Nepal, and Colombia as countries where children's rights are violated.
While neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority were listed as a parties of concern, Annan's report briefly noted that Israeli policies have had a detrimental effect on Palestinian children.
Some 50 nations spoke out against recruiting children into conflict, and the
council is expected to adopt a resolution later this week urging sanctions
against governments and groups that violate children's rights.
Among Middle East representatives, the focus was on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israeli charge d'affaires Arye Mekel faulted Annan's failure to condemn Palestinian incitement of children against Jews in its official media and education system, the recruiting of children into the conflict, and the killing of 106 Israeli children over the past two years.
Delegates from Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, and the PLO, meanwhile, responded to the criticism by accusing Israel of "state terrorism." Israel, said the delegates, has deliberately murdered 650 Palestinian children and permanently disabled many more.
"In our region, children have been recruited and used by terrorist organizations as human shields, for the placing of explosives, as gunmen, and even as suicide bombers, and it is regrettable that the secretary-general's report failed to make mention" of this, said Mekel.
The debate was held three days after two Palestinian children, ages 14 and 17, were caught trying to infiltrate Netzarim in the northern Gaza Strip. In April, three youths, ages 13 to 15, were shot dead during an attempted terrorist attack on Netzarim. Public outcry prompted Hamas to promise not to recruit children to carry out attacks.