Report from the Irish National Teachers\u2019 Organisation conference on the rights of Palestinian children<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a powerful and emotionally challenging event. The organisers had taken a trauma-informed approach to the whole conference: speakers, especially those giving testimony of direct lived experience in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), were encouraged to pause, or even leave the stage and return later, whenever they felt they had to; boxes of tissues were passed freely around the audience, who were all asked not to call out or engage in chants or slogans; questions and comments were submitted via Mentimeter and selected for the panel discussion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delegates were mindful of the requests and the event was calm and nurturing in the face of some harrowing testimony. Speakers described the deliberate targeting of children. \u201cGaza is the most dangerous place in the world for children. What is the world doing about that?\u201d we were challenged. \u201cThe bombardment of Gaza has been an assault on the very future of Palestine.\u201d 17,000 children have been reported killed since October 2023, which is more than 1000 per month. 90% of the population are now internally displaced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 700,000 students now cannot attend school. The suffering inside Gaza is unthinkable, with no food, no clean water, no health care. Children are hungry, suffering huge psychological traumas, and with many now missing limbs or otherwise disabled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suffering inside Gaza is unthinkable, with no food, no clean water, no health care.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n There were calls to install buildings that are still standing with educational equipment and for support with e-learning, but lack of electricity and internet make this very difficult. Palestinian children have lost over a year of their education and rebuilding will mean more than reconstructing infrastructure \u2013 psychological health must be a priority, so there is a need to train teachers to support children with trauma, but also for basic physical disability supports. There must be full humanitarian access to Palestine by international agencies and NGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full extent of the denial of Palestinian children\u2019s rights was delivered in a powerful presentation by a Palestinian psychotherapist who spoke about his own experiences of being held at gunpoint. He then focused on data preceding October 2023 in order to highlight the decades-old attacks on children\u2019s rights and the fact that the \u2018normal\u2019 to be returned to after the ceasefire in Gaza is still horrifying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He referred to several reports whose key information is covered in the following few paragraphs. In 2023, the UN Secretary General included Israel\u2019s armed forces and security forces on an annual global list for violations against children in conflict zones. The report cited 5698 violations attributed to Israeli forces, including the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, leading to child casualties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same year, the UN verified 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children in 26 zones, including Israel and the OPTs. This represents a 35% increase in child casualties compared to previous years. restrictions on water and destruction of infrastructure have left the population without sufficient access to safe water or sanitation, disproportionately affecting children with disabilities.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Amnesty International\u2019s reports highlight how Israeli-imposed blockades and movement restrictions in the OPTs have adversely affected children\u2019s access to essential services, including education and healthcare, thereby impeding their overall development and wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Save The Children, nearly 400 children in Gaza were denied access to critical healthcare in the West Bank in the first half of 2023, leaving them without access to life-saving surgery or urgent medication. In 2022, three children died while their application for Gaza exit-permits were either denied or remained under review, including a 19-month old child with a congenital heart defect and a 16-year old child with leukaemia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, DCIP and UN Fact-Finding in Gaza have all reported, over the last two decades, several cases of Israeli soldiers forcing Palestinian children to act as human shields during house raids in the West Bank and Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This involved children being forced at gunpoint to enter potentially dangerous buildings ahead of soldiers, checking bags for explosives, walking in front of military vehicles to deter attacks, or being tied to an Israeli military vehicle to prevent attacks by Palestinian fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel prosecutes Palestinian children in military courts in the occupied West Bank, making it the only country in the world to routinely prosecute children in this manner. According to DCIP 500-700 children are prosecuted annually in Israeli military courts. Charges often include stone-throwing, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years under military law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These military courts lack basic protections such as presumption of innocence and access to legal counsel. Children are often subjected to night arrests, physical and psychological abuse, and coerced confessions in Hebrew, a language many do not understand. Conviction rates exceed 99% in these courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another powerful presentation was delivered via video link by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the OPTs, much of it based on her report from 24 October 2023<\/a> which depicts the infringement of Palestinian children\u2019s rights as a form of \u2018un-childing\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, Defence for Children International \u2013 Palestine (DCIP) has documented the killing of children by the Israeli military and settlers in the OPTs. Up to July 2024, the number of Palestinian child fatalities was 2427 \u2013 this number does not include the fatalities in the Gaza strip since October 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Human Rights Watch, Israeli military actions have exacerbated the vulnerabilities of Palestinian children with disabilities. For instance, restrictions on water and destruction of infrastructure have left the population without sufficient access to safe water or sanitation, disproportionately affecting children with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n