A recent human rights report singles out Israel as the only country in the world that continues the murderous policy of killing, torturing and imprisoning Palestinian children. The report by two human rights groups — one in Gaza and the other in France — says the Zionist state continues to arrest children for political reasons and that of 7,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention camps 323 are children.
Expressing deep concern over the atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinian children, the two groups cited as some of the country’s many crimes holding the children in cold cells with overflowing sewage after removing their clothes and confiscating and tearing their textbooks, including copies of the Qur’an.
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa intifada some three years ago, more than 1,600 Palestinian children have been arrested and imprisoned by the Israeli occupation forces. Some 15 percent have been sentenced to prison terms of more than three years. The maximum sentence given to a child has been 20 years. One child, accused of trying to kill Israelis, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The report clearly shows the double standards adopted by the international community. While some governments are targeted, attacked and accused of violating human rights for not allowing the building of churches in Muslim countries and for not allowing women to drive, others which continue to violate human rights, including attacking children, are spared criticism.
One would like to know where all the women appointed by their governments to various positions relating to human rights and the protection of children are. Why are these women turning a blind eye to such naked attacks on children’s rights as are evident in the detention camps set up by Israel for the incarceration of hundreds of women and children?
— Arab News Local Press 30 September 2003
