Twilight Zone / The children of 5767 
Gideon Levy in Haaretz - It was a pretty quiet year, relatively speaking. Only 457 Palestinians and 10 Israelis were killed, according to the B'Tselem human rights organization, including the victims of Qassam rockets. Fewer casualties than in many previous years. However, it was still a terrible year: 92 Palestinian children were killed (fortunately, not a single Israeli child was killed by Palestinians, despite the Qassams). One-fifth of the Palestinians killed were children and teens - a disproportionate, almost unprecedented number. The Jewish year of 5767. Almost 100 children, who were alive and playing last New Year, didn't survive to see this one. more

 And now, a fetus 
Gideon Levy in Haaretz - Memorial posters decorate the walls of the Rafidiya government hospital in Nablus, covering earlier posters of countless young people who have been killed. But this poster is like nothing we have seen before: a fetus covered in its own blood, its tiny head blown up by the bullet that struck its mother, and the caption - "Who gave you the right to steal his life?" more

 Palestinian Children Do Not Have the Right to a Fair Trial Under the Israeli Military Court System 
Defence for Children International - In the 40th year of Israel's military occupation of the Palestinian territories, Tuesday 17 April 2007 marked Palestinian Prisoner's Day. Currently there are approximately 380 Palestinian children in Israeli custody, many of whom are awaiting trial or sentence, and others who are serving lengthy periods of imprisonment for such minor offences as stone throwing. more

 Humiliation and Child Abuse at Israeli Borders & Airports: Strip-Searching Children 
Alison Weir in Counter Punch - Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens. While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below. more

 The Easiest Targets: The Israeli Policy of Strip Searching Women and Children 
13-minute video: Five women – Palestinian, American, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish – tell stories of humiliation and harassment by Israeli border guards and airport security officials. Watch!

 The last casualty? 
Gideon Levy in Haaretz - The numbers don't lie. They never do. In the past month, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces was 45 times greater than the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians. The Palestinian dead included 13 minors. All in one deadly month. The last name on the list is Ayman Abu-Mahdi, a 10-year-old boy who had come home from school and gone out to get a little air with his siblings and friends. He was sitting on a bench in front of his house. The time: 15 hours before the cease-fire in Gaza. more

 Palestinian child deaths in conflict with Israel already nearly double that of 2005 
United Nations - Ninety-one Palestinian children have already been killed this year in the West Bank and Gaza, almost double the number for the whole of 2005, with youngsters suffering increasing levels of stress from violence and fear in the Israeli-Palestinians conflict, according to the latest United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) update. more

 Palestinian children pay price of Israel's Summer Rain offensive 
Rory McCarthy in the UK Guardian - Rights group says 197 civilians have been killed in Israeli military operation, including 48 minors. more

 Killing children is no longer a big deal 
Gideon Levy in Haaretz - More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It’s no wonder that many people term such wholesale killing of children “terror.” Whereas in the overall count of all the victims of the intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1. According to B’Tselem, the human rights organization, even before the current operation in Gaza, 557 Palestinian minors (below the age of 18) were killed, compared to 110 Israeli minors. more

 Unprinted Oped to San Jose Mercury News 
Alison Weir - Yesterday Israeli forces using American F-16s and American missiles killed more children. More children. more

 Israeli Troops Kill 3 Palestinian Teens 
Ibrahim Barzak in the (AP) - GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops fired at a group of Palestinians in a southern Gaza Strip refugee camp Saturday, killing three teenagers in the deadliest incident in Gaza since Israel and the Palestinians declared a cease-fire two months ago. more

 Israeli officer: I was right to shoot 13-year-old child  
Chris McGreal in the UK Guardian - An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old. more

 Mabrook, Ala’a 
Dianne Roe (CPT) in Hebron, West Bank - In mid-July students all over Palestine get the results of the tawjihi, the final examination of their senior year. Celebrations abound for those who pass. Friends and family visit the successful graduates to say “Mabrook!” (Congratulations). Dianne Roe met Ala’a Al Ja’abari, one such graduate, last week and sends him this note of congratulations. more

 Palestinian Children Killed by Israel 
Khalid Amayreh in Al Jazeera - One of the most disturbing aspects of the strife between Israel and the Palestinians has been the killing and maiming of children. more

 April 5: Palestinian Child Day 
Fourteen years have passed since the international community embraced the Convention on the Rights of the Child, providing the world with an unequivocal obligation on all State Parties to recognise, protect and promote the fundamental rights to which all children are entitled. But for Palestinians, these worthy sentiments are empty words in the face of sustained Israeli occupation. Today, the 5th of April – Palestinian Child Day – DCI/PS [Defence for Children International / Palestine Section] would like to draw your attention to the plight of Palestinian children who continue to suffer from the systematic and institutionalised violation of their rights. more

 Israel Accused of Fabricating Child-Bomber Story 
Palestinian leaders have accused Israel of fabricating a story about a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who planned to blow himself up. The Israeli army said he was caught wearing an explosive belt at an army roadblock in the northern West Bank. more

 Child Unable to Pass Through the Apartheid Wall Dies 
Mohamed Hashem, a two year old child from the village of Ras Atieh south of Qalqiliya died Sunday, February 8, 2004 as his family, imprisoned behind the Apartheid Wall, was not able to reach emergency medical attention. Early Sunday morning the child began feeling sick and quickly developed a high fever. The parents brought the child to the local doctor in Habla who determined that the boy should to be taken to the hospital immediately. more

 The Way to School 
I am standing about 10 meters from the settler road (Israeli only) and roadblock that divides the western part of the village of Abaa and the city of Jenin from the eastern part of the village. Ahead of us on the far side of the road looms the grey concrete of an Israeli army tower. The tower dominates the area where the Palestinian road to eastern Abaa becomes subsumed by the settler road and a series of trenches, concrete and razor wire obstacles. As I stand observing this scene a steady trickle of school children walk past, some are as young as 6, none older than 12. They pick there way through the trench in front of the settler road before forming a line by the road in the shadow of the Israeli army tower that stands on the far side. One by one a soldier stationed in a concrete and metal inspection booth calls them across the road. Every child has to present him or herself and school bag for inspection. Some of the children are barely tall enough to see the soldier in his booth. more

 Palestinian Children and the Second Intifada 
For the past 36 years, each generation of Palestinian children has grown up under Israeli occupation. The occupation not only impacts their immediate physical integrity and mental health, but also has a profound impact on their future. At present, children live in an environment of extreme instability and are exposed to violence on a daily basis. Vital factors necessary for their healthy development, including stability, security, recreation, and sound nutrition are frequently lacking. These conditions prematurely force children into adult roles and rob them of their childhood. more

 Don’t shoot till you can see they’re over the age of 12 
He doesn’t know how many children have been killed in the violence of the past two months, but he’s sure that the army ‘shoots everyone who needs to be shot.’ A day in the life of an IDF sharpshooter. You can find soldiers like him at any military post in the West Bank or Gaza. But we met in an Israeli city. He is the same age as many of those who are confronting the Israel Defense Forces. He is smiling, shy but frank, and tends to favor subjects in the humanities. If he were out of uniform, you might think he was on his way to India or South America. more

 Playground Bombing Injures 20 Palestinians 
A bomb, which may have been planted by Jewish extremists, exploded in a West Bank school playground, injuring 20 Palestinian children. A shadowy Jewish group called Revenge of the Infants claimed responsibility for the attack at the secondary school in the village of Jaba’a, south of Jenin. more

 Do Palestinians Teach Their Children to Hate? 
Americans are often led to believe that Palestinian textbooks teach hatred and violence, but rarely are presented with concrete evidence. Nathan J. Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, undertook a comprehensive investigation of the Palestinian curriculum and textbooks to discover the truth about this oft-repeated criticism. View the Report!

 The Education of Children at Risk 
Save the Children - There are pockets of Palestinian-controlled land, which are home to 93 percent of the Palestinian population, are surrounded by Israeli settlements and Israel-controlled bypass roads that connect the settlements to each other, to military installations, and to Israel proper. Control over these roads allows the Israeli military to impose either “total” or “partial” closures. These closures can be “external” – totally or partially banning the movement of people and goods from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Israel and East Jerusalem – or “internal” – banning movement between the pockets of land controlled by the PA. The Israeli army has installed 120 checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza (refer to map on the inside front cover), effectively dividing the area into 220 separate clusters. More