AL-NAKBA AWARENESS MONTH, HIGHLIGHT ON THE CHILDREN
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Citizens for Fair Legislation
For Immediate Release
May 10, 2004
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5/9/04-CFL ALERT: U.S. POLITICIANS MUST TAKE A PRINCIPLED STAND FOR THE CHILDREN: People of conscience everywhere must urge American politicians to take a principled stand for Palestinian children. As the only country that can influence the Israeli Occupation Forces, we must demand that the IOF cease all practices that harm Palestinian children.

TALKING POINTS
*Palestinian Children Killed: A report issued last month by the Palestinian National Information Center (PNIC) reported that over 570 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in the past three and a half years.

*The Health of Palestinian Children: The Palestinian Health Ministry issued a report on May 6 stating that Israelis have denied travel to over 350 people from Gaza who were in dire need of medical attention. Many of those denied travel permits for medical treatment were children. Dr. Ma’uwia Abu Hassanien, director general of the Emergency Department of the Palestinian Health Ministry, also said that Israel was hindering the delivery of vaccinations for newborns in the Gaza Strip since early May 2004. He pointed out that shortages in baby formula, vaccinations and medication were causing an epidemic among young children. Dr. Abu Hassanien said that ramifications on the immune systems of babies would be severe and he stressed that their lives are being put at risk. The practice of collective punishment in Gaza has also caused acute shortages of baby formula, which is worsening the problem of malnutrition among Palestinian children.

*Malnutrition and Palestinian Children: Last month the United Nations was forced to cut back food aid to 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip because of Israeli restrictions on their activities. Recently, the Israeli government has allowed the United Nations to continue to deliver food to Palestinian children on a limited basis and not to all of the occupied territories. Most alarming is that Israel continues to hamper the distribution of food aid despite a report released by Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Rights Commission special reporter on the right to food. Her report stated that Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. The report also stated that 9 percent of Palestinian children under age 5 suffer from brain defects caused by malnutrition because of the occupation.

*Palestinian Children and Education: The Palestinian territories are constantly under siege and are under 24 hour-a-day curfews. During curfews, children cannot leave their houses to play, go to school or see a doctor. Usually the curfew is lifted for a few hours every few days once or twice a week. Children and adults leaving their homes during curfew, even in the daytime, have been shot on sight. Palestinian children who are lucky enough not to live in areas that are under 24-hour-a-day curfew must endure a myriad of checkpoints to go to school. It is not uncommon for a Palestinian kindergartner to begin his or her day at 5:00 a.m. to make it through all of the checkpoints surrounding his neighborhood. On May 6 the Israeli Occupation Forces burst into the Wadi Al-Bazan middle school east of Nablus. Eyewitnesses said Israeli troops backed by military vehicles first positioned themselves near the school and opened heavy fire, causing a state of horror and terror among the pupils. The school’s headmaster, Azmi Balawna, said in a phone call with WAFA news agency, "the Israeli soldiers violently burst into the school horrifying the pupils and attacked the board of the school. To protect the pupils' lives we allowed them to go home in groups, yet the Israeli soldiers impeded their way home." Eyewitnesses reported that the IOF intentionally opened fire and fired stun grenades to terrify the pupils while they were getting out of class.

*Attacks on Palestinian Children and the Use of Human Shields: It is not the exception, but the norm, for Palestinian children to be used as human shields by the Israeli Occupation Forces, despite a ruling by an Israeli court that the IOF must stop using Palestinians as human shields. Last month, many mainstream media outlets published photographs of Mohammad Badwan, a 12-year-old boy from the village of Biddu. Mohammed, crying and shaking from fear and cold, was tied to the hood of a jeep. On April 20, Israeli Occupation Forces stormed the building of the Islamic Benevolent Society, an orphanage in Hebron. The director of the orphanage, Hashim al-Rojoub, said that Israeli troops broke into the building and launched a search campaign, leaving grave damage to the building, which shelters 40 orphans. They also seized equipment.

*Tell your representatives that you feel Israeli action against Palestinian children is deplorable and that you feel that this government shares responsibility for the murder of 570 Palestinian children, the starvation of an entire generation of Palestinian children and all other Israeli crimes that specifically target Palestinian children. None of these crimes against children could happen were it not for the tacit approval by the president of the United States and the U.S. Congress and Senate.

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