This June, Palestinians living in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip enter their 50th year living under Israeli military occupation. Another generation of Palestinian children is growing up in the shadow of failed negotiations and with futures stifled by systemic discrimination, persistent settlement expansion, blockade, and repeated military offensives.
We need you to take action!
Urge your members of Congress to join us for a congressional briefing on June 8 exploring what it means to live under military occupation for those bearing its greatest brunt: Palestinian children.
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Overview
Join Defense for Children International - Palestine and American Friends Service Committee for a Congressional briefing, “50 years under Israeli military occupation: A look at Palestinian children’s rights”.
The event will feature speakers from Human Rights Watch, Defense for Children International - Palestine, Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and more.
Briefing details
Title: 50 Years of Israeli Military Occupation & Life for Palestinian Children
When: June 8 at 9:30 am
Where: Cannon House Office Building, Room 122
Confirmed speakers include
Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch
Brad Parker, Staff Attorney and International Advocacy Officer, Defense for Children International - Palestine
Nadia Ben-Youssef, Director, Adalah Justice Project
Yazan Meqbil, Leonard Education Organization scholar and student at Goshen College
Speakers will examine how persistent grave human rights violations, systemic impunity, discrimination, and a hyper-militarized environment affect the lives of the Palestinian children growing up under a military occupation with no end in sight.
Background
June 2017 marks 50 years since Israel began its military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Children under 18 years old currently represent 46 percent of the 4.68 million Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian territory. This current generation has grown up in the shadow of failed negotiations and with futures stifled by systemic discrimination, persistent settlement expansion, blockade, and repeated military offensives.
Amid rapidly escalating violence across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since October 2015, Palestinian children have been increasingly subjected to disproportionate violence. Last year proved to be the deadliest in a decade for West Bank children, with 32 child fatalities at the hands of Israeli forces and security guards. In just the first four months of 2017, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinian children, according to documentation by Defense for Children International - Palestine.
In Gaza, nearing ten years of military blockade, children continue to slip deeper into poverty, with many still living in protracted displacement. Despite overwhelming and repeated evidence of war crimes committed by Israeli forces during the 2014 military assault on Gaza, dubbed ‘Operation Protective Edge’ including direct attacks on civilians, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilian homes, schools, and residential neighborhoods that left at least 547 Palestinian children dead, justice and accountability for these children remain elusive.
Join us as we explore what it means to live under military occupation for those bearing its greatest brunt: Palestinian children. Until we demand Israeli authorities comply with international law, we are simply enabling abuse and perpetuating injustice against Palestinian children.
