Children of Palestine remembered at IPSC street event in Dublin today

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Saturday May 08, 2010 19:27

by Fintan Lane - IPSC Media Officer

First of Nakba Week events

A large number of Palestine solidarity activists and supporters gathered at the Spire on O'Connell Street in Dublin today to remember the children of Palestine who were killed and injured since the Nakba began in 1948. Children's shoes were laid symbolically on the ground in front of an evocative memorial banner featuring the handprints of children.

The event was organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) and the first in its programme of Nakba Week events (see links on front page of indymedia for further details or go to www.ipsc.ie).

Children's shoes were placed in front of a memorial banner to remember the children of Palestine

Many passers by joined in remembering the children of Palestine, with large groups of young teenagers, in particular, stopping to chalk the names of the villages displaced during the Nakba on the ground. The support and solidarity of the people of Dublin was tangible. Many tourists also expressed their support and their distress at the plight of children in Palestine and their treatment since the brutal establishment of the apartheid Israeli state.

According to Freda Hughes, a spokesperson for the IPSC, “Today marked the start of the IPSC’s Nakba Week 2010 in which we commemorate the expulsion of over 700,000 indigenous Palestinians from their homeland which resulted in the creation of the Zionist state of Israel in 1948. On this beautiful sunny day in Dublin, we focused particularly on the human rights abuses against children carried out by Israel which include torture, illegal imprisonment and murder. We were glad to see so many Irish and international children, teenagers and adults come out to support this rally and show solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

During international armed conflicts, children are afforded protection under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), including the Geneva Convention. Children are also protected under international human rights law and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). IHL provides general protection for children as persons taking no part in hostilities and special protection as persons who are especially vulnerable during war and armed conflict.

During Christmas 2008 (Dec 08-Jan09), we all watched in horror the deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza in which 1,415 Palestinians were killed (including 318 children) and over 5,000 injured. On average, 13 children were killed each day of the offensive.

The 6th January 2009 witnessed the highest number of child deaths – 8 children were killed in the attack near al-Fakhoura School in Jabalya refugee camp and dozens of civilians (including many children) were killed in the military operations inside the Tal al Hawa neighbourhood in the south of Gaza city.

Since then, because of the illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, the 1.5 million people of Gaza have been unable to rebuild their lives. No homes or schools have been rebuilt. Most children have no textbooks or school supplies. The water and sewage systems have not been repaired. People are still dying for lack of medical care.

The abuse of children by the Israeli state is not confined to Gaza. Since the beginning of this year (2010), 2 minors have been shot dead in the West Bank, many more have been unlawfully interned in Israeli prisons. The Shabak (israeli "internal security" force) regularly use children as pawns when interrogating Palestinian men and women. Children are terrorised at night by regular Israeli military raids and arrests.

This demonstration in Dublin today is the first in a series of IPSC events to commemorate the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of Palestine which led to the establishment of the exclusivist state of Israel. In 1948 over 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes, civilians were massacred & hundreds of Palestinian villages deliberately destroyed, this expulsion continues today. We can't stop yesterday's atrocities, but we must speak out in order to prevent today's.