Two Hundred People Protest In Geneva For Palestinian Children
GENEVA (AFP) - About 200 people - some of them children - protested Saturday in front of the Palace of Nations here in support of Palestinian children and adolescents.
"The children at the head of the procession are there to remind [people] that 40% of the 3,000 people injured since September are younger than 18," said Hani Ramadan, who heads the Islamic Center in Geneva.
Meanwhile across Switzerland, bells in Catholic and Protestant parishes rang at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) in tribute to the victims in Israel and in the occupied territories.
The parishes organized the tribute - which called the children and adolescents “victims of an unreasonable use of force by Israel” - with the human rights group Amnesty International.
Amnesty said it does not take one or the other side in the conflict, but said it condemned any form of human rights violations.
It said it was time that "assassinations and the culture of impunity stop. Peace and security aren't possible with[out] respect for human rights."
Nearly three months of bloodshed in Israel and the Palestinian territories has left 336 dead and thousands injured, mostly Palestinians.
In Geneva, the demonstrators appealed in particular to Israeli intellectuals. "We ask them to denounce Israel's genocidal policies," Ramadan said.
