I think there is a need for more publicity for your organization within the Arab world. I personally did not find about it until only recently. I think it serves a very significant cause that may receive much support from many Arab countries.
Answer
I agree with you, especially this organization is very new. We receive support from some European organizations, and especially our publications are in English, and meant for the European audiance. Recently, we realized that we should be introduced for the Arab world, so we started a new page in Arabic. And we started looking for people to support our activities in the Arab world, especially in Palesatine, and we hope to enhance our relations with the Arab media to show them what is going on in Palestine.
Name
Nermeen
- United States
Profession
Question
As much as I can imagine the situation in jail for those children, the world is still so silent about what exactly happens to them once captured. What are the conditions suffered by those children? What happens to them?
Answer
Once the children are captured, and until they are released, they are badly tortured. We started an international campaign to tell the world about the children suffering and we have friends from all over the world. We received letters, and these friends sent letters to the Israeli government requesting the release of those children. There was a grouping of 33 organizations that dealt with human rights who were interested in this campaign in France. They held different meetings in 10 cities in France in support of our cause.
We had meetings with the French Foreign Ministry and the EU in this regard. And we passed all ducuments to those we met in France who promised to discuss the matter with the Israeli government. We also met the economic committee in the EU which expressed its readyness to sever relations with the Israelis if they persisted in this policy.
Inspite of this great publicity we received in France, we still need more support for our activities. Therefore, we believe that our publications in Arabic should be developed through the internet to pass a better picture to the world.
Name
Brian
- United States
Profession
Question
Were you ever faced with the usual “charges” the media gives to parents being primarily responsible for the death of their children by allowing them to participate in the riots? What was your reaction to that, or rather, what do you have to say to those people?
Answer
Such a question, and such charges, were addressed by the European media as well as the Israeli media. Before this Intifada they used to ask us why did you send your children to jail? And during the Intifada they asked the question: why did you send your children to death. We answered: you should ask who was the detainer? who was the occupier?
In my meetings with the French audience I was asked the same question, and I replied that in the story "Les Miserables" the child "Gavarush" was collecting bullets for the French resistance, and he was turned into a symbol for resistance after his death.
In accordance with the international conventions, children have the right to express their opinions freely. And its worth noting that most of the Palestinian children who were killed in this Intifada were in their seats in schools, and were not shooting Israelis. We have lists of the children who died in this Intifada, and they were between one month and ten years. What danger did those children pose to Israelis?
The Israeli media are deviating the truth whereas the Arab media are unable to defend the facts.
To refute the Israeli opinion over this issue, we started emphasizing every single case to tell the people how exactly each child was killed. So we were obliged to tell the Europeans who claimed they had democracy that our children had the right to express themselves freely.
I noticed while I was in France that once anyone started discussing the situation, he was accused with antisemetism.
Name
Mohamed
- Turkey
Profession
Question
I think that the recent announcement made by Hamas calling upon children to exercise self-restraint and avoid putting themselves in danger may certainly give Israel more of a chance to practice further brutality against children in an attempt to combat their uprising. Would you agree with that?
Answer
I think that Hamas's announcement, like many other national groups, was concerned with a special case. In this case, some children tried to take part in resistance, tried to go into the Israeli settlements unarmed. Some of these children were deliberately killed by the Israeli soldiers, even though the soldiers knew they were unarmed. Some other children were killed by explosive devices detonated by Israelis.
Hamas, as well as other Palestinian national groups, emphasised that all settlements are military targets and the international conventions also agreed that these settlements were legitimate targets. In our organiztion we agree to keep those children away from danger.
Name
Nihal
- Egypt
Profession
Question
As a regular citizen, what can I do to help the cause for the dying children of Palestine? What is there that I can offer which can help your campaign?
Answer
Well, you can help in two ways:
A. To use all information in the internet, and pass it worldwide.
B. The financial support is needed to hire lawyers to defend these children. It is worth mentioning in this regard that European support is mostly conditioned. But we need more support, especially open support from the Arabs to cover our expenses freely.
Name
Liz
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
Are your efforts confined to the legal aspect of the conditions of the child in prison or do you also deal with rehabilitation measures after release; that is, do your efforts end with the release of the child or are there any activities of perhaps moral or psychological support for the previously emprisoned child?
Answer
From our experience we found that these children suffered a lot of psychological and social turmoil after release. In the beginning we dealt with the legal aspect only. But later on we started dealing with other social, psychological and financial matters, mainly in the south region, because we did not have enough staff of experienced psychologists to cover the whole area.
Later on we had an agreement with the Ministry of Prisoners Affairs to refer all cases after release for rehabilitation. The child, after release, is moved into a wider environment. Once he was in prison he lived with about 500 people, while after release he moved to a wider community, and he needed a lot of support to assimilate in the community again. So he needed financial support in his family, and in school.
Name
Malik
-
Profession
Question
I think that apart from the discussion on the conditions and the trouble that Palestinian children go through in Israeli jails, there is always the psychological state of the child that needs to be addressed the most. What do you have to say about the children who were shot dead in Israeli settlements in attempt to carry out acts of resistance? Were they desperate or just acting irrationally?
Answer
Our children are living a state where they see violance both on TV and in real life, so they feel insecure.
Once, my own children asked me if I could defend them in cases of danger. I answered: yes, I could. But they found it impossible to believe after they saw Mohammad Dorrah, when he was killed while he was with his father.
In this unsafe and unbalanced situation, the children found it necessary to take part in the resistance, and sometimes they did not think of the consequences. And so they tried to attack the settlements regardless of the results.
I agree with you that our children need some activities to discharge the psychological problems they have. But they need a lot of activities through the governmental and non-governmental organizations to help them as well.
We had some activities with about 50,000 children whom we asked to draw whatever they thought of, and we found that most of their drawings were about tanks, and plains, blasting the Palestinians. And here emerges the need to help those children psychologically at home and in the street.
Imagine that the child at home watches violence on TV, and when he goes to school he had in almost every class some flowers on some seats of his peer martyers!
