UN: Israel's Militarized State Education in Violation of Children's Rights

21 March 2010

In January 2010, an official UN body determined for the first time (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/CRC-C-OPAC-ISR-CO-1.pdf) that the militarization of Israel's government-run school system was in violation of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child and, in particular, of Israel's implementation of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC), to which it is a signatory.

Unprecedented in an international legal document, this was one of the conclusions of a report submitted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewing Israel's adherence to and breaches of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol.

Part of the evidence collected by the review included a jointly authored report prepared by: Defense for Children International-Palestine Section, Defense for Children International-Israel Section and New Profile, with additional contributions of information by Adalah, Yesh Din, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, UNICEF Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The sections authored by New Profile are based on the New Profile Report on Child Recruitment in Israel (http://www.newprofile.org/data/uploads/child_soldiers/english.pdf), 2004, which they update and expand. These sections were authored by Sergeiy Sandler and Albert Givol.

The item below, issued on 11 March 2010, by DCI-Palestine, announces the public release of the jointly authored document providing detailed answers to a list of questions posed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. The item provides links to the full text of the 'List of Issues' and to additional relevant documents.

Sergeiy Sandler

[JPN: Guest contributor Sergeiy Sandler has been radical peace activist since the early 1990s. Since 1999 he is active with the feminist antimiliatrist movement New Profile, and since 2002 is an International Council member of the War Resisters' International.]

JPN: For some visual samples of militarized state education in Israel, see: http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/03/schoolchildren-learn-to-count-with-tanks/.]

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http://www.newprofile.org/english/?p=273

DCI-Israel, DCI-Palestine and New Profile release today their answers to the 'List of Issues' (http://www.newprofile.org/data/uploads/child_soldiers/Reply_to_List_of_Issues.PDF) recently prepared by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in connection with Israel's implementation of theOptional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-conflict.htm).

This report, entitled NGO Answers to the List of Issues (http://www.newprofile.org/data/uploads/child_soldiers/Reply_to_List_of_Issues.PDF), compiles data provided by seven organisations* and was submitted to the Committee in December 2009, ahead of the review of Israel's compliance with OPAC in January 2010. It includes thorough and up-to-date information on the recruitment practices of the Israeli state armed forces, and Palestinian and Israeli non-state actors. It also expands upon the militarisation of Israeli society at large.

[Read the full report: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/AdvanceVersions/CRC-C-OPAC-ISR-Q-1.pdf]
[Read the CRC Concluding Observations on Israel: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-conflict.htm]
[Also on the same topic: The New Profile Report on Child Recruitment in Israel, 2004: http://www.newprofile.org/data/uploads/child_soldiers/english.pdf]

More specifically, the 41-page report is based, inter alia, on: Adalah's expertise on the legal and practical aspects of the Israeli military's use of civilians as human shields; DCI-Palestine's research and field documentation of the impact of Operation Cast Lead, and its experience of representing Palestinian children accused of security offences in Israeli military courts; New Profile's expertise on Israel's recruitment laws and practices, its knowledge about the administration of military schools in Israel, and its research on the militarisation of the Israeli education system; Yesh Din's expertise on the Israeli military court system; and UNICEF's perspective on the Israeli government's support towards the implementation of the child rights monitoring and reporting mechanism set up by UN Security Council Resolution 1612.

On 19 January 2010, Israel's OPAC implementation was reviewed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Committee members probed the Israeli government delegation on the following topics, among others:

· Applicability of the Convention in the OPT

· Use of Palestinian children as human shields

· Detention of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities

· Israeli military juvenile courts

· Age of minimum recruitment in Israel

· Israeli military schools

· Operation Cast Lead

· Construction of the Wall in the West Bank

· Israeli landmines in the Golan.

On 29 January 2010, the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued its Concluding Observations (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/CRC-C-OPAC-ISR-CO-1.pdf) to Israel.

*Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Right in Israel (Contributor); Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (Contributor); DCI-Israel – Defence for Children International-Israel Section (Author); DCI-Palestine – Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (Author); New Profile – Movement for the Civilization of Israeli Society (Author); UNICEF – United Nations Children's Fund-OPT (Contributor); Yesh Din – Volunteers for Human Rights (Contributor).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION – OPAC Timeline

On 18 July 2005, Israel ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC). As a State Party to OPAC, Israel was due to report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child – the body in charge of monitoring implementation of the Convention and its Protocols – two years after ratification.

In March 2008, Israel submitted its Initial State Party Report (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/AdvanceVersions/CRC-C-OPAC-ISR-1.doc), one year late. The report made no mention of the situation of children – Palestinian or Israeli – living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

In July 2009, DCI-Israel and DCI-Palestine submitted a joint Alternative Report (http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=1195&CategoryId=2) to the Committee in order to provide Committee members with complementary information relating to implementation of OPAC in the OPT.

On 6 October 2009, at the end of its 52nd Session, the Committee held a pre-session meeting on Israel's OPAC Initial State Party Report and invited representatives of DCI-Israel and DCI-Palestine to present the contents of their Alternative Report to them. The Committee had many questions on Israel's child recruitment practices in the OPT.

On 15 October 2009, shortly after the pre-session meeting on Israel, the Committee sent its List of Issues (22 questions) to the Israeli government, expressing its concern and requesting further information on a range of issues, a majority of them connected to the OPT, over which the Committee considers that Israel has jurisdiction. The government was given until 19 November 2009 to send its responses in writing.

On 7 January 2010, Israel forwarded its Written Replies (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/AdvanceVersions/CRC-C-OPAC-ISR-Q-1-Add1.doc) to the List of Issues to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

On 28 December 2009, NGOs sent their own replies to the Committee. The List of Issues had also benn forwarded to NGOs in Israel and the OPT, to encourage them to submit updated and complementary information to the Committee. Expert contributions from Israeli, Palestinian, international and UN organisations were compiled in the NGO Answers to the List of Issues (http://www.newprofile.org/data/uploads/child_soldiers/Reply_to_List_of_Issues.PDF).

On 19 January 2010, from 3:00-6:00pm, an Israeli government delegation met members of the Committee in Geneva in order to answer questions on the implementation of OPAC in the territories over which Israel has jurisdiction.

On 29 January 2010, the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued its Concluding Observations.

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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Z. Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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Jewish Peace News sends its news clippings only to subscribers. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your subscription, go to http://www.jewishpeacenews.net

Nadia Hijabz: The Tale of Two Richards / counterpunch

Hijab's article describes the intense attacks Richard Goldstone - the head of the committee that penned the Goldstone Report, and Richard Falk - The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories - have been under, both from Israel and from the Palestinian Authority.
This is not just a matter of the personal hardships caused to these individuals. The type of attacks launched signals grave potential danger to international law and the rights of the poor and weak in Palestine and elsewhere.
To learn in gory detail about the work done Israel to sabotage international law, read Jeff Halper's excellent article: "The Second Battle of Gaza: Israel's Undermining of International Law"
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/halper260210.html This effort is led by philosophy professor Asa Kasher and major general Amos Yadlin.
Another strong recommendation: An interview with Jeff Halper on the global pacification industry: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/jeff-halper-the-global-pacification-industry-must-see/

Racheli Gai

http://www.counterpunch.org/hijab03092010.html

A Tale of Two Richards

By Nadia Hijab

They hail from opposite parts of the globe, but they have much in common: Jewish; experts on and passionate defenders of international law; and pummeling bags for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And the future of the law of war lies at the heart of the campaigns against them.

Richard Goldstone, whose international stature was cemented as chief prosecutor in the Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals, has been excoriated by Israel and its allies ever since his team submitted the report on the Gaza war requested by the United Nations Human Rights Council in September 2009. The steady stream of invective (the report is "full of lies," and he has "used his Jewishness to jeopardize the safety and security of Israel" are just two of the milder attacks) has also targeted his family and taken a toll on the publicly stoic judge.

Richard Falk, professor emeritus at Princeton University and UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, has been attacked by Israel for years. But now, in a new twist, he is being hung out to dry by the Palestinian Authority. This, perhaps, the unkindest cut of all.

The PA pummeling is more discreet. It has quietly suggested to Falk himself that he resign. One reported reason is that Falk can't do his job because Israel will not allow him into the country -- though this should, one would have thought, be all the more reason to defend him.

And the PA has asked the Human Rights Council to take Falk's report off the March 22 agenda and "postpone" it to June, which the Council has done. The PA-appointed representative to the UN in Geneva insists that there are simply more important reports than Falk's on the agenda -- yet at the same time he says the PA has "many" reservations about the Falk report. The real reasons seem to be that the PA did not like the mention of Hamas in Falk's report and his earlier criticism when the PA tried to "postpone" the Goldstone Report in September under pressure from Israel and the United States. A public outcry among Palestinians reversed that decision.

The attacks on Falk and Goldstone are hard for the two men to bear. And they tear at the very fabric of international law and the mechanisms put in place to uphold it. The Human Rights Council has stepped on a slippery slope by agreeing to postpone Falk's report. Instead of listening to the PA (and Egypt) the Council should have backed its special rapporteur. If it does the unthinkable and relieves Falk of his duties because the PA does not want him, the system of independent special rapporteurs would be undermined, just as it would if the Council gave in to Israeli or American pressure.

Undermining the Goldstone Report would be an equally harsh blow to the human rights system. Several earlier reports have called for the application of international law to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the International Court of Justice's seminal opinion on the illegality of Israel's separation wall in the West Bank. But the Goldstone Report has been published at a time when people are ready to listen, which is partly why Israel is fighting it with such ferocity and on so many fronts.

On one of those fronts, Israel is trying to change international law itself, as Israeli human rights advocate Jeff Halper reveals in an important article, "The Second Battle of Gaza." Halper identifies the Israeli figures leading the campaign "to alter international law in ways that enable them -- and by extension other states involved in 'wars on terror' -- to effectively pursue warfare amongst the people while eliminating both the legitimacy and protections enjoyed by their non-state foes."

No one is more aware of the dangers to international law than Palestinian human rights advocates. Their organizations have acted as a group to support the implementation of the Goldstone Report and to protect Falk and his role.

Last month, 11 Palestinian human rights groups wrote to the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressing dismay at the PA actions against Falk. His reports have provided "powerful instruments to advocate for Palestinian people's rights" they said, urging Pillay to ensure that Falk enjoyed the highest level of support from her office. They also called on her to reinforce the independence of the special rapporteurs from UN member states so as to protect the UN's own credibility.

More recently, 19 Palestinian groups wrote to PA president Mahmoud Abbas criticizing Falk's treatment and pointing out the repercussions for the Palestinians' internationally recognized human rights.

If the attacks on the two Richards succeed, the Palestinian cause will suffer and the world will be a poorer and more dangerous place -- one in which the might of the strong is legally allowed to prevail against the rights of the weak.

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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Z. Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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Jewish Peace News sends its news clippings only to subscribers. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your subscription, go to http://www.jewishpeacenews.net

New Profile Urges UN to Hold Israel Accountable

http://www.newprofile.org/english/?p=266

NEW PROFILE URGES UN TO HOLD ISRAEL ACCOUNTABLE
On January 28th 2010, New Profile, a feminist movement working to demilitarize society and state in Israel, dispatched a letter to a list of top U.N. officials urging the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Security Council to intervene to ensure implementation of the recommendations made by the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.

"If the United Nations and wider international community are to meet their responsibilities in upholding the rule of law," New Profile wrote the U.N. Secretary-General, among others, "then concerted, effective and prompt action must be taken at the highest level to end the impunity and ensure the accountability of the State of Israel."

Based on its long years of research-based, oppositional praxis, New Profile stated in conclusion, that, "the militarized system in place in Israel renders the State of Israel incapable of conducting its own implementation of the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict."
To read the entire analysis corroborating New Profile's claim and first-hand information on recent silencing measures encountered by the movement, please see the full text of the letter (PDF) at: http://newprofile.org/statements/New%20Profile%20Urges%20UN%20to%20Hold%20Israel%20Accountable.pdf.

Rela Mazali

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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Z. Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
------------
Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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Jewish Peace News sends its news clippings only to subscribers. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your subscription, go to http://www.jewishpeacenews.net

Reuven Snir: The Arab Jews: Language, Poetry, and Singularity / Qantara

Qantara is a German Internet publication.
The Arabic word "qantara" means "bridge". The Internet portal Qantara.de represents the concerted effort of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Center for Political Education), Deutsche Welle, the Goethe Institut and the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) to promote dialogue with the Islamic world. The project is funded by the German Foreign Office.
To find out more, go to http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_softlink.php/_c-360/_lkm-2881/i.html

Here is how Qantara introduces Reuven Snir's essay: The Arab Jews: Language, Poetry, and Singularity:
"A joint Arab-Jewish identity seems an impossibility given the current political situation in the Middle East. And yet it was a reality, exemplified by Arabic-speaking Jews and their writers. In his extensive essay Reuven Snir investigates the complex history of Arab Jews."

Racheli Gai.

Reuven Snir: The Arab Jews: Language, Poetry, and Singularity
December 18, 2009

http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-712/i.html

My parents were born in Baghdad. They immigrated to Israel in 1951, without great enthusiasm. I was born two years later. As a sabra – a native-born Israeli Jew – in the Israeli-Zionist educational system, I had been taught that Arabness and Jewishness were mutually exclusive.

Trying to conform to the dominant Ashkenazi-Zionist norm as a child, like most if not all children of the same background, I felt ashamed of the Arabness of my parents. For them, I was an agent of repression sent by the Israeli-Zionist establishment, after excellent training, into the territory of the enemy – my family – and I completed the mission in a way that only children can do with their loving parents: I forbade them to speak Arabic in public or to listen to Arabic music in their own house.

And it was not only the problem of Arabness – my father was also a Communist activist at a time when to be a Communist in Israel was like belonging to a terrorist organisation.

What I remember very clearly about my father is that he was a great lover of poetry, Arabic poetry, and always quoted verses for my benefit. I'm not sure that I remember any of them now – I only know that he insisted on reciting them, even though, thanks to my Zionist education, I didn't want to listen.

But probably because I was so dumb that he had to recite them again and again I think I have managed, many years later, to reconstruct one verse: because I remembered that it had something to do with camels and water, and because I had some sense of the music, which is the melody of the kāmil Arabic meter. It is a verse that has been attributed to the blind ascetic medieval poet Abū al-'Alā' al-Ma'arrī (973-1058 CE), who, it has been argued, influenced Dante Alighieri (1265-1321 CE) in his Divine Comedy. Mine proved later to be a tragedy, not at all divine.

Like camels in the desert, suffering from thirst, while the water is on their back

A deep feeling of regret

To read the article in its entirety, go to
http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-712/i.html

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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Z. Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
------------
Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
------------
Jewish Peace News sends its news clippings only to subscribers. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage your subscription, go to http://www.jewishpeacenews.net