- Joined
- Apr 13, 2011
- Messages
- 34,951
- Reaction score
- 16,311
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Socialist
[/FONT][FONT="]Twenty Congress members have called on President Obama to take action to protect the rights of Palestinian children.[/FONT][FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]The lawmakers sent the president a letter on June 20, urging him to appoint a “special envoy for Palestinian youth” in order to monitor the Israeli government’s violation of Palestinian children’s human rights.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The letter (embedded below), notes that Palestinian children are “growing up under military occupation with very few opportunities to improve their lives.”[/FONT]
[FONT="]The letter describes the occupation as “an unimaginably difficult and at times hopeless environment,” where children “live under the constant fear of arrest detention and violence at the hands of the Israeli military.”
[/FONT]
[FONT="]The 20 lawmakers raised concerns about Israel’s frequent imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 12, sometimes without charge or trial.[/FONT]
[FONT="]UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and other rights groups have documented Israel’s systematic abuse of Palestinian children.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]The letter was initiated by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat representing Minnesota. Salon spoke with McCollum, who emphasized, “Military prisons for 12-year-old Palestinian children is inhuman. It totally dehumanizes them and it’s an abuse of Palestinian human rights. That needs to stop.”[/FONT]
[FONT="]“I want the Israeli people to have peace and security, but I also want Palestinian children and their parents to have security, dignity, justice and equality,” she added.
Read more @: [h=1]20 Congress members send Obama letter requesting protection of Palestinian children from Israeli abuses[/h]Locking up children in military prisons is not only inhumane its also not how you gain security.