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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-palestinian-children-killed-by-israel-in-2018-have-been-forgotten-by-the-world/">http://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-palestinian-children-killed-by-israel-in-2018-have-been-forgotten-by-the-world/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The Palestinian Children Killed by
Israel in 2018 Have Been Forgotten by the World</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">January 9, 2019<br>
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<p><strong>By <a
href="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramona-wadi"
title="Display all articles for Ramona Wadi">Ramona
Wadi</a></strong></p>
<p>Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP)
paints a bleak prospect for Palestinian children in
revealing that in 2018, at least 56 were <a
href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/year_in_review_2018_reigned_deadly_force_on_palestinian_children"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">killed</a> by Israel.
Individuals who witnessed some of the murders have
insisted that the targeted children were unarmed and
posed no threat to the state or its citizens.</p>
<p>Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli army
snipers, drones and security forces across the occupied
Palestinian territories. Five of the murdered children
were under 12 years of age. In Gaza, 49 children were
murdered by Israel in activities pertaining to the Great
March of Return protests.</p>
<p>Live ammunition was used by Israel in 73 percent of the
fatalities documented by DCIP, which also recorded “140
cases of Palestinian children who were detained by
Palestinian forces.” Israeli forces also arrested 120
children within the occupied West Bank. In both groups,
the detained children suffered abuse at the hands of the
security forces holding them, whether the PA or the
Israeli military.</p>
<p>These tactics show that Israel’s colonial collaboration
with the Palestinian Authority is targeting a very
vulnerable segment of Palestinian society. What’s more,
the killing and wounding of Palestinian children by
Israeli snipers at the Great March of Return is a direct
maiming of the generation which can carry on the
anti-colonial struggle.</p>
<p>Citing international law is pointless when Israel, and
even the Palestinian Authority, have extended the
parameters for an ongoing cycle of abuse against
Palestinian children. International law is only relevant
when used to point out that violations are taking place
and the Palestinians are facing a UN member state which
treats international law with contempt, while the
international community gives its tacit agreement to the
abuse and is, in some cases, complicit.</p>
<p>DCIP’s research establishes the fact that Israel killed
an average of more than one child per week in 2018.
Earlier shocking official statistics revealed that
between 2000 and 2014 Israel killed a Palestinian child
every three days on average, for fourteen years.
Throughout the year there was ongoing discussion about
Israel’s genocidal intent and actions which were mostly
discarded due to the monopoly over the term in reference
to the Holocaust. Yet, <a
href="http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Article II</a> of the
UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide defines the term as “acts committed
with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” What
else is Israel doing to the people of Palestine, “in
whole or in part”?</p>
<p>The international community’s responses are so
predictable that Israel finds no obstacles in
maneuvering beyond the limits set by international law;
it is allowed to act with impunity. The “drip, drip”
rate of the killing of Palestinian children and the
almost routine nature of their detention sneaks under
the radar of human rights violations. As the
international community fails to respond to Israeli
violations within its established framework, Israel
succeeds in bridging the gap between violations and
rights.</p>
<p>To speak of Israel’s violations now is, in fact, also
to speak of the international community’s
irresponsibility. Yet neither are scrutinized and held
to account; the result is the regular yet somewhat
reluctant citing of what should happen according to
international law being juxtaposed against Israeli
breaches of the law. Accountability, however, has long
since absconded from the scene of the crime. If Israel
wants to kill Palestinian children (or women and men,
come to that), it will kill because it has decided,
quite deliberately, to do so.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the international community will steer clear
from ever associating Israeli actions with genocide,
preferring instead to rely on “alleged war crimes”, the
perpetrators of which will never be brought to justice.
Palestinian children killed by Israel over many years,
last year included, have been forgotten by the world.</p>
<p><i><span>– Ramona Wadi is a staff writer for Middle
East Monitor, where this article was originally
published. She contributed this article to
PalestineChronicle.com.</span></i></p>
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