Adding Israel to UN’s ‘list of shame’ a step in right direction: Palestinian UN envoy
Riyad Mansour says “Israel has evaded accountability for its crimes against Palestinian children for decades now”.
This lack of accountability, the Palestinian envoy to the UN said in a social media post, allowed Israel to “intensify its crimes against them in a violation of all norms and of the principles of legality, morality and humanity”.
“The United Nations decision to add Israel on the list of violators of children’s rights, often referred to as the ‘list of shame’, will not bring back tens of thousands of our children who were killed by Israel over decades and will not restore normal life for the children who were permanently disabled by its actions,” Mansour said.
“But it is an important step in the right direction towards ending the double standards and the culture of impunity Israel has enjoyed for far too long and that left our children vulnerable to its consequences.”
UN faced years of pressure by Israel and its allies over child rights report: Ex-official
Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official who resigned last year over the organisation’s response to the Gaza war, says the world body deleted Israel from its so-called blacklist for years due to the pressure campaign.
The push by Israel and its allies resulted in an annual report on human rights violations against children in armed conflict that “had been broadly discredited”, Mokhiber wrote on X.
The UN report compiles “a list of parties engaging in violations against children”, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals.
“It took a new world record for child slaughter to compel the UN to include Israel this time,” Mokhiber said.
The UN has for years, under pressure from Israel & its western allies, deleted Israel from this list before publication, to the point that the report had been broadly discredited. It took a new world record for child slaughter to compel the UN to include Israel this time. https://t.co/GrwlzvaHmt
— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) June 7, 2024
‘Miserable’ life for children in Gaza for years to come
The vast majority of casualties brought to the hospitals are either children or women.
We have had children across the Gaza Strip for the past eight months murdered at a record number, given the intense bombing campaign. They’re targeting entire families inside residential homes or evacuation zones or even when they are trying to evacuate from one place to another.
[Gaza officials] are documenting the cases of many children inside the evacuation zones who have been separated from their parents. In fact, there’s one case here at the hospital who has not been with his parents for the past six months. Nobody knows anything about his parents or where they are.
Now add to this trauma the lack of basic supplies – food and medical supplies – and the proper environment for children to grow socially, economically and intellectually. It does not exist for them.
This intense bombing campaign has created conditions for a miserable life for years to come.
