UN investigation into the crimes of the occupation against Palestinian children

Nadia Saadeddin

Amman – A UN envoy began her visit to occupied Palestine yesterday to verify the crimes of the Israeli occupation against Palestinian children, in preparation for submitting her findings to the United Nations and discussing the possibility of including the Israeli entity on the blacklist of countries that are targeted for harming and violating children’s rights. .
And under intense pressure from Israel to thwart the results of the UN visit; The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, aims with her visit to the West Bank and the Israeli entity to see evidence of the targeting of Palestinian children during Israeli military operations, and the involvement of helpless children in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the visit, the UN official seeks to verify the events that took place in the occupied Palestinian territories, during which unarmed Palestinian civilians who were not involved in confrontations and armed conflicts with the occupation were targeted.
The UN official will meet with Israeli officials in the foreign ministry, army and police, in addition to Israel’s army chief of staff Aviv Kochavi, Israeli newspaper Haaretz said, citing what it called familiar Israeli sources.
According to an Israeli newspaper; The occupying authorities are putting pressure not to put them on the black list of countries that violate children’s rights, but they attach great importance to Gamba’s visit and deal with it seriously, because they will claim before her that “he is working according to international law, which should not be included in the black list “, the paper states. The Israeli “Yediot Ahronot” and the occupation delegates intend to submit reports and video clips that support their false claims.
Gamba had previously warned the occupation authorities that if they did not change their practices towards Palestinian children, they would consider blacklisting them in a report next year as countries that target children.
Gamba’s visit comes in the context of complaints made by the Palestinian Authority to the United Nations about the deaths of a large number of children by fire from occupation forces this year, calling for the occupation authorities to be included in a blacklist of countries that target children.
Previous United Nations reports have strongly condemned the occupation’s attacks on Palestinian children and accused it of attacking the teaching process and Palestinian educational institutions. The previous report came after the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, in May of last year, during which a large number of children were killed.Palestinians.
The occupation authorities did not deny the reports, but claimed they were distorted, that Palestinian children and boys were involved in clashes with occupation forces, and that Palestinian factions were “recruiting” students and training them to use weapons, according to them.
In this regard, Yedioth Ahronoth said that the United States of America is putting pressure on the United Nations, with the aim of not updating the blacklist of companies that carry out commercial activities in Israeli settlements.
The US State Department has confirmed that it has contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “To inform her of her concerns about the list,” the publication of which first angered the Israeli occupation two years ago.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in press statements that the United States “continues to oppose any action to update the blacklist” and has “raised concerns directly with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.”
It is important to note that in February 2020, the United Nations issued a “blacklist” of 112 companies that carry out commercial activities in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which is considered a violation of international law. .
In the meantime; The occupation forces launched a massive campaign of arrests in separate parts of the West Bank, leading to clashes with Palestinians and injuries among them.
The occupying forces also provided strong security protection for yesterday’s intrusion of extremist settlers into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, from the side of the “Mughrabi Gate”, and the making of provocative tours and the performance of alleged Talmudic rituals in its courtyards, among the faithful. ‘ efforts to defend and protect the mosque.
from her side; The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigration called on the international community to put real pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discourage him from implementing the agreement he made with Israeli far-right partners, respecting the references of the peace process and decisions on international legitimacy. and imposing a boycott on the Israeli government. If you do not comply with this.
Yesterday, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the violations and crimes committed by the occupying forces, settlers and their armed organizations against the Palestinians, their land, property and shrines, as well as the continued attacks on the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and calls by settler associations to mobilize as many participants as possible in the storming of the mosque on the occasion of upcoming so-called “Jewish holidays”.
And it warned of the seriousness of these violations, which herald the coming Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people and their rights, with the aim of completing the settlement of the issue of the future of the negotiated final solution unilaterally and by the occupying forces.
And the “Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs” called for more pressure to force the Israeli occupation to respect the historical and legal status quo at Islamic and Christian holy sites, the most prominent of which is the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to curb any attempts to annex any part of the occupied West Bank.