The
Use of Palestinian Children in Warfare
“Let’s face
it, dead kids make great telly”
(The London Times, Oct. 19,2000)
Introduction
Watching the television coverage
of the daily Palestinian riots, one is immediately
struck by the near total absence of adults. Indeed,
most of those hurling Molotov cocktails and stones
are teenagers; many are even younger. Intoxicated
by the challenge of becoming a hero, lacking the maturity
to calculate the dangers they are assuming, these
young people are easily motivated to place themselves
in harm’s way.
Why are these children being sent
to their deaths?
The appearance of Palestinian children
in these riots is not accidental. The Palestinian
Authority has intentionally mobilized Palestinian
children to man the front line in its struggle against
Israel, frequently using them as shields to protect
Palestinian gunmen. This mobilization of Palestinian
youth has, moreover, been facilitated by the long-term
impact of Palestinian Authority (PA) curricula, government-controlled
media, and summer camp programs, which indoctrinated
the youth for armed confrontation with Israel even
prior to the current crisis.
While the Palestinian Authority
is not formally bound by international human rights
conventions, it nonetheless is required by the Oslo
agreements, which PA Chairman Yasser Arafat signed,
to honor "internationally accepted norms of human
rights and the rule of law[1]."[2]
The current violence has given the
Palestinians the opportunity to improve on their widespread
use of children in the original intifada of a decade
ago and in other organized rioting during the interim
years, such as in Hebron. This time the children act
as bait, burning tires and shooting slingshots, to
attract the television cameras and distract the IDF,
in tandem with well-armed Palestinian gunmen in ambush
positions.[3]
[1] Wye River Memorandum, Oct.
23, 1998, 37 I.L.M. 1251 [Wye River Memorandum], art.
II (C) 4.
[2] Justus Reid Weiner, international
human rights lawyer and a member of the Israel and
New York Bar Associations. Scholar-in-Residence at
the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
[3] Jack Kelley, "Street
Clashes Now Deliberate Warfare," USA Today, Oct.
23, 2000. Ironically, those very weapons were provided
to them to maintain order against terrorism and incitement,
under the interim peace agreements that Arafat signed.
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