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Palestinian Child’s Bill of Rights
by Edna Yaghi
I am the Palestinian
child. I have read the Children’s Bill of Rights and as a
potential citizen of tomorrow, I want you, the adults who make the
rules, to hear what I have to say.
I shall address most
points as they are presented.
(1) “Children’s
universal rights. Children under the age of 18 have the right to
receive special care and protection. Children all have the same
rights, no matter what country they were born in or are living in,
what their sex is, what their race is, or what their religion is.”
Palestinian children do
not have special care or protection from Israeli soldiers, from
Israeli bullets, from Israeli shelling. I know I do not have the
same rights as American children and I know I am persecuted because
of my religion, my nationality and where I was born, though I was
not given a choice of where my birth was to take place or what
nationality I was to inherit.
(2) “Right to inherit
a better world. Children have the right to inherit a world that is
at least as good as the one their parents inherited.”
What I have inherited is
a life of tragedy, a life of poverty, a life where Israeli
sharpshooters shoot to kill. If they do not kill, they make sure
that Palestinian children are shot in the head, the chest, the arms,
the legs. Many Palestinian children have lost their eyes since
Intifada Al-Aqsa began on September 28, 2000. Many Palestinian
children have had their limbs amputated. I do not call such deadly
intent the inheritance of anything that is good or positive.
(3) “Right to
influence the future. Children have the right to participate in
discussions having to do with the directions our society is
taking-on the large political, economic, social and educational
issues and policies-so that children can help create the kind of
world they will grow up in.”
I do not recall anyone
asking me if I like to be shot at. I do not recall anyone
asking me if I like to be beaten and tortured by Israeli thugs and I
do not recall anyone asking my permission to be thrown in jail
simply because I throw rocks in the name of freedom, or simply
because I happened to be playing on the streets and was abducted by
Israeli soldiers. And every political, economic, social, and
educational policies are made without even considering what my
opinions are.
(4) “Right to freedom
of thought, opinion, expression, conscience and religion.”
I have not been given
the right to express my thoughts, my opinions, my conscience. If
anyone really wanted to know my opinion about war, I would answer
that wars are horrible and they are no place for children.
(5) “Right to media
access.”
Of course, I have no
access to the media. If I did, I would scream my head off over the
Internet, on the radio, on TV, and over the phone every minute of
every day to tell you about all the atrocities that are being
committed against my people and against children like me.
(6) “Right to
participate in decisions affecting children.”
Every Israeli war
decision affects me. Every proposal by the Palestinian Authority
affects me as well. Yet, no one asks my opinion and I am not allowed
to participate in anything but my subjugation and the abortion of my
childhood by Israeli conquistadors.
(7) “Right to privacy.
Children have the right to privacy to the same extent adults
have.”
When my home is shelled
in the middle of the night, when my home is demolished by Israeli
soldiers for no reason, when I have to be brave because even if I am
afraid, there is no place to hide from death, then I can assure you,
I have no privacy.
(8) “Right to respect
and courtesy.”
Because I am
Palestinian, Israelis do not respect me. On the contrary, they hate
me and the only courtesy they show is bullets in my head, my chest,
or brutal beatings and torture in their prisons. Just a few days
ago, the Israeli army shelled a school for blind children in
Occupied Palestine in the deep of the night. I ask you, do you
consider this respectful or courteous?
(9) “Right to an
identity.”
Every day of my life,
Israelis try to take my identity away from me. The harder they try,
the less successful they are.
(10) “Right to freedom
of association.”
I wish that I could
freely associate with my friends and not fear an Israeli bullet
cutting me down while I walk home from school with my friends or
while I play outside on my neighborhood street.
(11) “Right to care
and nurturing.”
Though my parents do
their best to nurture and care for me, all odds are against them,
for every minute of every day my life is threatened and all
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are an endangered species.
(12) “Right to leisure
and play.”
It is lethal when I play
and it is deadly when I am at home and even when I am asleep. I
never know when Israelis might shell my house or when an Israeli
bullet might shoot me down or when I might see one of my family
members killed in front of me. I so wish I could live the life of a
leisurely child and not have to fear for my very existence 24 hours
a day, regardless of whether I stay home or not.
(13) “Right to safe
work.”
Every minute I breathe,
my life is threatened. And every child may be forced to work because
our cities are under curfew, under siege and under the Israeli
blockade. The Palestinian economy is at its worst in years…in
fact, there is no economy. Things are looking very desperate. I fear
the extinction of all my people.
(14) “Right to an
adequate standard of living.”
There is no such thing
nowadays as an adequate standard of living for Palestinian children.
Soon, if we don’t die from Israeli bullets or shelling, we may die
from starvation.
(15) “Right to life,
physical integrity and protection from maltreatment.”
I wish I could say that
I am protected from maltreatment, or that my life is not endangered,
or that when Israeli soldiers catch me, I am safe from abuse and
torture. I wish I could just be a child and not have to worry about
survival on a daily basis. And every step of the way, the Israeli
occupation tries to take my integrity away from me.
(16) “Right to a
diverse environment and creativity.”
The Israelis do
everything they can to make sure I have no environment but one of
war and destruction. Certainly there is no room for creativity when
a war is going on and when all children have to wonder if they are
going to live from one moment to the next. How creative can you be
when there are bullets flying everywhere, when we are bombarded by
air, land and sea and when there is death all around?
(17) “Right to
education.”
I do not call being shot
at on the way to and from school an example of the right to
education. And when Israelis are not shooting at Palestinian
children on the way to and from their places of education, they
storm into their schools and shoot live bullets into the classrooms
in order to create more chaos and fear.
(18) “Right to access
appropriate information and to a balanced depiction of reality.
Children should be protected from materials adults consider
harmful.”
I see graveyards full of
Palestinian bodies killed by Israelis. I see a small coffin being
prepared for me, for it is not known how long I will be able to live
when so many are slaughtered each day. And yes, my parents do
consider bullets harmful. Bullets are lethal. I would not advise
anyone to try being the target of Israeli bullets, of Israeli
shelling, of Israeli bombs.
(19) “Right not to be
exposed to prejudice.”
I don’t know what to
call the genocide of my people other than prejudice. I don’t know
what else to call the Palestinian Holocaust other than the worst
form of bigotry. There will never be peace as long as the Israelis
view Palestinian children as those of a lesser god. We are all
children of the one and only God. God created all children and
adults equal and all are entitled to the same inalienable rights, to
the sanctity of life, to freedom of speech, to a normal life.
(20) “The right to a
clean environment.”
I do not think that when
our water supply is cut off on us, our environment can be very
clean. I do not think that when lethal gases are released on us,
that the air we breathe is clean. I do not think that when depleted
uranium is used on us, that there is much chance of our environment
being clean or that children will be protected from its aftermath. I
do not think that when we have no money and no resources, and no
permits to build a sewage system in the refugee-ghetto concentration
camps the Israelis have put us in, we have a chance of having a
clean environment. Every step of the way, Israelis deny us the right
to life, the right to a clean environment, the right to live in
safety and all other basic human rights that all men and children
are entitled to.
As you can see, the Bill
of Rights for Children was not constructed for a Palestinian child
like me. I urge you to work for change, to work for an end to the
Israeli occupation of my land and I urge you to work for the end of
the slaughter of Palestinian children. I am a child. I deserve to be
a child and I should not have to worry about just staying alive.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Edna Yaghi
by the same author:
Reproduction in whole or
in part without permission is prohibited.
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