Take a moment to write to your own federal member of parliament, and Prime Minister Trudeau and Foreign Minister Joly.
Call on Canadian elected officials to unequivocally condemn Israel’s killing and its detention of Palestinian children under military law. This includes enacting an arms embargo by Canada to protect Palestinian Children.
Khaled Quzmar, general director at Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) said
“Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with calculated brutality and cruelty all throughout the occupied Palestinian territory.” And that “the international community must act urgently to enact an arms embargo and sanctions to protect Palestinian children’s lives.”
Israel has had a long history of cruelly targeting Palestinian children through:
- its disproportionate killing in all its military incursions,
- its incremental genocide of injuring in bombing and shooting, including the knees and eyes of children and leaving them maimed for life,
- its withholding of essential health care and nutritional needs,
- the intentional terrorizing of children with nightly sonic boom flights over Gaza, and ongoing bombing, and through acts such as night raids and house demolitions
- widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system
This in the context of Israel’s use of prohibited unconventional weapons, including white phosphorus, causing incredible pain, weapons never seen before by doctors.
Bring to the attention of elected officials that:
- The protection of the rights of children around the world is a priority of the Canadian government;
- As signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Israel has an obligation to ensure basic due process rights and the absolute prohibition against torture and ill-treatment of children in accordance with international juvenile justice standards;
- The Secretary General of the United Nations 2019 report on children and armed conflict on June 20, 2019, reiterated the Special Representative’s “call upon Israel to uphold international juvenile justice standards, as well as to cease the use of administrative detention for children and end all forms of ill-treatment in detention, and to cease any attempted recruitment of detained children as informants”;
- Israel automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections;
- For over 30 years, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International Palestine and other human rights groups have investigated, documented, and exposed human rights violations against children; and
- Under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, all high signatories, of which Canada is one, are required to take actions to ensure that violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention do not occur under any circumstance. This is embedded in Canadian law in the Geneva Convention Act.
Since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are subject to the Israeli civilian and criminal legal system whereas Palestinians live under military law. Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year.
DCIP (Defense for Children International Palestine) reported on August 21, 2024, that “Israeli forces are systematically detaining and torturing Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, including using some as human shields.”
In no circumstance should children be detained or prosecuted under the jurisdiction of military courts. However, as a minimum safeguard while Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation continue to be arrested and prosecuted within the Israeli military court system, Israeli authorities must respect and ensure basic due process rights and the absolute prohibition against torture and ill-treatment.
You can read about cases of killing, injury and detention under military law including currently at:https://www.dci-palestine.org/tags/alert
With this in mind, the Canadian government needs to take concrete steps to promote greater respect for human rights and increase protections for Palestinian children; and hold Israeli military authorities accountable to their obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
Beyond this, the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion ruling has deemed the Israeli long-standing occupation illegal and indicated that steps need to be taken to end it completely and “as rapidly as possible.” It also indicated that states and international organizations, including the U.N., have specific responsibilities to refrain from aiding the occupation or recognizing Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as anything but unlawful. Canada too must do the utmost to withdraw all support for the Israeli occupation including recognition of the State of Palestine.
Over the years, Canadian civil society has called on the Canadian government to take steps to tell Israel that “this is no way to treat a child.” You can read more about this athttps://www.nwttac.canada.dci-palestine.org/about.
The Canadian government must use all available means, including sanctions, to pressure relevant Israeli authorities to end the detention and abuse, and killing of Palestinian children.
Demand elected officials condemn Israel’s killing, injuring, and detaining of children, and the trauma that is being inflicted on children through the military occupation. Insist elected officials call for a military arms embargo by Canada, and that Canada take immediate and urgent steps to insist Israel comply with its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ask your own member of parliament to publicly join in this call.
