\n| \n End of year<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1967<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1972<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1977<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1982<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1986 _<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n| \n Occupied Palestinian territories<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n TOTAL – thousands<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,030.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,107.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,252.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,350.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,515.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n West Bank<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n TOTAL – thousands<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0585.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0633.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0695.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0749.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0837.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n AGE GROUPS – per cent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a00 – 4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a018.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a017.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a018.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a018.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a018.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a05 – 14<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a030.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a030.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a028.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a028.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a027.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n 15 – 19<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a011.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a012.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a012.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a011.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n 20 – 24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a06.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a06.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a010.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a010.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n 25 – 34<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a010.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a013.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a0\u00a065+<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a06.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a05.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Males per 1000 females<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0942<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0954<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0977<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0990<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,004<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Gaza Strip<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n TOTAL – thousands<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0380.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0387.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0450.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0477.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0545.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n AGE GROUPS – per cent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a00 – 4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a020.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a017.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a019.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a019.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a019.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a05 – 14<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a030.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a031.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a028.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a027.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a028.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n 15 – 19<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a012.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a011.7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a012.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a010.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n 20 – 24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a06.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n 25 – 34<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a010.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a012.5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a013.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a0\u00a065+<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04.6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04.2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.0<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Males per 1000 females<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0942<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0954<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0977<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0990<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,004<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Jerusalem<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n TOTAL – thousands<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a063.4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a086.3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0105.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0124.1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0132.8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Sources<\/u>:\u00a0\u00a0See note 4 below.\u00a0\u00a0It should be noted that the size and composition of the Palestinian population have not been officially determined for decades.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n I.\u00a0\u00a0 Military occupation and the legal protection of the child<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, came under military occupation by Israel since war broke out in June 1967.\u00a0\u00a0This chapter presents elements of the legal protection which international conventional law as well as human rights instruments and declarations provide for the welfare of the child.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Natural disasters, wars, prolonged occupation and substantial unforeseen socio-economic change constitute circumstances that negatively affect a child’s growth and well-being, often for the long term.\u00a0\u00a0The 黑料专区 Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a document entitled “Children in situations of armed conflict”, summarized conclusions of studies examining the effects of armed conflict on children as follows:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “It was concluded that war has an all-embracing impact on a child’s development, on his attitudes, his experience of human relations, his moral norms and his outlook on life.\u00a0\u00a0Facing armed violence on a continuous basis creates deep-rooted\u00a0\u00a0feelings of helplessness and undermines the child’s trust in others”. 9<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The UNICEF report also quoted R.-L. Punam\u00e4ki, who presented in Current<\/u>\u00a0Research<\/u>\u00a0on Peace and Violence<\/u>, research findings on childhood in the shadow of war: “‘Socialization of children to desirable moral values is impossible in a beleaguered society'”.10<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Examining the protection of the child set out in international conventional law, D. Plattner interpreted the provisions regarding the legal protection of children in time of war and occupation contained in the Geneva Conventions, including the fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a High Contracting Party, and their Additional Protocols, as follows:<\/span><\/div>\n <\/p>\n “International humanitarian law provides general protection for children as persons taking no part in hostilities, and special protection of persons who are particularly vulnerable. Moreover, children taking part in hostilities are also protected.” 11<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n According to the fourth Geneva Convention discussed below, the occupying Power has the obligation to further the protection of the child.\u00a0\u00a0The military authorities in the occupied Palestinian territory devised an unusually narrow definition of the legal age of the Palestinian child and even then treated minors on the same terms as adults in any suspected security-related matter.<\/span>12<\/u><\/span>\/<\/span><\/div>\n <\/p>\n International customary and conventional law such as the Regulations Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, annexed to both The Hague Convention of 29 July 1989 (II) and The Hague Convention of 18 October 1907 (IV), and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, the fourth Geneva Convention, give legal protection to the child under military occupation.\u00a0\u00a0Children are considered in need of protection because of their vulnerability, age, immaturity, and absence de discernement<\/u>.\u00a0\u00a0According to articles 27 and 32 of the fourth Geneva Convention, children, like all civilians, shall be treated humanely, free of coercion, corporal and collective punishments as well as with respect for their life, physical well-being and moral integrity.\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, article 50 of the fourth Geneva Convention stipulates the following:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “The occupying Power shall, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities, facilitate the proper working of all institutions devoted to the care and education of children.” 13<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The fourth Geneva Convention contains no conclusive age definition of the child or minor.\u00a0\u00a0It contains, however, in articles 24, 28 and 50, provisions for the legal protection of “children under 15” years.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Destruction of property such as homes and collective punishment have been considered unlawful from the earliest attempts to provide international legal protection for civilians, including children. Regarding these two areas, articles 46 and 50 of the 1907 Hague Regulations as well as articles 33 and 53 of the fourth Geneva Convention are directly relevant.\u00a0\u00a0For instance, article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention reads as follows:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed.\u00a0\u00a0Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” 14<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n International conventional law also provides special protection for detained children.\u00a0\u00a0Article 76 of the fourth Geneva Convention details that when children are accused of offences and detained, “proper regard shall be paid to the special treatment due to minors.” 15<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Such treatment should include the detention of an accused protected person on the territory under occupation, rather than elsewhere; the provision of conditions of food and hygiene sufficient to keep the detained in good health; as well as medical attention and spiritual assistance as required.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The 黑料专区 has declared in several resolutions since 1967 that the fourth Geneva Convention applied to the situation in the occupied\u00a0\u00a0Palestinian territory.\u00a0\u00a0The Security Council in resolution\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0641 (1989) of 30 August 1989 and the General Assembly in resolution 43\/233 of 20 April 1989 reaffirmed once again that the Geneva Convention relative\u00a0\u00a0to the\u00a0\u00a0Protection\u00a0\u00a0of Civilian Persons in Time of War\u00a0\u00a0of 12 August 1949 was applicable to Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel, including Jerusalem.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n International legal instruments and declarations also elaborate the human rights of the child.\u00a0\u00a0These instruments include the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 26 September 1924, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1959, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 16 December 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966, the Declaration on Social Progress and Development of 11 December 1969 and the Declaration on the Protection\u00a0\u00a0of Women and Children in Emergency\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0Armed Conflict of 14 December 1974.\u00a0\u00a0Generally recognized standards for the protection and treatment of children are thereby established and outlined in detail.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n On 20 November 1959, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. 16<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Many of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other earlier legal instruments such as the Declaration on the Rights of the Child of 1924.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In 10 principles the Declaration of 1959 affirms the rights of the child to enjoy special protection and to be given opportunities and facilities\u00a0\u00a0to enable him or her to develop in a healthy and normal manner in conditions of freedom and dignity; to have a name and a nationality from birth; to enjoy the benefits of social security, including adequate nutrition, housing, recreation and medical services; to receive special treatment, education and care if he or she is handicapped; to grow up in an atmosphere of affection and security and, wherever possible, in the care and under the responsibility of the parents; to receive education, to be among the first to receive protection and relief in times of disaster; to be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation; and to be protected from practices which may foster any form of discrimination.\u00a0\u00a0Finally, the Declaration emphasizes that the child shall be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples, peace and universal brotherhood.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n International conventional law and human rights instruments provide legal protection of the child subjected to military occupation.\u00a0\u00a0The protection of the child is an obligation of the occupying Power.\u00a0\u00a0By their nature, the basic rights of the child are not subject to derogation and need to be unconditionally respected.\u00a0\u00a0The following chapters attempt to illustrate the extent to which internationally recognized rights applicable to Palestinian children living in the occupied Palestinian territory have been violated since 1967 during more than 20 years of military occupation.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n II.\u00a0\u00a0 Family and community<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The conduct of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, has been under the control and at the discretion of Israel, the occupying Power since 1967.\u00a0\u00a0Ordinary life has been disturbed by the consequences of Israeli military occupation in an increasingly systematic, collective and violent manner.\u00a0\u00a0The day-to-day plight of Palestinian children between 1967 and 1987 may be described in three phases.\u00a0\u00a0These phases broadly correspond to the late 1960s, most of the 1970s and the 1980s preceding the intifadah<\/u>.\u00a0\u00a0First, Palestinian children had to adjust to the aftermath of war and military occupation.\u00a0\u00a0Secondly, they had to cope with the consolidation of military occupation, rapid socio-economic change and growing awareness of their inferior status in the occupied\u00a0\u00a0territories.\u00a0\u00a0Thirdly, Palestinian children had to develop defences against the increasingly repressive policies carried out by the occupation authorities, the effects of economic hardship and the hostile activity of foreign settlers on Palestinian land.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In the aftermath of the 1967 war, Palestinian children had to face the consequences of armed conflict and military defeat many directly affecting their lives in the family and community. 17<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Tens of thousands of Palestinian children became homeless, refugees, displaced and orphans.\u00a0\u00a0These children, in need of homes, communities, education and health care, had to be accommodated in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0Also, Palestinian children had to manage with the humiliation and uncertainty their parents and elders experienced as a result of war and military defeat. In any society, adjustment after war as well as the integration of refugees and displaced persons pose considerable problems for children.\u00a0\u00a0As one of the very vulnerable groups in society, children often suffer most when living conditions become difficult.\u00a0\u00a0Additional challenges arose, however, when the war-ridden society could not return to its former state but had to adjust to the entirely new situation of prolonged military occupation.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Under occupation, Palestinian children were confronted in everyday life with many coercive regulations and restrictions, suspicion and humiliation as well as an all-pervasive climate of fear and intimidation.\u00a0\u00a0Military occupation placed Palestinian children in an inferior legal position and discriminated against them, especially compared with non-Palestinian children transferred into the occupied Palestinian territory. 18<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In violation of provisions of international conventional law, decisive first steps were taken in 1967 to alter the demographic and physical character of the occupied Palestinian territory when foreign civilians were permitted to settle in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0Policies on residence, re-entry and family reunification as well as the demolition of houses were featured in discriminatory measures introduced after June 1967. The application of these measures persisted and became more widespread in the mid-1980s.\u00a0\u00a0The 1989 United States Government’s report entitled “Country reports on human rights practices for 1988” stated the following:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Requests for family reunification are granted only on a restricted basis.\u00a0\u00a0Persons who marry Palestinians in the occupied territories generally are not allowed to take up residence there.\u00a0\u00a0Entry or residency permission is frequently denied spouses, relatives and children, following the emigration of the head of the household.\u00a0\u00a0Israel has also denied the return of many former West Bank Palestinians who were not present in the territories, for whatever reason, at the time of the 1968 census conducted after the June War.\u00a0\u00a0Palestinians claim many thousands of family reunification requests are pending.\u00a0\u00a0According to the Government of Israel, in 1988, 300 applications for family reunification were approved, involving 607 people.\u00a0\u00a0Israeli officials acknowledge that family reunification is limited for demographic and political reasons and assert that the laws of occupation do not require Israel to permit immigration into the territories. Restrictions on residence, re-entry, and family reunification do not apply to Jews, whether or not they are Israeli citizens.” 19<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The demolition of hundreds of houses during the first years of occupation following the war in June 1967 incurred a direct economic cost to families and deprived Palestinian children of shelter.<\/span>20<\/u><\/span>\/\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, homes could not be restored without a building permit issued by the occupation authorities.\u00a0\u00a0A whole section of the Old City of Jerusalem, the historic Maghrabi quarter, was destroyed when hostilities terminated in 1967.\u00a0\u00a0Palestinian cultural property was annihilated.\u00a0\u00a0Demolished houses exemplified vividly and contributed daily to the climate of insecurity that was imposed upon families and communities, leaving many Palestinian children without home and hope.<\/span><\/div>\n <\/p>\n During the 1970s, Palestinian children were confronted with the consolidation of military occupation, fortified after another war in 1973, as well as the imposition of rapid and substantial socio-economic change throughout the decade.\u00a0\u00a0In that period, political and cultural disfranchisement of Palestinians became pervasive and pronounced furthering Palestinian children’s awareness of their dependent and inferior status vis-\u00e0-vis<\/u>\u00a0the occupation authorities and incoming settlers from Israel.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n As military occupation continued, the economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territory was shaped by the authorities in such a manner that progress was hindered and made dependent on the Israeli economy.\u00a0\u00a0The establishment of a complex system of licences and permits interfered with the development of Palestinian agriculture and industry and contributed to the appropriation of land and water resources as well as collection of taxes by the occupation authorities.\u00a0\u00a0D. Peretz highlighted the following aspects of the Palestinian economy:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Since 1967 the economies of the territories have been dependent on Israel.\u00a0\u00a0They were described by one scholar as ‘an auxiliary sector of both the Israeli and the Jordanian economies’.\u00a0\u00a0A substantial section of the work force in both Gaza and the West Bank was employed, mostly in unskilled labor, within Israel, and income it provided was responsible to a large extent for the spate of new homes, household goods, automobiles and other consumer items that spread throughout the territories, especially in the West Bank.\u00a0\u00a0While the territories were flooded with imports from Israel, little if any industrial development took place.\u00a0\u00a0Gaza and the West Bank became major markets for Israeli products, importing far more from the occupier than they exported to it.\u00a0\u00a0Over the years Jordan became the principal market for exports, mostly agricultural, from the West Bank. Both Gaza and the West Bank became dependent on Israel as a major source of employment and income, and for many daily consumer items such as clothing, preserved foods, and the like.” 21<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Virtually full employment in the 1970s secured many Palestinian families and communities increases in purchasing power and GNP permitting, for instance, ownership and modernization of households to increase. 22<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In that period, agricultural output was generally sufficient and children’s food balance was considered adequate.23<\/u>\/However, statistical data also reveal persisting areas of poverty during the 1970s as indicated, for example, by widespread sub-standard, overcrowded housing.24<\/u>\/ Poor housing, the stifling of the Palestinian productive sectors as well as polarization of the Palestinian economy into poorer and better-off households increased the material plight of Palestinian children.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During the 1970s, Palestinian children also had to face substantial social changes imposed upon Palestinian society, which highlighted the children’s dependent and inferior status under occupation.\u00a0\u00a0For instance, an increasing number of West Bank children was born to urban families whose incomes were less frequently based on traditional agriculture, to nuclear families rather than extended multi-generational family networks and to families whose men often had to seek employment abroad. 25<\/u>\/ Also, ascribed values in the family and community connected with social origin, position and mature age were considered as less important in a society dependent on occupation authorities.\u00a0\u00a0The socialization of Palestinian children became strongly determined by factors outside Palestinian society.\u00a0\u00a0An alienation from traditions and customs could be found among Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0Some observers recognized during the late 1970s increases in juvenile delinquency and drug abuse among young Palestinians caused\u00a0\u00a0by\u00a0\u00a0the\u00a0\u00a0effects of the protracted political and social situation.27<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During the late 1970s, child labour became a matter of social concern. 27<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In almost all societies children participate in economic activities.\u00a0\u00a0The usual tasks performed by Palestinian children may include domestic work such as cleaning, cooking, child-care and other household chores; fuel and water collection, gardening and shepherding; as well as artisanal and small industry manufacturing and related services such as guarding and running errands.\u00a0\u00a0These activities may or may not be adequately remunerated, appropriately limited in scope and time, and at the expense or to the benefit of the educational development of the child.28<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Quantitative data on child work are difficult to gather and obtain.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, the issue of irregular employment of Palestinian children in Israel has received some attention.\u00a0\u00a0Reports indicated the employment of children as young as 12 years of age and estimated that, in the late 1970s, some 20 per cent of irregular workers were minors.29<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In 1978 the occupation authorities raised the minimum working age in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, to 14 years.30<\/u>\/<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the 1980s prior to the intifadah<\/u>, Palestinian children continued to be threatened by grave political events, notably when, at the beginning of the decade, the occupation authorities decided to regard, de jure<\/u>, Jerusalem as part of Israel,\u00a0\u00a0the occupying Power.\u00a0\u00a0Once again, Palestinian children were challenged by a major attack on the conditions of their daily life and on their peace of mind.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Three major developments characterized the situation of Palestinian children in the occupied territories during the 1980s, contributing to the growing defiance and defensive attitudes of the children.\u00a0\u00a0These developments, addressed below, were economic deprivation; the accelerated establishment of Israeli settlements on occupied territory; and the adoption by the occupation authorities of particularly violent as well as collective repressive measures.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n First, the material well-being of Palestinian children was affected by the economic recession spreading both in Israel and the region during the early 1980s.\u00a0\u00a0The recession left Palestinian families with reduced or merely constant incomes compared with earlier years. 31<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0It involved considerable reduction in net emigration, a marked decline of the Palestinian agricultural sector and a general stagnation in the industrial sector.\u00a0\u00a0During 1985 and 86, for instance, the West Bank suffered from a 4 per cent decline in agricultural income; and unemployment, hitherto virtually unknown there, exceeded 3 per cent.33<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Housing shortages became particularly acute in the first half of the 1980s and deteriorating environmental conditions in the community made it a more dangerous, unsanitary place for children.34<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Agricultural markets, which used to be adequately stocked, had during the 1980s a reduced supply of several basic fruits and vegetables important for a child’s diet.35<\/u>\/ Also, malnutrition of Palestinian children and the incidence of infants with a low birth weight increased.36<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Families had more members to feed, lower incomes as well as fewer consumer goods and services available as compared with earlier years.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n As one measure to mitigate the worst impact of the recession, household and community-based production was revived. 37<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0This measure was likely to have added to the workload of children.\u00a0\u00a0During the 1980s, Palestinian children from the occupied Palestinian territory continued to be used in irregular employment and were not effectively protected by labour inspection agencies.38<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Although economic recovery may have been in sight in 1986, 39<\/u>\/ a major study found that the provision of public services and investments in infrastructure in the occupied West Bank was becoming increasingly bisectoral, featuring one sector for foreign, mostly Israeli settlers and one for Palestinian Arabs, and included an inferior provision of public goods for Palestinian Arabs.40<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0M. Benvenisti stated the following:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “The budgetary policies of the authorities further depress conditions in the Palestinian sector.\u00a0\u00a0Ongoing consumption expenditure ought to be higher, especially in human capital formation services (education, health, etc.).\u00a0\u00a0… The budgetary policies of the Israeli authorities illustrate the deliberate freeze characterizing official policy with regard to the Palestinian productive sector.” 41<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In addition, the occupation authorities have increasingly expropriated Palestinian natural resources such as land and water.\u00a0\u00a0By 1985, Israeli authorities controlled approximately 50 per cent of the land in the West Bank. 42<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Reported estimates on water use suggest that Palestinians of the West Bank were permitted access to a mere 20 to 30 per cent of the water resources.43<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Palestinian children suffered from the short supply of land and water, the daily tribulations connected with rationing water and the humiliation of dispossession.\u00a0\u00a0They also were harmed by the debilitating secondary effects of discriminatory land and water policies on agriculture, construction, communications and local government.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n A second development in the 1980s was the massive increase in settlers encroaching on Palestinian communities and perpetrating acts of violence against Palestinian families and children.\u00a0\u00a0This development affected Palestinian children daily at home, on their way to school or at play. By the end of 1987, reportedly more than 58,000 settlers had been permitted to reside in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem. 44<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Even though only some 2.5 per cent of the total area of the West Bank and Al-Quds, Jerusalem, had been made available to settlers, an estimated 40 per cent of the West Bank children lived in the urban areas most affected by settlements during the 1980s.45<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Jerusalem, which had already suffered in 1967 from, for example, the razing of the landmark Maghrabi quarter, underwent a period of “urban renewal” that threatened the Palestinian character of the Old City.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Palestinian children witnessing for many years the steady expropriation of the assets of their communities tended to develop a strong sense of helplessness and despair.\u00a0\u00a0These feelings intensified during the 1980s.\u00a0\u00a0The powerlessness of their elders regarding settler activities added to the suffering of Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0M. Fennoun, an inhabitant of Al-Nahalin, expressed his perception of the situation in his village, as quoted in a 黑料专区 document:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “‘From the outset the settlers have been provoking the inhabitants and now the village is like a virtual prison.\u00a0\u00a0The settlers, of course, have the support of the occupation authorities.\u00a0\u00a0They are accompanied by soldiers when they go to uproot the trees.\u00a0\u00a0They take out olive trees, poplars, all trees that are cultivated.\u00a0\u00a0They destroy the crops.\u00a0\u00a0When they find children they beat them, and chase them.\u00a0\u00a0If they come across shepherds they beat them as well and prevent them from taking care of their animals in peace.\u00a0\u00a0These are daily harassments, and all the complaints addressed to the authorities and to the settlers themselves have remained futile.'” 46<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Palestinian children were increasingly threatened by civilian settlers who were militarily and financially supported by the occupation authorities. 47<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Children were made to feel inferior by settlers who were better off, permitted to defend themselves with firearms and benefited from a favourable application of the law.48<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Increases in violent confrontations instigated by settlers against the Palestinian population rendered Palestinian children’s lives frequently unprotected against crime and cruelty.\u00a0\u00a0M. Benvenisti made the following statement in connection with an attack by some 200 settlers on unarmed refugee families in the Dehaishe camp on 6 June 1987:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “A growing number of settlers refuse to follow even the guidance of Gush radicals, and influenced by Rabbi Kahane’s KACH hoodlums, they embark on murderous vendettas against defenseless Arabs, (Dehaishe Camp, June 1987)”. 49<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The third development directly increasing the plight of Palestinian children during the 1980s was an unprecedented level of conflict, repression and violence in the occupied territories even before the Palestinian uprising began in December 1987.\u00a0\u00a0M. Benvenisti observed a proliferation of harsh government enforcement policies:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Government enforcement policies in the territories were harsher under the national unity government.\u00a0\u00a0Strong-arm tactics, such as deportation, the demolition and sealing of houses and administrative detention, had proliferated.” 50<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During the early 1980s, the occupation authorities had devised a number of pacifying policies and employed administrative techniques to “impose the Israeli version of autonomy”. 51<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0From 1981 onwards, civil administration and village leagues aimed at restructuring the socio-political environment of Palestinian communities to make occupation palatable and promote a local Palestinian leadership.\u00a0\u00a0When these policies proved to be a failure, the “iron-fist” and “strong-arm” policies were intensified in 1985 leading to the increased loss of life and injury of children as well as violent interference with their universal rights to personal security, family, education and health.52<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In that year, Palestinian children and youths living in the Gaza Strip were the first to respond to the increase in repression with the street-level, mostly non-militant shabibah<\/u>\u00a0movement culminating in 1987 in the Palestinian popular uprising.53<\/u>\/<\/div>\n<\/div>\n By the late 1980s, two generations of Palestinian children had grown up under military occupation which showed no sign of coming to an end.\u00a0\u00a0The children of 1967 had become adults and their children experienced the accumulated pain of a generation enduring a childhood under military occupation.\u00a0\u00a0In particular since the early 1980s Palestinian children suffered from severe economic deprivation and the policies of the occupying Power. Collective punishments, beatings, arrests, deportations, curfews, school closures, interruptions of health and welfare services, refusals to issue building permits for homes and restrictions regarding the reunification of families abounded.\u00a0\u00a0These aggravated the effects of serious economic problems as well as the consequences of the large-scale appropriation of land and water resources and of the establishment of tens of thousands of settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory by the occupying Power.\u00a0\u00a0An unprecedented degree of frustration and rage accumulated in Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0Since December 1987, the Palestinian popular uprising, the intifadah<\/u>, has provided an unequivocal expression of the determination of Palestinian people, particularly the children, not to accept occupation, humiliation and deprivation which were imposed on their parents and from which their families and they continue to suffer.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n III.\u00a0\u00a0 Education<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The plight of Palestinian children in the area of formal education could be seen between 1967 and 1987 in the inordinate efforts children had to make to overcome the very difficult material conditions prevailing at school, the constraints on school curricula relating to Palestinian history, culture and nationality as well as the feeling of futility of excelling in education when military occupation consistently prevented the sound application of talents, knowledge and skills.\u00a0\u00a0It will become apparent in the discussion below that, during more than 20 years of military occupation, the universal right of Palestinian children to education was violated frequently and in many ways.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n This chapter describes principal institutions of formal education for Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem,\u00a0\u00a0presents basic indicators for the educational achievements attained by Palestinian children despite very adverse circumstances and discusses fundamental problems in the area of formal education under conditions of military occupation before the Palestinian uprising began in December 1987.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Palestinian children living in the occupied territories received formal education through institutions managed by the occupying authorities, private organizations and UNRWA (see tables 2 and 3). 54<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Over 60 per cent were institutions controlled by the Government of the occupation authorities.\u00a0\u00a0These institutions included kindergarten schools for children below 6 years of age; elementary schools for children between 6 and 12 years of age; and preparatory schools for children between 13 and 15 years of age.\u00a0\u00a0The elementary and preparatory levels were compulsory, serving free of charge, in 1987\/88, well over 400,000 pupils.\u00a0\u00a0Schools in the Gaza Strip followed the Egyptian curriculum and those in the West Bank the Jordanian curriculum, except for Jerusalem, where schools were compelled to follow the educational system of Israel, the occupying Power.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Table 2.\u00a0\u00a0 Palestinian educational institutions<\/u>,<\/div>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 classes and pupils estimates<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| <\/td>\n | \n Gaza Strip<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n West Bank excl. Jerusalem<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Total<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n School Year 1987\/88<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0TOTAL<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n INSTITUTIONS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0316<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,199<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,515<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n CLASSES<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a04,218<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a09,344<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a013,562<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n PUPILS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 176,686<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 310,517<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 487,203<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Institutions<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0105<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0831<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0936<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Classes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,932<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a06,871<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a08,803<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Pupils<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a077,917<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 235,398<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 313,315<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n UNRWA INSTITUTIONS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Institutions<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0162<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0100<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0262<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Classes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a02,025<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,183<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a03,208<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Pupils<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a090,713<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a040,678<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 131,391<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n OTHER INSTITUTIONS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Institutions<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a049<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0268<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0317<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Classes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0261<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,290<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,551<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Pupils<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a08,056<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a034,441<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a042,497<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n School year 1986\/87<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Institutions<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0305<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,142<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,447<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Classes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a04,087<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a08,972<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a013,059<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Pupils<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 174,406<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 300,939<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 475,345<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n School year 1967\/68<\/u><\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Institutions<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0166<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0821<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0987<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Classes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a01,746<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a04,402<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0\u00a06,148<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Pupils<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a080,050<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 142,216<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 222,266<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Sources<\/u>:\u00a0\u00a0It should be noted that the number of pupils and educational institutions in the occupied Palestinian territory has not been conclusively determined for decades.\u00a0\u00a0Statistical Abstract of Israel, 1988<\/u>, table XXVII\/47; Palestinian Statistical Abstract<\/u>\u00a0of 1984\/1985<\/u>, tables II\/22 and III\/22.\u00a0\u00a0As of October 1987, UNRWA reported responsibi- lity\u00a0\u00a0for 146 schools in the Gaza Strip and 98 schools in the West Bank as well as 128,711 refugee pupils there (see Official Records of the General Assembly<\/u>, Forty-third Session, Supplement No. 13<\/u>\u00a0(A\/43\/13), table 5).<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Table 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Palestinian pupils per type of<\/u><\/div>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 educational institution estimates<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \n\n\n| <\/td>\n | \n 1987\/88<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1986\/87<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | \n 1967\/68<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| <\/td>\n | \n Gaza Strip<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n West Bank, excl. Jerusalem<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Total<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n Total<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | \n Total<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | \n of which at UNRWA Institutions:<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n PUPILS<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n TOTAL<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 176,686<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 310,517<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 487,203<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 131,391<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 475,345<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 222,266<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Kindergartens<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 6,940<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 18,712<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 25,652<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,370<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 22,024<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 3,850<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Elementary schools<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 109,772<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 184,703<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 294,475<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 92,431<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 289,613<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 162,051<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Preparatory schools<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 39,765<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 69,190<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 108,955<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 36,450<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 105,570<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 40,177<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Post-primary schools<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 19,379<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 36,725<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 56,104<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 577<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 56,082<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 15,910<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \n Teacher training colleges<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 830<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 1,187<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2,017<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 473<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 2,056<\/p>\n<\/td>\n | \n 278<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Sources<\/u>:\u00a0\u00a0It should be noted that the number of pupils and educational institutions in the occupied Palestinian territory has not been conclusively determined for decades.\u00a0\u00a0Statistical<\/u>\u00a0Abstract of Israel, 1988<\/u>, table XXVII\/48; Palestinian Statistical Abstract<\/u>\u00a0of 1984\/1985<\/u>, tables II\/21 and III\/21.\u00a0\u00a0As of October 1987, UNRWA reported 128,711 refugee pupils receiving education in UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (see Official Records of the General<\/u>\u00a0Assembly, Forty-third Session, Supplement No. 13<\/u>\u00a0(A\/43\/13), table 5).<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Educational attainment of Palestinian children after 1967 was initially reflected by a number of basic indicators. 55<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0For example, illiteracy among Palestinian adults was reduced substantially by the mid-1970s, leaving traces only in very remote rural areas and among the elderly, often\u00a0\u00a0women.56<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Also, the number of pupils per generation of Palestinian children increased steadily; in the early 1980s primary school enrolment had included about 90 per cent of Palestinian children.57<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In particular, the participation of girls in formal education improved from just over 40 per cent of Palestinian children in the late 1960s to about 47 per cent in the early 1980s.58<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Lastly, during the 1970s, an increasingly higher percentage of school children\u00a0\u00a0passed\u00a0\u00a0examinations\u00a0\u00a0and proceeded, at 15 years of age, to secondary school.59<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n A number of indicators qualifies the above data relating to the educational development of Palestinian children under occupation.\u00a0\u00a0Even though the enrolment in kindergarten had substantially increased between 1967\/68 and 1987\/88, thereby preparing for the educational attainment of Palestinian children, it included only a very small proportion of future primary school pupils. 60<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Also, during the 1970s, the drop-out rate of primary school pupils was reported to be over 20 per cent.61<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, the increasing percentage of school children recorded in the late 1970s as proceeding at 15 years of age from compulsory schooling to the voluntary secondary level reportedly declined in the early 1980s.62<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Lastly, the number of students attending teacher training colleges reportedly decreased after the mid-1970s.63<\/u>\/ Teachers of Palestinian children did not have appropriate incentives and working conditions that would attract educated Palestinians into the profession. Teachers were in short supply despite an enormous need for qualified staff.64<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The conditions of military occupation under which formal education took place in the Palestinian territory between 1967 and 1987 required special efforts by Palestinian children and teachers and often had lasting debilitating effects on pupils, including physical injury and the loss of life.\u00a0\u00a0In the day-to-day experience of schooling, Palestinian pupils suffered especially in three areas, which will be presented below.\u00a0\u00a0These were the administrative and frequently military interference with education by the occupation authorities; the lack and substandard quality of premises; and overcrowded classes.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n First, formal education of Palestinian children living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, was systematically controlled by the occupation authorities.\u00a0\u00a0As noted, most schools were administered by the occupying Power.\u00a0\u00a0The occupation authorities applied a number of policies\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0measures\u00a0\u00a0that interfered directly with\u00a0\u00a0the\u00a0\u00a0contents and operation of schooling.\u00a0\u00a0In the 1980s, the military authorities increasingly resorted to closing schools as a collective punishment and committed acts of violence on school premises.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The contents of school curricula was a crucial concern of those ultimately responsible for the education of Palestinian children, notably parents and educators.\u00a0\u00a0The consequences of the annexation of Jerusalem as well as administrative requirements and educational policies of the occupying Power contributed to modifying the original Jordanian and Egyptian curricula, teaching subjects and materials.\u00a0\u00a0At government schools, the control of teaching contents was carried out through the political screening of teachers, the licensing of textbooks as well as the prescription and confiscation of teaching material, including maps. 65<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0The 1984 annual report of UNRWA to the General Assembly of the 黑料专区 provided the following figures:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “The 142 textbooks prescribed for Jordan are also the prescribed textbooks for the West Bank.\u00a0\u00a0Of the 108 approved by UNESCO, the Israeli authorities have refused import permits for nine. …<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “The total number of textbooks prescribed by the Egyptian Ministry of Education was 120; of these UNESCO has approved 81, of which the occupation authorities have permitted the importation of 70 and disallowed the importation of 11.” 66<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The occupation authorities aimed at eradicating from teaching material what they considered as anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish or nationalistic incitement.\u00a0\u00a0At the same time, they prevented a presentation and appreciation of Palestinian history, culture and politics acceptable to Palestinians. 67<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Although the censorship of newspapers was of no immediate concern to most school children, the prohibition of dozens of textbooks and books of general interest hindered the educational development of Palestinian children.68<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Censorship, licensing requirements and severe administrative regulations were widely imposed.\u00a0\u00a0Pupils were expelled, teachers dismissed and schools closed. 69<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0There were also instances of pupils being transferred to schools outside their area of residence and roadblocks and checkpoints were erected on the way to school.70<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Military forces disturbing teaching in progress and the tear-gassing, beating and harassing of pupils increased in the 1980s prior to the intifadah<\/u>, resulting at times in the death of pupils.71<\/u>\/ The direct interference with schooling by the military authorities was often very violent.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Secondly, the education of Palestinian children suffered because of the lack of classrooms as well as the prevalence of substandard and dilapidated premises.\u00a0\u00a0Few new schools were built by the authorities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, until the late 1970s.\u00a0\u00a0Licensing requirements enforced by the occupation authorities and meagre funds for education were regarded as key factors contributing to the lack and substandard quality of educational facilities.\u00a0\u00a0Many schools had to introduce double-shift teaching to provide a minimal amount of formal education to Palestinian children. 72<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0A recent study found that some 2,000 classrooms would be needed to provide acceptable material conditions in formal education.73<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Thirdly, the average pupil-teacher ratio in the 1980s was over 30 to 1, reflecting overcrowding and a serious strain on teaching in individual classes. 74<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In 1987, the ratio of pupils per elementary school class was reportedly as high as 35 to 1.75<\/u>\/ In the mid-1980s, the number of classes available in the West Bank was reportedly lower than in the early 1980s.76<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In addition to the above-mentioned problem of the insufficient availability of adequate school premises, an increasing number of pupils and a lack of qualified teachers were regarded as contributing to overcrowding in Palestinian schools.77<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Overcrowded classes had a negative effect on both Palestinian pupils and their teachers.\u00a0\u00a0Teaching methods had to be confined largely to those with a low didactic quality.\u00a0\u00a0Learning had to take place by rote and memorization drills rather than through discussion, tutoring and problem-solving.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In conclusion, the education of Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territory became a continuous source of grievances and resentment during over 20 years of military occupation.\u00a0\u00a0Some of the main factors impairing between 1967 and 1987 the educational development of Palestinian\u00a0\u00a0children in the occupied territoriy were military attacks on educational institutions; the closing of schools; the screening, hiring and dismissal of teachers based on political considerations; the modification of school curricula; and the unavailability of adequate teaching staff, premises and equipment.\u00a0\u00a0The time pupils were forced to spend away from school prevented many of them from acquiring basic skills and, at times, from taking examinations required to advance to the next level of instruction.\u00a0\u00a0Inadequate conditions for learning have jeopardized both the education and cultural development of Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0The anger at education policies was aggravated especially during the 1980s when pupils frequently became the target of very harsh repressive measures carried out by the occupying Power on school premises.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n IV.\u00a0\u00a0 Health<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The plight of Palestinian children under military occupation with regard to health was reflected since 1967 in the following fields.\u00a0\u00a0These were the prevalence of common childhood, dehydration-related and respiratory diseases and of nutritional deficiencies; the decentralization of public health care in place of curative, specialist and hospital services; and the staggering cost of public health care.\u00a0\u00a0The poor health of Palestinian children was closely related to poverty and unsanitary environmental health conditions in overcrowded homes and congested communities.\u00a0\u00a0The mental and emotional well-being of children became a particularly urgent concern in the 1980s when the occupation authorities began taking very harsh law enforcement measures injuring and killing an increasing number of Palestinian children.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n This chapter will present basic health institutions and indicators concerning Palestinian children living in the occupied Palestinian territory during the period 1967 to 1987.\u00a0\u00a0It will then discuss major medical problems that contributed to impairing the health of Palestinian children before the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0began in December 1987.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During the period from 1967 to 1987 the occupying Power controlled over 80 per cent of the health services in the occupied Palestinian territory. 78<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0UNRWA and private organizations also provided pediatric health care.\u00a0\u00a0Between 1984 and 1987, two hospitals, including one in Jerusalem making specialist services available to Palestinians, were closed and the number of actual beds and hospitalization days also decreased slightly; at the same time, the number of hospitalized patients increased by some 10 per cent.79<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0During a period of growing demand for health services in the 1980s, a freeze of public expenditure in the governmental health sector depressed further the hitherto merely adequate health conditions of Palestinian children.80<\/u>\/Hospitals were considered as inadequately equipped and as being often in a state of disrepair.81<\/u>\/ Hundreds of small villages had no primary health care centres. Specialized services such as, for example, cancer treatment needed by some 200 terminally ill Palestinian children, were largely unavailable in the occupied Palestinian territory.82<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In the 1980s, an increasing shortage of paediatric services in the West Bank as well as long waiting lists for patients requiring special examinations or surgical operations were also recorded.83<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During more than 20 years of military occupation, there was recurrent criticism of the way in which authorities provided health services with little independent participation on the part of Palestinian parents and professionals ultimately responsible for the health of Palestinian children. 84<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Since the late 1970s, changes in the financing of public health services have made the use of paediatric health care more expensive for Palestinian families.\u00a0\u00a0Medical services in connection with childbirth and for children up to six years of age were largely free of charge until the early 1980s;\u00a0\u00a0in the mid-1980s, the age threshold was lowered to include only one- and two-year-old infants. 85<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0A voluntary health insurance scheme was introduced in the late 1970s to put the user of health services in a position to contribute to meeting the cost of public health care that hitherto had also been virtually free of charge.86<\/u>\/ Participation in the scheme declined substantially in the early 1980s; during that period, the monthly insurance payment almost doubled from approximately US$8 to US$15 when economic recession already had a negative impact on family incomes.87<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0As the economic cost to families requiring public health services for children rose considerably in the 1980s, many Palestinian children suffered.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n A decentralization of public health services from curative, often hospital-based services to more preventive, community-based services was carried out by the occupying Power in two steps.\u00a0\u00a0The first step included immunization campaigns, the treatment of diarrhoeal diseases at the community level, the establishment of governmental maternal and child health centres and the promotion of environmental health education.\u00a0\u00a0The number of maternal child health centres increased from about 23 in 1968 to some 126 in 1986 and the number of general community clinics rose in the 1980s. 88<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0The number of births in hospitals and clinics increased between 1968 and 1987 from 3,463 to 22,468 and a hospital development project on the West Bank was continuing.89<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Basic indicators of the physical health of Palestinian children living in the occupied\u00a0\u00a0West Bank and\u00a0\u00a0Gaza Strip,\u00a0\u00a0including\u00a0\u00a0Jerusalem, improved for some time after 1967. 90<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Even though reliable data are not available, studies reported that until the mid-1980s the infant mortality rate was largely declining, to approximately 30 per 1,000 live births, life expectancy was increasing, and the general appearance of school children indicated a satisfactory nutritional status;91<\/u>\/ a progressively smaller number of Palestinian children, less than 7 per cent in 1983, suffered from low birth weight below 2,500 grams;92<\/u>\/ and an almost universal child immunization campaign carried out by the occupying Power substantially reduced common childhood diseases such as diphtheria, polio, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis as well as most measles outbreak.93<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Despite improvements, the absolute levels of these health indicators were, however, considered as inadequate; for instance, the reported infant mortality rate in the occupied Palestinian territory of about 30 per 1,000 live births included a disturbing variation featuring extremely high counts of well over 100 per 1,000 in rural areas of the West Bank.\u00a0\u00a0It also compared unfavourably to rates found elsewhere during the mid-1980s such as approximately 18 per 1,000 among the non-Jewish population of Israel and just under 10 per 1,000 among the Jewish population of Israel.94<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The second step towards decentralizing public health services affecting Palestinian children was taken by the occupying Power during the mid-1980s.\u00a0\u00a0It attempted to reach Palestinian communities and families in over 200 villages without maternal and child health care centres.\u00a0\u00a0The occupation authorities, the 黑料专区 Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) co-operate in projects designed to train and supervise dayahs<\/u>, traditional local birth attendants, in order to improve the utilization of primary health services.95<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Projects were started in 50 villages in the outskirts of Hebron and 10 villages in the vicinity of Jericho.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Before the beginning of the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0in December 1987, health care for Palestinian children urgently required solutions in a number of areas. Respiratory diseases, associated with cold injury, became increasingly the major cause of the death of Palestinian children, particularly during winter.96<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Also, the control of tuberculosis remained an issue requiring substantial efforts in certain localities; immunization of children at schools was suggested as a remedy.97<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Subsistence-level family incomes and poor environmental hygiene continued to be a weakening factor in efforts to maintain the health of Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0Nutritional problems became acute when economic problems increased in the 1980s; low birth weights and persisting nutritional deficiencies resulted and undermined further the often extremely vulnerable health conditions of Palestinian children. 98<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0A healthy environment at home and in the community was considered to have, as a rule, a very positive impact on controlling children’s diseases.99<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0To that end, in many communities, the degree of salinity of drinking water needed to be lowered to acceptable levels; main sewage systems had to be constructed; and rodents had to be exterminated with more effective means in some communities to improve the environmental hygiene for children.100<\/u>\/ In the mid-1980s there were reports that drinking water sometimes mixed with waste water, particularly in refugee camps.101<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Mental health of children became an area of urgent concern in the mid-1980s requiring service delivery, data collection and planning.\u00a0\u00a0In the early 1980s, coinciding with the adoption of often brutal law enforcement policies, an increase in psychiatric disorders of the population was recognized. 102<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Although the provision of services to the severely mentally ill had reportedly shown signs of improvement between 1984 and 1985,103<\/u>\/ many less tangible mental and emotional disturbances of a general nature remained to be alleviated.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In the late 1960s, during the early years of military occupation, the future of Palestinian children had appeared hazardous and ill-defined at best.\u00a0\u00a0Surviving a childhood after war and adjusting to the threatening transition to military occupation required of that generation of Palestinian children an inordinate amount of steadfastness, mental strength and emotional maturity.\u00a0\u00a0A personal representative of the Director-General of WHO, examining the mental health situation of Palestinian society in the early 1970s, concluded as follows:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “The concept of mental health is linked with the different norms of varied cultural patterns.\u00a0\u00a0Any attempt to appraise the state of mental health of a population as a whole is therefore fraught with the utmost difficulty.\u00a0\u00a0While the\u00a0\u00a0Representative of the\u00a0\u00a0Director-General\u00a0\u00a0encountered\u00a0\u00a0no evidence of an increased incidence of overt neuroses or psychoses in the population of the occupied territories at the time of his visit, it is at least questionable whether those who are obliged to live in the occupied territories enjoy mental health in the wider – if rather ill-defined – sense of term.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “According to an authoritative Arab source in the area, the crisis of 1967 resulted in an enhanced incidence of mental disturbances.\u00a0\u00a0However, he believed that the situation has now reverted to its previous level, and that the majority of the affected population have adjusted to the present conditions in the hope that the future will bring a solution to their problems.” 104<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n A particularly harmful incident, suggesting the return of very precarious mental health conditions of Palestinian children, occurred at the end of March and in April 1983.\u00a0\u00a0The incident involved the acute, poisoning-like illness of Palestinian schoolchildren, especially girls, in Jenin, Arraba, Tulkarm and the Al-Khalil, Hebron, region of the occupied West Bank.\u00a0\u00a0A team of researchers from the United States Department of Health and Human Service, Centers of Disease Control, invited by the occupying Power, found that the epidemic was induced by anxiety.\u00a0\u00a0The following quote from a summary of the researchers’ findings was communicated in 1983 to the Director-General of UNESCO:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “‘We conclude that this epidemic of acute illness was induced by anxiety.\u00a0\u00a0It may have been triggered initially either by psychological factors or by sub-toxic exposure to H2S.\u00a0\u00a0Its subsequent spread was mediated by psychogenic factors.\u00a0\u00a0Newspaper and radio reports may have contributed to this spread.\u00a0\u00a0The epidemic ended after West Bank schools were closed.\u00a0\u00a0We observed no evidence of malingering or of deliberate fabrication of symptoms.'” 105<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Notwithstanding the results of a comprehensive professional analysis of mental health problems among Palestinian children living under occupation, a common form of psychological damage was likely to have resulted every time children were separated from parents, witnessed the harassment of family members or had to look on as their homes were destroyed; children are considered to be least capable of coping with the overpowering consequences of violent conflicts and recurring humiliation. 106<\/u>\/ Emotional problems were exacerbated enormously when the “strong-arm” and “iron-fist” policies were adopted by the occupation authorities in the first half of the 1980s to control and discipline the Palestinian population, including children.\u00a0\u00a0Mental health issues identified in the sources cited above needed to be addressed urgently in the mid-1980s for the sake of the individual Palestinian child suffering as well as Palestinian society at large.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n In view of the findings discussed in this chapter, it may be concluded that the physical and mental health of Palestinian children was not properly protected by the occupation authorities during more than 20 years of military occupation.\u00a0\u00a0Among the health needs identified as particularly acute in the mid-1980s were respiratory diseases, nutritional deficiencies, poor environmental hygiene and mental health problems.\u00a0\u00a0The violent events connected with the Palestinian popular uprising since 1987 have destroyed much of the health infrastructure serving Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0The demand for health care, including emergency services needed by thousands of injured Palestinian children, has dramatically risen.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n V.\u00a0\u00a0 Personal security<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Every child has the right to personal security, including the rights to life, liberty and freedom of expression, to a name and nationality as well as to freedom from oppression, fear and intimidation.\u00a0\u00a0Military occupation itself constitutes a violation of the right to personal security as the protection of life, limb, body, reputation and personal liberty of a child is predicated upon the requirements and at the discretion of the occupying Power.\u00a0\u00a0In addition to military occupation, the legal system and law enforcement practices adopted by the occupation authorities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, further circumscribed the right of the Palestinian child to personal security.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Since 1967 two generations of Palestinian children have been subjected to a dual and discriminatory system of governance.\u00a0\u00a0A recent United States Government report on human rights practices describes salient features of the legal system prevailing in most of the occupied Palestinian territory:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Jewish settlers in the occupied territories are subject to Israeli law while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military occupation law.\u00a0\u00a0Under the dual system of governance applied to Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinians are treated less favorably than Jewish settlers in the same areas on a broad range of issues, such as the right to legal process, rights of residency, freedom of movement, sale of crops and goods, land and water use, and access to health and social services.” 107<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Palestinian children in Jerusalem have become second-class citizens in the state of the occupying Power once the city was annexed.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Violations of the right to personal security of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, involved five main areas in the period from 1967 to 1987.\u00a0\u00a0These are the violent loss of life and infliction of injury; arrest and detention, including instances of cruel treatment; disregard of the nationality status of Palestinian children; interference with the right to personal expression and worship; and use of collective punishment.\u00a0\u00a0The violations of the child’s right to personal security discussed in this chapter are not exhaustive.\u00a0\u00a0They are merely illustrative of the personal plight of Palestinian children.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Causing the death of a child and inflicting physical injury on a child may be regarded as two of the most fundamental violations of the right to personal security.\u00a0\u00a0In the course of the mid-1980s alone, over 20 Palestinian children were killed or severely wounded in such occurrences as travelling in a vehicle that did not stop for questioning by soldiers, playing with explosives, stepping on a mine or participating in a demonstration; still other\u00a0\u00a0children were killed, kidnapped or beaten by settlers. 108<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Although violent death or injuries may be inflicted on children by accident, the occupation authorities brought about situations that inadvertently increased the risk of injuring or killing a Palestinian child.\u00a0\u00a0Between 1967 and 1987, there were many instances of a child being harmed during an arrest of a family member; a raid on school premises; or a gunfire attack on a demonstration. 109<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0During the early 1980s, the practice of firing ammunition in the air or at the ground in order to disperse demonstrators was considered dangerously close to inflicting injuries deliberately on Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0An Israeli soldier reportedly testified that in the yard of the military government headquarters at El Bireh he saw in 1982 a child of less than 12 year of age being kicked and punched by three soldiers; the following account given by the soldier was published by K. Coates:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “‘All three of them were kicking him and hitting him in turn.\u00a0\u00a0I was shocked.\u00a0\u00a0For a child of less than 12 to undergo such a terrible experience – it’s something he’ll never forget. Suddenly a military\u00a0\u00a0vehicle drew up and three\u00a0\u00a0other young boys were brought in.\u00a0\u00a0I was told they had threatened shopkeepers in the centre of El Bireh.\u00a0\u00a0The scene that followed was one of the most distressing I have ever seen: brutality and cruelty such as I had never before witnessed.'” 110<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The arrest of a child, imprisonment without due process of law and cruel treatment of detained children were particularly disturbing violations of the right of the Palestinian child to personal security during 20 years of military occupation. 111<\/u>\/ Since November 1987 special permission by the military command has been required for detaining a Palestinian child under 14 years of age.112<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0However, children could always be detained incommunicado for up to 14 days.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Reliable, verifiable information regarding the torture of detained children under 15 years of age is scarce. 113<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Reports indicate, for example, the use of cruel interrogation techniques, lack of sufficient medical care as well as detention of children under overcrowded conditions and on the same premises as adults at Al-Fara’a detention centre in 1985.114<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Information on an incident of ill-treatment of detained children was reported in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz<\/u>\u00a0in November 1987 and presented in a recent 黑料专区 document as follows:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “On 2 November 1987, the Southern Region military court sentenced five soldiers to prison terms, suspended terms and demotion for ill-treatment of detainees in the Ansar 2 facility in the Gaza Strip.\u00a0\u00a0According to the charge sheet, the five soldiers, including the commander of the local Military Police, with the rank of lieutenant, had beaten and kicked children aged 12 to 14 from Gaza who were detained following disorders.” 115<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Oral testimonies also reveal instances of cruel treatment of Palestinian children during detention.\u00a0\u00a0For example, testimonies show that, since 1969, children under 15 years of age were detained with adults, adults, punished with solitary confinement and beaten. 116<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Even though a significant drop in the number of complaints of torture during the interrogation of detained Palestinians was recorded for the period 1977 to 1984, the number was reported to have risen again considerably by the mid-1980s.118<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The right of Palestinian children to an internationally recognized nationality was disregarded since military occupation of the Palestinian territory began in 1967.\u00a0\u00a0For example, Palestinian children living in Jerusalem were confronted with a change in national status and sovereignty when the occupation authorities incorporated the city into the State of the occupying Power in 1980.\u00a0\u00a0In the Gaza Strip, most Palestinian children grew up since 1967 as stateless persons. 118<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0The geographic and cultural designation “Palestine” was banned and expressions of Palestinian nationalism were eradicated from Palestinian life.\u00a0\u00a0Any reference to Palestinian political culture and national identity, as in the arts or by using the colours of the Palestinian flag, was prohibited by law.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During 20 years of occupation, a Palestinian child’s right to personal expression was almost continuously violated. 119<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0For example, when children sang songs, acted in plays or wore traditional clothes, they had to be constantly on the alert that the occupation authorities did not regard these activities as nationalistic or otherwise undesirable.\u00a0\u00a0The self-image of Palestinian children suffered as a result.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The Palestinian child’s right to worship was also repeatedly interfered with.\u00a0\u00a0The occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, are home to some of the most ancient and revered Holy Places of Judaism, Christianity and Islam traditionally maintained by Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0Between 1967 and 1987, the occupation authorities destroyed religious property, waqf<\/u>, restricted access to the Holy Places, prohibited religious activities and stormed places of worship to make arrests.120<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Punitive and preventive measures of an increasingly collective nature directly affecting Palestinian children have been adopted by the occupation authorities since 1967.\u00a0\u00a0Collective punishments included the demolition and sealing of homes and rooms as well as the blocking and sealing of streets. 121<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Between 1967 and 1987, hundreds of houses were destroyed,\u00a0\u00a0making\u00a0\u00a0children\u00a0\u00a0homeless and extremely\u00a0\u00a0vulnerable\u00a0\u00a0as owners were not allowed to rebuild premises.122<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Collective punishments included the destabilization of families through cruel forms of arrests, the deportation of parents and the prevention or slow authorization of family reunifications.123<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Lastly, in the 1980s, punitive measures affecting whole communities comprised frequent curfews, area-based travel restrictions and mass detentions of civilians for questioning.124<\/u>\/ The hours and days children spent in confinement because of house arrest, curfews and travel bans cannot be accurately enumerated.\u00a0\u00a0These measures rendered the lives of Palestinian children intolerable in a physical sense, constraining their very ability to move.\u00a0\u00a0The consequences of collective punishment were particularly damaging to young children, who need the stability and protection of a home and family.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Violations of the right to personal security of Palestinian children abounded in the occupied territories.\u00a0\u00a0These violations affected all aspects of a child’s life and, in several cases, led to the death of a Palestinian child.\u00a0\u00a0The most serious violations were committed when Palestinian children were detained.\u00a0\u00a0The increasing occurrence of arrests of Palestinian children, in particular in the 1980s, caused great concern.\u00a0\u00a0A number of cases of cruel treatment, or torture, of detained children under 15 years of age was related in oral testimonies.\u00a0\u00a0Also, military occupation entailed a variety of collective punishments and persistently incurred violations of basic human rights to nationality, expression, worship, shelter and family.\u00a0\u00a0An atmosphere of increasing confrontation and repression in the occupied territories placed an additional traumatizing burden on Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0During 20 years of\u00a0\u00a0occupation,\u00a0\u00a0Palestinian\u00a0\u00a0children\u00a0\u00a0have\u00a0\u00a0been\u00a0\u00a0victimized\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0were, de facto<\/u>, unprotected by existing legal instruments.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n VI.\u00a0\u00a0The intifadah<\/u><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Twenty years of humiliation, expropriation and repression in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Jerusalem, erupted into a war-like situation during December 1987.\u00a0\u00a0Palestinians from all walks of life, children, youth, women, merchants and labourers, have since carried out massive demonstrations, economic boycotts and strikes protesting the continuing occupation of their land and demanding national independence.\u00a0\u00a0The extent and duration of the Palestinian popular uprising, the intifadah<\/u>, are unprecedented. The largely decentralized, spontaneous and non-military nature of the uprising has serious implications for Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0Children are involved in the uprising both as participants and bystanders.\u00a0\u00a0As a group they have become defenceless victims of violence, human rights violations and economic paralysis.\u00a0\u00a0Many innocent children, including more than two dozen infants and small children, were reportedly killed during the first 12 months of the intifadah<\/u>.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n An unusually high degree of confrontation and repression in the occupied territories defined the day-to-day lives of Palestinian children during the first year of the intifadah<\/u>.\u00a0\u00a0The United States Government’s report on human rights practices for 1988 found a “substantial increase in human rights violations”.125<\/u>\/ These developments were considered to constitute a new phase in the plight of Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territory.126<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n As early as 1985, when the “iron-fist” and “strong-arm” policies were intensified by the occupation authorities to quell any resistance to military occupation, groups of young Palestinians, shabibah<\/u>, took to the streets of the Gaza Strip.127<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0These young people confronted military forces, border guards and the police, defying threats to their lives to end occupation.\u00a0\u00a0During the period from 1982 to 1987, per year over 3,000 instances of violent demonstrations were identified.128<\/u>\/ “Local initiative, rather than externally controlled violence, as an expression of resistance, …”129<\/u>\/ was increasing in\u00a0\u00a0the 1980s.\u00a0\u00a0With the beginning of the intifadah<\/u>, a spontaneous outburst of protest to 20 years of occupation, repressive policies and violence escalated.130<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Hundreds of Palestinians have since been killed; thousands injured and detained; homes destroyed and virtually all schools closed; health, utility and food services interrupted; whole villages and regions placed under curfew; as well as thousands of cultivated trees uprooted and crops destroyed.131<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0The policy of “force, might and beatings” was adopted by the occupation authorities in January 1988 to suppress the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0and instil fear; it unleashed an “essentially uncontrolled epidemic of violence”132<\/u>\/ brutalizing Palestinian children physically and psychologically, many for the rest of their lives.\u00a0\u00a0Information for the account below was taken from the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz<\/u>\u00a0and related in a recent 黑料专区 document as follows:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “On 16 May 1988, it was reported that, according to reservists who finished doing their service in the territories, acts of vandalism, ill-treatment and degradation of Arab civilians by some of the soldiers have become a norm that no one was trying to combat.\u00a0\u00a0Such acts ranged from forcing persons to take off their clothes during searches to beating and acts of vandalism inside homes, after the arrest of their occupants.” 133<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Children under 15 years of age became one of the most vulnerable victims of repression, collective and individual punishments as well as siege conditions.\u00a0\u00a0Within the first week of the intifadah<\/u>, an infant was killed.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n This chapter will discuss events that were particularly debilitating for Palestinian children during the first 13 months of the intifadah<\/u>. Between December 1987 and December 1988, the plight of Palestinian children was exacerbated when the occupation authorities adopted policies and violent repressive measures that resulted in the loss of life and physical injury of children; the arrest and detention of children; the destruction of family and community life; the violation of a child’s rights to education, health, worship and association; and in the suffering of very young Palestinian children.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n First, the violent loss of life of Palestinian children, including through miscarriages, increased dramatically during the first year of the uprising\u00a0\u00a0compared\u00a0\u00a0with\u00a0\u00a0earlier\u00a0\u00a0years of occupation. 134<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A list of 32 infants and young children under the age of 10 who reportedly lost their lives during the first year of the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0is presented in annex II.\u00a0\u00a0The number of children injured has risen sharply compared with earlier years.\u00a0\u00a0It was estimated that 5 to 10 per cent of Palestinians injured during the first two months of the uprising were children under 11 years of age.135<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0After half a year, their numbers were estimated to be in the hundreds; after a year, thousands of Palestinian children under 15 years of age had been recorded with injuries, many suffering from permanent disability.136<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Injuries were the consequence of systematic beatings, exposure to tear gas and gunshots by live ammunition as well as by plastic and rubber-coated metal bullets.137<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0T. Hammarberg, General-Secretary of the renowned Swedish child welfare organization R\u00e4dda Barnen<\/u>\u00a0which had prepared a survey on Palestinian children during the intifadah<\/u>, was quoted recently by P. Lancaster in The Middle East<\/u>\u00a0as follows:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “‘Perhaps the most striking conclusion is that soldiers in their use of gunfire have deliberately aimed at children and young people.\u00a0\u00a0The injuries are not the result of mistakes and accidents.\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, as the horrifying effects of the army’s methods and gunfire have become clear one is bound to conclude that the continued killings are deliberate'”. 138<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Secondly, the arrest and detention of Palestinian children have become commonplace during the uprising.\u00a0\u00a0For example, during December 1987 and February 1988, several children, aged 12 to 14, were held for suspected serious offences, children between 9 and 11 years of age were arrested and children as young as 11 or 12 years of age were detained. 139<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In April 1988, minors aged 12 to 18 were being held under very harsh\u00a0\u00a0conditions\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0were suffering from serious overcrowding of a detention centre.140<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In May 1988, it was reported that during the first five months of the uprising 20 minors were tried in Gaza for breaking the peace; dozens of children, aged 8 to 12, were arrested in the Gaza Strip during the first week of May 1988 and children, as young as 13 years of age, have reportedly been sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment for throwing stones.141<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0The newsletter of the Women’s Organization for Women Political Prisoners (WOFPP) of Tel Aviv, dated 20 December 1988, provided the following information:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Detention of minors<\/u>:\u00a0\u00a0An increasing number of young girls, mostly fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds have been recently arrested and held in the Russian Compound [in Jerusalem].\u00a0\u00a0A five-year-old boy was kept overnight in the Compound, together with his mother, A’ida ‘Assawi, who was arrested at Allenby Bridge.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “ Maltreatment of children<\/u>:\u00a0\u00a0A WOFPP member, visiting the Dehaisha Refugee Camp was witness to the arrest of an eleven-year-old girl by four armed soldiers.\u00a0\u00a0The soldiers threatened the girl that if she moved,\u00a0\u00a0she would be shot.”142<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Thirdly, families of Palestinian children were intimidated and destabilized, preventing parents from providing a supportive atmosphere for their children.\u00a0\u00a0Cruel forms of arrest and detention of family members have a particularly damaging impact on a child.\u00a0\u00a0Unsuspecting family members who happened to be present at the time of an arrest were taken away, beaten or subjected to the vandalization of their property so as to frighten them and their family subsequently left behind. 143<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Children are particularly susceptible to threats and easily assaulted emotionally by forms of arrest that are designed to instil fear.\u00a0\u00a0Family visits to arrested relatives have become difficult, humiliating or even virtually non-existent as at the Ansar III\/Ketziot mass detention facility located outside the occupied Palestinian territory.144<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Any form of communication between family members and detainees was severely limited, if not made impossible, leaving children uninformed about the fate of their elders.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Towards the end of 1988, troops and police were permitted to enter courtyards of residential buildings; 145<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This further restricted the private sphere of children and their families, rendering them defenceless in virtually all places that ought to provide children with a minimum of physical protection.\u00a0\u00a0The sanctity of the home was suspended.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n During the intifadah<\/u>, family members were increasingly forced by the occupation authorities to police their children in order to prevent the arrest of a child or to bring about the release of a child from detention.\u00a0\u00a0For instance, policies were adopted whereby an arrested child was released only after guardians paid money or signed a statement indicating that the child would not commit an offence in the future.146<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0As the definition as to what constituted an offence was steadily widened, families faced an ever-increasing burden to police and discipline their children.\u00a0\u00a0The following was suggested by a high-ranking official in the Israeli Government, as quoted recently in Le Monde diplomatique<\/u>: “‘One has to get parents so angry at their children that the parents feel like beating them to death.'”147<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0When Palestinian families were compelled to carry out police functions, important emotional ties were also broken, making children suffer.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Fourthly, the use of collective punishment was a principal way in which family and community life was attacked during the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0to the detriment of Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0The large-scale, simultaneous and repeated use of collective punishments witnessed during the first year of the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0was particularly damaging to the social and economic environment of Palestinian children.\u00a0\u00a0Collective punishments relating to alleged security offences included, by December 1988, the demolition or sealing of over 130 homes as well as restriction of utility services, telephone lines, food supplies and financial transactions.148<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0Regarding the interference with food supplies, the Israeli newspaper Al-Hamishmar<\/u>\u00a0published a news item, translated into English by the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights in its report on human rights violations during the Palestinian uprising and partly reproduced below:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “MK Grossman: Blocking Food [Supplies]<\/div>\n Reminds Me of Horrible Scenes;<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Al-Hamishmar<\/u>, 29 March 1988; By: Motti Basok and Yaron Zelig;<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “‘Preventing food supplies from reaching villages that have been sealed off is intolerable.\u00a0\u00a0It has nothing to do with security problems in the territories,’ the chairperson of the Mapam Knesset faction, MK Haika Grossman, wrote to Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin yesterday.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “‘I have learnt from both Jewish and Arab informants that IDF soldiers prevent labourers returning from work in Israel from taking home food their Israeli employers gave them for their families,’ wrote Grossman.\u00a0\u00a0‘This form of collective punishment reminds me of horrible methods that I witnessed elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0These measures do not appear to stem from the evil designs of the soldiers.\u00a0\u00a0They are simply implementing mean-spirited orders.’\u00a0\u00a0Concluding her letter, Grossman asked Minister Rabin to change the orders.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Knesset members Yossi Sarid and Dedi Zucker have demanded that Defence Minister Rabin call an immediate halt to the policy of collective punishment, which they termed cruel.\u00a0\u00a0They issued a call for removing [the supply of] basic foodstuffs necessary for survival from the struggle for control in the territories.<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “They allege that the extension and intensification of collective punishments in the territories since last week have now come to encompass the de<\/u>\u00a0facto<\/u>\u00a0closure of pharmacies, bakeries and grocery stores in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”149<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Collective punishments affecting directly Palestinian children also included long curfews, the blockading of villages and the designation of areas as closed military areas.<\/span>150<\/u><\/span>\/\u00a0\u00a0In its account of human rights violations during the Palestinian uprising between December 1987 and December 1988, entitled “Punishing a Nation”, <\/span>Al-Haq<\/u><\/span>: Law in Service of Man, the West Bank affiliate of the International Commission of Jurists, detailed that during the indicated period a minimum of 1,600 curfews had been imposed by the military authorities in the occupied Palestinian territory; at least\u00a0\u00a0a quarter of these curfews had been prolonged curfews lasting from 3 to 40 days.<\/span>151<\/u><\/span>\/\u00a0\u00a0In this regard the United States Government\u00a0\u00a0report on human rights practices for 1988 stated the following:<\/span><\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Durations of curfews ranged from a few hours to several weeks.\u00a0\u00a0During prolonged curfews, with one week-long exception, people were usually allowed to leave their houses to obtain food and medical care for short, defined periods.\u00a0\u00a0Curfews caused severe hardship.” 152<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The serious deterioration of living conditions of Palestinian children during the first year of the intifadah<\/u>\u00a0has led to a more self-reliant local provision of goods and services by “Palestinians for Palestinians”, often through banned popular committees.153<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0A resistance and survival economy was organized by Palestinians to meet very basic, subsistence-level needs through family and community agriculture.\u00a0\u00a0In its 1989 report of the Director-General, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) noted a purported response by the occupation authorities to the economic survival strategies developed by Palestinians:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “In the opinion of a number of Palestinians interviewed by the Director-General’s representatives, the military authorities seize any excuse to undermine this agricultural subsistence economy.” 154<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The immense efforts to promote self-reliance could not prevent the economic paralysis of families and communities pursued by the occupation authorities. 155<\/u>\/\u00a0\u00a0In the above-mentioned report, ILO transmitted the following estimates indicating the decline of the Palestinian economy:<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “Some observers estimate that living standards have fallen by 50 per cent since the start of the intifadah<\/u>.\u00a0\u00a0According to Palestinian economists, consumer spending in the territories has fallen by 40 per cent.\u00a0\u00a0According to official sources in Israel’s Ministry of Defence, economic activity in the territories has fallen by 30 per cent.”156<\/u>\/<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Shortages of fresh food and milk for infants were recorded towards the end of the first year of the <\/span>intifadah<\/u><\/span>.<\/span>157<\/u><\/span> | | | |