Palestinian Authority: making children violent?

On Wed., Apr. 5, the Yale Friends of Israel sponsored a talk entitled "Human Rights and the Middle East Peace Process," given by Justus Reid Weiner. Weiner is an international human rights lawyer, a scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an adjunct lecturer at Tel Aviv and Hebrew Universities, and an "international speaker and peace process expert." The Herald sat down with Weiner to discuss the subject of his talk, the role of Palestinian children in the peace process.

ERIN I. LEWIS/YH On Wed., Apr. 5, Justus Reid Weiner spoke about human rights in the Middle East peace process at a talk sponsored by the Yale Friends of Israel.

Yale Herald: What are the human rights violations in the Middle East peace process that you hope to bring to light through your talk at Yale?

Justus Reid Weiner: The topic of human rights is enormous, and it is very difficult to even scratch the surface, but I'm going to focus on what I regard as a very important issue—one that I've researched that is getting almost no attention in the media, which is the Palestinian children who are being incited to violence by the Palestinian media.

YH: So the Palestinian media is encouraging children to put their lives at risk by attacking Israeli troops?

JRW: There are a number of factors involved. There's the educational system, the school textbooks, the television broadcasts, radio broadcasts, public statements from the leadership, Yassir Arafat on down. Oftentimes school holidays are declared, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) buses them en masse to the nearest road junction, where they start a riot. Regularly you will find trained snipers concealed in an alley or on rooftops somewhere 50 to 300 yards behind the children taking aim and shooting to kill any Israelis who come out to confront them. Through the smoke of the violence, the TV cameras don't pick up that the children are essentially the bait, the vehicle by which the Palestinian authorities keep the struggle in the headlines and create another generation of hatred, so that the prognosis for peace today is about as dismal as ever.

YH: You mentioned that the Palestinian Authority closes schools and buses children out to Israeli roadblocks. Would you say that there is an intentional effort by the PA to get the children to start these riots?

JRW: Absolutely. Children do not hire buses to take them out of school during school hours and then have the buses deliver them to the nearest Israeli road junction or position. This is anything but a spontaneous matter of individual choice.

YH: So is the PA promoting this violence based in part on the fact that it arouses sympathy for the Palestinian cause?

JRW: It doesn't serve Israeli interest to wound or kill Palestinian children. Anybody who thinks through this will realize that it doesn't do anybody any good. To wound and kill a Palestinian child serves no Israeli interest whatsoever. So whose interest does it serve? To me the answer is obvious. [There is] a move by the Palestinian government to serve its own interests, in terms of hanging on to its prerogatives and power and its group interests in terms of forcing the Palestinian interests onto the front pages and into worldwide evening news broadcasts.

YH: So why do you think Palestinians would allow their children to engage in these violent acts?

JRW: I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. But it's not as if the Palestinian state is a democracy. People are intimidated. It's apparent that whatever private feelings the Palestinian public may have about this [issue], they realize that it is a dangerous proposition to publicly criticize the actions of Arafat or his administration. Why would any society put its children in the front line of an offensive conflict? I don't know.

YH: Do you think that the situation of human rights violations in the Middle East will get worse?

JRW: It goes in waves. I would like to think that if international human rights groups, the State Department, and other foreign governments address this issue that it would have some salutory effect upon the actions of the PA. Maybe they would clean up their school textbooks, maybe they would stop broadcasting sermons of hate, maybe they would prevent the ambulances from being used to carry gunmen and explosives, maybe they would arrest some of the terrorists who were in jails six months ago.

YH: You mentioned that it might help if human rights groups or governments got involved in trying to prevent Palestinian children from turning towards violence. Have any human rights groups adopted this campaign?

JRW: I'm not aware of any human rights group that has made this the focus of a campaign. And this is not just my idea of what is right or wrong—this is international law. Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 says that civilians shouldn't be used as human shields in order to deter the military conduct of the adversary, and that's what the Palestinian gunmen are doing. They're putting the children out in an exposed position while they take potshots at the Israelis.

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