Thread by @Ostrov_A

I am devoting this THREAD to #WorldChildrensDay / #UniversalChildrensDay, which is today.

My key message is that ALL children - #Israeli & #Palestinian - deserve better future, but Hamas & PA is preventing this. This is #NoWayToTreatAChild!

cc. @UNICEF @nmladenov @hrw @amnesty

@UNICEF @nmladenov @hrw @amnesty @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights @UNRWA @nadplo @Palestine_UN @KenRoth @IntlCrimCourt @EUpalestinians @ICRC_ilot @IsraelinUN The #UniversalChildrensDay marks the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by @UN General Assembly in 1959, marked annually to promote, improve and strengthen children’s rights and welfare. 1/

@UNICEF @nmladenov @hrw @amnesty @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights @UNRWA @nadplo @Palestine_UN @KenRoth @IntlCrimCourt @EUpalestinians @ICRC_ilot @IsraelinUN @UN Yet, when the int'l community talks about children’s rights, one group of children that tends to be perennially neglected, is that of #Israeli children to live in peace and free from terror, a right that must be unequivocally and unquestionably afforded to every child. 2/

@UNICEF @nmladenov @hrw @amnesty @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights @UNRWA @nadplo @Palestine_UN @KenRoth @IntlCrimCourt @EUpalestinians @ICRC_ilot @IsraelinUN @UN Did you know 40% of #Israeli children living near #Gaza Strip suffer to from PTSD, while an estimated over 90% of children living in #Sderot, one of the southern most communities closest to Gaza, today suffer from cumulative years of PTSD? 3/

@UNICEF @nmladenov @hrw @amnesty @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights @UNRWA @nadplo @Palestine_UN @KenRoth @IntlCrimCourt @EUpalestinians @ICRC_ilot @IsraelinUN @UN This year alone, at least 1,000 rockets were fired upon southern #Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists from #Gaza, sending thousands of children, running to fortified bomb shelters with their families. 4/

If you are lucky, the ‘Red Alert’ warning system, provides you with 15 seconds notice to seek shelter from an incoming rocket or mortar attack, though often even less, the closer you are to the Gaza border. 5/

Imagine for a moment if you were an Israeli parent with children? 6/

Imagine if you were Miri Tamano, an Israeli mother from Beer’sheva in southern Israel, forced to wake up at 3:43am one October night last month and run to wake up her three young children and rush them to safe shelter, just seconds before a Hamas rocket destroyed their home? 7/

Imagine you were away from your child (or children) when a rocket was fired, like last week, when in the space of four to five hours, Hamas fired at least 300 rockets at Israel, including over 460 in one day? 8/

Or imagine if you were 15-year-old Israeli teen Uriah Hatzroni, from Eshkol, near Gaza, who wrote to @UN Sec-General @antonioguterres pleading for him to understand life of an Israeli teen in bomb shelters, including the “severe symptoms of post-trauma & fear of adandonment.” 9/

Yet the UN and the int'l community have repeatedly turned their backs to the plight of Israeli children.

Don’t Israeli children - as all children - deserve equal rights and hopes for a better future? 10/ @UN @antonioguterres @nmladenov @UNICEF @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights @UNRWA

Children deserve to be playing outside, free of the constraints of worrying when the next rocket might fall, or hiding in bomb shelters. However, this has become daily routine for thousands of families in southern Israel. 11/

#NoWayToTreatAChild #UniversalChildrensDay

The fact of the matter is, Palestinian children, including from Gaza, are just as much the innocent victims here as Israeli children.

The one constant though, denying this basic fundamental right to both Israeli and Palestinian children, is the Palestinian leadership. 12/

#Hamas, which has not a shred of humanity, is sickeningly prepared to use their children as human shields, one of the gravest of crimes against humanity. In fact, they will cower behind their own children, whilst firing rockets at Israeli children. 13/

#NoWayToTreatAChild

A Hamas leader, Fathi Hammad, has even proudly stated how for them, “death became an industry at which children excel”, having “created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters.” 14/

Meantime, the Palestinian Authority (@nadplo) leadership continues to glorify terrorists and incite violence, including by paying millions of dollars in salaries per year to convicted murderers, including those who have killed children. 15/

Golda Meir, a former Israeli Prime Minister, once famously said: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”

She was right. No child is born to hate. They learn to hate. 16/

Instead of teaching their children the virtues of peace, the #Palestinian leadership continues to indoctrinate hate, inciting violence and instilling a worldview justifying acts of terror and violence against #Israelis, including children. 17/

#NoWayToTreatAChild is a therefore a very apt message for this year’s #UniversalChildrensDay / #WorldChildrensDay! 18/

All children, irrespective of race, religion or location, deserve the same basic human right to live in safety, free from violence and terror. 19/ #UniversalChildrensDay #WorldChildrensDay #NoWayToTreatAChild

However, the int'l community also has a role to play, in holding the Palestinian leadership to account to pave the path to a brighter future for ALL our children - #Israeli AND #Palestinian! 20/

<< END THREAD >>