The Israeli Army's Mistreatment of Palestinian Children

Samantha Tamale

Hayes

Engl 1A

Word Count: 1597

  For over fifty years the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has raged on and unfortunately it doesn’t seem as if there will be peace in the region any time soon. News coverage of the conflict here in the United States of America have mainly focused on the Islamic organization group Hamas, which is considered by many to be a terrorist organization, and acts of terrorism in the region against the Israeli government and it’s citizens. These are truly horrible stories and it only shows one half of the issue of violence in the region. The truth is that both sides are guilty of human rights violations but we rarely hear news coverage on the atrocities being committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. Let alone the Israeli army's despicable treatment of Palestinian children. Some of the accusations of abuse towards Palestinian children by the Israeli army is wrongful arrest or imprisonment, acts of torture, failure to provide legal representation, and use or threats of violence. Learning of the Israeli armys mistreatment of Palestinian children raises two questions. The first question is in regards to the unlawful arrests or imprisonment of children, what are the protections under human rights treaties or conventions that protect against acts like this against children? The second question is what are some solutions for the Israeli army to improve it’s treatment of Palestinian children?

                    In the twentieth century after enduring hundreds of years of discrimination the Zionist movement sought out to establish a homeland for the Jewish people. The belief was that the only way to fully protect the Jewish people from anti-semitism was to create a homeland for the Jewish people. While there had been Jewish settlers living in Palestine for some time, the Balfour Declaration (Behind the Balfour Declaration) was a giant step towards the Zionists goal of a national homeland. About thirty years later the Zionists dreams of a Jewish homeland came true in 1948 when the Jewish People's Council announced the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel. This was also the beginning the Arab-Israeli war (1948 the First Arab-Israeli War). As a result of the Arab-Israeli War about 700,000 Palestinian people either fled or were forced out of their homes and became refugees.  In 1967 there was the Six-Day War (Civil–Military Relations and Strategic Goal Setting in the Six Day War). Which resulted in Israel capturing the Gaza strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and two other territories from Syria and Egypt. In 1979 a few years after the Yom Kippur War (The Yom Kippur War: Diplomacy of War and Peace) Israel and Egypt signed a formal peace treaty, ending thirty years of war. In 1987 the first Intifada began, which was the uprising of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. This resulted in the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, which governed areas A and B of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The second Intifada began in 2000 and resulted in the controversial construction of the Israeli West Bank Wall and Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip. The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a long one and what seems to get lost in all this history is the mistreatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli army. The biggest complaint against the Israeli army is the wrongful arrests or imprisonment of Palestinian children. What are the protections under human rights treaties or conventions that protect the Palestinian children from wrongful arrests or imprisonment?

                The Israeli army order 1651 section. 191 it states “No child shall be arrested or prosecuted in the military courts.”, a child in this instance is considered twelve years old and younger.  Which is problematic in that there are numerous reports of the Israeli army arresting children as young as six years old. Therefore these children under the age of twelve are being unlawfully arrested and detained. There are also reports of the Israeli army wrongfully arresting Palestinian children for the crime of throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, detaining them for days , only to release the children without a conviction or proof of a crime ever have been committed. By not only wrongfully arresting and detaining these children the Israeli army violates article 37 section b. of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states, “(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” and article 9 section 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states, “ Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.” It clearly states in both the CRC and the ICCPR that by arbitrarily arresting these children without solid evidence of a crime being committed it is a violation of their human rights. The Israeli army must take measures to not only make sure that it’s soldiers are following the orders or laws laid down by the Israeli army itself but also that any arrests made by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian children are backed up with evidence of the child's involvement in an actual crime. According to article 9 section 5 of the ICCPR anyone wrongly arrested or imprisoned has a right to compensation, “Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.” Which the Israeli army has also failed to offer or provide as a means of an apology for it’s harassment of innocent Palestinian children. Of course a monetary compensation in no way makes up for any trauma inflicted on these children but it is a step in the right direction. In light of these issues, what are some solutions for the Israeli army to improve it’s treatment of Palestinian children?

                      In February of 2013 UNICEF released a report Children in Israeli Military Detention: Observations and Recommendations detailing the specific violations being committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian children.  While a large part of the UNICEF report is spent discussing the various issues regarding the Israeli armys treatment of Palestinian children, the last portion of the report offers a few recommendations on how the Israeli army can improve its policies in regards to the arrests or detainment of Palestinian children. The biggest issue with the arrests and detainment of Palestinian children is that often these arrests are considered arbitrary by the Palestinian people. So many Palestinian children are arrested and detained first before any other option has been considered. The UNICEF reports offers two reccomendations in regards to these issues. The first reccomendation is “ Use of detention only as a measure of last resort. Children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”. The second reccomendation is “ Alternatives to detention. Alternatives to detaining children should always be considered and encouraged, at both the pre-trial and post-sentencing stages of any judicial or military detention system.” These two recommendation state that the detention of Palestinain children should be the last possible option for the Israeli army and that other options should be considered first. If the Israeli army must absolutely arrest a Palestinian child, it should only be because the child poses an imminent threat to the community. There should also be the option of home arrest for Palestinian children who are awaiting trial or sentencing. The report also goes on to recomend that the Israeli army must provide legal counsel for Palestinian children, forgo the use of blindfolds when arresting Palestinain children, and that under no circumstance should solitary confinement be used as punishment.

                      As mentioned earlier the UNICEF report does discuss multiple human rights violations committed by the Israeli army and hopefully the Israeli army will begin to implement the recomendations from the report to not only possibly improve its relations with the Palestinain people but to also protect the rights of the Palestinian children. Documents like the Conventions on the Right of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were created for a reason, to prevent or stop human rights violations like the ones happening in the West Bank and Gaza from happening. While I am well aware that it’s a challenge to stop ALL human rights violations from occurring and even more challenging in a region of conflict. Nonetheless it’s important that governments like Israel still strive to implement policies laid out in these human rights documents in order to protect the human rights of all people, especially the rights of children. Failure to do so is inexcusable.   

Works Cited

"Conventions on the Right of the Child" United Nations Human Rights System. n.d Web. 27 June 2014.

"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" United Nations Human Rights System. n.d Web. 27 June 2014.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). "Children in israeli Military detention Observations and Recommendations." . New York: United Nations. Feb. 2013. Web. 27 June 2014.

Dinitz, Simchia. "The Yom Kippur War: Diplomacy of War and Peace." . Taylor and Frances, n.d. Web. 27 June 2014.

Naor, Arye. "Civil–Military Relations and Strategic Goal Setting in the Six Day War.." . Taylor and Frances, n.d. Web. 27 June 2014

 

 

  

          

Webzine Reflection

1. For our webzine aside from my writing contribution piece, I helped with the creation of the tumblr page along with Olesya and Zibelle. The three of us overlooked the layout of the page and choosing a theme for the look of our webzine page. I created the various pages for our sections for all the different regions and I made sure that the correct tags were being used to ensure that the right pieces were being tagged into the right sections. I also contributed two pieces to our media section, the recommendation for the documentary Promises and the youtube video of the Israeli soliders arresting the six year old boy.

2. From our webzine project I was able to learn more about human rights violations in other parts of the world that we did not have time to discuss in class. Such as the human rights violations being committed by the Israeli army towards Palestinian chidren. While I was aware that there is conflict in the region, especially in the West Bank and Gaza, I wasn’t aware how brutal the Israeli army was in its treatment of Palestinian children. I’ve also learned so much about human rights in general from our class this quarter. This class has given me not only a more academic or political view on human rights, I was able to learn more about the legal aspect of it through documents like the UDHR or the CRC. I was surprised most to learn about the US’s involvement in encouraging jihad in the middle east (I am Malala) and that the US is one of two countries who has not signed or ratified the CRC.

Final Draft: Webzine Contribution

  When discussing the Israeli army's mistreatment of Palestinian children it is important to first establish exactly which human rights violations are being committed according to established international conventions and treaties. In February of 2013 UNICEF released a report Children in Israeli Military Detention: Observations and Recommendations detailing the specific violations being committed and which conventions or treaties were broken as the result of these violations. Some of the accusations of abuse towards Palestinian children by the Israeli army is wrongful arrest or imprisonment, acts of torture, failure to provide legal representation, and use or threat of violence. Most of these violations are addressed in the UNICEF report. For this section of our webzine we will focus on the wrongful arrests and imprisonment of Palestinian children and it’s ramifications in the human rights discussion.

          The Israeli army order 1651 section. 191 it states “No child shall be arrested or prosecuted in the military courts.”, a child in this instance is considered twelve years old and younger.  Which is problematic in that there are numerous reports of the Israeli army arresting children as young as six years old. Therefore these children under the age of twelve are being unlawfully arrested and detained. There are also reports of the Israeli army wrongfully arresting Palestinian children for the crime of throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, detaining them for days , only to release the children without a conviction or proof of a crime ever have been committed. By not only wrongfully arresting and detaining these children the Israeli army violates article 37 section b. of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states, “(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” and article 9 section 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states, “ Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.” It clearly states in both the CRC and the ICCPR that by arbitrarily arresting these children without solid evidence of a crime being committed it is a violation of their human rights. The Israeli army must take measures to not only make sure that it’s soldiers are following the orders or laws laid down by the Israeli army itself but also that any arrests made by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian children are backed up with evidence of the child's involvement in an actual crime. According to article 9 section 5 of the ICCPR anyone wrongly arrested or imprisoned has a right to compensation, “Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.” Which the Israeli army has also failed to offer or provide as a means of an apology for it’s harassment of innocent Palestinian children. Of course a monetary compensation in no way makes up for any trauma inflicted on these children but it is a step in the right direction.

                As mentioned earlier the UNICEF report does discuss multiple human rights violations committed by the Israeli army, but it also offers up a few solutions for Israel to follow to remedy these issues. Documents like the Conventions on the Right of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were created for a reason, to prevent or stop human rights violations like the ones happening in the West Bank and Gaza from happening. While I am well aware that it’s a challenge to stop ALL human rights violations from occurring and even more challenging in a region of conflict. Nonetheless it’s important that governments like Israel still strive to implement policies laid out in these human rights documents in order to protect the human rights of all people, especially the rights of children. Failure to do so is inexcusable.       

Sources:

http://www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_oPt_Children_in_Israeli_Military_Detention_Observations_and_Recommendations_-_6_March_2013.pdf http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/134922/israeli-soldiers-arrest-6-year-old-boy             

Proofread Draft of Olesya's Webzine Submission by Samantha

Vietnam - A country in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is a country that violates child human rights. The reason why I have chosen this particular country is because very few sources mention the problem in their human rights reports; child labor in sweatshops, fields and other industries in Vietnam are for some reason left unspotted and underestimated. This part of our blog is going to focus on the child labor in Vietnam, it is going to define child labor, provide examples and statistics, and make suggestions on how can we resolve this problem.

Let us start off with background information and data. The population of the country is roughly 93,421,832 people. The overall population of children from age 5-17 is estimated to be 18,349,629 people, accounting for 20.7 percent of the national population. What is striking is that 1.75 million Vietnamese children, two in every five of them under the age of 15, work in situations that fit the definition of child labor. Let’s define child labor now. Child labor is – work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

Who are the victims of child labor? It is the any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state’s own domestic legislation.

           Knowing the definitions we can go further and actually look at concrete examples, which show violations of the human rights of children. I want to bring attention to the sweatshops which employ children from 5-17 and pay them minimum wages that do not provide enough money to buy minimal amounts of food each day. Nike factories are great examples. The corporation decided to save money by using cheap Vietnamese labor in order to maximize advertising campaigns and hire the most expensive models. The average wage in Nike factories was 20 cents an hour or 1.60 dollars a day, which is less than the minimum standard of living in Vietnam (estimated as 2 $ a day). Children faced inhuman conditions at shoe factories because most of the kids aged 5-17 worked more than 42 hours per week in order to support their families.

           Another example of child labor/slavery in Vietnam is fieldwork. I would call employers “slaveholders” just because they take kids from the rural areas and bring them far away from their homes, so they have to work for the employer without any possible chance to run away. Yes, we are still talking about children from age 5-17. It happens in factories too. Children are locked up in small rooms making clothes and working from 6 am until midnight with restricted time for bathroom visits and showering in the morning, amounting to just 8 minutes every day. More than that, in many cases slaveholders do not pay any wages.

           Considering all stated above, should we blame the government that lets businesses enslave children? Yes and no. Yes - because Vietnamese government signed (26 Jan 1990 ) and ratified (28 Feb 1990 )  the convention of the rights of the child. This means that right away article 32 of the convention is not followed. Moreover, the government has a restriction policy for juniors which are aged from 11-17 (excluding children between ages 5-10!) should work no more than 42 hours a week and should have appropriate work conditions which do not harm their health, do not affect their education, and do not exhaust toxic chemicals. All of this supposed to be under the supervision of the organization MOLISA (MINISTRY OF LABOR INVALIDS AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS). No- because employers usually find loops in the law and enslave children on the terms written by the government. In most cases if they get approval by MOLISA they can make a child work for them, although any exploitation of the child younger than 15 years old is prohibited. Another issue is that to some extent the government has no power in the children’s upbringing. By this I mean that some Vietnamese families believe that their children from an early age should contribute to the family budget, therefore children end up working in the domestic households, factories, or fields for miserable wages.

           How can we stop the problem? I believe that the only solution would be to enforce laws, which would absolutely protect rights of the children. The employers should be penalized financially for child labor, and more than that they should pay back children’s families for all of their labor (when one hour of payment is equal to or higher than the minimum wage). I believe that the government should reconsider the laws and MOLISA should enforce stricter policies to protect child rights in order to avoid loopholes. Corporations like NIKE and other manufactories should be penalized financially too, because the shut down would lead to a crash in the Vietnamese economy, which is growing very well now.

Revised Draft: Webzine Contribution

For my revised draft I proofread my article for any errors and corrected them. Making sure to keep an eye out for the sentence level errors I've made this quarter and have been working on improving like missing words. I also made sure to spellcheck my article. I refined my second paragraph and conclusion. I am also listing the sources I used, which I failed to list with my last post.

          When discussing the Israeli army's mistreatment of Palestinian children it is important to first establish exactly which human rights violations are being committed according to established international conventions and treaties. In February of 2013 UNICEF released a report “Children in Israeli Military Detention: Observations and Recommendations” detailing the specific violations being committed and which conventions or treaties were broken as the result of these violations. Some of the accusations of abuse towards Palestinian children by the Israeli army is wrongful arrest or imprisonment, acts of torture, failure to provide legal representation, and use of violence or threats of use of violence. Most of these violations are addressed in the UNICEF report. For this section of our webzine we will focus on the wrongful arrests and imprisonment of Palestinian children and it’s ramifications in the human rights discussion.

     In Israel and in accordance with the Israeli army order 1651 section. 191 it states “No child shall be arrested or prosecuted in the military courts.”, a child in this instance is considered twelve years old and younger.  Which is problematic in that there are numerous reports of the Israeli army arresting children as young as six years old. Therefore these children under the age of twelve are being unlawfully arrested and detained. There are also reports of the Israeli army wrongfully arresting Palestinian children for the crime of throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, detaining them for days , only to release the children without a conviction or proof of a crime ever have been committed. By not only wrongfully arresting and detaining these children the Israeli army violates article 37 section b. of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states, “(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” and article 9 section 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states, “ Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.” It clearly states in both the CRC and the ICCPR that by arbitrarily arresting these children without solid evidence of a crime being committed it is a violation of their human rights. The Israeli army must take measures to not only make sure that it’s soldiers are following the orders or laws laid down by the Israeli army itself but also that any arrests made by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian children are backed up with evidence of the child's involvement in an actual crime. According to article 9 section 5 of the ICCPR anyone wrongly arrested or imprisoned has a right to compensation, “Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.” Which the Israeli army has also failed to offer or provide as a means of an apology for it’s harassment of innocent Palestinian children. Of course a monetary compensation in no way makes up for any trauma inflicted on these children but it is a step in the right direction. 

             As mentioned earlier the Israeli army is accused of countless crimes against Palestinian children and the twenty-two page UNICEF report goes more into detail about those violations. The UNICEF report also offers up a few solutions of these violations for the Israeli army. Documents like the Conventions on the Right of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were created for a reason, to prevent or stop human rights violations like the ones happening in the West Bank and Gaza from happening. While I am well aware that it’s a challenge to stop ALL human rights violations from occurring and even more challenging in a region of conflict. Nonetheless it’s important that governments like Israel still strive to implement policies laid out in these human rights documents in order to protect the human rights of all people, especially the rights of children. Failure to do so is inexcusable.    

Word Count: 710

Sources:

http://www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_oPt_Children_in_Israeli_Military_Detention_Observations_and_Recommendations_-_6_March_2013.pdf

http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/134922/israeli-soldiers-arrest-6-year-old-boy

Draft of Webzine Contribution

     When discussing the Israeli army's mistreatment of Palestinian children it is important to first establish exactly which human rights violations are being committed according to established international conventions and treaties. In February of 2013 UNICEF released a report “Children in israeli Military detention: Observations and Recommendations” detailing the specific violations and which conventions or treaties were broken as the result of these violations. Some of the accusations of abuse towards Palestinian children by the Israeli army is wrongful arrest or imprisonment, acts of torture, failure to provide legal representation, and use of violence or threats of use of violence. Most of these violations are addressed in the UNICEF report. For this section of our webzine we will focus on the wrongful arrests and imprisonment of Palestinian children and it’s ramifications in the human rights discussion.
     In Israel and in accordance with the Israeli army order 1651 section. 191 it states “No child shall be arrested or prosecuted in the military courts.”, a child in this instance is considered twelve years old and younger. Which is problematic in that there are numerous reports of the Israeli army arresting children as young as six years old. Therefore these children under the age of twelve are being wrongfully arrested and detained. There are also reports of the Israeli army wrongfully arresting some Palestinian children for the crime of throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, detaining them for days  only to be released without a conviction or proof of a crime ever have been committed. By not only wrongfully arresting and detaining these children Israel violates article 37 section b. of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states, “(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time” and article 9 section 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states, “ Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.” It clearly states in both the CRC and the ICCPR that by arbitrarily arresting these children without solid evidence of a crime being committed it is a violation of their human rights. The Israeli army must take measures to not only make sure that it’s soldiers are following the orders or laws laid down by the Israeli army itself but also that any arrests made by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian children are backed up with evidence of the child's involvement in an actual crime. According to article 9 section 5 of the ICCPR anyone wrongly arrested or imprisoned has a right to compensation, “Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.” Which the Israeli army has also failed to offer or provide as a means of an apology for it’s harassment of innocent Palestinian children. Of course a monetary compensation in no way makes up for any trauma inflicted on these children but it is a step in the right direction. Another humans rights violations committed by the Israeli Army is the failure to provide Palestinian children with proper legal representation.
             As mentioned earlier the Israeli army is accused of countless crimes against Palestinian children and the twenty-two page UNICEF report goes more into detail about those violations. Documents like the Conventions on the Right of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were created for a reason, to prevent or stop human rights violations like the ones happening in the West Bank and Gaza from happening. While I am well aware that it’s a challenge to stop ALL human rights violations from occurring and even more challenging in a region of conflict, but nonetheless it’s important that governments like Israel still strive to implement policies that protect those human rights, especially when it comes to the rights of children. Failure to do so is inexcusable.    

Word Count: 703

Research Paper Outline

I. Introduction:

                           Begin by introducing the topic of my research paper by discussing the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian in American/Western media or news. Question the bias of those reports. By doing so I connect to the audiences established knowledge of the research topic and can possibly transition into my initial answer.

II. Background:

                            This section will be split into two paragraphs. The first paragraph will give a brief history of the region. It will also include an explanation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The second paragraph will go into further detail of the conflict today and the abuses committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinian children. This is important to my paper in that it gives the audience not only much needed information but also sets up the tone for the rest of my research paper.

III. Initial Answer:

                                 Discuss groups working on exposing the army for its mistreatment of Palestinian children. Groups: Breaking the Silence, Defence of the Children International, and the Amnesty International case of the murder of the two siblings. “THE Israel Defence Force's arbitrary use of violence against Palestinian children, including forcing them to act as human shields in military operations, has been exposed by veteran soldiers in detailed statements chronicling dozens of brutal incidents.” (Pollard) “The release of the testimonies follows the publication of two damning reports — one from a group of eminent British lawyers who visited Israel's military courts and the other from the human rights organisation Defence of Children International — that detail multiple violations of international law by Israel in its treatment of children.”(Pollard)

IV. Transition:

                         Introduce second research question. Give brief history of US and British involvement in the region. By giving a brief history it gives the second answer some foundation and the importance of asking where these two governments stand on the issue.

V. Second Answer:

                        Discuss the good and the bad of US and British involvement in the region. Touch on any biases towards Israel or Palestine. Discuss what they’re currently doing or not doing to help the situation. “"While the United States has been enjoying the benefits of its Arab and Islamic Middle Eastern friendships," said the Colonel, "Israel has been enjoying the benefits of strong U.S. support" – and at the Palestinians’ expense.” (Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed F. Abo-Sak) “According to Abo-Sak, the main problem is that Israel continues to occupy Arab territory and the United States continues to give Israel diplomatic, military, economic and informational support. The US has consistently opposed any UN resolutions that would bring justice to the Palestinians, even when Israel is found guilty of human rights violations. The United States has vetoed 32 UN resolutions against Israel since 1972, including the resolution condemning Israel for massacring over 100 Lebanese civilians at the UN compound in Qana. However, the United States was the only country to veto the installation of UN Secretary General Butrus Ghali to a second term, in retaliation for his decision to publish the UN’s report confirming that Israel’s strike on Qana has been intentional” (Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed F. Abo-Sak)

VI. Theoretical Discussion:

                                               Integrate issues with Donelly’s view on the war on terror, that it creates more crime. Discuss how this might be helpful in either finding a solution or better understanding the conflict.

VII. Refutation/Rebuttal:

                                            Introduce opposing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Discuss flaws in his reasoning. Transition into a call for action in my conclusion.

VIII. Conclusion:

                                Final thoughts on the conflict and US and British involvement in the region. Applaud the efforts of Breaking the Silence and other groups working to bring awareness to the issue. Discuss why it’s important to get involved and ways to get involved.