RAMALLAH (Dispatches) – Palestinians have criticized the United Nations for leaving the occupying regime of Israel off the annual blacklist of child killers, saying ignoring the regime’s crimes would guarantee impunity for the entity.
“The UN’s non-inclusion of the Zionist regime in the blacklist of governments and groups violating children’s rights in armed conflicts is a move in favor of the killer and in support of the criminals of the Zionist army and its terrorist settlers, and it would guarantee their escape from punishment,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said the UN decision puts its reports at risk of “invalidity” and “dishonesty”, as well as skepticism about the principles on which the UN is based.
In a recent report, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Zionist authorities to reduce army operations against children and guarantee punishment in all cases where children are killed, but he decided not to blacklist the regime for violating children’s rights in occupied Palestine.
While blaming the Israeli military for most of the major child abuses in 2020 in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem Al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, Guterres merely called on the Zionist regime to investigate cases in which it used weapons. It also called for an end to the administrative detention of children and for prevention of any ill-treatment during detention or attempts to recruit children.
In the report, however, the UN secretary general blacklisted Ansarullah movement, which is defending Yemen against six years of Saudi-led military aggression on the impoverished country, while refusing to include Saudi Arabia for the war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni civilians.
He also blacklisted the Syrian
army for allegedly violating children’s rights.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said it closely follows the UN’s report on the rights of children in armed conflicts, which is to be published by Guterres soon.
The ministry said the Palestinian government expects the UN secretary general to blacklist the Zionist regime and its army and settlers as parties that gravely violate the rights of children in armed conflicts.
It added that a failure to comply with international law and its institutions and principles amounts to encouraging Israel to continue its organized terrorism and inviting the regime to continue its deliberate crimes, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Earlier, Hamas expressed anger at the UN’s failure to blacklist the occupying regime of Israel, saying the UN green-lighted Israeli crimes against Palestinian children.
Hamas blamed Guterres for the non-inclusion, pointing to the Israeli massacre of 66 Palestinian children in the regime’s latest war on the Gaza Strip as well as the killing of innocent Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank as clear examples of the atrocities the occupying regime commits against Palestinian children.
Hamas said the report lacks an impartial and transparent investigation into Israeli crimes, demanding that Guterres correct his mistake and add the name of “the occupation state” to its blacklist.
Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh on Monday urged Guterres to put Israel back on the annual blacklist.
“Israel does not stop killing our children, the last of whom was Ahmed Bani Shamsa, a child from the village of Beita, who lost his life after being shot in the head by Israeli fire on Thursday,” Shtayyeh said.
“We call on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, who has held Israel responsible for its violations against our children, to include the occupying regime on the blacklist of countries and groups violating the rights of children and to hold it accountable for its crimes,” the Palestinian premier said.