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News, August , 2007

 

 

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Editorial Note: The following news reports may be  summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

Israeli policy of targeting Palestinian children condemned by Addameer human rights group 

Human rights group condemns Israeli policy of targeting Palestinian children

Date: 12 / 09 / 2007 Time: 12:18

Gaza – Ma'an – 

Human rights association, Addameer, on Tuesday issued a report revealing the frequent Israeli attacks on children in the Palestinian territories.

Addameer highlighted that the policy of targeting children contravenes basic human rights.

The organisation issued a statement accusing the Israeli forces of imposing collective punishment on the Palestinian people, including children, on the pretext of 'security'.

"The murder of Palestinian children is concentrated near the borders of the Gaza Strip, in the north and west," says Addameer.

Seventeen Palestinian children were assassinated in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, between July and August 2007.

In the latest incident, three children from the Abu Ghazal family were killed after being hit by a surface-to-surface missile, while playing near a residential building.

Despite admitting the killing, the Israeli army have not made any attempts to try those responsible for firing the missile.

In recent years, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinian children, said Addameer. The Israeli army has apologized several times. But, says Addameer, "killing and apologising" has become an Israeli policy which is adopted to limit the international reaction to the assassinations of children.

Addameer also revealed that currently, 400 Palestinian children, between the ages of 14 and 17, are being detained by the Israeli authorities.

 

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Note to Readers:

The Israeli settlements as well as the Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the Palestinian occupied territories have been built illegally on confiscated Palestinian lands. These represent a major violation of international law, Geneva Conventions, and they obstruct reaching a peaceful resolution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli occupation forces abduct and kidnap Palestinians from their homes and at checkpoints, on daily basis. Most media refer to these abductions and kidnappings as arrests, which is inaccurate and not true as the Israeli occupation government has no jurisdiction over Palestinian citizens inside their own territories.

Further, when Israeli occupation forces kill Palestinian civilians, particularly when the victims are women and children, this should be referred to as an act of terrorism, and perpetrators should be described as terrorists.

Since the end of the second intifadha in 2005, not a single Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinian resistance organizations. However, Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces, almost on daily basis.

Note to Journalists:

Any journalist who does not describe this as terrorism is biased, unfair, not objective, and a participant in terrorizing the Palestinian people, so the Israeli occupation of Palestine can continue endlessly.

Note to Translators:

The Arabic definite article, Al (or its variant, El) should be written with a hyphen separating it from the noun it is associated with, for example Al-Aqsa. If a hyphen is not used, as in Al Aqsa, it confuses non-Arabic readers. They may think that it is an abbreviation of the name Albert, as many Americans do.

The Arabic definite article Al (or El) should be written as such, whether it is Shamsiyah or Qamariyah in pronunciation, simply because we are dealing with the written form of the language, not the spoken one. Using the Shamsiyah so many forms in writing is inaccurate and confusing to non-Arabic readers, to say the least.

Only standard (fasih) pronunciation of Arabic names should be used. Non-standard ('ammi)  should be avoided avoided. Example: Names like Abu Sunainah, Abu Rudainah, and Abu Shebak are written by some translators in the non-standard forms of Abu Snainah, Abu Rdainah, and Abu Shbak.

The standard pronunciation of the vowel at the end of names is (a), not (e), particularly if it is followed by (h), like in the cases of Haniyah and Rudainah, not Haniyeh and Rudaineh.

The standard pronunciation of vowels in the following names is (ai), not (ei) as written by  some translators: Hussain, not Hussein and Hassanain, not Hassanein. This is the same long vowel pronounced in the English words "rain" and "brain."

 


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