US Officials Silent On Israeli Abuse Of Palestinian Children

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Six weeks after being abducted on her way home from school in the occupied West Bank, 14-year-old Malak al-Khatib was released on Friday from the jail where she was being imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces. The youngest Palestinian girl ever to be incarcerated, Malak is one of hundreds of children to be prosecuted through the Israeli military court system each year.

As of December 2014, there were 156 Palestinian child prisoners, 17 of which were under 16 years old, according to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association. As the benefactor of the illegal Israeli occupation, the United States government is complicit in Israel’s disgraceful persecution and abuse of Palestinian children. While American officials refrain from criticizing such abuses, they forcefully condemn any resistance to the violent Israeli occupation that is responsible for innumerable human rights violations against Palestinian children.

During Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last August, the Obama administration expressed its strongest indignation regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict throughout President Obama’s six years in office. After the apparent capture of Israeli Occupation soldier Hadar Goldin by the Palestinian resistance, administration officials said the action was “barbaric” and “outrageous.”

The Persistent U.S. Opposition To Self-Determination

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There is no principle in international law more fundamental than the right of all peoples to self-determination. This is universally accepted by the entire world, yet nearly 70 years after the signing of the UN Charter, the United States continues to fight tooth and nail against this most basic human right.

On December 18, 2014, the U.S. was one of only seven countries to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution that passed with 180 votes affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. Earlier that year, the U.S. also found themselves on the wrong side of the international consensus when the UN Special Committee on Decolonization approved a statement to “reaffirm the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination.”

Self-determination “denotes the legal right of people to decide their own destiny in the international order,” according to the Legal Information Institute. This right was enshrined in international law with its inclusion in the UN Charter in 1945. Article 1 of the Charter states that one of the purposes of the United Nations is: “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.”

Israel’s Worst Fear Is A Political Settlement

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The recent murder of four Jewish worshipers in a Jerusalem synagogue has drawn intense media coverage, with the situation being described as “tense” and the country as “shaken.” U.S. officials decry the violence and call for both sides to “seek a path forwards toward peace.”

Yet the Israeli government’s reaction and history demonstrate that Israel is not concerned with creating peace, but rather maintaining the status quo. If the government cared about stopping violence and protecting its population, it would immediately end the occupation and accept a political settlement that guarantees everyone in Greater Israel their right to self-determination. Instead they are exploiting the violence to tighten their control of the West Bank and Gaza and crush Palestinian aspirations for an end to the 66-year dispossession and conquest.

The grisly murder of four worshipers at a Jerusalem synagogue was carried out last month by two Palestinian cousins, who did not belong to any political or resistance factions. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to cast blame on all Palestinian political parties who would be a partner in a peaceful settlement to the conflict.

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