Ngo comments on the Initial Israeli State Report on Implementing the un convention on the Rights of the Child

In the Israeli NGO report, we have tried not only to look at the immediate violations but also where progress can be reported and what can be underlying causes for not implementing the CRC. We also attempted to look at all articles of the CRC.

Preparing the Report: DCI – Israel and the Israel Children’s Rights Coalition

This NGO report was the initiative of the Israel Section of Defense for Children International (DCI – Israel). In 1995, when we thought that the State Report would be forthcoming, we organized a hearing at Haifa University for other NGOs to gather ideas on preparing the NGO report. In 1996 DCI – Israel took the initiative of forming a network, the Israel Children’s Rights Coalition, and over the years informed Coalition members of its reminders to the government about its non-reporting to the CRC committee. DCI-Israel also updated Coalition members on new issues (i.e. the optional protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts).

The Coalition was activated when the State finally presented its draft Initial State Report in December 2000. We encouraged all members to give critical comments, and provide background material about articles of the Convention of specific interest to the various NGOs. When the government finally sent its Initial State Report in February 2001 we organized three meetings at which NGOs could discuss their priorities and how they evaluated the Initial State Report. During the year 2001 we came to realize that getting consensus on a text from more than 60 different groups would be an impossible mission, so we concentrated on getting input on the issues relating to the articles in the Convention. That input has enriched this NGO Report and, although DCI – Israeli is responsible for the text of the Report, we have made the maximum effort to include the opinions of our colleagues in the NGO community. Several members of the Coalition have submitted written comments, which we tried to include (and we have put up on our web site in full).

In one respect we are not completely fair to the government. While the Initial Report deals with data until the end of the year 2000, in this Report we also relate to more recent research and events, which the government Initial Report could not have taken into account. We use these data in order to clarify the trends that we see in the government report and state of the child in Israel and in areas under its jurisdiction. We collected material until the middle of April. We found that the 2002 State Budget adopted only in February 2002, gives important information about trends.

In this report, to the best of our abilities, we attempt to provide an objective portrayal of the human rights situation and living conditions of children in Israel and in the occupied territories to complement the Initial State Report. Our standards and expectations for the proper implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are high, and we criticize the government’s efforts and intentions with severity – not out of semantic stringency, but out of deep concern for all children of the region.

We are pleased that MK Tamar Gozansky, the Chair of the Status of Children Committee has promised us to call for a meeting in the Knesset, in the autumn of 2002 to discuss the Initial Report to the CRC committee, this NGO Report, and the concluding observations of the CRC Committee. We tried to look at law, policy and practice and how all of the articles of the CRC are implemented. We closely followed the guidelines for NGO’s.

Positive Measures already Adopted

In some areas progress has been made in recent years, although large gaps remain between what should be and what is, what is promised and what is delivered.

The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1995 of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate says of Israel:

The Government has a strong commitment to the rights and welfare of children, including in the areas of education and healthcare…Government ministries, children's rights groups, and members of legislature often cooperate on children's rights issues.

The Government has legislated against sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of children and has mandated comprehensive reporting requirements…

Privately funded children's rights information centers have been established in some communities, and the Government is assisting in funding additional centers in other cities.²⁰

In 1999, the 15^th Knesset (Parliament) established the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of the Child. Previously, children’s rights issues were dispersed in various committees, but currently MK Tamar Gozansky, who heads the new Committee, gets issues concerning children on the Knesset agenda quickly. In the last decade, she and a few other Israeli politicians have significantly advanced children’s issues. (See also: Chapter II, General Measures of Implementation, under F.)

We will also examine children’s rights’ measures initiated by the government and members of the Knesset throughout the report.

The Context within which Children’s Rights must be Implemented

In our view the Initial State Report, does not provide sufficient background information for the Committee to get a comprehensive understanding of the implementation of the CRC. It is important to understand that since the State of Israel ratified the CRC in 1991, some significant events took place:

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  1991: During the Persian Gulf War numerous missiles landed in residential areas.
  
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  1993: There was a political breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
  

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  The Declaration of Principles between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was signed in Oslo.
  
• 
  The Palestinian Authority was established.
  

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  1995: A right wing religious extremist, Yigal Amir, assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a mass rally in support for the peace process with the Palestinians.
  
• 
  October 2000 the Al Aqsa Intifada began.
  

We realize that children’s rights have to be implemented in what Professor Simha Landau, a criminologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem called “an ideal natural laboratory for the study of the effects of stress on human beings…in addition to the usual types of stress experienced in all modern societies, Israelis are exposed to a number of additional stressors which, in their particular combination are quite unique.”²¹

He continues: “The foremost of these stressors is the continuous concern of Israelis with security, both on a national and individual level. Since the establishment in 1948, Israel has been involved in five major wars and in endless hostilities with its neighboring Arab countries, as well as with the Palestinian inhabitants of the territories occupied in the 1967 Six Day War (West Bank and Gaza Strip). The need to take precautions and to be on guard keeps men, women, and children aware of the constant threat to their daily routines. The permanence of the threat of war for so many years, and the lifetime commitment of Israeli men to national service in the military, have had a considerable effect on Israeli society. It would not be an overstatement to say that belligerence has been the most stable aspect of the history of the State of Israel, and that Israel has come to regard itself as a society at war, if not as a society of warriors.”

“No wonder that Israeli children are aggressive, super assertive and often impolite. The socialization has to produce individuals who need traits to survive in this tough society of warriors. Aggressive behavior has to be reinforced and there are plenty of aggressive role models to observe”²² Landau mentions two other important sources of stress in Israel: economic hardship (recession and unemployment) and extreme social and demographic changes that have taken place over a relatively short period. One million immigrants arrived from the former Soviet Union during the 1990s.

As the political situation becomes more uncertain, Palestinian despair and violence increases. Years of humiliation, fear, and inability to retain their dignity have led to desperate and violent acts. Psychoanalyst Ira Brenner²³ sees parallels between a person with a split personality and the traumatized and re-traumatized people of Israel.

It may have been too obvious to the drafters of the CRC that security was a prerequisite to implement children’s rights. That may be the reason why the word does not appear in the CRC.

The Language of Human Rights

The Israeli expert, who was elected as a member of the CRC Committee, Judith Karp, concluded that “reporting should be judged mainly for its impact on promoting human rights as a living and spoken language, to be used in the every day life of governments, NGOs and individuals alike.”²⁴

Mrs. Karp has contributed greatly to the use and understanding of the language of children’s rights in Israel proper, and it has had a beneficial effect. However, it is not of much help in the occupied territories. An occupation power, by its very nature acts against the values of that language. Problems also exist with Palestinian citizens of the Negev area. There is no humane occupation possible.

If in Israel the use of rights language has helped develop a culture of rights, it is meaningless in the occupied territories. There is a clear danger that the occupation will, like a tumor, destroy the human rights culture in Israel.


The Reality of Conflict vs. the Ideals of Human Rights
Were it not for the occupation, Israel would be viewed like other countries where policies of the World Bank and IMF influence economic priorities of the government. There are growing gaps between rich and poor in many other countries, but it Israel it is profoundly affected by the cost of occupation. The country is not unique in making budget-cuts, which affect the weakest groups in society, such as children and minorities, and if that were the only problem, Israel would rank very high, alongside those countries trying to implement the CRC. Certainly the impression that one gets upon reading the initial report is that Israel is an island of good law making and is taking the first steps in the right direction. It would be a blessing if there would be a political resolution for a just peace with the Palestinians. Then, indeed, the Israeli context of children’s rights would be more like many other “normal” countries.
In a recent survey,²⁵ 61 percent of the Israeli citizens (Jews and Arabs-Israelis) blamed the deteriorating economic situation on the collapse of the peace process and the outbreak of the Intifada. The economic situation was a greater cause of fear than the threat of violence. The economic difficulties may also contribute to the anger of parents as does the occupation (which means annual reserve duty for decades after most men finish their regular army service) and some men take anger out on their wives and children.

The right to life (art.6), prevention from torture (art.37), adequate standard of living (art.27) and protection from all forms of violence (art. 19) are closely connected with the occupation. Thus we are observing the phenomenon: a society that is becoming both poorer and more violent. Jutta Gras writes “there exists no El-dorado on earth for children;”²⁶ Israel is certainly not.

The ongoing violent conflict makes Israel a difficult country in which to live, as demonstrated by its serious internal problems; its society remains very violent, intolerant, and anxiety-ridden. Police files show an increase in child violence and delinquency in recent years. The number of battered women in Israel, according to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Violence in the Family, has tripled since the mid-1970's. While these alarming statistics may be partially explained by an increase in crime reporting, it is clear that Israeli society, and children in particular, are suffering from the aggressive environment. In 2000, the International Science Report ranked Israel number one in a multi-state study for verbal violence and humiliation by schoolmates in the schoolyard. Israel ranked fourth for verbal abuse by teachers and faculty, and second in school vandalism.²⁷

In Palestinian society the greatest detriment to the well being of children at the moment are the closures imposed by the Israeli government. The closures and curfews have draconian effects on the economy and on family life, as attested to by UN special coordinator for the Middle East Process (UNSCO), Terje Larson.²⁸ For instance in Hebron thousands of children, except for a few hours, are inside all day, thus their liberty and personal freedom are severely harmed. Such confinements have profound effects on children’s lives.²⁹

Reliable foreign journalists of the BBC observed that:³⁰ “In Israel and the Palestinian territories the cycle of attack and response, response and attack, has gained full momentum… Israelis have been bracing themselves for such attacks. The Chief of Israeli military intelligence, General Ahron Ze’evi Farkash, warned: ‘This coming period will see more serious terror attacks than we have been used to up to now in cities throughout Israel.’”

The BBC observed that: “With neither Israel, the PA or the terrorist Palestinian factions showing any sign of stepping back from the violence, the cycle is intensifying. It is difficult to see what advantage the violence brings to either side.”

According to UN Special Coordinator Terje Roed-Larsen:

“Today Israeli-Palestinian relations are at their lowest point. We have fallen off the edge, we are in the abyss. The situation is the worst it has been in years…The current crisis has made life even more precarious for Palestinian civilians who are already subject to severe physical and economic hardship. Total losses to the Palestinian economy since October 2000 have been estimated at $2.7 and $4.1 billion. Total physical damage in the West Bank and Gaza stands at more than $300 million.

Up to 50% of the population is now living below the poverty line, more than double the poverty rate prior to the crisis. The immediate cause of the economic collapse has been the policy of closures which is resulting in major economic and social insecurity for millions of people, creating flashpoints of resentment and violence.”