Wednesday, February 7, 2007

SAVE THE CHILDREN, UNLESS THEY'RE PALESTINIAN

Outrage over child soldiers: "Save the Children" forgot some (TigerHawk)
The British arm of the charity "Save the Children" is getting some pick-up of a press release decrying the recruitment of child soldiers ten years after the promulgation of the Cape Town Principles against that practice. According to Save the Children, there are 13 offending jurisdictions:

Fighting forces are recruiting and using child soldiers within Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Nepal, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.
Save the Children "forgot" to notice some child soldiers. Here are the names of just a few of them (age at death or capture): Ismail Abu Nada (12), Anwar Ill Azi Mustafa Hamarna (13), Yosef Basem Yosef Zakut (14), Abdullah Quran (12), Hussam Abdo (16), Nasser Awartani (15), Muataz Takhsin Karini (16), Ahmed Bushkar (17), Ayub Maaruf (16), Aamer Alfar (16), Mahmoud Tabouq (15 or 16), and Hassan Hashash (15).

They are Palestinian Arabs.

The question is, did Save the Children ignore them because it does not care about Palestinian Arabs, or because it supports the cause of the armies recruiting them to such a degree that it is unwilling to condemn their crime even in a press release devoted to the subject? What could be the third explanation?

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