Tunisia: The Arab League affirmed the necessity of providing protection for Palestinian children and safeguarding their right to education, as well as providing psychological and social care to children who have been exposed to war, displacement, and loss, and protecting Palestinian identity, memory, and heritage.
Ambassador Dr. Faed Mustafa, Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Palestine and Occupied Arab Territories Sector at the Arab League, said during the conference "Palestinian Childhood under Israeli Occupation: Monitoring Educational and Cultural Violations and Strengthening Protection and Resilience Mechanisms," held in Tunisia, that the holding of this conference comes at a time when Palestinian childhood is experiencing extremely dangerous conditions due to the continuation of occupation and war and their repercussions on children's rights to life, security, education, culture, and care.
He added that the Palestinian child did not choose the reality of occupation, nor did they create the causes of the conflict, but they bear a heavy price in terms of their childhood, safety, education, memory, and future, pointing out the catastrophic conditions faced by children in the Gaza Strip, as well as what children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are exposed to in terms of arrests, raids, settler violence, and restrictions affecting their lives and education.
He emphasized that the destruction of schools and the disruption of the educational process do not merely constitute an attack on buildings, but rather an attack on the future of an entire Palestinian generation. He called for moving from merely describing suffering to building protection, and from documenting violations to strengthening accountability, through developing mechanisms for documenting violations, enhancing international protection for children and educational and cultural facilities, ensuring the continuity of education, rehabilitating damaged schools, and supporting Palestinian institutions concerned with education, culture, and childhood.
