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“The hypocrisy must cease. The double standards have to desist,” Lavie told PACE regarding its anti-Israel resolution.
By: United with Israel Staff
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on Monday a resolution condemning Israel for its arrest of Palestinian terrorists who are minors and called on the Israeli authorities to work with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross to “change laws, practice and attitudes so as to fully protect the rights of Palestinian minors in the Israeli justice system.”
In a move that reeks of impertinence, the Assembly further expressed its readiness “to assist the Knesset and the Palestinian authorities in this regard.”
The majority of PACE members, 47, voted in favor of the resolution, while only 11 opposed it and four members abstained.
The resolution, adopted on the basis of a report by Liliane Maury Pasquier, states that an end must be put to “all forms of physical or psychological abuse of children during arrest, transit and waiting periods, and during interrogations.”
PACE also recommended that no child be held in administrative detention or solitary confinement “for any reason”, and called on Israel to raise the age of criminal responsibility of children to at least 14 years.
Prior to the vote, Member of Knesset (MK) Aliza Lavie, head of the Knesset delegation to PACE, addressed the Assembly plenum and said the report is “a distorted and selective presentation of reality” that does not present the delegates with “a full picture of the situation in Israel.”
She mentioned the murder of Ari Fuld by a 17-year-old Palestinian teen at a shopping mall last month “frequented by both Palestinians and Israelis,” as well as the murder this week of Israelis Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi by a Palestinian co-worker at the Barkan Industrial Park, where Palestinians and Israelis work side by side.
Terrorism, Not Acts of Youthful Folly
“In recent years, there has been an increase in accusations by NGOs and UN agencies of abuse and false arrest of Palestinian minors. But these accusations are ignoring the context—the involvement of these minors in terrorism,” Lavie underscored.
“Let us be clear. These are tragedies and not an act of youthful follies. Those are minors of vicious manipulation of incitement encouraged by the Palestinian Authority. Throwing stones at passing cars—kills. Stabbing people in the back—kills,” she stated.
“Addressing this challenge is not as simple as this resolution would lead you to believe. Before you rush to criticize Israel, consider that Palestinian media routinely displays examples of encouraging hatred for Jews among children—by both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. They glorify child martyrdom, name schools after terrorists, urge children to stab Israelis, and use minors as human shields—to cite just a few examples. Likewise, the textbooks used in the Palestinian Authority schools promote hatred against Israel, anti-Semitism and cite to martyrdom,” the Israeli lawmaker charged.
Lavie further stated that “administrative detention and other legal tools—for adults and minors alike—are widely used around the world, including by many member states of this body, to prevent terrorism and threats to society. Those who lead the resolution have tended to ignore this, of course.”
The IDF does arrest Palestinian minors because a significant number of Palestinian minors engage in terrorism. In the past few years, there have been dozens of terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians from the ages of 8-17.
Another Step in the Campaign Against Israel
“Sitting here in comfort, it is too simple to throw verbal stones at the people of Israel. But even at this moment, Israel faces a barrage of real stones, grenades, incendiary balloons, missiles, stabbings, and shootings. For this reason, we will continue to oppose the repeated efforts to compose one-sided, selective, anti-Israel reports such as this,” she told the Assembly.
“Approving this report would be another step in the ongoing campaign against the Israeli, which has been accused of ‘systematic’ and ‘widespread’ abuse of children. Your approval would lend additional support to the international campaign to tarnish Israel, delegitimize our democratic institutions, and infringe on our right to self-defense.”
Instead, Lavie urged PACE to direct its criticism “at the exploitation of minors by adults to promote national and ideological struggles of any kind. Denounce efforts to support and cultivate terrorism, not efforts to contain it. That would be a true step towards the peace we so need for our region.”
“The hypocrisy must cease. The double standards have to desist,” she declared.
During the debate, representatives from the UK, Switzerland, Estonia and Moldova argued that the report is unbalanced and does not address the incitement and acts of terrorism by the Palestinian Authority.
MPs from Iceland, Turkey and other countries, as well as the Palestinian delegation, leveled harsh criticism against Israel.
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