[Portadown] Palestinian Children Under Israeli Occupation – with Ayed Abu Eqtaish (IPSC)

armagh | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice Friday October 28, 2016 16:08 by IPSC - IPSC info at ipsc dot ie

To commemorate the annual International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People 2016, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is honoured to host Ayed Abu Eqtaish from Defence For Children International in Palestine. Mr. Abu Eqtaish will speak on Saturday 3rd December in Drumcree Community Centre, Ashgrove Road, Portadown at 2.30pm.

Since 2000, Israeli occupation forces have killed over 2,100 Palestinian children and maimed thousands of others, while Israel arrests and imprisons around 700 children every year. Israeli state violence against Palestinian children takes many forms, encompassing physical violence such as injury from gunfire or crowd control weaponry, beatings and torture, or individual attacks. It includes psychological violence that arises from fear of arrest or physical harm, as well as the psychological interrogation techniques employed by the Israeli army and the trauma inflicted by massive military assaults.

The ongoing Israeli occupation the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) creates an environment in which children are routinely exposed to violence. Occupation policies and practices, such as the indiscriminate use of crowd control weapons, result in regular injury to children. In Gaza, violence against children is perpetuated through the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has been in place since 2007, and regular Israeli military operations that result in high numbers of child fatalities.

About the Speaker

Ayed Abu Eqtaish has worked with Defence for Children International – Palestine since 2000 and currently holds the position of Accountability Programme Director. The main focus of Ayed’s work is child detention issues, including the documentation of cases of ill-treatment and torture. Ayed studied social work and has a Masters Degree in Advanced Studies in Children’s Rights from the Fribourg University in Switzerland. Ayed is an ex prisoner.

About DCI Palestine

Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) is committed to securing a just and viable future for Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For more than twenty years, DCIP has supported and advocated for this child population: investigating and documenting grave human rights violations, holding both Israeli and Palestinian authorities to account, and providing legal services to children in urgent need. DCIP’s is the only Palestinian human rights organization specifically focused on child rights.

Hosted by the Portadown branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign to commemorate the annual International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People 2016.