Vienna sees protest against Israeli brutality against Palestinian children

Scores of human rights activists held a vigil outside the United Nations headquarters in the Austrian capital, Vienna, yesterday in protest against the Israeli army’s brutal and inhuman treatment of Palestinian children, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Women in Black and the Jewish Voice for Peace organised the event which saw activists carrying pictures of Palestinian children who bore marks of torture they suffered while in Israeli detention and banners condemning the “inhuman and barbaric practices committed against Palestinian children”.

They called on the United Nations to intervene and stop these brutal crimes against the Palestinian people and children.

Co-founder European Jews for Just Peace/Women in Black, Paula Abrams-Hourani said: “The international organisations and the international community’s silence gives Israel impunity from such inhumane crimes.”

Hourani stressed the need to stop and combat these crimes, noting that several reports from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other United Nations human rights organisations including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNRWA as well as international human rights organisations and Palestinian and Israeli NGOs have repeatedly criticised the international silence about the Israeli crimes against Palestinian children, including torture and murder.

“Nearly 200 Palestinian children have been arrested by the Israeli army in the West Bank since 2013, and more than 95,000 since 1967,” she added.