This is a little boy named Ali Siyam and he is seven years old.
He’s a bit of a sweetie isn’t he; just like your seven year old son, grandson, nephew, or even the cute little boy who lives next door to you, or across the road.
What would you do, or how would you feel if one afternoon the police arrived; arrested and then forcably removed your little seven year old son, grandson, neighbour, from the safety of his home and at the same time severely assaulted and hospitalised his parents (you) when they (you) tried to stop them; based only on a suspicion that the child had commited the terrible offence of throwing stones?
Would you be mortified, would you immediately make a complaint to the police, or your MP, or relevant childrens authorities, would you try to physically prevent the police from taking the child, would you be afraid, angry, astounded, vocal?
I suspect that most parents, grandparents, neighbours in the UK would feel and/or do all of the above.
UK Law and common sense dictates that a seven year old is not sufficiantly capable of truly understanding the difference between right and wrong in all things; a moral compass has not sufficiantly developed in children of this age, so very young children cannot possibly be capable of understanding full responsibility, nor the consequences of things they may do.
Would it surprise you then to know that on 30/05/2011 little Ali was arrested and forcably taken from his home in Silwan in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Special Forces; held and interrogated for hours on end, completely alone and without any form of representation because the solicitor assigned to ‘look after’ little Ali was not only not allowed to see him, she was actually herself detained for trying to gain access to the child.
Now if you have read this far I have no doubt you are now up in arms now at the injustice of such a scenario; and that you are saying to yourself how on earth could such a thing ever be allowed to happen? It must be a one off, a mistake, an oversight.
Would it surprise you to know that you and I; and almost everyone else in the UK regularly facilitates not only this obscene behaviour but far worse?
I know what you are thinking now, you are incensed and are thinking ” how dare you, don’t be ridiculous, I would never facilitate, or condone such actions”. Unfortunately, the sad truth is… you do.. in fact we all do.
You see, in spite of Israel’s blatant and continuous violation of basic human rights, we the populace of the UK allow and enable our successive governments to continue to approve licences for arms sales to Israel, in complete violation of its own arms export guidelines. We say nothing…and we do nothing.
Because we say, or do nothing we are sending a message to Israel; that it’s perfectly alright to arrest, detain and interrogate seven year old children for throwing stones. It’s also perfectly fine to continue to indefinately imprison children in Israeli Jails. In April 2010 the number of children in Israeli Prisons was 280, so our wishful justification of this being a one off, a mistake, an oversight, is just that…wishful thinking. You and I are responsible for this too.
By selling arms to Israel the UK (we) are giving direct material support for Israel’s aggressions which are wholly in violation of International Law, and we are also sending another clear message; that we actually approve of the human rights violations systematically carried out by the Israeli Government.
So the next time you indulgently watch your seven year old son, grandson, nephew, or neighbour playing happily with his toys in the garden, or riding his bicycle along the pavement to the park; free from fear and without a care in the world, think of little Ali Siyam and what happened to him, think about why it will keep on happening to these children; and how the UK (you and I) sanctioned it.
Israel – Ali Siyam – If we don’t stand up for children, then we don’t stand for much.
This is a little boy named Ali Siyam and he is seven years old.
He’s a bit of a sweetie isn’t he; just like your seven year old son, grandson, nephew, or even the cute little boy who lives next door to you, or across the road.
What would you do, or how would you feel if one afternoon the police arrived; arrested and then forcably removed your little seven year old son, grandson, neighbour, from the safety of his home and at the same time severely assaulted and hospitalised his parents (you) when they (you) tried to stop them; based only on a suspicion that the child had commited the terrible offence of throwing stones?
Would you be mortified, would you immediately make a complaint to the police, or your MP, or relevant childrens authorities, would you try to physically prevent the police from taking the child, would you be afraid, angry, astounded, vocal?
I suspect that most parents, grandparents, neighbours in the UK would feel and/or do all of the above.
UK Law and common sense dictates that a seven year old is not sufficiantly capable of truly understanding the difference between right and wrong in all things; a moral compass has not sufficiantly developed in children of this age, so very young children cannot possibly be capable of understanding full responsibility, nor the consequences of things they may do.
Would it surprise you then to know that on 30/05/2011 little Ali was arrested and forcably taken from his home in Silwan in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Special Forces; held and interrogated for hours on end, completely alone and without any form of representation because the solicitor assigned to ‘look after’ little Ali was not only not allowed to see him, she was actually herself detained for trying to gain access to the child.
Now if you have read this far I have no doubt you are now up in arms now at the injustice of such a scenario; and that you are saying to yourself how on earth could such a thing ever be allowed to happen? It must be a one off, a mistake, an oversight.
Would it surprise you to know that you and I; and almost everyone else in the UK regularly facilitates not only this obscene behaviour but far worse?
I know what you are thinking now, you are incensed and are thinking ” how dare you, don’t be ridiculous, I would never facilitate, or condone such actions”. Unfortunately, the sad truth is… you do.. in fact we all do.
You see, in spite of Israel’s blatant and continuous violation of basic human rights, we the populace of the UK allow and enable our successive governments to continue to approve licences for arms sales to Israel, in complete violation of its own arms export guidelines. We say nothing…and we do nothing.
Because we say, or do nothing we are sending a message to Israel; that it’s perfectly alright to arrest, detain and interrogate seven year old children for throwing stones. It’s also perfectly fine to continue to indefinately imprison children in Israeli Jails. In April 2010 the number of children in Israeli Prisons was 280, so our wishful justification of this being a one off, a mistake, an oversight, is just that…wishful thinking. You and I are responsible for this too.
By selling arms to Israel the UK (we) are giving direct material support for Israel’s aggressions which are wholly in violation of International Law, and we are also sending another clear message; that we actually approve of the human rights violations systematically carried out by the Israeli Government.
So the next time you indulgently watch your seven year old son, grandson, nephew, or neighbour playing happily with his toys in the garden, or riding his bicycle along the pavement to the park; free from fear and without a care in the world, think of little Ali Siyam and what happened to him, think about why it will keep on happening to these children; and how the UK (you and I) sanctioned it.