UN denounced for excluding Israel from its list of child killers

Palestinian schoolgirls mourn during the funeral of their classmate, 15-year-old Sadil Naghnaghiya, in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank on June 21, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

The international anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign's Palestine chapter denounces the United Nations for keeping the name of Israel out of its annual list of child killers.

The BDS is a campaign spearheaded by pro-Palestine advocacy organizations seeking to advance the Palestinian cause of liberation from Israeli occupation and aggression by trying to apply economic pressure on Tel Aviv.

The BDS's National Committee (BNC) issued the rebuke on Tuesday after the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ignored the call from numerous human rights groups and refused to add the Israeli army to the "list of shame" of forces endangering children in "armed conflict," the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

According to the BNC, at least 42 Palestinian children were killed and 933 injured by Israeli forces in 2022 in the occupied West Bank alone, marking a 15-year-high.

Palestinian teenage girl succumbs to gunshot wounds suffered in Israeli raid on Jenin

"Apartheid Israel, despite routinely crossing the threshold as one of the worst violators against children for decades, has again been left out," Wafa cited it as saying in a statement, in which it accused the UN of practicing a "blatant colonial hypocrisy" in favor of the occupying entity.

"Apartheid Israel’s occupation forces have murdered at least 31 Palestinian children so far this year," the BNC noted.

Israel's dark child-killing record ‘source of shame’ for its Western backers: Iran

"How many more will Israel kill with impunity before the UN ends its racist double standards and holds Israel accountable?" it asked, adding, "We reiterate our call for lawful targeted sanctions on Israel, including an immediate and comprehensive military embargo."