Little Hala Abu Sbeikha was a three-year-old Palestinian girl killed by an Israeli missile on Christmas Eve. I first reported her death in an article entitled Dealing Death to Three-Year-Olds, which I posted on December 26, with additional articles (here and here) posted over the following two days. In addition to snuffing out little Hala’s life, Israel also wounded two of her brothers.

Crimes like this should not go unpunished, and it’s important that all of us do what we can to see that Israel is held accountable for it. An appeal for action is being organized that includes a formal letter you can easily sign onto and send. The letter is addressed to Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict, with copies to Riyad H. Mansour, Ambassador, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine, and Ron Prosor, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN. Below is the text of the letter, followed by a link that will take you to a page where you can enter your name and email address and send the letter.

I know, I know what you’re thinking–appeals like this are made virtually every day on all sorts of issues–from environmental, to economic, to social problems of one sort or another–and it’s so often tempting to simply throw up our hands and say, ‘Petitions and letters are useless. Nothing I can do will help.’ But we’re in a situation now where Israeli lobbies have gained control over the majority of governments in the world, or certainly the a majority of those in the West, and it’s fair to say that none of these other problems we are faced with, as serious as they are, can begin to be adequately addressed until we first take care of this one, mammoth overriding problem. So give some thought to signing onto the letter. Do it for little Hala. Do it for yourself.

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Appeal

H.E. LEILA ZERROUGUI

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

Your Excellency

On Christmas Eve little Hala Abu Shbeika, 3, was murdered, while Christians celebrated the joy of Christmas, when Israel launched at least 16 airstrikes against the Gaza.

Israel launched the airstrikes shortly after a Gaza sniper shot an Israeli civilian labourer working on the border fence. The man was airlifted to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Four days previously, Odeh Jihad Hamad in Beit Hanoun, 29, was a kilometre away from the border when Israeli soldiers shot him in the head. Israeli forces did not allow ambulances to the scene for an hour and a half after the shooting.

In November 2012, Israel’s Pillar of Cloud operation ( weapons testing operation)  that killed 171 Palestinians ended in an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. Since then Israel has committed over 236 case fire violations and killed ten Gazan civilians.

For seven years the people of Gaza have been trapped by the illegal Israeli siege and in the last two months Israel’s blockade of fuel has  caused a devastating humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of critical supplies and electricity for health services. In freezing temperatures blasted by a winter storm of unprecedented proportions, Gazan families and c their children  have had no electricity, heat or light,  the waste water pumping system  collapsed pouring sewerage into the streets then Israel opened  two dams close-by causing the flooding to rise further.

The UN and the international community have stood by doing absolutely nothing while Gaza suffers for seven years when the UN has  recourse to impose sanctions.

Your duty is to protect Palestinian children and I call on you to energetically demand that sanctions are immediately imposed on Israel’s political and military leaders who have direct responsibility for the deaths of Palestinian children.

I remind you that the Security Council recognised early on the need for robust action including sanctions against individuals persistently committing violations against children in armed conflict. These sanctions include arms embargoes, asset freezes, and travel bans.

The readiness of the Security Council to impose sanctions against violators of the rights of children in armed conflict has developed over time. In Security Council resolution 1539 (2004), the Council expressed for the first time its intention to consider imposing targeted and graduated measures against parties to conflict violating the rights of children. This commitment was reaffirmed in resolutions 1612 (2005), 1882 (2009), and 1998 (2011).

Sincerely

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http://richardedmondson.net/2014/01/07/an-appeal-on-behalf-of-little-hala/