This piece was reprinted by OpEdNews with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
The 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child recognized 18 as the minimum recruitment age. Then in 2000, the International Labour Organization's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention No. 182 condemned "all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery....including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict."
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000) prohibited forced recruiting and raised the minimum age to 16.
Contrary to international law, Israeli legislation takes precedence over accepted norms and standards. Conscription at 18 is mandatory, at times includes those six months younger, and children under 18 may enlist voluntarily, but aren't used as combatants until coming of age.
Child recruitment is also done informally, the idea being to prepare underage youths for future mandatory service. Ben-Eliezer wrote how early Zionist settlers established militant organizations, notably the Bar Giora (named for Simon bar Giora in ancient Roman times), Hashomer (The Guard), and the Haganah (Defense), small in scale but profound in influencing younger minds. He explained saying:
"The formative years of the younger generation produced an ethos created by local experience: guarding fields and crops, fighting with Arab children, being given a weapon at the age of bar mitzvah (a boy's thirteenth birthday). This was the childhood experience of prominent members of the young generation (tempering their outlook) with suspicion, which frequently became hostility, and they reached maturity feeling that a confrontation between (Arabs and Jews) was inevitable."
Before 1948, very young children engaged in military activities, doing so eagerly as a sort of game. As a result, a militaristic worldview developed, especially among youths later becoming leaders. Militant groups formed at this time, including Fosh (a Hebrew acronym for Field Units), the Palmach (Striking Force), Stern Gang (Israeli Freedom Fighters -Lehi in Hebrew) and Irgun (National Military Organization - Etzel in Hebrew).
Before Israel's War of Independence, recruitment was a "Duty to Volunteer." Then it was mandatory after the IDF's establishment on May 26, 1948, replacing the paramilitary Haganah.
It's still called a privilege, a "noble and worthy action," today moulding young minds to be eager when called, but they participated earlier as well. In the 1948 battle for Jerusalem, Youth Battalion trainees, aged 16 and 17, were combatants. So were women.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
