How many times have we heard that Palestinian children turn to violence because they feel hopeless or distraught because of the "occupation"? It is practically a truism in certain circles.
It is also a lie.
Last year, the "United Nations Country Team occupied Palestinian territory " published a 180-page document discussing the challenges UN agencies face in working in the territories.
(There are no fewer than 22 UN agencies that work in the territories, not including another agency that is meant to coordinate the activities of the 22. )
Most of the document, predictably, blames the "occupation" for every problem. But when you dig into it, there are some interesting findings that are never publicized. And buried on page 101 we find this out:
Children suffer a relatively high degree of violence from parents and teachers in the form of corporal punishment. Palestine has one of the highest incidences of reported violent punishment in the Arab region: in 2014, 91.5% of 10-14 year olds reported experiencing psychological aggression or physical punishment during the previous month. In Gaza, 94.5% of children reported having experienced such aggression and punishment.The footnote says, "In comparison, 79% of children in Iraq (2011), 64% of children in Sudan (2014), 86% of children in Algeria (2012-2013), and 93% of children in Tunisia (2011-2012) had experienced similar violence."
Palestinian children live with constant violence by their parents and teachers, the two sets of people who are supposed to protect them.
This is why so many youths so easily decided to start stabbing Jews a couple of years ago. Violence is in their upbringing.
Of course, the UN agency tries to even blame Israel for that. When it talks about gender-based violence (GBV), the report says
Violence associated with the occupation contributes to GBV, especially against women.Women in Palestine are exposed to both political and settler violence and GBV against women increased largely after the last war on the Gaza Strip.Mobility restrictions, limited access to exiting support services and the escalating frustration related to the protracted humanitarian crises of the Israeli occupation is one of the drivers of GBV against women, specifically intimate partner violence and other forms of GBV.
As we've seen before, people blame Israel even when Palestinian husbands beat their wives and men beat their sisters. And these UN agencies, convinced that they know that Israel is to blame for Palestinian men beating their wives, children and students, don' t bother to fix the problem - because they believe that "occupation" is the alpha and omega of all evils in the world.
And Palestinian kids are the ones who suffer because of the hate that so many NGOs have towards Israel, hate that blinds them to an attempt at a solution.
After all, why even consider that a society that venerates murderers and terrorists might encourage violence?