This means that no country can, based on the legal status of children, deprive them of some of the rights contained in the convention or create restrictions on the exercise of the rights. One of these rights is the "best interests of the child". As the Committee on the Rights of the Child recognizes, all the rights stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child are organized in line with the best interests of the child. The best interests of the child are stated in Article 3(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child as follows: "In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration''.
On the other hand, in 2018, the Israeli regime Knesset (the Israeli legislative branch) passed a law entitled the Jewish Nation-State Law, and in 2021, the Israeli Supreme Court recognized this law as one of Israel's constitutional rights. Keeping in mind that the Israeli regime is one of the parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the question raised here is whether the best interests of Palestinian children have been respected in this law or not.
After the nation-state law was passed in the Knesset, an increasing number of Palestinian children under occupation faced death and were subjected to mass violence and persecution. Considering the statistics, in 2018 - the year of approval in the Knesset - 57 children, and in 2021 - the year of approval of the law as fundamental rights - 78 Palestinian children were killed in the occupied territories only; while this statistic was 15 people in 2017, 28 people in 2019, and 9 people in 2020, which indicated the violation of the right to life following the adoption of the law of the nation-state of Jewish.
Secondly, since the law of the nation-state only recognizes the right to self-determination for the Jewish nation, the right to the national identity of Palestinian children, which often comes from their citizenship, has been ignored. Because the exclusive right of self-determination for Jews introduces Palestinian children as foreigners in their ancestral land.
Another right that has been violated by the law of the nation-state Jewish is the right to enjoy a decent standard of living. The nation-state law has encouraged Israeli settlement in predominantly Palestinian areas and considered it a national value. In 2021, about 700,000 Israeli settlers lived in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank; This caused the Palestinian lands to be confiscated, the freedom of movement for the Palestinians was severely restricted, and their access to resources was reduced. Following this, the amount of land available to Palestinians for the development of housing and basic infrastructure decreased and led to the displacement of Palestinian families and communities. In this regard, the Human Rights Council even reported in 2021 that more than 70 families in the Sheikh Jarrah region experienced forced eviction. Also, the increase in violence, following the law of the nation-state has caused Palestinians to have no choice but to leave their lands. In the first ten months of 2021, 410 attacks were carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians; These conditions make it almost impossible to live in the occupied territories.
Beyond displacement, the nation-state law has had a disastrous effect on the health of Palestinian children. Growing up in a violent environment not only harms children directly but also children lose their mental health through witnessing violence and the possibility of losing their parents. In a study in 2021, the effect of living among Israeli settlements on the mental health of Palestinian children showed that there is a high level of anxiety, distress, separation anxiety, hypervigilance, and PTSD in Palestinian children. This exposure to violence and mental injuries probably leads to the escalation of the conflict and leads more children to death and health damage.
On the other hand, the right to education of Palestinian children is also jeopardized by the adoption of the nation-state law. The obstacles that settlement construction has created for Palestinian children prevent access to and proper avoliability of educational facilities. The nation-state law, by creating territories that are exclusively inhabited by Jews, and Jews can exclusively exercise their right to self-determination, took measures to limit the right to access educational facilities for Palestinian children. Children who are forced to leave their town to go to school are also subject to Israeli military checkpoints, which means that relatively short journeys can take hours and lead to missing classes. On the other hand, throwing stones and shooting bullets at the walls of schools in the occupied territories is another example of harassment that has a significant impact on the learning disorder of Palestinian children.
Since the legislative departments are obliged to consider the best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all their actions, the Israeli regime was supposed to consider the best interests of Palestinian children in approving the nation-state law; However, considering that "the best interests of the child" is a comprehensive result of children's rights, it is clear that Israeli regime, by violating the right to life, the right to identity, the right to health, the right to have a suitable standard of living and the right to education, has also violated their best interests.
Ahmadreza Azarpandar
Human rights researcher