In a flagrant violation to all international norms and charters, Israel made its children participate in the war against the Lebanese people given that they were asked to write on the Israeli missiles "a gift from Israel's children to Lebanon's children" before launching the missiles on the Lebanese targets. The calling up of children to the military camps to write death messages to the Lebanese children violates the principles, goals and values which all the international charters pertaining to children call for.

In this context, we expected that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) could issue a statement to denounce the war crime committed by Israel while it pushes the Israeli children to participate in the war against the Lebanese people in general and their children in particular. This incident should never be tolerated thus media and diplomatic campaigns should be launched at the international level in order to freeze Israel's membership in the UNICEF.

Ahmed Youssif el-Qura'i
Al Ahram
July 27, 2006