Wiesenthal Center Urges 47-Member UN Human Rights Council to Investigate Hamas Over the Deaths of 160 Palestinian Children Forced to Work on Terror Tunnels

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate the death of at least 160 Palestinian children who were used by Hamas to build their terror tunnels.

“Hamas officials openly admitted that children were used to help build their terror tunnels and that at least 160 Palestinian kids died during so-called work accidents,” charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO.

An article published this week in Tablet, cites a 2012 article in the Institute for Palestine Studies by Nicolas Pelham. In it he wrote:

“A similarly cavalier approach to child labor and tunnel fatalities damaged the movement’s [i.e., Hamas] standing with human-rights groups, despite government assurances dating back to 2008 that it was considering curbs. During a police patrol that the author was permitted to accompany in December 2011, nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies. At least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials. Safety controls on imports appear similarly lax, although the TAC insists that a sixteen-man contingent carries out sporadic spot-checks.”

According to Pelham, Hamas’ “Tunnel Affairs Commission” continued to stonewall any complaints about the lethal exploitation of child labor ever since 2008.

“Isn’t there a single member of the UNHRC, whether the US, Germany, UK, or France to stand up and demand accountability for Hamas’ barbarities, at least when the victims are Palestinian children? And where is the multitude of NGOs devoted to protecting children? Will they ever raise the target of their moral outrage at anyone in the Middle East other than Israel?”

“Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by anything Hamas does. What else to expect from a regime that brainwashes children as young as three with genocidal propaganda using Mickey Mouse characters to convert them to the cult of suicide bombers; that has rewarded the voters in Gaza who put them in power, by using their constituents as human shields?

“Still, a UN investigation could at least restore a degree of dignity to these Palestinian children who were robbed of their life by their leaders.

Perhaps the international community will begin to hold these terrorist leaders accountable for their crimes against humanity,” Cooper concluded.

For more information, please contact the Center’s Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).