Children in chains

Children in Chains

Edinburgh-based independent writer and film maker
Jon Pullman’s film about the abuse of Palestinian
children in the Israeli court system

Augustine Church, George IV Bridge!
7.30pm Thursday 30 January 2014

For many decades now the world has looked away while the people of Palestine have been subject to a slow, but relentless attempt at erasure from history. But awareness of this is now growing as new forms of media and connectedness reveal the true nature and intentions of the State of Israel.Crucially, few things resonate more profoundly or have the capacity to galvanise political action more urgently than the abuse of children and young people. This short documentary highlights the grave ongoing breaches of internationalhumanitarian law committed by Israel in its treatment of Palestinian Arab youngsters and carried out as part of a brutal military occupation now over 45 years old. The film sets out the context of occupation and the discriminatory effect of martiallaw, before using a combination of real and constructed footage to follow a harrowing cycle of events from the first picking up of a stone, through the consequent horror of night-time abduction and interrogation, to almost certain incarceration.Few West Bank Palestinian communities are untouched by it. It is a story of systematic and institutionalized terror that the public need to know.

"Each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children, some as young
as 12 years, are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court
system.The most common charge is for throwing stones. The majority of
these children are detained inside Israel in violation of Article 76 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention.”!
Defence of Children International!
http://www.dci-palestine.org

The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign started in autumn 2000 in response to the Palestinian second uprising against Israeli occupation (intifada). The SPSC has branches and groups of supporters in several Scottish cities and universities, as well as individual members across Scotland. We are all volunteers, independent of all political formations, and wholly dependent on donations to finance our activities. We are unaligned with any Palestinian factions and support the right of the Palestinian people as a whole to selfdetermination. A complete withdrawal of all Israeli military and paramilitary forces from the areas occupied by Israel in 1967

1. The right of all Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed from their homes and their descendants to return to their homes or the areas from which they were driven, in line with UN Resolution 194.
2. An end to the Zionist project of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
3. Self-determination for Palestinians.
4. Equal rights for Palestinians living in Israel.
5. An end to all British arms sales to Israel.

We work with a generally sympathetic Scottish public at every level from the Parliamentto street publicity events. We detect a huge shift in popular support away from Israel and towards support for the human and national rights of the Palestinian people. We are committed to building effective solidarity with the people of Palestine - solidarity which can send a message of hope inside the ghettoes Israel is now building across the whole of Palestine, and which will also send a message to people in Israel that they will face mounting world-wide opposition if they continue along their present path.