Post by Bystanders No More

🌟 Advocate of the Week: Save the Children Netherlands Overwhelming evidence shows that Palestinian children in Israeli military detention are being tortured, sexually abused, starved, and held in isolation, sometimes for weeks. Yet the organisation that gathered this evidence, Save the Children Nederland (Save Netherlands), kept the report unpublished for months. Not because the facts were weak. Because disseminating it could have cost them their ability to deliver life-saving aid for Palestinian children. ❗Around 350 Palestinian children from the West Bank are currently held in Israeli prisons. Based on testimonies from 165 released children, the report documents systematic violations: children as young as 12 are blindfolded, beaten, kicked, threatened with dogs, and forced to perform degrading sexual acts. Some have been threatened with rape. ( ▶️ full report: https://lnkd.in/eJrwZuEd) Beyond the physical cruelty, there is the grueling, complete uncertainty for the detained children and their families. The children are held in "administrative detention" without charge or trial, renewable every six months indefinitely. Especially since October 2023, the situation deteriorated: no access to lawyers, no family visits and no help from the Red Cross. The report was finalised in the summer of 2025 but initially withheld because Israel imposed new registration rules on NGOs, effectively forcing them to stop criticising the state. Save the Children also runs aid operations in Gaza and speaking out at that point meant risking everything. In the end, Israel revoked their registration anyway. The Save the Children Gaza office was destroyed, and two staffers were killed. All 200 local staff are displaced. And they published anyway. Unafraid. Unwavering. 🙏 Thank you, Save the Children Netherlands, for choosing children's rights and fundamental principles - unequivocally. 👉 EU citizens can follow their example: demand the EU ceases its preferential trade agreement with Israel which is conditional on respecting human rights. Petition and campaign in comments. #humanrights #childrenrights #neveragainisnow #savethechildren