Question: who is accountable for violations of Palestinian children's rights?

A quick answer would be both the state of Israel and the PNA, but the reality is that one perpetrator tries to elude that responsibility, while the other is not fully capacitated to respond to its obligations....Read on:

Palestinian children in the OPT live in a unique reality, whereby the safeguarding and guaranteeing of their rights depends not only on the compliance of the nascent state institutions that are responsible for them (Palestinian National Authority- PNA) but also the compliance of an illegal Occupying Power (Israel) that has systematically refused to assume its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention vis-à-vis the occupied Palestinian population since it started to occupy the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967. Israel argues that it is exonerated from all obligations regarding the Fourth Geneva Convention, due to the fact that there is now a PNA, which it says should be accountable for the status of Palestinian child rights. This is a fallacious argument on three counts. Firstly, it would imply that Israel no longer occupies Palestinian Territory, which is a lie. Secondly it would imply that the PNA has effective control over its land and people, which it does not. And lastly, it would negate the glaringly obvious fact that Israel, through its occupation policies and practices, is the number one violator of Palestinian child rights.

So child rights' advocates try to tackle the issue on two levels....One insisting on Israel's accountability (cries that fall on deaf ears), while campaigning at the same time for the consolidation of state institutions within Palestine, so that they will be able to ensure effective child protection, whether the threats to children's well-being originates in Israeli policies or in Palestinian society itself.