Childhood is constructed, protected, and in Palestine, deliberately destroyed. This episode traces how Palestinian children are stripped of the word “child” before the bullet lands: through media framing, military law, biometric surveillance, and bureaucratic erasure. From cortisol in the hair to frozen trauma on school grounds, Hiba shows how childhood becomes a criminal and what it means to remember, name, and protect it anyway.

Take Action

Media Accountability

• DCIP Media Toolkit: Learn how to identify and challenge headlines that erase Palestinian children and obscure Israeli violence

• Visualizing Palestine Language Guide: Tools to call out framing that dehumanizes or criminalizes kids

Legal Defense & Documentation

• Defense for Children International – Palestine: Defends detained minors and documents Israeli violations in military courts

• Al-Haq: Legal analysis and international advocacy for Palestinian children under occupation

Memory & Narrative Protection

• BADIL Resource Center: Archives children’s stories, displacement histories, and art—what the occupation tries to delete

• Share names, photos, and stories while they’re alive. The state wants memory to start at martyrdom. Don’t let it.

Sources Referenced

Palestinian Children's Rights Organizations:

• Defense for Children International-Palestine

• Addameer Prisoner Support

• Al-Haq

• BADIL Resource Center

Mental Health & Research:

• Gaza Mental Health Foundation

• UNICEF - Children in Armed Conflict

• UN OCHA

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"If you remove the word child, suddenly there's no contradiction between protecting children and shooting them." -Hiba