Edelstein
EdelsteinFlash 90

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein instructed the Knesset Director-General to convene an urgent meeting following reports of the leftist conference "Children of Occupation" set to take place in the Knesset.

In a statement published today, Edelstein said the conference was organized by bypassing clear Knesset procedures in this regard.

"Let it be clear - MKs from all parties who want to hold an event must ask permission from the Knesset administration," the statement said.

"Instead, they organize mass events in the guise of 'meetings' as if they're hosting innocent visitors," Edelstein added. "I'd expect those responsible to deal with the plight of our children first."

According to a report in Yediot Aharonot, the conference will discuss "various aspects of the lives of children under Israeli occupation: poverty, restrictions on movement, lack of electricity, water and education, as well as child arrests, discriminatory laws that hinder family unification and the effects of the blockade on the Gaza Strip."

"Fifty-one years of occupation have left an entire generation of children without a future,” the invitation to the event reads. “The governments are producing a smokescreen for the direct impact of the occupation on the civilian population in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Children on both sides of the conflict did not choose to be born into a bloody reality, and we can’t create a different future for them without dialogue. The only way out of the cycle of violence is to end the occupation."