A recent national poll in Israel revealed that around 100,000 children are being victimized and sexually abused. It seems most parents in Jerusalem cannot protect their children from harm. If they can’t do it, who will? Parents should be held responsible about the welfare of their children.
Based on the polls, only a fraction of about 2.5 percent of 100,000 abused children cases in Israel was reported to the police. Such percentage was too small to consider the issue as a national concern if we would only rely on statistics. Some may even think of them as isolated cases.
Such findings were presented at the National Council for the Child conference in Be’er Sheva, where around 500 parents joined the polls. In addition, the poll showed that only 5 percent of the parents alerted the authorities that their kids were sexually harassed. A quarter of the parents had never told their children to avoid entertaining strangers.
Yuli Tamir, Education Minister, presented the data from the Central Bureau Statistics. He said for the last three years, there has been a decreasing dropout of 25 percent in high school. Last year, there were about 22,000 or 4 percent of the population of Israeli children who stopped studying. But Tamir said the Education Ministry is currently adopting a program to augment the declining dropout rates.
In relation to this, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, urged the participants to help alleviate the conditions of the children residing in Sderot and other communities bordering Gaza. Reports claimed that many of the children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from poor amenities like reduced electricity supply and other basic assistance.
Beinisch addressed the growing juvenile delinquency in the area and the possible results of this occurrence. He said adequate resources must be supplied for the Israeli’s survival in the Strip.
The chief justice added the poor state of the people in Gaza, particularly the children, resulted in a society that is ill-protected from sufferings and harm. Children can never be provided with sufficient resources if there are severe shortages of the basic needs. Few parole officers, who would safeguard them, and less treatments necessary for juvenile delinquents are the main problems.
He emphasized that as things continue to get worse, such cases of abuse can only be remedied when resources are provided to protect the children.
Source: Haaretz.com
