Writing in The Conversation on August 31, 2026, Adam Muller, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Manitoba and G78 Board member, published an article entitled: The UN says Israel is targeting Palestinian children. Here’s why the ‘bias’ defence doesn’t hold up.
Professor Muller reports on a United Nations commission that earlier this year collected data for the period October 2023 to March 2026 from “interviews, medical records, satellite imagery, forensic pathology and open-source material.”
He summarizes the three main findings of the commission: “The first is that Israeli authorities and security forces contravened international humanitarian law by deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children. The second is that Israel inflicted conditions of life on Palestinians designed to bring about their physical destruction. The third is that Israel has deliberately sought to make it unsafe for Palestinians to give birth.” The commission, he writes, “documents the killing of more than 20,000 Palestinian children by Israeli forces and the injury of 44,000 more.”
The response from Israeli authorities has been predictable, accusing the commission of disproportionate and selective bias against Israel’s wrongdoing and neglect of atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.
But as Adam Muller argues: “that point doesn’t disprove the commission’s findings on Israeli state violence against children. Nor does it protect those who try to downplay or excuse those crimes from being accused of bias themselves.” Access the full article here: https://theconversation.com/the-un-says-israel-is-targeting-palestinian-children-heres-why-the-bias-defence-doesnt-hold-up-288452