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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Gaza kids art proves Israeli war crimes: activist |
| 2009-04-14 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A picture speaks louder than a thousands words, says a U.K. peace campaigner trapped in Gaza for helping its children express the horrors they experienced in the latest Israeli offensive through artistic drawings that he plans to take global as evidence of war crimes through children's eyes. For 63-year-old peace campaigner Rod Cox, what started as a small project to collect samples of children's drawings depicting Israeli war crimes in Gaza has ballooned into a cultural and artistic exchange project linking Palestinian school children with their British counterparts. Dramatic new evidence of Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza emerged when Cox handed children in Gaza paper, pencils and crayons and asked them to express themselves and speak their minds. Rod Cox is set to present these portraits among others as evidence of war crimes committed against Gaza civilians to the International Criminal Court, which in a ground-breaking move in the case of Darfur, used children's art as credible proof to start proceedings against Sudanese government officials accused of committing war crimes. "Children's witness statements and explanations of what they went through is a significant and important source in a case like Gaza," said Cox. A change in plan Initially entering Gaza to collect a few samples and head back to Europe, Cox ended up staying in the Strip for over a month and is turning his modest project into a fully fledged artistic exchange program. "The plan at first was to compile a few drawings as samples of war crimes through children's art. But as I remained stuck in Gaza over border crossing issues the project has spiralled into a traveling exhibition," Cox told AlArabiya.net. The project's "hook" is a large green van covered with children's graffiti expressing their feelings about living under war and occupation. "Palestinian children come up to me and ask why I am driving a green van. I tell them about the art project and give them markers to draw their mind on the van," said Cox. He is set on bringing the traveling exhibition to the U.K. and Europe. He rolled into Gaza with a plain green van along with the Viva Palestina aid convoy on March 9. But when he set to leave a few days later, Egyptian authorities refused to let him take the van back through Rafah border because only medical vehicles and equipment can use it. "It was either I go out and leave the van behind or I stay here until the British Consul figures out a way to let me get out with my belongings," Cox explained adding that he decided to wait it out since the van is part of the project of personalizing post-war Gaza for western audiences. Forfeiting it would be "a betrayal of the many Gaza children who count on me to break their isolation and take their voices beyond Gaza," he explained. Gaza's Ministry of Social Affairs said that 437 children were killed and 1,872 wounded during the 22-day war. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 How many psychiatric drugs do you take to become an activist? |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2009-04-14 22:27 |
| #2 "Look at what that Israeli soldier is doing to that animal! Its obscene...disgusting...deplorable. Little Mashud, it must have been aweful?" "No, thats me with my uncle before the war. The war drawings are in that pile." |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-04-14 16:30 |
| #1 Rod Cox? Seriously?! Sound like a tool. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2009-04-14 13:12 |