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Janna Jihad just wants a normal childhood. “Like any other child… I want to be able to play soccer with my friends without having tear gas canisters rain on us,” she says. But 15-year-old Janna lives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Life under systematic discrimination is anything but normal.
When Janna was seven, the Israeli military killed her uncle. Jana used her mother’s phone to record and expose to the world the racist brutality her community experiences at the hands of Israeli forces. At 13, Janna was recognised as one of the youngest journalists in the world, documenting the Israeli army’s oppressive and often deadly treatment of Palestinians.
This includes night raids, demolishing homes and schools, and crushing communities who stand up for their rights. Palestinian children are particularly affected. Many have been killed and injured by Israeli forces. Israel has signed up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, yet has failed to extend those protections to Palestinian children in the West Bank. By contrast, Israeli children are protected – even those living in illegal settlements near Janna.
Today, Janna’s principled journalism has marked her out for harassment and death threats. She won’t give up. “I want to know what freedom means in my homeland, what justice and peace and equality means without facing systematic racism,” she says. Let’s help her get there.
Tell Israel to protect Janna from discrimination and violence.
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