Normalizing Crimes Against Children: A New Media Project in the Middle East

The attack by the United States and Israel on the elementary school in Minab, and the martyrdom of 168 innocent students, is not the entirety of their wrongdoing against Iran.

It is only one corner of the atrocities committed by them in their recent assault on the non-combatant population of Iran.

According to the Ministry of Education’s report on the latest attacks by the United States and Israel, 250 students lost their lives. Nearly 60% of this figure—168 children—were present at the Minab school, and in two separate strikes on the school, they were killed instantly.

These students’ only “crime” was attending classes—holding a pen that gives them hope of building a future. Yet many of them died while witnessing the death of their teacher or classmates.

The normalization of crimes against children is a relatively new project. It began after October 7 by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, and is now taking place in Iran with the participation of the United States.

The normalization of the killing of children, each of whom leaves behind grieving parents and many family members, is occurring while protection for children is expressly emphasized in international instruments, including the Geneva Conventions, Additional Protocol I, and Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ignoring these spilled children’s lives and these international rules is bringing the world to the brink of the death of human rights. If this global indifference and silence toward crimes as blatant as those in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza continues, it must be said that the danger posed by Israel and the United States will not be limited to those countries; it will pose a threat to peoples across the world.

Because the brutal crimes committed by these powers and their lack of accountability to the international community demonstrate—accurately—that if they face opposition to their positions, they are capable of committing these crimes against any nation. As they have already done, without hesitation, against every people that has resisted their coercion and expansionist rule.

For this purpose, and in line with restoring human rights—especially the rights of innocent children worldwide—you are invited to help us by sharing and disseminating reports and news regarding these events, in order to prevent these crimes.