Brad Parker

Brad Parker is a senior adviser for policy and advocacy at Defense for Children International – Palestine, and a legislative consultant with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Twitter: @baparkr.

Recent Articles

A Palestinian boy walks near Israeli soldiers in the Old City of Hebron, occupied West Bank, July 4, 2014. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

US guns are being aimed at Palestinian kids. Washington can take them away

The impunity enjoyed by Israeli soldiers has fostered an increasingly trigger-prone policy against Palestinian children. Americans have ways to prevent it.

By Brad Parker December 28, 2020

Fadi Ibrahim Abu Khusa (4) holds the photo of his two killed siblings, Shahed (9) and Mohammed (2), in their home in Zawaida village, central Gaza Strip, February 24, 2015. The two children were killed with their parents, Ibrahim and Sabreen, and 4 other members of their family by an Israeli attack on their home which occured on July, 30, 2014. Ibrahim and Sabreen went to the home of Sabreen's father one week before the attack thinking they would be safer. (Anne Paq / Activestills.org)

I was meant to talk about Palestinian kids at the UN. Israel forced me out

Belgium caved into Israeli pressure to disinvite me from the Security Council. In doing so, they helped undermine human rights work for Palestinian children.

By Brad Parker February 24, 2020

Siam Nuwara, the father of Nadeem Siam Nuwara, mourns over his son before his funeral procession in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 16, 2014. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Even forensics can’t stop Palestinian teen’s killer walking free

Nadeem Nuwara and Mohammad Mahmoud Odeh Salameh Abu Daher were shot dead by Israeli Border Police officers during a 2014 protest. Forensic evidence didn’t stop the Israeli authorities from failing to adequately prosecute the killings. On Sunday, May 28, I spent the morning with Siam Nawara, the father of a 17-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli…

By Brad Parker June 4, 2017

Israeli ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor (UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

Israeli exceptionalism at the United Nations

Israeli officials mistakenly dismiss criticism as the product of an ‘anti-Israel bias.’ But when a state agrees to uphold certain universal human rights and then fails to do so in practice, it would be unfair for the international community to not criticize that state. Last month, Israel ended a 20-month boycott of the United Nations Human…

By Brad Parker November 14, 2013

Israeli soldiers arrest a child during the weekly demonstration in Kfer Qaddum, a West Bank village located east of Qalqiliya, on January 25, 2013. There have been regular demonstrations in Kfer Qaddum since July, 2011, protesting the blocking of the main road east of the village which used to link it to Nablus. The child was later released. (Photo by: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Justice denied: Prolonged occupation and Palestinian child detainees

With a political process that consistently demands peace without justice, Palestinian children living in the occupied territories have been denied justice at almost every turn. Israel seldom holds its officials and individual perpetrators accountable for violations of Palestinian human rights, particularly against children. The resulting impunity grants Israeli forces a license to expand, rather than…

By Brad Parker July 20, 2013

Footage of the Muhammad al-Dura shooting (Screenshot: France 2)

Children in the crosshairs: Lessons from the al-Dura affair

The continued discussion of the almost 13-year-old Al-Dura affair reflects the current Israeli government’s inability to conduct serious and impartial investigations into violations of Palestinian rights. On Wednesday, Philippe Karsenty, a French media analyst, was convicted of defamation for accusing a French television network of orchestrating video footage of the famous shooting of 12-year-old Mohammad al-Dura in…

By Brad Parker June 28, 2013