Minority Youth: Agents of Change For Peace and Stability Forum on Minority Issues, 10th Session on ‘Minority youth: towards diverse and inclusive societies’, 1 December 2017, Geneva Aya Manaa, Coalition of Women for Peace Thank you Mr. Chairperson, My name is Aya Manaa an OHCHR minority fellow, and I am speaking on behalf of the Palestinian minority identifying as both national and indigenous minority in Israel. Palestinians constitute 20% of the total population of Israel around 1.7 million people. I would like to elucidate some of the various challenges that my community faces that negatively impacted our minority youth towards building a diverse and inclusive society . First the high level of insecurity faced by the Palestinian communities in rural and urban areas had been fuelled among other reasons, by killing of more than 60 young men and women this year, including the brutal murder of my 31 year old cousin Hiba. She was killed near her house in front of her mother, 10th of September 2017, up to this day the perpetrator has not been found or persecuted. There seems to be a lack of initiative on the part of police to investigate crimes where the victims belong to the Palestinian minority. Mr. Chairman do you think this is justifiable and for how long? Statistics available since October 2000 reveal that over 1200 Palestinian people have been killed by illegal weapons in Israel. Out of these 50 were killed by the police. Most of the said victims are youth. The second issue that I want to bring to your notice Mr. chairperson is the shrinking freedom of speech, assembly and expression of opinion faced by the Palestinian youth in Israel. Activists like Dareen Tatour who is currently in house detention for two years because of a poem that she posted on Facebook is a reminder of this violation. Mr. Chair the freedom of speech is a fundamental right .If you silence young Palestinian voices like Darin, how do we expect that peace will be ever achieved? Mr. Chair, I chose to give my speech today in Arabic language due to it’s importance to our Palestinian identity, and my opposition of abolishing it’s status. Given the said facts, we recommend the state of Israel firstly to abolish nation-state law which inter alia abolishes the status of Arabic language and other democratic values, secondly, to protect the right to life of all its citizens especially young Palestinians, including taking actual measures to prevent targeted crimes and making the authorities accountable to investigate crimes. Thank you Mr. Chairperson ،‫شكرا سيدي الرئيس‬ ‫ وأمثل األقلية الفلسطينية التي تعرف‬،‫انا اية مناع مشاركة في برنامج زمالة األقليات التابع للمفوضية السامية لحقوق اإلنسان‬ .‫نفسها كأقلية قومية وأصالنية في إسرائيل‬ .‫أننا نواجه تحديات مختلفة والتي تؤثر سلبا على شبابنا وتحد من امكانية بناء مجتمع متنوع وحاوي للجميع‬ ‫ هذا العام شهدنا قتل أكثر‬،‫ ارتفاع مستوى انعدام األمن وأألمان الذي يواجهه المجتمع الفلسطيني في قرانا ومدننا ألسباب عدة‬،‫أوال‬ ‫ حتى يومنا‬،‫ بالقرب من منزلها وأمام أعين والدتها‬،‫ قتلت ابنة عمتي هبة البالغة من العمر واحد وثالثين عاما‬،‫ شابا وشابة‬60 ‫من‬ .‫هذا لم يتم العثور على الجاني أو محاكمته‬