A child's wish: 'I want no one else in Israel ever to be hurt by a landmine'

It was always known, although Israel initially denied it, that it dropped an unprecedented number of landmines in Southern Lebanon when it invaded that country a few years back.

Now, The Independent reports:

"The Knesset [Isreali Parliament] has been moved to begin clearing some of its 260,000 mines by a remarkable 11-year-old. Donald Macintyre meets him".

Yes, you read that correctly - an astounding 260,000 landmines. There are many countries, Israel not being one of them, who have signed up to ban the use of landmines.

As the young campaigner says:

"Nor is he impressed by security arguments in favour of preserving the mines. "People are always inventing a new story not to remove the landmines." Accepting that a minority of the mines may have to remain at some of Israel's borders, he says: "There should not be mines where people travel."

Read the piece, in full, here.

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