Israel waging war on Palestinian children

PIC reported:

Along with the extensive kidnapping of Palestinian children and minors, the Israeli court has endorsed a new law that allows issuing prison sentences against Palestinian children, a new escalation targeting Palestinian childhood and a further violation of the human rights.

The new Israeli law justifies issuing long-term prison sentences against tens of Palestinian children, especially Ahmad Manasra, 13, Moawiya Alqam, 13, and his cousin Ali Alqam, 11, the world's youngest prisoner. Before arresting him, Israeli soldiers shot Ali three times in the upper part of his body.

Mohammed Shalalda, a professor of International Law at the al-Quds Open University and former Dean of the Faculty of Law, confirmed that the Israeli prosecution of children below 18 is "a blatant violation of the international law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, of which Israel is a party."

Ratification

An Israeli ministerial committee ratified on November 22 a law to try the Palestinian children below 14 years old if they commit crimes against the Israeli national security, referring to the Palestinian acts of resistance.

The Israeli Knesset unanimously approved the proposal at the first reading. If approved at the second and third readings, the law would bring the 12-year-old Palestinian children to court and they would be kept in rehabilitation centers until they become 14 to move to normal adults prisons.

Racist trials
Shalalda stressed that such Israeli trials are based on discrimination, "as they contradict the Israeli laws and trials held for Israeli children for the same charge."

He said, "Israel is a party to the Law of Treaties of 1969, which states that no state party shall enact a national legislation that violates international conventions."

Bitter facts
Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies documented 6000 Israeli arrests of Palestinians, of whom 1930 are children, in 2015.

Riyad al-Ashqar, the Center's spokesperson, said that around one third of the Israeli arrests were for minors. The arrests during 2015, according to him, were focused on children less than 14 years of age, and even included children under 10.

According to Addameer organization for Palestinian prisoners affairs, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have arrested more than 2000 Palestinians, of whom 350 are children, raising the number of Palestinian children prisoners in Israeli jails to 400 in November.

Targeting Palestinian childhood
"Israel has already arrested children under 14, and even 11 years of age. But the real danger the new law imposes is allowing sentencing them, risking their future," said Abdul-Nasser Ferwana, head of the Palestinian Detainees Committee.

The idea of the new Israeli law was raised after the IOF arrested the child Ahmad Manasra, 13, on October 12 last year, after he purportedly attempted to stab an Israeli settler.

Extract forced confessions
Ferwana insisted that the law threats include getting forced confessions from the children at the hands of the Israeli interrogators.

A video released from the Israeli interrogation room showed Ahmad Manasra with three Israeli interrogators shouting at him and trying to force him to confess his complicity in a stabbing attempt. Manasra repeatedly said, "I can't remember," but the interrogators managed to have him confess, without the presence of a lawyer.

The new law treats the children like adults, thus exposing them to long-term prison sentences.

Torture

"The Israeli authorities ill-treat the Palestinian children at a systematic large scale," commented Iyad Misk, attorney at Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP).

Misk pointed out that the reports DCIP collected between January and June, 2015, show that 86% of the Palestinian children prisoners in the Israeli jails were exposed to one or more forms of physical torture. This percentage is 10% higher than that of 2014.

The reports show that the Israeli interrogators threaten the children and keep them locked in solitary confinement to force them to confess. In addition, the children are mostly unaware of their rights.

According to Misk, the Israeli authorities exploit the emergency law, which allows the use of administrative detention policy in the occupied al-Quds ('Jerusalem'), for the first time since the year 2000.