[Ppnews] Israelis Torturing Palestinian Children

Tue Apr 10 16:26:11 EDT 2007

Israelis Torturing Palestinian Children
Nora Barrows-Friedman, The Electronic Intifada, 10 April 2007

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6782.shtml

DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, Occupied West Bank, Apr 10 (IPS) - Mohammed 
Mahsiri, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West 
Bank, sits in a crowded cafe, a red kuffiyeh wrapped around his neck 
and an iconic portrait of Che Guevara emblazoned on his black t-shirt.

About a year and a half ago, he tells IPS, he and his friend were 
walking down the street when Israeli military jeeps surrounded them, 
shouted at them in Hebrew to stop, and forced them inside a jeep.

"I was taken to a detention centre and interrogated," Mohammed says. 
"The interrogation would begin at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and 
would finish after eleven pm. I was beaten all the time, especially 
if the soldiers did not get the answers they wanted.

"I was sent to be beaten by other soldiers and forced to stand in the 
rain with only thin clothes on. They would try to convince me that I 
did something that I did not do in order to get the confession they 
wanted. After being tortured at the detention centre for one month, I 
was in prison for 13 months."

Shocking photographs of torture at U.S. military bases and detention 
centres in Iraq and Afghanistan outraged people across the globe, but 
Palestinians say they have endured similar treatment inside Israeli 
interrogation centres since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

But Mohammed Mahsiri's story is different. He endured considerable 
physical and psychological torture by Israeli interrogators and 
prison guards when he was just short of 17 years old.

What is being witnessed and documented within the detention centres 
and prison camps is widespread, systematic violation of international 
laws experienced by Palestinian children under 18 years old, 
including torture, interrogation, physical beatings, deplorable 
living conditions and no access to fair trial, according to reports 
by human rights groups and legal observers.

Under Israeli military orders in force inside the occupied West Bank 
and Gaza, any Palestinian over the age of 16 is considered an adult, 
while inside Israel the age of an adult is 18 -- even though Israel 
is a signatory to the International Convention of the Rights of the 
Child, which defines all children as under 18 years old.

Moreover, Palestinian children over 14 years old are tried as adults 
in an Israeli military court, and are often put into prisons with 
adults. These are also direct violations of international law.

According to the latest figures offered by an independent group, 
there are 398 Palestinian children currently inside Israeli detention 
centres and prisons. Ayed Abuqtaish, research cocoordinator with 
Defence for Children International's Ramallah offices, told IPS that 
the youngest child being held in prison is just 14 years old.

"Usually, the Israeli troops invade the child's house in the middle 
of the night, in order to frighten the child and his family," 
Abuqtaish told IPS. "Many Israeli soldiers and vehicles surround the 
house, and other soldiers invade or force their way into the house.

"They intimidate the child to prepare him for interrogation. When the 
child arrives at the interrogation centre, they employ different 
methods of torture."

There are widespread reports of physical beatings, Abuqtaish says, 
"but currently, they concentrate mainly on psychological torture like 
sleep deprivation, or depriving him of food or water, or putting him 
in solitary confinement, or threatening him with the demolition of 
his home or the arrest of other family members. Children have also 
reported that the Israeli interrogators have threatened to sexually 
abuse them."

Israel has consistently defended its policies of interrogation inside 
detention centres and prisons, saying that it is a necessary tool 
against the war on terror. In 1987, according to Israel's Landau 
Commission of Inquiry into interrogation policies, the state 
determined that "a moderate degree of pressure, including physical 
pressure, in order to obtain crucial information, is unavoidable 
under certain circumstances."

"Israel is a state party to the International Convention Against 
Torture," Abuqtaish said. "In its reports to the committee, Israel 
always says that their use of 'moderate physical pressure' is 
consistent with the obligation of the treaty, but, needless to say, 
'moderate physical pressure' is obviously torture in itself."

Palestinian children in the Israeli prison system are not given any 
legal advocacy and are denied most of their rights, involved lawyers say.

Arne Malmgren, a Swedish lawyer, has worked as a legal observer 
inside Israeli military courts during trials of Palestinian children. 
"The Israeli court system does not look like any other court system 
in the world," Malmgren told IPS. "Israeli military staff, the judge, 
the prosecutor, the interpreter -- they are all in military uniform. 
There are plenty of soldiers with weapons inside the courtroom.

"The small children come into the courtroom in handcuffs and full 
chains; there can be up to seven children at the same time in the 
courtroom. One lawyer described it as a cattle market. The trial is 
more like a plea bargain -- before the proceedings, the prosecutor 
and the lawyer have already agreed on the child's sentence, and then 
they just ask the judge if he agrees, and he almost always does.

"There are no witnesses, nothing. And the worst thing is what 
happened before the child arrives at the courtroom -- when they 
interrogate these young boys and girls to get them to sign 
confessions to things they may or may not have done."

As negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli officials move 
forward this week in a possible prisoner exchange deal that may 
include the release of all imprisoned Palestinian women and children 
in a swap for an Israeli occupation soldier captured by Palestinian 
groups in Gaza last June, many Palestinians, including Mohammed 
Mahsiri, are hoping to see relatives, friends and loved ones come home.

"When I was released from prison, it was the best day of my life," 
Mahsiri tells IPS. "We were beaten every day. The food was very bad. 
It was the hardest thing we had to face. No child should ever have to 
experience that."

The Freedom Archives
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