[Pnews] Number of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons doubles
Prisoner News
ppnews at freedomarchives.org
Wed Dec 9 11:36:08 EST 2015
Number of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons doubles
Charlotte Silver <https://electronicintifada.net/people/charlotte-silver>
8 December 2015
*https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/number-palestinian-children-israeli-prisons-doubles*
Marah Bakir, 16, was leaving school in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh
Jarrah <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sheikh-jarrah> neighborhood
on 12 October when she was shot and injured by Israeli police. They
allege she intended to stab an officer.
However, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11326:weekly-report-on-israeli-human-rights-violations-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-08-13-oct-2015&catid=84:weekly-2009&Itemid=183>
that Marah had been walking with a friend when they were harassed by an
Israeli who accused her of being a “terrorist.” Witnesses said police
quickly surrounded her and opened fire four or five times.
Marah is now one of three Palestinian teenage girls held in Ramle prison
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ramle-prison> with Israeli women
convicted of criminal offenses.
Filthy cell
The Palestinian rights group Addameer
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/addameer> says
<http://addameer.org/news/israeli-occupation-detains-three-underage-girls-under-inhumane-conditions>
keeping the girls in this prison amounts to psychological torture
because they are isolated from other Palestinian female political
prisoners <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/political-prisoners>, who
are held at Hasharon prison <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hasharon>.
The girls live in constant fear and avoid sleeping, the group says. The
three are being held in a filthy cell with two bunk beds, a blanket and
a mattress.
Israel Prison Service
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israel-prison-service> guards
confiscated the girls’ warm clothes and headscarves, and keep them
shackled during their recreation period, according to Addameer, whose
lawyers have visited them.
Addameer reports that neither Marah nor her 14-year-old cellmate
Istabraq Nour
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-killed-boys-they-sought-soldiers-help-group-says>
are receiving necessary follow-up treatment for bullet wounds.
Istabraq was shot and detained last month. Israel claimed
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768384> she intended to sneak
into the extremist Israeli stronghold
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-killed-boys-they-sought-soldiers-help-group-says>
of Yitzhar <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/yitzhar>, a settlement
in the occupied West Bank, with a knife.
Surging arrests
Minors represent approximately a fifth of the 2,000 Palestinians
<http://www.dci-palestine.org/israel_targets_palestinian_children_in_east_jerusalem_with_harsh_policies>
Israel has detained since violence escalated at the beginning of
October. Palestinian children from occupied East Jerusalem form a large
part of this group.
With the surge in arrests, the number of Palestinian children in Israeli
detention doubled
<http://www.dci-palestine.org/children_in_israeli_detention> to 307 at
the end of October compared with 155 at the end of August.
While children living under Israeli military rule in most of the
occupied West Bank have long been denied basic rights
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-child-faces-10-years-israeli-jail/14707>,
those in East Jerusalem are ostensibly subject to the same civil laws
and judicial system as Israeli citizens and have access
<http://www.btselem.org/jerusalem/legal_status> to Israel’s national
insurance system.
But human rights groups have documented a deterioration in their
treatment and conditions in Israeli detention as well.
In order to accommodate the large number of children it is arresting,
Israel opened a new wing for Palestinian minors at Givon prison in October.
According to Addameer’s Rafat Sub Laban, there are now approximately 75
children at Givon, most of them from Jerusalem.
The facility has a maximum of 12 cells, each with six beds, indicating
that even Givon is at capacity.
As The Electronic Intifada reported
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-strip-searches-children-new-detention-center/14999>
last month, the conditions at the prison are abysmal.
Lawyers from human rights groups, including the Public Committee Against
Torture in Israel
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/public-committee-against-torture-israel>,
Addameer and Defense for Children International–Palestine, have all
collected testimonies from children, who report being beaten, denied
adequate food and held in moldy and frigid jail cells.
Children told Addameer’s lawyer during a 3 December visit that they
suffer from nightmares, sleep disorders and are subjected to beatings,
threats and sleep deprivation.
As in the cases of Marah Bakir and Istabraq Nour, some children at Givon
are not receiving adequate medical attention.
Addameer’s Sub Laban told The Electronic Intifada that normally there is
a Palestinian adult stationed in prisons with Palestinian children to
act as a liaison with prison authorities. But no such person exists in
Givon.
Parents barred
The youngest Palestinian alleged by Israel to be involved in a stabbing
is 12-year-old Ali Alqam.
Ali and his 14-year-old cousin, Muawiya, are accused of stabbing and
lightly wounding a security guard on a light rail train near Beit Hanina
in occupied East Jerusalem on 10 November.
Ali was hit by three bullets in his abdomen, pelvis and right hand.
A lawyer with Defense for Children International–Palestine visited Ali
on 15 November while he was still at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.
A spokesperson for the group told The Electronic Intifada that police
prohibited their lawyer from asking questions about Ali’s interrogation.
Ali’s family also said that the police prevented them from visiting
their son in the hospital.
According to Addameer’s Rafat Sub Laban, Muawiya is being held at Givon
and Ali is detained at a closed rehabilitation facility while they both
await trial.
Targeting children
Even before the recent escalation, Israeli violence against Palestinian
minors in custody was on the rise.
Between January and June 2015, 86 percent of Palestinian children
reported some kind of physical violence after their arrest, according to
data
<http://www.dci-palestine.org/rising_physical_violence_against_palestinian_child_detainees>
collected by Defense for Children International–Palestine – an increase
of 10 percent from the prior year.
Since Israel’s intensified crackdown on Palestinians began more than two
months ago, violations of the rights of Palestinian children in Israel’s
civil court system have sharply increased.
In November, Israel’s parliament approved a series of harsh measures.
The Knesset gave preliminary approval
<https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769026> to a bill to imprison
children as young as 12 who are accused of terrorism. The law will
affect Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in occupied East
Jerusalem.
Israel’s current laws bar imprisonment of children under the age of 14.
Earlier in the month, the Knesset passed a law
<http://www.dci-palestine.org/israel_targets_palestinian_children_in_east_jerusalem_with_harsh_policies>
mandating sentences of 4 to 10 years for throwing stones at moving vehicles.
Israeli lawmakers also amended the national insurance law so that
benefits can be revoked from children convicted of
“nationalistic-motivated” offenses or “terrorist activities.”
They also raised the fines courts can impose on their families to more
than $2,500 dollars.
While the laws do not specify that Palestinians are the targets, human
rights groups anticipate this will be how they are applied.
“Previous policy changes affecting related offenses have applied almost
exclusively to the Palestinian population” in occupied East Jerusalem,
Addameer and Defense for Children International–Palestine say in a joint
statement
<http://www.dci-palestine.org/israel_targets_palestinian_children_in_east_jerusalem_with_harsh_policies>.
Extrajudicial executions
Palestinian children have also not escaped Israel’s policy of
extrajudicial executions
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/extrajudicial-executions>.
Of more than 100 Palestinians killed in October and November, 23 were
children, according
<http://www.ochaopt.org/poc24november-30november-2015.aspx> to the
United Nations monitoring group OCHA.
The majority were killed during alleged stabbing attempts, but in a
number of cases eyewitnesses and video footage indicate that the youths
were killed when they posed no immediate threat.
Human rights organizations and international monitors have condemned
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israels-executions-palestinian-teens-must-end-amnesty-says>
Israel’s routine practice of extrajudicial executions.
In some instances, like in the killings in separate incidents of
16-year-olds Mutaz Uweisat
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-wont-israel-allow-autopsy-youth-killed-police/15020>
and Ahmad Abu al-Rab
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/netanyahu-responsible-executions-children-rights-group-says>,
Israel has denied requests <http://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8690>
by families and human rights groups for autopsies or independent
investigations.
Israel is also still withholding the bodies of dozens of Palestinians
killed in such incidents, making it even harder to independently
determine what happened.
As long as Israel faces little of the international accountability human
rights defenders are urging, children will continue to bear the brunt of
the escalating violence it uses to maintain its occupation.
--
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863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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