[Pnews] Palestinian Children Traumatized in Israeli Jail

[Prisoner News]

*Shoc**king Testimony - Palestinian Children Traumatized in Israeli Jail*

RAMALLAH, (PIC) - February 14, 2017

https://english.palinfo.com/news/2017/2/14/Shocking-testimony-Palestinian-children-traumatized-in-Israeli-jail

A Palestinian academic sounded the alarm over the preplanned tactics of 
psycho-physical torture perpetrated against Palestinian children in 
Israeli jails.

Director of the research unit at the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center 
for Victims of Torture (TRC) referred to the dubious nature of a 
decision by the Israeli High Court to cease all forms of physical 
torture against the detainees. However, the court rule legitimized the 
torture of those who fell under the “ticking bomb” blacklist, a category 
from which no Palestinian detainee seems to have been safe.

According to Sahwil, Israel categorizes as “ticking bombs” those who 
hold pieces of information that “might affect Israelis’ lives.”

The academic dubbed such a two-faced court rule “a cover to legitimize 
torture and grant Israeli investigators more protection and immunity.”

In Sahwil’s terms, facts on the ground prove that Tel Aviv is violating 
its obligations as a signatory of the Convention against Torture and 
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The researcher said torture in Israeli jails often proceeds along the 
following four lines, respectively: Psycho-physical torment, internment 
in isolated cells, criminalization by calling the child a terrorist and 
a criminal until he/she internalizes that indignation and reaches a 
stage of self-loathing. The last stage revolves around a process of 
indoctrination and brainwashing to force the child to spy for Israel.

“Torture in Israeli jails does not just aim to force confession; it also 
seeks to dampen the children’s spirits and to paralyze them both 
intellectually and socially,” warned Sahwil. “Such policies aim to give 
birth to a generation of traumatized youth.”

Referring to the psychoanalytic studies, Sahwil said a child who had 
been subjected to torture and violence in his/her early childhood is 
also at high risk of internalizing violence and thus “behaving violently 
towards their family and society.”

He further spoke out against the psychotic disorders wrought by torture, 
most notably insomnia, nightmares, tachycardia, and voluntary solitude.

Ramallah-based TRC kept record of the arrest of 2,000 Palestinian 
children in 2016, up from 600 in 2015.

The center further documented cases of “immoral” violations and 
aggressions by the Israeli occupation soldiers against the Palestinian 
minors while being handcuffed and blindfolded.

“The most dangerous of such felonies are rape threats and molestation 
simulation. At a certain point, Israeli investigators start to take off 
their clothes and force the child to do the same until he/she is 
psychologically broken down,” said Sahwil.

“Even girls below the age of puberty are not safe from such torture 
tactics . . . at an age where they quite normally need psychological 
support,” he further stated.

The researcher called for an urgent action to save Palestinian children 
in Israeli jails, heal traumatized minors, and force Israel to cease all 
forms of mistreatment against Palestinian children.

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading 
Treatment or Punishment adopted and opened for signature, ratification 
and accession by General Assembly resolution 39/46 of 10 December 1984 
and which entered into force on 26 June 1987 defined torture as: “any 
act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is 
intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from 
him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an 
act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having 
committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any 
reason based on discrimination of any kind.”

Article 2 of the convention also stipulated that: “No exceptional 
circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, 
internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be 
invoked as a justification of torture.”


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