Arab News, November 19, 2009


RAMALLAH: Palestinian Minister of Social Affairs Majidah Al-Masri said on Thursday that 423 Palestinian children are currently living in what she described as "difficult and painful circumstances" in Israeli prisons.

Accusing Israeli jailers of committing acts of psychological abuse and molestation, Al-Masri said that in addition to the strife of the children of Gaza, "the children in the West Bank are deprived from having a safe life due to the Israeli policy of uprooting and Judaization."

Her remarks came during a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits the kind of punitive treatment Israelis have been accused of by human rights groups.

The convention states that imprisoning children is a measure of "last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time."

According to the Defense for Children International, Israel detained or imprisoned an average of 375 Palestinian minors (under 18) per month, including children as young as 12. This marks an increase from 319 children per month the previous year. Many of these children are arrested, blindfolded, interrogated, jailed and fined for rock-throwing incidents. In violation of the Geneva Convention, these detainees are held outside of the territory of occupation by a foreign force. Families of detained minors generally have difficulties entering Israel in order to visit their relatives.

"The children in Palestine are witnessing a dangerous situation due to Israeli violations in Palestinian society, which has 1.9 million children," said Save the Children Foundation-Palestine spokesman Iyad Al-Aaraj. Al-Aaraj pointed out that Israel considers Palestinian children adults if they’re over the age of 16, so they can be tried as adults in Israeli courts. During security sweeps, the Israeli Defense Forces regularly target, detain or interrogate Palestinian males between the ages of 15 and 45.

In September, Israel began releasing 20 Palestinian women as young as 16 in exchange for a video of Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit proving he is still alive. Two of these young women – Barah and Samah – showed up at an Israeli checkpoint last year with kitchen knives in their backpacks. They showed the knives to the soldiers and were quickly arrested. When questioned they said they wanted to be arrested to get out of Ramallah and their oppressive parents; Samah was going to be forcefully married to a much older man. They were both charged and found guilty of attempted murder.