MIDEAST: Israelis Torturing Palestinian Children

MIDEAST: Israelis Torturing Palestinian ChildrenBy Nora Barrows-FriedmanDHEISHEH 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 café, 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." (END/2007)

How Israel"s Occupation affects Palestinian Children

How Israel's Occupation Affects Palestinian Children
By Juan Cole
Mr. Cole is professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and author of Sacred Space and Holy War (I.B. Tauris, 2002). His website is: http://www.juancole.com/.
Over one in five Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza (22.5 percent) now suffers from chronic or acute malnutrition. About one in five is anemic. This mass of hungry humanity amounts to a population the size of Minneapolis, about 380,000 kids.
Malnutrition in children makes them more likely to contract life-threatening diseases. It permanently reduces intelligence and vastly increases the rate of attention deficit disorder. Women who were malnourished in their youths have increased rates of premature birth and high blood pressure in pregnancy.
The occupying power in the territories, Israel, enjoys a per capita income of some $17,000 per year, higher than Spain. In contrast, half of Palestinian families must now borrow money just to buy food.
Palestinian terrorists certainly bear a great deal of the blame for this tragedy, insofar as their horrific actions against innocent Israeli civilians have understandably led Israel to close its borders to Palestinian laborers. Unemployment is a prime source of the problem.
Yet, while the scourge of terrorism in Israel has been unspeakable, none of it has been committed by toddlers or infants. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's current lockdown of the entire population of the West Bank is a massive form of collective punishment that has worsened the problem. As the occupying power, Israel cannot escape responsibility for seeing that its colonial subjects are at least fed.
The specter of a rich occupying country presiding over a famished subject population is not unusual in history. Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has pointed out that colonial and other undemocratic governments often allow hunger and famines, since they are insulated from popular protest.
Famously, even in the midst of the Great Hunger in Ireland of 1845 through 1850, eight ships a day left Ireland carrying exports of wheat, barley, oats, beef, pork, butter and eggs, sent abroad by British landlords while their peasants starved.
The French, who ruled Algeria 1830 to 1962, claimed to be on a "civilizing mission" to their subjects. Yet their policies of selling grain reserves on the world market led to a massive famine in the late 1860s when droughts produced starvation and pestilence.
Only the intervention of the French colonial authorities could have forestalled the deaths of thousands, but such officials have often maintained in history that they bear no responsibility for averting famine deaths. Some 300,000 Algerians died of hunger or of the consequent disease outbreaks.
In Sen's classic case, the British civil service in India failed to stop the starvation of three million Bengalis in 1943. He argues that famine is not caused by lack of food, but by an increased inability of the poor to afford it. Only government intervention, he argues, can stop such a tragedy.
That Palestinian children are not going so far as actually to die from their hunger in great numbers has helped conceal the depth of the crisis. Israel has ruled the West Bank and Gaza since it conquered them in 1967, and cannot disclaim responsibility for a population still under its military rule. A Palestinian Authority constantly under attack and immobilized cannot be expected to do hunger relief.
A wealthy and militarily powerful Israel is responsible under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to see that persons living under its occupation are not harmed. Letting 380,000 children go chronically or acutely hungry is a serious violation of international law.
Since the United States still gives Israel billions of dollars every year and has acquiesced in the current West Bank reoccupation and curfew, it also bears a responsibility for this tragedy. The Palestine issue has dropped out of news coverage, and even when it is noticed the focus is on strutting adult male politicians and military men. Will anyone speak for the children?

Palestinian children do not have the right to a fair trial

Palestinian children do not have the right to a fair trial Report, DCI/PS, 18 April

Israel arrests, detains, interrogates, prosecutes and sentences Palestinian children pursuant to a set of Military Orders issued by commanding officers of the Israeli occupying forces, a system which has existed since Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. (Photo: Nasser Ishtayeh) In the 40th year of Israel 's military occupation of the Palestinian territories, Tuesday 17 April 2007 marked Palestinian Prisoner's Day. Currently there are approximately 380 Palestinian children in Israeli custody, many of whom are awaiting trial or sentence, and others who are serving lengthy periods of imprisonment for such minor offences as stone throwing. Article 40 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the State of Israel is a signatory and State Party, gives children the right to a fair trial, the right to liberty while awaiting trial, the right to be heard, the right to privacy, the right to be informed, to have access to a lawyer and support from family and to be treated with dignity during the trial process. Israel arrests, detains, interrogates, prosecutes and sentences Palestinian children pursuant to a set of Military Orders issued by commanding officers of the Israeli occupying forces, a system which has existed since Israel 's occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. Palestinian children who are arrested by Israeli military personnel are deemed by Israel to be offenders against the "security" of the Israeli State and are subsequently prosecuted under the Israeli military system in Military Courts; a system which also prosecutes Palestinian adults. The Military Court system and procedure, on the surface, can be compared to that of a jurisdiction of criminal prosecution however the specific rules and Military Orders which operate within the Court are conducive to Israel 's occupation of the Palestinian territories and cancel out any opportunity or right a Palestinian may have to a fair trial. Israeli Military Order 132 defines a Palestinian child as a person under the age of 16 and those children over the age of 16 are sentenced as adults and imprisoned with adults. Palestinian children are subjected to the same arrest, interrogation, trial and imprisonment procedures as adults, by the Israeli State . Palestinian children, when under the arrest of Israeli soldiers, are not advised of their rights, are not given immediate access to a lawyer or contact with a parent, guardian, other adult relative or an independent support person. Palestinian children are deprived the right to a family visit while held in a detention centre for interrogation, which can last several weeks but even after the conclusion of interrogation, a Palestinian child may remain in a detention centre for an indefinite period where family visits are not allowed. Palestinian children can be deprived a visit from a lawyer while under interrogation for security reasons and under Israeli military law, this can last up to 90 days. In some circumstances, a Palestinian child may only meet his lawyer for the first time at the first court appearance in the Military Court. Most Palestinian children are detained from the moment of their arrest until the end of legal proceedings. They are usually arrested in their homes in the middle of the night by numerous armed Israeli soldiers and are rarely granted bail by the Military Court. Palestinian children are interrogated in detention centers and in many circumstances are assaulted, beaten and tortured during the interrogation process. Torture methods include psychological threats of harm to or imprisonment of family members. The Military Court is neither adversarial nor inquisitorial. Military Court judges are Israeli legal practitioners either employed by or members of the Israeli army, and are not independently appointed as judicial officers through the executive authority of the Israeli government. Military Court prosecutors are also Israeli army personnel. The Military Court (both the judiciary and the prosecution) relies heavily on the confession of a Palestinian child. In this regard, there are no rules of evidence in the Military Court . A confession is obtained by coercion during the interrogation process. A confession is the main piece of information or "evidence" used against a Palestinian child in the Military Court . A confession is in effect, the prosecutor's case and can also be used to implicate other Palestinian child prisoners both in Court proceedings and in interrogation. The confession, regardless of how it has been obtained, forms the bases of the indictment against the child. It is what the child has to respond to in entering a guilty or not guilty plea before the Military Court. There are no civilian, forensic or military personnel witness statements, whether oral or written, presented to the Military Court or a Palestinian child's Defense lawyer before this plea is entered. In effect, this shifts the burden of proof on the Defense making it extremely difficult to challenge a confession. All Palestinian children brought before the Israeli military court are sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Israel uses imprisonment as a measure of first resort for Palestinian children; there are very few cases of children who receive alternative sentences. During their imprisonment, Palestinian children are exposed to varying forms of punishment for minor offences including being placed in solitary confinement, deprivation from family visits, financial penalties withdrawn from their prison accounts, and ongoing restrictions to going outdoors. Palestinian child prisoners also do not have the same rights as Israeli child prisoners, for example they do not have the right to make telephone calls. Defence for Children International Palestine views the military system imposed on Palestinian society by Israel as a discriminatory system that violates core principals of human rights. Military Orders and Military Order enforcement officials are tools used by the executive authority of the Israeli government in its occupation of the Palestinian territories, to oppress and suppress Palestinian children, and to overall undermine their right to life, survival and development.Related Links
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Palestinian children are not terrorists

Palestinian children are not terrorists
By MARIANNE ALBINAGUEST COLUMNIST
Terrorist is the label all too frequently attached to Palestinian children. Today, many Palestinian youngsters feel misjudged by a world choosing to condemn them rather than know them.
These children are confronted with a hard struggle: to find ways to clear their name and reputation in the media. They want others to realize their only fault was to be born under an occupation that stripped away their childhood.
The life of Palestinian children is far from normal. Their daily trips to school take hours instead of minutes. According to The Washington Post, there are 659 checkpoints, roadblocks, trenches and earthen walls in the West Bank. In recent days, Israeli settlers have twice attacked the Christian Peacemaker Team as they accompanied Palestinian children to their school. Those who do reach their schools are disoriented and tired, ill prepared to absorb anything on the syllabus that day.
Palestinian children quickly realize their parents cannot protect them. They think it's normal to witness the death of friends, Israeli gunmen firing into certain schools and the razing of homes. This is disastrous for us and not without consequence for Israel.
Recently, I was unable to give a guarantee to a child that Israeli soldiers would not harm him. In such an uncertain environment, children become helpless, aggressive, afraid, extremely disobedient or compliant, depressed and fatigued. The Gaza Community Mental Health Program has noted children are plagued by serious psychological ills caused by the stresses of military occupation.
Many Palestinian organizations are aware of what youngsters are going through and work to promote their well-being. These groups help Palestinian children channel their anger and positively serve their nation.
Today, due to the efforts of organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation, some of these children resist the occupation by utilizing their creativity, ambition and enthusiasm. They invest significant energy in the search for meaningful and non-violent ways of contributing to freedom. Some help the victims of the occupation; others prefer to write about the current situation and help spread awareness.
While Palestinian children have chosen different paths in resisting the occupation, they are all trying their best to revive the nation's dying hope of a dignified life. Yet, as the occupation strikes over and over again, children lose confidence that justice is possible.
Contrary to the belief of many, young Palestinians are able to do much more than fling stones in desperation at tanks. If we help, children realize the importance of never giving up, no matter how trying their circumstances. It is not easy. And the world lets them down by voicing principles that are not enforced in the occupied territories.
I urge you not to misjudge our young heroes who are trying to secure a normal life. The courage of the children of Birmingham, Ala., half a century ago is not unknown to our own children. What is missing is the needed media coverage and American empathy as day in and day out another Palestinian child is killed or injured.
We should protect the lives of Palestinian and Israeli children. At this writing, more than 550 Palestinian children and 100 Israeli children have been killed in the past four years. I am convinced by my short visit here that Americans are fair-minded and care for all children.
The U.S. government's backing for almost all of Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's actions, however, comes at the expense of justice for Palestinians and safety for Israelis and for Palestinians. Children need the help of the American people rather than the one-sided rhetoric of your presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Marianne Albina, a Palestinian activist, is on a national speaking tour with Partners for Peace. She will speak at 7 p.m. Monday at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. Call the World Affairs Council at 206-441-5910 for more information.