The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has revealed that the number of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails has reached 400.
“The number of imprisoned children has increased over the last few months, reaching nearly 400 children in Ofer and Megiddo prisons,” announced Issa Qaraqe, Director of the Commission, adding “The detention of minors is a part of the government’s racist and arbitrary laws, both in terms of arrest and in its issuance of long sentences accompanied by fines in military courts.”
Interviews with child detainees, video footage and reports from lawyers highlight the abuse Palestinian children receive at the hands of Israeli forces. Human Rights Watch revealed that in some cases Palestinian children are beaten and held in abusive conditions.
“Palestinian children are treated in ways that would terrify and traumatise an adult,” said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine country director for HRW, “Screams, threats, and beatings are no way for the police to treat a child or to get accurate information from them.”
Issa Qaraqe stated, “Ninety-five percent of imprisoned children have been subjected to brutality during their arrest and interrogation. The occupation government has adopted a systematic policy of detaining children, torturing them and placing them in inhumane conditions.”
According to the prisoners commission, several children are facing indefinitely renewable sentences without trial and without the disclosure of alleged evidence against them. One such prisoner is 14-year-old Nour Essa Attiyeh from Anata, north of occupied Jerusalem, sentenced to three months.
This Israeli system is called “Administrative Detention” and is, according to acclaimed Israeli reporter Gideon Levy, “the language of news speak,” where “arrest without trial is ‘administrative detention’”.
Hiba Masalha, a lawyer for the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, stated that the Israeli government, detectives, police and soldiers subject Palestinian children to harsh treatment as soon as they are arrested. Masalha added that the children face various forms of torture and humiliation, which are a direct violation of international law.
Masalha referenced the case of 16-year-old Yazan Saeed Hashem Al-Batran from Tulkarem who has been detained since 20 July 2017. Yazan is being held in the “cubs” block in Israel’s Megiddo prison.
“First, the soldiers pushed him down to the ground and handcuffed his arms behind him,” said Masalha, describing his arrest, “Then they beat him with their hands, feet and rifles. He sustained a harsh blow on his sides and several bruises and contusions.”
Masalha added, “After they beat him, two soldiers carried him and forced him into their Jeep. He was taken to the police station where he remained on the floor, handcuffed and blindfolded from the early afternoon until 8pm. He was then taken to an unspecified questioning centre and after searching him, he was taken into a room and left there handcuffed and blindfolded until the morning...He was beat [beaten] by the guards several times while he was there and deprived of sleep.”
A UK Freedom of Information (FOI) request completed on 10 August 2017 revealed that there are also up to five British nationals detained in Israeli prisons. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated that “to release this data would contravene one of the data protection principles,” therefore the FOI did not disclose the identities of the prisoners.
