‘Israel’ sentences Palestinian child to two months in prison
Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- The Israeli military court has today sentenced a Palestinian child to two months in its prisons.
The Palestinian child Abdullah Amjad Obeid has also been under house arrest in his house in Issawiya village in East Jerusalem for 4 months.
On Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces detained five Palestinian children between the ages of 7 and 11, including three brothers, while they were picking wild vegetables in Masafer Yatta area in the south of the occupied West Bank.
The five children were first chased away by Israeli settlers from the land near the settlement Havat Maon where they were picking wild vegetables that is used as meals in the Palestinian kitchen before calling the forces who detained the five children.
Five children between the ages of 8-12 were detained about an hour ago by the Israeli army after gathering wild vegetables near the settlement Havat Maon pic.twitter.com/ucGOszqEMT
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 10, 2021
https://t.co/xgiRffXRYD pic.twitter.com/R2Ree95j8e
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 10, 2021
According to the Palestinian prisoners rights organization Addameer, ‘Israel’ holds 4400 Palestinian prisoners in its jails, including 140 child prisoners.
Approximately 700 Palestinian children under the age of 18 from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli forces.
The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison.
Since 2000, more than 12,000 Palestinian children have been detained.
In practice before the military court system, there are no special interrogation procedures for children detained by the Israeli military, nor are there provisions for an attorney or even a family member to be present when a child is questioned, according to Addameer.
The majority of children report being subjected to ill-treatment and having forced confessions extracted from them during interrogations.
Forms of ill-treatment used by the Israeli soldiers during a child’s arrest and interrogation usually include slapping, beating, kicking and violent pushing.
Palestinian children are also routinely verbally abused. Despite recommendations by the UN Committee against Torture in May 2009 that the interrogations should be video recorded, no provisions to this effect have yet been enacted.
The occupation forces have arrested Palestinian children systematically, and within arrest campaigns for collective punishment.
These children are subjected to different forms of psychological and physical torture, and are not afforded protection.
The occupation forces exploit the arrest of children for purposes of recruiting them to work as informants, extort their families financially, and force their families to pay large financial fines to secure their release.
The arrest of children has a destructive impact on the level of children’s mental health, often leading to children’s drop-out from schools.
