Tag Archives: Child Abuse
Palestinian Children Suffer Increasing Levels of Physical Abuse By Israeli Occupation Forces
RAMALLAH, July 25, 2015 (WAFA) – Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2015 suffered increasing levels of physical violence, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) research.
Data compiled by DCIP since January 2015 shows that ‘86 percent of Palestinian children experienced some form of physical violence during their arrest or interrogation, a 10 percent increase from 2014.’
The research, which was released on Friday, said that, “unlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian children have no right to be accompanied by a parent and, in the majority of cases, no access to legal counsel during interrogation.”
“Ill treatment of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic in the Israeli military detention system as children arrested by Israeli forces arrive at Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived,” according to DCIP documentation.
It noted that, “Israeli forces used blindfolds and hand ties on almost all the children interviewed by DCIP, and in nearly 55 percent of cases they succumbed to strip-searches once in custody.” Children continued to report they signed documents during interrogation drafted in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
DCIP documented four cases involving the use of solitary confinement for interrogation purposes by Israeli forces, a practice, which DCIP stressed, amounts to torture under international law.
For over a decade, ill treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system has been widespread and systematic,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCIP.
“Recent amendments to Israeli military law simply serve to improve the appearance of the military detention system and have failed to practically address the abuse of Palestinian children.”
Meanwhile, A UNICEF report released in February found that ill treatment of Palestinian child detainees remained widespread and systematic despite recent changes to Israeli military law.
According to the report, Israeli authorities have, since March 2013, issued new military orders and taken steps to reinforce existing military and police operating procedures related to the detention of Palestinian children. However, evidence collected by a UNICEF-led working group since 2013 shows continued and persistent reports of ill treatment against Palestinian children by Israeli forces.
Lawmakers in both the United Kingdom and United States have recently called on their respective governments to hold Israel accountable for ill treatment of Palestinian child prisoners.
DCIP reported that, “Of nine complaints filed by DCIP in 2014, one investigation was closed without charge and the other eight remain pending.”
Around 500 to 700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12, are arrested, detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military detention system each year.
“The majority of Palestinian child detainees are charged with throwing stones. In addition to physical and psychological abuse during arrest and detention, Palestinian child detainees are overwhelming denied bail and routinely held in pretrial custodial detention for up to several months.”
To be noted, International juvenile justice standards, which Israel has obliged itself to implement by signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, demand that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort.
Israel is the only country in the world that automatically prosecutes children in military courts that lack basic and fundamental fair trial guarantees.
DCIP said that, “Since the occupation of Palestinian territory in 1967 by Israeli forces, Palestinian children have been charged with offenses under Israeli military law and tried in military courts. Israeli military law is only applied to Palestinians even though Israeli settlers live in the same territory. No Israeli children come into contact with the Israeli military court system.”
“At the end of May, a total of 163 Palestinian children were imprisoned in the Israeli military detention system, according to the Israel Prison Service.”
T.R.
Israeli Occupation Police Ban Palestinian From Entering Al-Aqsa Mosque, Physically Assaults Girl
JERUSALEM, July 2, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli police Thursday banned a Palestinian young man’s entry into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and physically assaulted a small girl inside the Mosque compound in East Jerusalem.
WAFA correspondent reported that police banned Tamer Shala‘ta, from Sakhnin, entry into the Mosque compound for 17 days and fined him 8,000 NIS (about $2120).
This came a day after Shala‘ta was detained from inside the Mosque compound and moved to an interrogation center purportedly for chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ to protest the presence of Israeli settler groups that forced their way into the compound.
Meanwhile, a special unit police officer physically assaulted a young girl inside the compound purportedly for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in protest of the presence of more Israeli settler groups.
The 10-year-old child, who remains unidentified, sustained wounds in her legs and was treated at the scene.
This came as thousands of Palestinians from across the West Bank headed early Thursday to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in preparation for the third Friday of Ramadan, passing into East Jerusalem via the various military checkpoints that surround the city.
Israeli military checkpoints surrounding the city, especially Qalandiya and Bethlehem checkpoints are having traffic congestions, forcing hundreds of Palestinian drivers heading to the Mosque to park their vehicles on sidewalks extending from Qalandiya to al-Ram.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian worshipers from the Gaza Strip continue to be prevented from reaching East Jerusalem to pray.
They were prevented from doing so after Israeli authorities revoked their permits to visit the Islamic holy site during the previous week after a rocket landed from Gaza into southern Israel.
K.F/M.H
Palestinians Commemorate Brutal Murder Of Teenager Abu Khdeir By Israeli Extremists
ERUSALEM (AFP) — Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in East Jerusalem Thursday to commemorate the first anniversary of a teenager being burned to death last summer.Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, was abducted and killed on July 2, 2014, weeks after the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.Protesters in the streets of Abu Khdeir’s Shufat neighborhood waved Palestinian flags and held up posters and images of the boy in a beige baseball cap, an AFP correspondent said.”Muhammad Abu Khdeir, July 2, 2014: They kidnapped, tortured and burned you. Be a witness to their crimes,” banners read.Israeli riot police and vehicles were deployed in force in Shufat, the scene of large protests following the murder.In the West Bank, Israeli forces injured 11 Palestinians as they suppressed a march to commemorate the teenager’s murder.
Activists had attempted to close a road leading to the Geva Benyamin settlement northeast of Jerusalem, which is allegedly home to the three Israelis who kidnapped and murdered the 16-year-old, but were shoved and hit by Israeli soldiers.
Jordanian journalist Nibal Farsakh and an international activist were also pepper-sprayed in the eyes.
Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, coordinator of a local popular committee, told Ma’an that “activists decided to head to the Adam (Geva Binyamin) settlement to show that Palestinians will not forgive the assassination of a Palestinian child, as well as our refusal of settlements.”Abu Khdeir was kidnapped from Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, and his burned body was found hours later in a forest in the western part of the city.Three Israelis were eventually charged with the killing, saying it was in revenge for the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.They are currently on trial in Jerusalem.The boy’s father, Hussein Abu Khder, told AFP Thursday he wanted to see them put away for life.”We’ve been through a really hard time. They burned him alive, and we burn inside now,” he said.”His mother cries just at the mention of his name. I’m trying to be strong in front of my children, who’ve been traumatized by the death of their brother,” he said.”The most important thing is that justice is pursued for my son. I want his killers to spend the rest of their lives behind bars, with no pardon.”The June 2014 abduction of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach from a hitchhiking stop near Hebron sparked a vast Israeli search operation targeting Hamas, who denied involvement in the killings, in which hundreds of Palestinians were arrested and at least five killed.The brutal revenge killing of Abu Khdeir was followed by an uptick in rocket fire from Gaza, and the launch on July 8 of a full-scale Israeli military operation against the Mediterranean enclave, which killed over 2,200 Palestinians, including 500 children.
Israeli Occupation Forces Detain 9-Year-Old Palestinian Child In Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday detained a nine-year-old Palestinian child in al-Thuri neighborhood of Silwan, group says.Ahmad Jasim al-Shweiki was detained by Israeli forces and taken to the police station on Salah al-Din street, head of a support group for families of Palestinian detainees in Jerusalem Amjad Abu Assab said, giving no additional information on the circumstances of his detention.Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld had no immediate information on the child’s detention.Al-Shweiki’s detention comes as Israeli forces regularly detain Palestinian children. Israel detained 1,266 Palestinian children below the age of 15 in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2014, according to a PLO report, and over 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli forces since 2000.Rights groups have documented frequent ill-treatment of children who come in contact with Israel’s military detention system and argue that such treatment is widespread, systematic and institutionalized.In 2014, international rights group Defense for Children reported that 93 percent of children detained by Israeli forces were denied access to legal counsel, while others endured prolonged periods of solitary confinement for interrogation purposes, a practice that also amounts to torture under international law.
Headlines From Palestine: June 27 2015
Israeli Occupation Forces Shoot, Injure 14-Year-Old Palestinian
Israeli forces shot and injured a 14-year-old Palestinian boy with live ammunition on Saturday when they opened fire on a march in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum near Qalqiliya.
Israeli Occupation Summons Top Christian Cleric For Protesting Takeover Of Church Property Near Hebron
Israeli forces summoned Saturday morning a leading Christian cleric after participating in a march protesting the Israeli settlers’ takeover of al-Baraka church compound near al-‘Arrub refugee camp between Hebron and Bethlehem, said activists and a cleric.
Israeli Occupation Forces To Demolish Two Palestinian Residential Tents
Israeli forces Saturday notified two Palestinians of their intention to demolish their residential tents in Hebron’s Masafer Yatta, an area that lies almost entirely in area C, under full Israeli control, according to a local activist.
Israeli Occupation Forces Shoot, Injure 14-Year-Old Palestinian
QALQILIYA (Ma’an) — Israeli forces shot and injured a 14-year-old Palestinian boy with live ammunition on Saturday when they opened fire on a march in the West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum near Qalqiliya.A local popular resistance coordinator, Murad Shteiwi, said that hundreds of Palestinians took part in the march, which set off following afternoon prayers toward an Israeli barricade that closes off the main entrance on the village’s southern side.Dozens of Israelis soldiers reportedly fired live rounds and tear gas at the protesters, resulting in the injury of 14-year-old Mohammad Abdul Ilah, who was shot in the thigh.He was taken to Rafidia Hospital for treatment, Shteiwi said.An Israeli army spokeswoman asked to provide comment said she was looking into the incident.Shteiwi said that Saturday’s march came in response to an increase in violations as part of the Israeli military-administered occupation.He said that it was additional to the village’s weekly marches, which are held on Fridays and call for the reopening of the village’s southern entrance, which has been closed 13 years.On Friday, dozens of Palestinian and foreign activists suffered excessive tear gas inhalation when Israeli forces dispersed the village’s weekly march.Earlier this month, on June 12, five Palestinians were injured, including two critically, when Israelis forces opened fire on the weekly march.Kafr Qaddum has lost a large swathes of its land to Israeli settlements, outposts and separation wall, all illegal under international law.According to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, more than 10 percent of the village’s land has been confiscated for the establishment of the settlements alone — Kedumim, Kedumim Zefon, Jit, and Givat HaMerkaziz.The internationally recognized Palestinian territories have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
Israeli Occupation Arrests Seven Minors In Jerusalem Following Ramadan Night Prayers
JERUSALEM, June 24, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli police last night arrested seven Palestinian minors while they were leaving al-Aqsa Mosque compound following Taraweeh (Ramadan night prayers), according to local sources.
The children were identified as Noor-Eddin Abu Hadwan, 15, Omar al-Tawil, 15, Morad Alkam, 14, Mohammad Jaber, 13, Omar Yasin, 14, Mohammad Tayeh, 16, and Saleh Ishti, 15.
A total of 1,545 Palestinians, including minors, women and elderly were detained since the beginning of 2015, reported Abdel Nasser Ferwana, the director of the Bureau of Statistics in the commission of detainees’ affairs.
The rate of arrests has reached 9.6% from January till April, which exceeded the rate documented for the same period in 2014, said Ferwana.
About 258 Palestinians under the age of 18 are among the detainees in Israeli jails, in addition to 77 women, the statement reported.
M.N/T.R/M.H
Headlines From Palestine: June 13, 2015
Egypt has allowed some building and reconstruction materials into Gaza through Rafah crossing today.
Family Furious As Israel Occupation Probe Clears Military In Gaza Beach Murders
The family of four Palestinian children killed when Israel bombed a beach during last summer’s Gaza war were indignant Friday over the closure of a probe into the incident.
Israeli Occupation Forces Open Fire At Palestinian Fishing Boats In Gaza
Israeli naval forces opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, forcing fishermen to flee the area in fear for their lives, a local union said.
President Abbas Inaugurates New Palestinian Embassy In Serbia
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday inaugurated a new Palestinian embassy in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, reported Ma’an.
In Two Months Israeli Occupation Forces Have Arrested 24 Students, Wounded 200 Students And Teachers
The Palestinian ministry of higher education on Thursday issued a report on Israeli violations against education in Palestine during the months of April and may
5 Injured, 2 Critically As Israeli Occupation Forces Attack And Open Fire On Palestinian March
Five Palestinians were injured, two critically, when Israelis forces opened live fire on the Kafr Qaddum weekly march Friday.A coordinator for the village’s popular resistance committee, Murad Shtewi, said that Muhammad Majid, 20, had been shot in the stomach and chest with live rounds and is in critical condition.
Norwegian Insurance Giant Divests From Two Companies Doing Business in Israeli War Crime Settlements
The Norwegian insurance giant, KLP Kapitalforvaltning has divested two international building material companies from its investment portfolio because of their operations in the West Bank settlements.
In Two Months Israeli Occupation Forces Have Arrested 24 Students, Wounded 200 Students And Teachers
The Palestinian ministry of higher education on Thursday issued a report on Israeli violations against education in Palestine during the months of April and may. The report showed that Israeli occupation arrested about 24 students from the southern provinces of the West Bank. The ministry published the list of names of detainees in the report as well.
Other than the arrests, the report showed that about 200 students and teachers were targeted and injured by Israeli forces, a majority of them who suffered teargas suffocation.
Israeli occupation forces also delayed 9 teachers from reaching their places of work, by detaining them on checkpoints.
The ministry pointed out that the occupation obstructed school day on the 9th of April in two schools. One because of the marathon in Al-Sawiya school, and another in Hebron since soldiers were showering the school yards with teargas.
The ministry called on the human rights defenders and organizations to stop the Israeli violations against the education in Palestine and exposing those arbitrary acts through international media.
Occupied: Headlines From Palestine 