Tag Archives: palestinian children

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Welcome to Palestine

Israeli activists will arrive tomorrow at Tel Aviv Airport to welcome international activists

 

As citizens of Israel, we feel great respect and appreciation for our international who come to visit the West Bank and express solidarity with the Palestinian residents, living under occupation and apartheid. Certainly, we will there to greet them at the airport terminal, maintaining a presence there between the hours of 12.00 noon till 8.00 pm. We will greet them with open arms, in a feeling of deep appreciation and a personal friendship with some of them. We will hold ‘Welcome’ signs, balloons, flowers, chocolates, and copies of the drawings of Palestinian children from Bethlehem. We welcome them in the harsh reality where Palestinians are excluded from meeting their invited guests and escorting them from the airport – not to mention, of course, being excluded from themselves flying from this airport.
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Yes, rejoice for precious Shalit

Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littewood

…but spare a thought (and do something) for the thousands of Palestinians still languishing in Israel’s prisons

I was once a national serviceman myself, drafted into the military by a barmy government. So I can’t deny that I’m pleased for Gilad Shalit and his parents. No teenage soldier, especially a conscript, should spend 5 years in anyone’s prison even if soldiering for the world’s vilest regime.

On the other hand why is there such a torrent of sympathy for Shalit when the much-hyped thousand-for-one prisoner swop leaves 8,000 Palestinians still rotting in Israeli jails, some of them having languished in captivity far longer than our Israeli hero?

And for those 8,000 it’s no picnic. A United Nations Human Rights Council report (A/HRC/WG.6/3/ISR/3) of December 2008 highlighted some unpalatable truths about life in Israel’s prisons…

  • use of coercive techniques to extract confessions
  • use of confessional evidence obtained illegally to convict
  • lack of effective mechanisms for investigating complaints of torture.
  • arrests and detentions are based on secret evidence to which neither the detainees nor their counsels have access
  • neither the prisoner nor his/her lawyer has the right to see the evidence against them
  • repeated extension of initial detention without evidence to justify it
  • large numbers detained without charges or any trial procedures
  • ‘administrative’ detention is grounded on ‘security reasons’ and hearings are not open to the public.
  • ‘administrative’ detention is regularly used against Palestinian children

seriously bad prison conditions including over-crowding, family visits denied, arbitrary transfers, torture and ill-treatment by Israeli security, soldiers and prison guards, deteriorating health conditions and increasing deaths in custody

Even when it’s a civil matter Palestinians are dealt with by Israeli military courts, which treat Palestinian children as adults as soon as they reach 16 – a flagrant violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These courts ignore international laws and conventions, so there’s simply no legal protection for individuals under Israeli military occupation.

As detention is often based on secret information, which neither the detainee nor his lawyer is allowed to see, it is impossible to mount a proper defence. And the Security Service always finds a bogus excuse to keep detainees locked up “in the greater interest of the security of Israel”. Although detainees have the right to review and appeal, they are unable to challenge the evidence and check facts because all information presented to the Court is classified.

The UN has laid bare the evil of Israel’s ‘snatch squads’ that prey on innocent Palestinian men, women, children and students, and the regime’s cynical disregard for their wellbeing while in its clutches.

It’s obvious that Israel still hasn’t emerged from the swamp, and probably never will.

Commenting on the release of Sergeant Gilad Shalit, the British prime minister David Cameron said: “I know that people across Britain will share in the joy and relief felt by Gilad Shalit and his family today. I can only imagine the heartache of the last five years, and I am full of admiration for the courage and fortitude which Sergeant Shalit and his family have shown through his long cruel and unjustified captivity. I congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and everyone involved for bringing him home safely, and hope this prisoner exchange will bring peace a step closer.

“Britain will continue to stand by Israel in defeating terrorism. We remain strongly committed to the cause of peace in the Middle East – with Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in security. We will continue to work for direct negotiations to achieve that end.”

Note that Cameron says nothing about the long, cruel and unjustified captivity of the thousands of Palestinians. And he badly needs re-educating on the subject of terrorism.

The Parliamentary Chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, James Arbuthnot MP, said: “I congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu. Like every good Prime Minister he listened to what the people wanted and he made the tough decisions. He did the right thing. We must however not confuse this victory for humanity as a victory for Hamas. As Israel and the Palestinians continue to work towards peace and two states for two peoples it remains as clear as ever that Hamas cannot play a part in this process with their ideology intact. The UK must continue to ensure that the Quartet Principles are upheld and re-enforced.”

No problems with Zionist’ ideology then, Sir James?

It hasn’t yet dawned on Arbuthnot that no self-respecting Palestinian wants any part of the discredited “process” he eagerly recommends. Besides being a devoted Israel flag-waver he is, worryingly, chairman of our Defence Select Committee and, laughably, a member of the posh-sounding ‘Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation’, where one presumes he pleads Israel’s case for not signing.

The remarks of both men, rejoicing for Shalit while showing no concern whatever for the thousands still languishing in Israel’s jails, demonstrate a lack of humanity that’s quite obscene.

Apparently 60 MPs and other Parliamentarians, including Arbuthnot of course, were sufficiently befuddled to sign the following CFoI petition…


FREE GILAD SHALIT PETITION

We the undersigned call for the immediate release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. On June 25 2006, Shalit was abducted by Hamas militants in a pre-meditated cross-border terrorist attack inside Israel. Captured at the age of 19, the young solider has been held in isolation ever since and is neither permitted to send or receive messages from his family.

Shalit’s detention is a serious violation of international humanitarian laws governing the treatment of prisoners of war, as enshrined by the Third Geneva Convention. Throughout his captivity Shalit has been denied the most basic of rights. This cruel and inhumane treatment is a blatant and direct contravention of the Third Geneva Convention.

We, insist that Hamas immediately release Gilad Shalit, and before it does so, afford him the right of communication with his family and unfettered access for the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure his well-being.

 

I doubt if this made the Hamas resistance sit up and take notice. Many of their leaders, including Haniyeh and al-Zahar, have seen the inside of Israeli prisons and all their lives have been on the receiving end of non-stop mega-violations of international humanitarian law, as indeed has the entire Palestinian population.

Shalit, we’re told, was a tank-gunner deployed on the Gaza border, a teenager playing with big boys’ lethal toys. Those tanks make frequent incursions into Gaza to shell civilian targets. How many innocent Palestinians did Shalit shred and how many homes did he blast? How much infrastructure (paid for by British taxpayers’ aid money) did he blow to smithereens?

How many notches on his big gun barrel? Or did he keep a bung in it?

Like the rest of Israel’s army of illegal occupation his job was to terrorise the Palestinians in pursuit of the Zionist regime’s land-grabbing masterplan.

Hard-core depravity

Last night I watched a TV interview in which the Israeli government’s propaganda chief Mark Regev called the Palestinian prisoners “hard-core killers”. Tell you what, Mr Regev: killing doesn’t come more hard-core than tanks, helicopter gun-ships, F-16s, armed drones and warships taking pot-shots at tightly packed civilians in the most crowded strip of land on earth. Or Israel’s vicious blitzkrieg called Operation Cast Lead. Or the murderous assault on the Mavi Marmara bringing desperately needed humanitarian aid to illegally blockaded Gaza.

The kill-rate is disgustingly hard-core – Israelis slaughtering Palestinians at the rate of 11 to 1 (over 14 to 1 when it comes to children) – according to B’Tselem’s statistics since the start of the Second Intifada in 2000.

And it’s not just the dead. Israel’s Cast Lead Operation against the Gazans is reported to have left some 5,450 injured and maimed. It also destroyed or damaged 58,000 homes, 280 schools, 1,500 factories and water and sewage installations. And it used prohibited weapons like depleted uranium and white phosphorus shells. That’s hard-core depravity, Mr Regev.

And here’s something else. Young Gilad Shalit was born and brought up on Palestinian territory which Israel was never entitled to. The UN allocated it to the Arabs in the 1947 Partition Plan and it was stolen and ethnically cleansed by hard-core Jewish/Israeli terror squads in 1947/48.

Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littlewood is an industrial marketing specialist turned writer-photographer. In 2005 he was invited to write and shoot pictures for a book about the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. ‘Radio Free Palestine’ was published in 2007. For details please see http://www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk/.

  • The Author is a regular contributor to RamallahOnline.com. Find more Articles by Stuart Littlewood on RamallahOnline.

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Palestine: arduous odyssey of statehood

Palestine: arduous odyssey of statehood
Palestine: arduous odyssey of statehood

Palestine: arduous odyssey of statehood

By Dr. Ismail Salami and Kourosh Ziabari

The plight of the Palestinian people is no closed book to anyone in the world;  a subjugated nation which has been unjustifiably subjected to discrimination and violence for the past 6 decades.

Even the close allies of Israel and those who support the continued occupation of Palestine admit in their privacy that the actions and policies of the Israeli regime are beyond the pale and run counter to the very principles of humanity and morality.

Everyday, the mass media run reports of several Palestinians being killed or injured by the Israeli forces. Hundreds of Palestinian children and women are incarcerated in Israeli jails and their dignity is flagrantly violated. The homes of the Palestinian citizens are demolished by huge bulldozers every day and Zionist settlements are constructed in their place.

In its nature as a colonizing regime, Israel has never spared any efforts to suppress the Palestinian nation. The 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead which claimed the lives of 1,417 Palestinians and destroyed a great deal of the infrastructure of Gaza coastal enclave including schools, mosques, hospitals and even the UN headquarters was only a simple example of Israel’s unrelenting atrocities against the people of Palestine.

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has committed every type of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It constantly violated the international laws and regulations such as The Hague Regulations of 1907, Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the customary laws of belligerent occupation; however, the United States and its European allies endowed Israel with immunity to the law and protected it from accountability before the international community. Since 1982 up to now, the United States vetoed 27 United Nations Security Council resolutions critical of Israel and hindered the investigation of Israel’s criminal actions including building illegal settlements on the Palestinian lands, deporting the Palestinian citizens from their hometown, incarcerating children and women without charges or holding tribunals for them and more importantly, building and accumulating nuclear weapons.

However, the Palestinians have realized that it is now time for their sufferings to come to an end and start a new era in the life of their browbeaten country. Actually, they are getting prepared for putting forward a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly to officially become the 194th member of the United Nations.

On November 15, 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s National Council unilaterally adopted the Palestinian Declaration of Independence and claimed territories which still remained under the Israeli occupation. Since 1974 when the Arab League summit recognized PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people “and reaffirmed their right to establish an independent state of urgency”, Palestine has been accepted as an observer member of the United Nations without a right to participate in the General Assembly’s voting. After the declaration of independence, the UN General Assembly officially acknowledged the proclamation and voted to use the designation “Palestine” instead of “Palestine Liberation Organization” when referring to the Palestinian permanent observer.

Now after spending two decades as an observer state, Palestine is seeking full membership in the United Nations. When the General Assembly convenes on September 13, it will also decide on whether to accept Palestine as an official and sovereign state or not. However, the Palestinians have a long way to go to realize statehood and it’s almost a far-fetched and complicated journey for them.

According to an article recently published on New York Times and quoted by Stephen Lendman, “last March, Israel told UN Security Council members and other prominent EU countries it will act unilaterally if the General Assembly grants Palestine de jure membership in September inside 1967 borders, 22% of historic Palestine.”

As said by American author and political writer Stephen Lendman, if Palestine is granted full membership, Israel will likely deny recognition, continuing its illegal occupation, this time against a sovereign country; however, even if Israel keeps up with its hostility, the “automatic majority” of the UN General Assembly will take the side of Palestine.

The U.S. President who was recently snubbed by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he said that Israel should recognize the state of Palestine within the pre-1967 borders has rhetorically accepted with Palestine’s plans for submitting a bid for membership in the UN; however, he has implied that its terms, size, locations and timetable should be checked with and verified by Israel. In other words, “he supports Israeli veto power of Palestinian rights, including sovereignty, an unacceptable or illegal condition under international law,” wrote Lendman.

From a legal viewpoint, it’s said that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories should end if Palestine succeeds in gaining a vote of statehood from two-third of the General Assembly members.

Lendman says that Washington has already provisionally recognized Palestine as an independent state and according to the UN Charter Article 80 (1), it cannot reverse its position by vetoing a Security Council resolution calling for Palestine’s UN admission.

Albeit, it should be kept in mind that even though Mahmoud Abbas, the acting chief of Palestinian Authority has made numerous concessions to Israel and tried to please the U.S. and its European allies, he has several enemies in the public sphere, especially among the U.S. congressmen, media personalities and pundits.

An article published by the American conservative FrontPage Magazine says that Palestine cannot meet the requirements of proposing full membership in the UN. “The first problem is that the PA cannot yet demonstrate all of the four characteristics required for statehood by international law.  A sovereign state is a political entity with a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning government with the ability to exercise sovereignty over that territory (i.e., to command habitual obedience from that population by means of that state’s monopoly on the use of force), and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states,” the article says.

A recent poll conducted on 10,787 people by Press TV shows that 47 percent of the respondents believe the PA’s bid will gain the majority of the votes at the UN but will be vetoed by the US and a total of 24 percent say the US and Israel would prevent the bid from being presented at the UN General Assembly in September. Roughly 13 percent said the bid would fail to garner enough votes on account of the pressure exerted by Washington and Tel Aviv.

Indeed there are repercussions for the Zionist regime if Palestine succeeds in gaining recognition. A source in the Israeli government cites three repercussions in this regard:  1. International perception of Israel as an occupying state will shift to a colonizing one. 2.  The countries voting in favor of recognizing Palestine might impose economic sanctions on Israel and sever all their trade ties. 3. Israel might be forced to depart from international trade organizations. 4. The world may force Israel to approve the construction of the first Palestinian international airport in the West Bank.

These are all the possibilities that may take place but as to the first one that Israel will shift from an occupying state to a colonizing one, one should say that Israel has already been a colonizing state for decades.

Interestingly, the same source predicts that from 192 member states in the UN’s General Assembly, around 180 would vote for the recognition of Palestine, six would abstain and six others would oppose.

This sounds a very optimistic viewpoint and is surely what the Palestinians and the rest of the Muslim world aspires. However, truth is sour and anyone with some degree of political savvy is aware of the amount of influence the Zionists exercise on the US.

Some pundits rightly see the recognition of Palestine as a political tsunami for the Zionist regime.

If the recognition of Palestine is not a nightmare for Israel and its cronies, what is?

Dr. Ismail Salami is an Iranian journalist and author. He has written numerous books and articles on Middle East and is the website manger of Press TV. Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian journalist and media correspondent. He regularly writes for Press TV, Tehran Times, Media Monitors, Salem News, Opinion Maker, Intifada Palestine, RamallahOnline and Strategic Culture Foundation.

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Celebrating Palestinian Child Day 2011

 

Palestinian Child Day falls annually on April 5th. This is an annual event for the Palestinian community to celebrate their children and to call for action on issues and concerns affecting them.

Watch a TV spot made to mark this year’s Palestinian Child Day:

- There are 2,150,000 children in the occupied Palestinian territory.
- Every year approximately 700 Palestinian children from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli army.
- There are about 800,000 children in Gaza; the majority of them have never traveled outside of Gaza.
- The Separation Wall dividing the West Bank from Jerusalem denies thousands of Palestinian children the right to the city.

Arabic version

Findings:

- Results of a baseline survey conducted by Save the Children Sweden and East Jerusalem-YMCA indicated that all adult ex-detainees and 90.6% of child ex-detainees suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Moreover, ex-detainee children in general were at higher risk, in comparison with a standardized sample, for all symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, including introversive and thought problems, anxiety/depression, and withdrawal, while adult ex detaineeswere at high risk of mental disorders in comparison with a non patient sample.

- Results indicated that 65.2% of younger ex-detainees suffer from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms.

- Younger child ex-detainees (15 years of age) suffer from more severe trauma due to their separation from their families at such a critical age. Results indicate that intervention was very much affective in reducing the PTSD symptoms of beneficiaries.

- The majority of ex-detainee children and adults mentioned face family, social, financial and emotional difficulties after their release. Family dynamics worsen after the child’s release, parents become more overprotective and authoritarian, and children become less communicative, more nervous and unable to stand by their family limits. Parents were bothered by their children’s mood and behaviour and mostly bothered by the child’s performance at school/work. Interestingly, social behaviour was the most satisfying area, which may indicate a better social functioning than other demanding functioning areas. In general, the data indicates high parenting stress due to the parents’ preoccupation with their own life issues, like health, work, and mood problems.

The Post–trauma rehabilitation of ex-detainee children programme aims at facilitating the re-integration process of child ex-detainees into their community through enhancing their educational and vocational lives through providing educational vocational support.

 

From Save The Children Sweden website

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Abusing Palestinian Children

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman, 1 Feb 2011

Israel is an equal opportunity abuser, treating women, old men, invalids, and children like young adults because they’re Palestinians, not Jews, so they’re fair game, vilified as national security threats or terrorists for wanting freedom, equality, justice and peace.

Numerous previous articles discussed it, several specifically on children, accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/brutalizing-palestinian-children.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/imprisoning-palestinian-children.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/palestinian-children-under-occupation.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/09/israeli-soldiers-sexually-abuse.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/israel-shooting-and-electric-shocking.html

Defence for Children International (DCI) Palestine “is a national section of the international non-government child rights organisation and movement (dedicated to) promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children,” according to international law principles.

Each year, hundreds, under 18, are arrested, detained, interrogated, tortured, and prosecuted, around 6,500 since 2000 alone.

In June 2009, DCI/Palestine’s report titled, “Palestinian Child Prisoners,” documented their systematic, institutionalized torture and abuse, including testimonies providing chilling evidence, including from Mahmoud speaking for others saying:

“I went from having a normal life at home to handcuffs, deprivation of sleep, shouting, threats, rounds of interrogation, serious accusations,” beatings and other abuse. As a result, “life (is now) dark, filled with fear and pessimism – tough days that words cannot describe.”

On January 6, DCI/Palestine issued an “urgent appeal (for the) children of Silwan,” an Arab village adjacent to Jerusalem’s Old City, one of 28 such communities incorporated into the city.

Evidence of serious forms of abuse were documented. In 2010, sharp increases in child arrests occurred. According to Israeli police data, 1,267 criminal files were opened between November 2009 and October 2010, accusing children of throwing stones, based solely on unconfirmed suspicions.

On November 24, 2010, 60 prominent Israeli professionals, including educators, authors, psychiatrists and psychologists, social workers, and children’s rights specialists wrote Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top officials saying:

“….children and teenagers related that they had been dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night or arrested in their neighborhoods by undercover detectives and special security forces; taken in for questioning while handcuffed and unescorted by their parents; in certain cases, the families were not notified of the arrest in real time; minors were asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release; were threatened and humiliated by their interrogators; and some were even subjected to physical violence while taken in for questioning and under interrogation.”

DCI/Palestine investigated 24 cases, collecting 18 sworn affidavits, 15 from children, aged seven to 17. Specific violations included:

– detaining, interrogating, and abusing children as young as seven; yet under Israeli law, they’re not criminally liable and must be released;

– 76% reported violence during arrest, transfer and/or interrogation, including punching, slapping, kicking, beating with rifle butts, and in one case, throwing a pen at a child’s head during questioning;

– 61% reported painful hand ties, yet under section 10B of Israel’s Youth Law relating to trial, punishment and modes of treatment, other methods should always be employed; restraints may only be used to prevent escape of harm to others;

– 53% reported interrogations with no parent present; under Israeli law, they’re entitled to be there, except in special limited cases; and

– 53% reported threats during interrogation, suggesting long imprisonments, various forms of abuse, and other forms of intimidation.

Imagine, their alleged “crime” was stone-throwing, not theft, vandalism, assault or murder, yet they were treated like dangerous criminals, beaten, humiliated, isolated, and otherwise abused. One case involved a seven-year old boy beaten by soldiers on his way to school. He’s now terrified to leave home.

DCI/Palestine’s December Bulletin commemorated the killing of 352 children during Cast Lead, but regular violence never stops. Last December, four more Gazan children were shot for being too close to Israel’s border.

On December 23, a 17-year old boy was shot in the head while buying strawberries about 800 meters inside Gaza. On the same day, another 17-year old boy was shot in the right elbow while collecting gravel about 350 meters from Israel’s border fence. On December 21, a 17-year old was shot in his right leg collecting building materials about 400 meters inside Gaza. Incidents like these occur regularly, nonviolent Palestinian civilians, including children, attacked, abused and at times killed by Israeli soldiers or police.

Gaza remains a war zone, subjected to regular Israeli incursions, drone and F-16 attacks, fishermen fired on at sea, farmers attacked in their fields, and children shot while buying fruits and vegetable, collecting gravel, wood, or other materials, grazing goats, or simply living too close to Israel’s border fence. Snipers in watchtowers use them for target practice.

From March 26 through December 23, twenty-three shootings were documented, willful crimes gone unpunished even though Israeli and some Western media report them, none in America.

Israeli repression devastated all Gazans, suffocating under siege and reeling from Cast Lead’s aftermath, especially those living too close to Israel’s border fence, in easy range of rogue snipers able to pick them off with ease.

In addition, reports from Gisha, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Amnesty International, and other human rights groups showed little improvement since Israel’s announced siege easing last June, besides regular documented instances of assaults, shootings and killings.

Yet international law absolutely prohibits targeting civilians and non-military facilities or infrastructure, regardless of circumstances. Israel remains systemically in breach, criminally complicit as a serial violator, flouting all legal principles with impunity.

Life in Besieged Gaza

“Gaza on the edge of no return,” Amira Hass headlined on January 6 in the New Statesman, saying:

One mother, like others, fears Israeli drones may strike anytime without warning, like Cast Lead’s devastating onslaught. “In Gaza slang,” drones are called “zanana,” three kinds a Hamas official told her. “One watches over us and photographs every move, every person; the second fires missiles at us….And the third kind? Its whole purpose is to annoy us, to drive us crazy.”

Their use is central to Israeli intimidation and “process of turning Gaza into a vast panopticon, a detention camp under constant supervision and increasing invisible control.”

For days leading up to Cast Lead, Gazans noticed regular humming. “They grew more anxious – and rightly so.” Now every sound scares them, “reawaken(ing) fears of another attack,” and small ones happen regularly. Gazans never know when Israel will next strike full force, perhaps with intent to entirely destroy Gaza and kill thousands of its residents. Some feel it’s just a matter of time. Israeli leaders commit unspeakable crimes, then lie calling them self-defense, including when young children are shot.

In a recent weekly Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) report, incidents, included:

– Israeli air strikes wounding three Gazan civilians;

– soldiers firing at Palestinian workers, farmers, and fisherman in Gaza border areas;

– four Palestinian fishermen arrested, their boat confiscated;

– residences bombed and damaged;

– 30 West Bank incursions and one in Gaza, causing one death, five injuries, and 28 arrests, including nine children, a PLC member and one Israeli journalist;

– two East Jerusalem houses demolished; and

– continued settlement expansion, and settlers allowed to attack Palestinian civilians and property freely.

On January 9, Israeli bulldozers began demolishing the old Shepherd Hotel compound in Sheikh Jarrah, to be replaced by 20 new East Jerusalem homes for Jews – on stolen Palestinian land. Hatem Abdel, overseeing Palestinian Jerusalem affairs, called the matter “extremely dangerous.” Abdel Qader said Israel is trying to “create (an irreversible) belt of settlements,” around East Jerusalem, one Palestinian property demolition at a time until the entire city is Judaized.

In 1967, after Israel annexed East Jerusalem, the hotel was declared “absentee property,” subject to confiscation. PA-appointed mayor Adnan Husseini called destroying it an “act of barbarism.” His family claims ownership and went to court, challenging what led to its sale.

After annexation, East Jerusalem residents struggled to stay where their families lived for generations and they were born. Many, however, were forced out, their status to remain revoked. Those there aren’t wanted in their own city, facing possible expulsion at the whim of Israeli authorities, targeting all Palestinians for removal.

In Occupied Palestine, the rule of law is null and void. Israel rampages freely as it’s done for over 43 years, terrifying millions of residents wanting only to live free on their own land, regularly stolen for settlements and other development, excluding unwanted Arabs.

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

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Israel’s war on Jerusalem children

Jerusalem (RamallahOnline: Photo 2008)

1,200 arrested in year

By Jonathan Cook in Jerusalem, 13 Dec 2010

Israeli police have been criticised over their treatment of hundreds of Palestinian children, some as young as seven, arrested and interrogated on suspicion of stone-throwing in East Jerusalem.

In the past year, criminal investigations have been opened against more than 1,200 Palestinian minors in Jerusalem on stone-throwing charges, according to police statistics gathered by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). That was nearly twice the number of children arrested last year in the much larger Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

Most of the arrests have occurred in the Silwan district, close to Jerusalem’s Old City, where 350 extremist Jewish settlers have set up several heavily guarded illegal enclaves among 50,000 Palestinian residents.

Late last month, in a sign of growing anger at the arrests, a large crowd in Silwan was reported to have prevented police from arresting Adam Rishek, a seven-year-old accused of stone-throwing. His parents later filed a complaint claiming he had been beaten by the officers.

Tensions between residents and settlers have been rising steadily since the Jerusalem municipality unveiled a plan in February to demolish dozens of Palestinian homes in the Bustan neighbourhood to expand a Biblically-themed archeological park run by Elad, a settler organisation.

The plan is currently on hold following US pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a local community leader, warned that the regular clashes between Silwan’s youths and the settlers, termed a “stone intifada” by some, could trigger a full-blown Palestinian uprising.

“Our children are being sacrificed for the sake of the settlers’ goal to take over our community,” he said.

In a recent report, entitled Unsafe Space, ACRI concluded that, in the purge on stone-throwing, the police were riding roughshod over children’s legal rights and leaving many minors with profound emotional traumas.

Testimonies collected by the rights groups reveal a pattern of children being arrested in late-night raids, handcuffed and interrogated for hours without either a parent or lawyer being present. In many cases, the children have reported physical violence or threats.

Last month 60 Israeli childcare and legal experts, including Yehudit Karp, a former deputy attorney-general, wrote to Mr Netanyahu condemning the police behaviour.

“Particularly troubling,” they wrote, “are testimonies of children under the age of 12, the minimal age set by the law for criminal liability, who were taken in for questioning, and who were not spared rough and abusive interrogation.”

Unlike in the West Bank, which is governed by military law, children in East Jerusalem suspected of stone-throwing are supposed to be dealt with according to Israeli criminal law.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem following the Six-Day war of 1967, in violation of international law, and its 250,000 Palestinian inhabitants are treated as permanent Israeli residents.

Minors, defined as anyone under 18, should be questioned by specially trained officers and only during daylight hours. The children must be able to consult with a lawyer and a parent should be present.

Ronit Sela, a spokeswoman for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said her organisation had been “shocked” at the large number of children arrested in East Jerusalem in recent months, often by units of undercover policemen.

“We have heard many testimonies from children who describe terrifying experiences of violence during both their arrest and their later interrogation.”

Muslim, 10, lives in the Bustan neighbourhood and in a house that Israeli authorities have ordered demolished. His case was included in the ACRI report, and in an interview he said he had been arrested four times this year, even though he was under the age of criminal responsibility. On the last occasion, in October, he was grabbed from the street by three plain-clothes policemen who jumped out a van.

“One of the men grabbed me from behind and started choking me. The second grabbed my shirt and tore it from the back, and the third twisted my hands behind my back and tied them with plastic cords. ‘Who threw stones?’ one of them asked me. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. He started hitting me on the head and I shouted in pain.”

Muslim was taken into custody and released six hours later. A local doctor reported that the boy had bleeding wounds to his knees and swelling on several parts of his body.

Muslim’s father, who has two sons in prison, said the boy was waking with nightmares and could no longer concentrate on his school studies. “He has been devastated by this.”

Ms Sela said arrests had risen sharply in Silwan since September, when a private security guard at a settler compound shot dead a Palestinian man, Samer Sirhan, and injured two others.

Clashes between the settlers and Silwan youths came to prominence in October when David Beeri, director of settler organisation Elad, was shown on camera driving into two boys as they threw stones at his car.

One, Amran Mansour, 12, who was thrown over the bonnet of Mr Beeri’s car, was arrested shortly afterwards in a late-night raid on his family’s home.

Also in October, nine rightwing Israeli MPs complained after stones were thrown at their minibus as they paid a solidarity visit to Beit Yonatan, a large settler-controlled house in Silwan. Israel’s courts have ordered that the house be demolished, but Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, has refused to enforce the order.

In the wake of the attack, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, the public security minister, warned: “We will stop the stone-throwing through the use of covert and overt force, and bring back quiet.”

Last month police announced that house arrests would be used against children more regularly and financial penalties of up to $1,400 would be imposed on parents.

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, reported the case of “A.S.”, a 12-year-old taken for interrogation following an arrest at 3am.

“I sat on my knees facing the wall. Every time I moved, a man in civilian clothes hit me with his hand on my neck … The man asked me to prostrate myself on the floor and ask his forgiveness, but I refused and told him that I do not bow to anyone but Allah. All the while, I felt intense pain in my feet and legs. I felt intense fear and I started shaking.”

In a statement B’Tselem said: “It is hard to believe that the security forces would have acted similarly against Jewish minors.”

Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, denied that the police had violated the children’s rights. He added: “It is the responsibility of parents to stop this criminal behaviour by their children.”

Jawad Siyam, a local community activist in Silwan, said the goal of the arrests and the increased settler activity was to “make life unbearable and push us out of the area”.

The 60 experts who wrote to Mr Netanyahu warned that the children’s abuse led to “post-traumatic stress disorders, such as nightmares, insomnia, bed-wetting, and constant fear of policemen and soldiers”. They also noted that children under extended house arrest were being denied the right to schooling.

Last year the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed “deep concern” at Israel’s treatment of Palestinian minors, saying Israel was breaking the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, which it has signed.

Over the past 12 months, Defence for Children International has provided the UN with details of more than 100 children who claim they were physically or psychologically abused while in military custody.

Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook

Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jkcook.net.

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University of Michigan Students Protest IDF Soldiers Campus Visit

On October 20 2010, two IDF soldiers came to the University of Michigan campus as part of a national PR campaign by Stand With Us aimed at justifying Israel’s recent atrocities in the Middle East. Students, staff, and community members collectively engaged in a silent walk-out in memory and in solidarity with all of the silenced Palestinian children that were killed by the IDF during Israel’s most recent offensive on the Gaza Strip who are unable to take a stand and give their account today.

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Israeli Soldiers Sexually Abuse Palestinian Children

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman, 13 Sept 2010

On September 10, Israel’s YnetNews.com headlined, “IDF sexually abused Palestinian children,” headlining:

“Damning (September 9) CNN report cites uncorroborated sexual abuse charges of Palestinian children detained by IDF.” Military officials refused to “respond to abuse charges as no details (were) provided,” a spokesman saying “We cannot address general claims on the subject in the absence of a specific complaint.”

CNN’s report “featured an unidentified Palestinian boy claiming that IDF forces attempted to insert an object into his rectum,” and that dozens of officers present stood around laughing while it happened.

The network cited Defence of Children International (DCI) as its source, an independent NGO involved in promoting and protecting children’s rights globally for over 30 years, founded on the date the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) passed 10 years later.

In May 2010, it asked the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to investigate 14 cases of sexual assault or threatened assault it uncovered – committed by Israeli soldiers, interrogators, and police from January 2009 – April 2010. The abused children were from 13 – 16 years old, detained for offenses like stone-throwing harming no one.

DCI-Palestine expressed alarm about sworn affidavits children provided, explaining instances of sexual assault or threatened assault to obtain confessions. In 2009 alone, DCI reviewed 100 sworn affidavits attesting to the following:

– 97% of children said their hands were tied during interrogations;

– 92% said they were blindfolded or hooded;

– 81% said forced confessions were made;

– 69% said they were beaten or kicked;

– 65% said they were arrested from midnight to 4AM;

– 50% said they were verbally abused;

– 49% cited threats or inducements;

– 32% were forced to sign confessions in Hebrew they didn’t understand;

– 26% cited painful position abuse;

– 14% were in solitary confinement;

– 12% were threatened with sexual assault; and

– 4%, in fact, were sexually assaulted.

It included grabbing boys by the testicles until they confessed, and threatening others as young as 13 with rape unless they admitted to “throwing stones at Israeli settler vehicles in the occupied West Bank.”

DCI suspects these figures “may understate the extent of the problem,” a conclusion substantiated in an earlier article titled “Palestinian Children Under Occupation,” accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/07/palestinian-children-under-occupation.html


In its April 2008 report, the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said over 7,000 children had been arrested since September 2000, the start of the second Intifada. About 360 were still held, some as young as 10, treated as harshly as adults, in violation of international law requiring special treatment for children.

Of these, 145 had been sentenced, 200 awaited trial, and 15 were being administratively held without charge for offenses as trivial as stone-throwing. The report also said about 500 youths arrested turned 18 in prison. About 75 were ill and not treated, and nearly all had been tortured or abused by beatings, hooding, painful shackling, and sleep deprivation for several days in the shabeh position.

It involves binding their hands and feet to a small chair, at times from behind to a pipe affixed to the wall, painfully slanted forward, hooded with a filthy sack, and played loud music nonstop through loudspeakers.

The article includes more on their treatment during detention and under occupation, clear evidence of state-sponsored brutality, flagrantly violating international law, Israel’s specialty.

DCI-Palestine cited a 15 year old boy’s experience after being arrested in September 2009 at 2AM at home:

“While sitting on the ground near the truck, a person speaking Arabic approached me and grabbed my hands and ordered me to stand up and accompany him. He grabbed me so violently and pulled me. He forced me to walk with him for about 20 meters, and I could see from under the blindfold that we stopped behind a military jeep. He slapped me hard twice and grabbed my testicles so hard and started pressing them. Then, he asked me whether I threw stones and Molotov cocktails and I said I did not.”

“He started shouting and saying ‘liar,’ your mother’s c..t.’ He started beating me all over my body and once again grabbed my testicles and started pressing hard. ‘I won’t let go of your testicles unless you confess,’ he said to me. I felt so much pain and kept shouting. I had no other choice but to confess” to stop the pain.

Every year, around 700 children are arrested, most for stone-throwing, then interrogated with no lawyer or family member present, prosecuted, and sentenced. Over 80% signed forced confessions, one-third written in Hebrew they don’t understand. After conviction in military, not civil, court, most are imprisoned in violation of Fourth Geneva’s Article 76. Its provisions include assuring “Proper regard….paid to the special treatment due to minors,” one of many laws Israel violates, children abused like adults.

When confronted with hard evidence, Israel denies it, saying it respects and observes international law, when, in fact, it’s abusively and consistently in violation.

On May 10, Haaretz writer Amira Hass covered the child abuse story, headlining “Over 100 Palestinian minors reported abuse in IDF, police custody in 2009,” saying:

“69 minors complained of being beaten, four minors reported being sexually assaulted, and 12 said they were threatened with sexual assault.” She added that most were intimidated, abused, and maltreated in custody, before and during interrogations. In addition, they got no food or water for many hours and were forced to name others to stop being mistreated.

DCI-Palestine legal advisor Khaled Kuzmar said many parents don’t complain to authorities, having no “confidence in the system that abuses them.” It’s true. Police and military officials rarely investigate, and when do it, absolve abusers, victims not Jewish afforded no justice.

Like always, an IDF Spokesman dismissed “claims of deliberate deviation from procedures for arresting and interrogating minors, (saying their) arrests are carried out in keeping with international law; the arrests of suspects under 16 years old in the West Bank requires a military lawyer’s approval….Minors are brought before a judge within a relatively short period.”

He lied, including about quick resolution before a judge. In fact, children and adults are often held for weeks or months before appearing for trial or accepting a plea bargain, Israel’s corrupted injustice system for anyone not Jewish – even children as young as 9 or 10.

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/

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Gaza Children Attempt Second World Record in One Week

unrwa kites

American Friends of UNRWA

Fresh from their basketball record last week, thousands of children in Gaza attending UNRWA’s 2010 Summer Games will attempt to smash their own world record for the number of kites flown simultaneously on Thursday, July 29! Last year, Guinness World Records confirmed that Gaza’s children are world champions with 3,710 kites flown simultaneously, breaking the previous record of 967 set in Germany.

Last Thursday, more than 7,200 children attending UNRWA Summer Games in Gaza bounced basketballs simultaneously for five minutes, doubling the previous world record. To view photos of the record breaking event last week, visit our Facebook fan page.

Celebrity YouTube filmmaker Matt Harding joined the kids in Gaza as a part of his mission to dance around the world.  To watch the original video that made Matt famous, click here.  UNRWA released its own film of his visit to Gaza, entitled “Where the hell is Matt? Matt is in Gaza with UNRWA”. The film shows dozens of kids in Gaza rehearsing and then dancing with Matt, imitating his trademark dance.  The film celebrates the common humanity that the children of Gaza share with the global community and shows that the kids in Gaza are like kids anywhere in the world.

The Summer Games provide Palestinian children with fun, creative activities providing a welcome distraction from the daily hardship. The program represents hope for the children in a region that has endured too much hardship and too many conflicts.  UNRWA’s invaluable work is based on the understanding that children are our future and it is through them that change will be achieved.

Children in Gaza, who often have few outlets for recreation outside of school, attend the camps to engage in sports, arts and craft, theater, and drama activities.  As the largest recreation program for Gaza’s children, it is providing 1,200 summer camps for the duration of the Games, which run from June 12 through August 5 this year.

Join us in supporting the children of Gaza by making a donation to the 2010 Summer Games program today!  Click here to donate.

Or if you are unable to make a financial contribution, please join the American Friends of UNRWA fan page on Facebook to show your support for UNRWA and receive the latest updates from the field.

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Palestine: The Forgotten Childhood

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Palestine Monitor, 24 July 2010
In 1991 Israel ratified The Convention of the Rights of a Child. The 54 articles of the Convention focus on the human rights of a child which include civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Despite Israel’s ratification of the Convention, Palestinian children are still victims of human rights abuses in all of these categories.

The occupied Palestinian territories have one of the highest birthrates in the region. Over 50 % of the population is under the age of 18. Thirty percent of the population in Palestine falls below the poverty line. Of the poor, 54 % are children.

In 2009, more that 300 children lost their homes after they were demolished from order of the Israeli authorities.

Not including Operation Cast Lead, since January 2009, Israeli army have killed 20 children. In the last ten years 1,333 Palestinian children have been killed in conflict.

Many children do not have direct or safe passage to schools. Children as young as age six walk up to forty-five minutes to get to school because of the separation barrier, road closures, and/or settlements.

In the South Hebron Hills many children are subjected to violence attacks by settlers on their way to school. Since 2004, 92 children have been victims of violence from settlers.

Thirty-five percent of the time, soldiers did not walk with the children and 85% of the time the military escorts failed to complete the full journey to school, leaving children unaccompanied and vulnerable to violence.

Around 700 adolescents between 12 and 17 are detained by the Israeli military each year. In contravention of international law, most prisons that detain children are in Israel which significantly limits family access.

The psychological impact on children is profound. According to UNICEF, nearly of third of all children experience anxiety, phobia, or depression. Over 50,000 children received psychosocial counseling to help them cope with violence.

Nearly 10% of children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Anemia is problematic for nearly 50% of children under the age of two and vitamin A deficiency is endemic in 70 % of children.

The unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territories is over 20%. Thirty percent of children drop out of school at age 16 and 17. The boys need to find work to help the family financially and the girls are pressured into marriage.