{"id":100900,"date":"2017-11-06T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=100900"},"modified":"2017-10-28T12:18:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T11:18:37","slug":"how-israel-forces-confessions-from-jerusalem-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/11\/how-israel-forces-confessions-from-jerusalem-boys\/","title":{"rendered":"How Israel Forces Confessions from Jerusalem Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Israeli forces arrest a Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem in May 2013. Oren Ziv ActiveStills<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Oct 2017 – <\/em>Israel subjects detained Palestinian children from Jerusalem to \u201cextensive denial of their rights,\u201d according to a new report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mistreatment of child detainees is part of a wider policy \u201caimed at encouraging Palestinian residents to leave the city,\u201d the Israeli rights groups B\u2019Tselem<\/a> and HaMoked<\/a> state.<\/p>\n

These violations include physical abuse, sometimes amounting to torture, and other means of coercing children, usually suspected of throwing stones at occupation forces, to sign confessions which could lead to indictments.<\/p>\n

More than 1,700 Palestinian boys aged 12 to 17 from occupied East Jerusalem were arrested from January 2014 through August 2016.<\/p>\n

The groups collected testimonies from 60 boys aged 12 to 17 who were arrested and interrogated by Israeli forces in East Jerusalem between May 2015 and October 2016.<\/p>\n

Arrested while in bed<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than half of the boys interviewed by B\u2019Tselem and HaMoked were arrested at home between the hours of 11pm and 5:30am, while most were asleep in bed. Others were arrested on the street or were summoned to police stations for questioning.<\/p>\n

Sixteen of the boys reported being physically abused while they were being transported to interrogation centers. Once at the interrogation centers, most were subjected to pain and discomfort while they waited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys were ordered to sit in painful positions (such as crouching) for lengthy periods of time,\u201d the rights groups state. \u201cIn some cases, their hands were painfully bound, or they were ordered to face the wall and forbidden to turn their heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the children were denied food or water and access to a toilet, and others reported being physically abused by police while they were waiting.<\/p>\n

Most children were not fully informed of their rights, as required by Israeli law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right to remain silent was either glossed over or misrepresented,\u201d the groups state. Half of the boys \u201cwere told by the interrogators that exercising the right would hurt them in court; that they would do better not to remain silent as this would prove their guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the boys were allowed to speak with a lawyer before being interrogated, but were \u201conly allowed a brief conversation of a few minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleven of the 42 boys who were allowed to talk to a lawyer before they were interrogated did so \u201cin the presence of the interrogator, on the interrogator\u2019s phone, in a phone call the interrogator dialed himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly all of the boys interviewed by B\u2019Tselem and HaMoked said that it wasn\u2019t until they were interrogated that they were told why they were arrested.<\/p>\n

Only police or Israeli intelligence agents were present at the vast majority of the interrogations, even though Israeli law requires a parent to be present during questioning of a minor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, once a minor has been placed under arrest,\u201d according to the rights groups, the police have \u201cdiscretion as to whether or not to allow this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The groups add police arrest children rather than summon them for questioning because it allows \u201cthe police to get around the requirement to have parents present at the interrogation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interrogation and coerced confessions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The interrogation itself usually lasted a few hours; some of the boys were interrogated multiple times. Nine went through five or more interrogation sessions.<\/p>\n

Boys were slapped and beaten during interrogation, or threatened, cursed and shouted at by interrogators. Extreme cold and sleep deprivation were also employed against the boys.<\/p>\n

Some were told they would only be allowed to use a toilet or get food and water if they confessed to allegations against them.<\/p>\n

Fifty of the boys signed confessions. \u201cIn 41 of these cases, the confession was written in Hebrew and the boys did not understand what they were signing,\u201d the groups state.<\/p>\n

Most of the boys were held at the notorious Russian Compound interrogation center in Jerusalem, where many were strip-searched and nearly all denied contact with their family.<\/p>\n

One boy testified that he was held for two weeks in solitary confinement in a small cell with a bright light that remained on at all hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was easier to be tied up in interrogation than to stay in that cell, cold and alone,\u201d the boy, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in solitary confinement was very hard. I signed a lot of confessions. They had me sign one after every interrogation session.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rights groups state that police officers, interrogators and prison guards enjoy total immunity as Palestinian child detainees\u2019 rights are extensively violated.<\/p>\n

Such conduct is nothing new. A report issued by B\u2019Tselem in 1990 showed similar findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system strives to keep up the appearance of following legal provisions and regulations,\u201d HaMoked and B\u2019Tselem state, but such safeguards \u201care routinely rendered hollow and meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Maureen Clare Murphy is the managing editor of<\/em> The Electronic Intifada and lives in Chicago. @maureenclarem on Twitter<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 electronicintifada.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Oct 2017 – Abuse of child detainees part of wider aim to encourage Palestinians to leave the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}