{"id":140008,"date":"2019-08-12T12:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=140008"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:42:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:42:20","slug":"israels-war-on-innocence-palestinian-children-in-israeli-military-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/08\/israels-war-on-innocence-palestinian-children-in-israeli-military-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s War on Innocence: Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Ahmad Manasra was tried and indicted in Israeli military court when he was 13 years old.\u00a0 (Photo: File)<\/p><\/div>\n

7 Aug 2019 – <\/em>On July 29, 4-year-old Muhammad Rabi\u2019 Elayyan was reportedly\u00a0summoned\u00a0<\/a>for interrogation by the Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem. The news, originally reported by the official Palestinian news agency,\u00a0WAFA, was later\u00a0denied<\/a>\u00a0by the Israeli police, more than likely in an attempt to lessen the impact of the PR disaster that followed.<\/p>\n

The Israelis are not denying the story in its entirety, but are rather arguing that it was not the boy, Muhammad, who was summoned, but his father. It was Rabi\u2019 Elayyan, they claim, who was called into the Israeli police station in Salah Eddin Street in Jerusalem to be questioned regarding his son\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

The child was accused of hurling a stone at Israeli occupation soldiers in the Issawiyeh neighborhood, which is a constant target for Israeli violence. The neighborhood has also been the tragic location of\u00a0house demolitions<\/a>\u00a0under the pretext that Palestinians there are building without permits. Of course, the vast majority of Palestinian applications for such permits to build in Issawiyeh, or anywhere else in Jerusalem, are\u00a0denied<\/a>\u00a0routinely, while Jewish settlers are allowed to build on stolen Palestinian land unhindered.<\/p>\n

As such, Issawiyeh is no stranger to the ridiculous and unlawful behavior of the Israeli army. On July 6, for example, a mother from the beleaguered neighborhood was arrested in order to put pressure on her teenage son, Mahmoud Ebeid, to turn himself in. The mother \u201cwas taken by Israeli police as a bargaining chip,\u201d Mondoweiss\u00a0reported<\/a>, quoting the Jerusalem-based Wadi Hileh Information Centre.<\/p>\n

The Israeli authorities are justified in feeling embarrassed by the whole episode concerning the 4-year-old boy, thus the attempt to poke holes in the story. The fact is, though, that\u00a0WAFA\u2019s\u00a0correspondent in Jerusalem had, indeed, verified that the warrant was in Muhammad\u2019s, not Rabi\u2019s, name.<\/p>\n

While some news sources bought into the Israeli propaganda and readily\u00a0conveyed<\/a>the cries of \u201cfake news\u201d, one must bear in mind that this was hardly a one-off incident. For Palestinians, such news about the detention, beating, and killing of their children has been one of the most consistent features of the Israeli occupation since 1967.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ahmed Manasra, 14, leaves the district court in Jerusalem on November 7, 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

Just one day after Muhammad was summoned, the Israeli authorities also\u00a0interrogated<\/a>the father of a 6-year-old child, Qais Firas Obaid, from the same neighborhood of Issawiyeh. This particular boy was accused of throwing a juice carton at Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to local sources in Issawiyeh the [Israeli] military sent Qais\u2019s family an official summons to come to the interrogation center in Jerusalem on Wednesday [July 31] at 8 am,\u201d reported the International Middle East Media Centre\u00a0(IMEMC). In one\u00a0photo<\/a>, the little boy is holding the Israeli military order written in Hebrew up to the camera.<\/p>\n

The stories of Muhammad and Qais are the norm, not the exception. According to the prisoners\u2019 advocacy group, Addameer, there are currently 250 Palestinian children being held in Israel\u2019s prisons. Approximately 700 Palestinian children are taken through the Israeli military court system every single year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most common charge levied against children is throwing stones,\u201d reports Addameer, \u201ca crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is why Israel has every right to be embarrassed. Since the start of the Second Intifada in 2000, some 12,000 Palestinian children have been detained and interrogated by the Israeli army.<\/p>\n

Moreover, it is not only children and their families who are targeted by the Israeli military but also those who advocate on their behalf. Just last week, on July 30, Palestinian lawyer Tariq Barghouth was\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0to 13 years in prison by an Israeli military court for \u201cfiring at Israeli buses and at security forces on a number of occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As unlikely as the accusation of a well-known lawyer firing at \u201cbuses\u201d may sound, it is important to note that Barghouth is well-regarded for his defense of Palestinian children in court. He has also been a headache for the Israeli military court system for his strong defense of Ahmad Manasra.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Israeli forces can be seen arresting a Palestinian child.
\u00a0[Taimoor Ul Haq\/Facebook]<\/p><\/div>The then 13-year-old boy was tried and indicted in Israeli military court for allegedly stabbing and wounding two Israelis near the illegal Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze\u2019ev in Occupied Jerusalem in 2015. Manasra\u2019s cousin, Hassan, 15, was killed on the spot, while the wounded Ahmad was tried in court as an adult. It was Barghouth who challenged and denounced the Israeli court for the\u00a0harsh interrogation<\/a>\u00a0and for secretly\u00a0filming<\/a>\u00a0the wounded child as he was tied to his hospital bed.<\/p>\n

On August 2, 2016, Israel passed a law that\u00a0allows<\/a>the authorities to \u201cimprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter even if he or she is under the age of 14.\u201d The law was crafted conveniently to deal with cases like that of Ahmad Manasra, who was sentenced on November 7, the same year, three months after the law was approved, to 12 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Manasra\u2019s case, the leaked videos of his abuse by Israeli interrogators and his harsh sentence placed more international focus on the plight of Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system. \u201cIsraeli interrogators are seen relying on verbal abuse, intimidation and threats to apparently inflict mental suffering for the purpose of obtaining a confession,\u201d attorney and international advocacy officer at Defence for Children \u2014 Palestine, Brad Parker,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Israel has been a signatory since 1991, \u201cprohibits torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.\u201d Yet, explains Parker, \u201cIll-treatment and torture of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli military and police is widespread and systematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

So systematic, in fact, that videos and reports of arresting very young Palestinian children are almost a staple on social media platforms concerned with Palestine and Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

The sad reality is that Muhammad Elayyan, 4, and Qais Obaid, 6, and many children like them, have become a target of Israeli soldiers and\u00a0Jewish settlers<\/a>\u00a0throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This horrendous reality must not be tolerated by the international community.<\/p>\n

Israeli crimes against Palestinian children must be confronted effectively for the simple reason that Israel, its inhumane laws and iniquitous military courts must not be allowed to continue their uncontested brutalization of those who are, at the end of the day, children. Israel\u2019s war on their innocence must be stopped.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of <\/em>Palestine Chronicle. He has a Ph.D. in Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. Baroud is a Non-Resident Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. His books include <\/em>Searching Jenin, <\/em>The Second Palestinian Intifada, and <\/em>My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza\u2019s Untold Story. His latest book is The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story<\/a> (Pluto Press, London, 2018). His website:<\/em> www.ramzybaroud.net<\/a>. <\/em>Email: <\/em>info@ramzybaroud.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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

7 Aug 2019 – Ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli military and police is so widespread and systematic that videos and reports of their arrests are almost a staple on social media platforms concerned with Palestine and Palestinian rights. The sad reality is that Muhammad Elayyan, 4, and Qais Obaid, 6, and many children like them, have become a target of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":140011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[772,120,1030,87,267,1029,260,487,866,504,88,263,234,767,291,771,444,86,1027,427,85,109,287,103,107,985,572,292,126,1026,118,172,1025,75,886],"class_list":["post-140008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-apartheid","tag-conflict","tag-fatah","tag-gaza","tag-geopolitics","tag-hamas","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-international-relations","tag-israel","tag-matw","tag-media","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-nakba","tag-nonviolence","tag-occupation","tag-oslo-accords","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-israel","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-social-justice","tag-torture","tag-un","tag-violence","tag-wall","tag-war","tag-west","tag-west-bank","tag-world","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140008","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=140008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275242,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140008\/revisions\/275242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}