Children

293 Palestinian Children Kidnapped In The First Quarter Of 2013

According to reports by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, in Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers continued their aggression against the Palestinian children, kidnaped 28 children, dozens of children have been injured by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the first half of this month.

 
On May 2, the army invaded Hares village, near the central West Bank city of Salfit, and kidnapped Ali Shamlawi, 16, Mahmoud Sultan, 15, and Ayoub Kleib, 18. 

On May 3, the army invaded Azzoun, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, and kidnapped Abdul-Rahman Radwan, 16, and Yahia Adwan, 17, after violently attacking and beating them.

Two months ago, the United
Nations Children Fund
(UNICEF) reported that
the Israeli army is
subjecting the detained
Palestinian children to
widespread and
systematic abuse in direct
violation of International Law.

On May 5, the army invaded Aboud village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and kidnapped one teenager, identified as Jihad Dar Saleh, 18, before taking him to the Ofer detention center, west of the city.

On May 6, the army invaded Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem, and kidnapped Ehab Thawabta, 16.

On May 7, the army invaded the Aida refugee camp, north of Bethlehem, and kidnapped Saleh and Srour, 18.

On the same day, the army invaded Yatta town, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped Ahmad Morr, 16, and Suleiman Morr, 17.

In Jerusalem, the army kidnapped three children between the ages of seven and eight, during a nonviolent procession.

On May 8, the army and the police kidnapped Abdul-Rahim Barbar, 15, from Ras Al-Amoud, in occupied East Jerusalem, as he was heading to school.

On May 9, soldiers invaded Borqeen village, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and kidnapped four children between the ages of 16-18.

The soldiers also invaded Abu Dis, in Jerusalem, and kidnapped Mahmoud Jaffal, 15, and Mohammad Jaffal, 14.

The army further kidnapped Asef Mahmoud, 18, Qusai Moqada, 18, Lutfi Abu Laila, 18, and Naseem Shqier, in the Az-Zawiya village, near Salfit.

On May 10, the Israeli Police kidnapped Mohammad Al-‘Awra, 15, in Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.

On May 14, the army kidnapped Said Sabarna, 18, and Hakam Al-Allami, 16, from Beit Ummar town, near Hebron.

On May 15, the army kidnapped Mousa Halaiqa, 13, in Beit Einoun village, east of Hebron.

Children injured By Israeli fire:

May 2, two children identified as Ghassan Ikhlayyil, 17, and ‘Ala Ikhlayyil, 17, were shot by rubber-coated metal bullets fired by the army in Beit Za’ta area, in Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.

May 3, Israeli (GROWN MEN) soldiers attacked and injured several children in Nabi Saleh village, near Ramallah, during the weekly protest against the Wall and Settlements.

May 11, seven children, between the ages of 10 and 13, have been injured after being attacked by Israeli soldiers in At-Tour neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem.

May 14, Hanin Bassem Al-Ja’bary, 7, was injured after a settler rammed her with his vehicle close to the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the Old City of Hebron. The settler fled the scene.

One the same day, dozens of school students have been treated for the effects of teargas inhalation in Al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem.

May 15, dozens of children have been injured after being violently attacked by Israeli soldiers in different parts of the West Bank as the Palestinians marked the Nakba anniversary when the Israeli armed forces and militias occupied the historic land of Palestine in 1948.

Statistic about detained children:

Palestinian Researcher, specialized in detainees’ affairs, former detainee, Abdul-Nasser Farawna, stated that the Israeli army kidnapped nearly 9500 Palestinian children since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in late September 2000, until May 7 2013.

Farawna said that statistics reveal that Israel kidnaps approximately 760 children a year, and added that there are currently 243 Palestinian children under the age of 18, including 42 children under the age of 16, who are still imprisoned by Israel.

Farawna further stated that the army kidnapped 881 children in 2012, a %26 increase of the number of arrests targeting children in 2011.

The researcher said that this year witnessed a sharp increase and escalation in the Israeli violations against Palestinian children, as the Israeli army and the police kidnapped 293 Palestinian children in the first quarter of 2013.

He said that the number shows a %9.3 increase in the arrests targeting the children when compared to the same timeframe of last year, and a %34.4 increase of the same timeframe of 2011.

Two months ago, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) reported that the Israeli army is subjecting the detained Palestinian children to widespread and systematic abuse in direct violation of International Law.

The UNICEF said that approximately 700 Palestinian children, between the ages of 12 and 17, are kidnapped, detained and interrogated by the Israeli army, the Police and security agents in the West Bank every year, Reuters said.

It further stated that the detained children are subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and are punished in direct violation of the Convention on the Right of the Child, and the Convention against Torture.

 
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Omar Khadr’s plea-bargained guilty plea and conviction on murder, terrorism and spying charges will be appealed to a U.S. civilian federal court that has tossed out similar Guantanamo military tribunal convictions for two high-profile al-Qaeda defendants.

If the appeal succeeds, Mr. Khadr could be freed immediately.

Mr. Khadr, now 26, is imprisoned in a special security unit dubbed Guantanamo North at Millhaven Penitentiary near Kingston after being repatriated last September from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

“Omar has given his approval to file an appeal,” Dennis Edney, his Canadian lawyer confirmed. A U.S. appellate legal team has been named.

His lawyers expect the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn Mr. Khadr’s conviction – just as it did in the cases of two of Osama bin Laden’s close personal aides, Ali Hamza Bahlul and Salim Hamdan, both also convicted at Guantanamo.

That would create consternation in Ottawa, where ministers have called Mr. Khadr a terrorist and successive Liberal and Conservative governments refused to extricate him from Guantanamo despite his Canadian citizenship and his hotly debated status as a child soldier under international law. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to multiple crimes committed in Afghanistan in 2002. As part of that plea, he confessed to throwing a grenade that killed U.S. Sergeant Christopher Speer.

The Pentagon’s Office of the Chief Defense Counsel has named an appellate team of attorneys for Mr. Khadr led by a civilian Sam Morison. Now armed with a formal go-ahead from Mr. Khadr, the team is expected to file the appeal soon.

They’re confident the military tribunal convictions will be overturned. “In our view there are serious questions about the validity of all these convictions,” Mr. Morison said, adding: “As the law now stands, I don’t see how his convictions can be affirmed.”

In rulings on Mr. Hamdan last October and again in January on Mr. al-Bahlul, the civilian appeals court overturned the terrorism convictions against the two. It concluded the military war crimes tribunal created by the George W. Bush administration after the 2001 terrorist attack that levelled New York’s twin towers and left the Pentagon ablaze had tried and convicted detainees on crimes that didn’t exist when the defendants were captured. President Barack Obama has opted to retain the military commissions and keep Guantanamo running, despite his pre-2008 election vow to close the infamous prison complex.

Mr. Khadr’s case is additionally complicated because, unlike Mr. Hamdan or Mr. al-Bahlul, he pleaded guilty at his week-long trial in October, 2010, that included a remorseful statement to Sgt. Speer’s widow. As part of that deal, Mr. Khadr waived his right to appeal.

Mr. Khadr admitted to murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism and spying.

But if the underlying acts weren’t crimes – at least not war crimes – then the waiver may also be unreliable and the appeal could still be accepted by the U.S. federal court.

“Not only weren’t they war crimes at the time of their commission but, I would argue,” Mr. Morison said, “that none of them are crimes today, not in international law.”

The exception is spying, which was so broadly redefined in the Military Commissions Act, it bears little resemblance to espionage as defined in international law.

It could be months before the appeal is formally launched, let alone heard.

In the meantime, Mr. Khadr, who has been held prisoner since 2002, will be eligible under Canadian law for a parole hearing in July this year, when he will have served one-third of the eight-year sentence he agreed to at his 2010 trial.

Mr. Khadr, near death, was dug out of the rubble of an Afghan compound bombed by U.S. warplanes in June, 2002, where the then-15-year-old son of a major al-Qaeda figure was living with a group of militants building and planting roadside bombs.

Even if Mr. Khadr threw the grenade that killed Sgt. Speer, killing a combatant on a battlefield isn’t a war crime except in narrowly defined cases. Those include shooting a defenseless descending parachutist, a wounded soldier or one indicating surrender.

GlobeAndMail.com

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Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

mustafa-ibraheem-abu-reuters.nPalestinian authorities are considering taking legal action against Israel over hundreds of Palestinian children being detained, with some reportedly maltreated.

As a result of the United Nations General Assembly voting to upgrade the Palestinians’ diplomatic status to a “non-member observer state,” they now have chance to access UN agencies and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We need to use the newly gained state status to take measures against Israel for its crimes, especially the arrest, detention, and abuse of Palestinian children, let alone trying them before military courts,” Eissa Karakea, Palestinian Minister of Detainees’ Affairs told Al Arabiya news channel.

According to a report issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees Affairs, 900 Palestinian children were arrested by Israeli authorities in 2012 – a significant surge from the 700 arrested in 2011. The report suggests that the children are often mistreated during interrogations and beaten in detention.

“Israel is violating the Child Protection Act and all international laws by subjecting children to such traumatic experiences. The Israeli minister of security had actually said earlier that Palestinian children have no immunity,” Karakea said.

Karakea stressed that the international community is aware of the crimes committed against Palestinian children and that several human rights groups are launching campaigns in solidarity with Palestinian children. “But this is not enough. We need to take further steps,” he told Al Arabiya.

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By Naif Zaydani for Al Arabiya

Palestine, (Pal Telegraph) – The Palestinian Authority is currently looking into the possibility of filing a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israel for arresting 900 Palestinian children in 2012.

In taking such an action, Palestine will be using its newly-acquired rights as an observer state at the United Nations, said Eissa Karakea, Palestinian Minister of Detainees’ Affairs.

“We need to use the newly gained state status to take measures against Israel for its crimes especially the arrest, detention, and abuse of Palestinian children, let alone trying them before military courts,” he told Al Arabiya.

Karakea added that after being granted observer status, Palestine has the right to join international human rights organizations and through them can file complaints against Israel.

“Israel is violating the Child Protection Act and all international laws by subjecting children to such traumatic experiences. The Israeli minister of security had actually said earlier that Palestinian children have no immunity.”

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by Saed Bannoura

The Palestinian Detainees Studies Center reported that the Israeli Salem military court sentenced three Palestinian children from Azzoun town near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, to four months imprisonment each.

child2

File photo – Terrified child being arrested by the Israelis

The court also delayed deliberations in the case of another child from Jenin, and released his brother.

Lawyer Mustafa Azmouti told the Center that that Salem court sentenced Qais Waddah Shbeita, 16, Mohammad Adel Shbeita, 16, and Mohammad Abdul-Fattah Radwan, 15, to four months each. They were all kidnapped after the army broke into their homes in Azzoun on December 7, and are currently held at the Majeddo prison.

In related news, the Salem court postponed deliberations in the case of a detained child identified as Ihsaan Ayman Aabed, 14, until December 30 after ordering a psychological assessment, but refused to release him.

The court released his brother Osama, 13, after ordering his family to pay a NIS 3000 fine.

The two brothers were kidnapped by the army, on December 13, while in their family’s orchard, close to the Annexation Wall.

Furthermore, the court extended the remand of Palestinian Security Officer, Hamed Salim Badwan, 32, until January 10, 2013. Badwan, also from Azzoun, is currently held captive at the Majiddo prison; he was kidnapped by the army on December 17.

The court also decided to delay deliberations in the case of detainee Bahaa’ Mahmoud Marshoud, from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, to “grant the prosecution more time to prepare an indictment”. He is currently being held at the Al-Jalama interrogation facility.

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Submitted by Adri Nieuwhof

Israel has held six Palestinian boys from Nablus in solitary confinement in al-Jalame detention center near Haifa, writes Defence for Children International-Palestine Section in an urgent appeal.

The boys have spent on average 14.5 days in solitary confinement, ranging from four to 29 days. Following their detention in al-Jalame, the boys were transferred to Megiddo prison. The transfer into Israel and subsequent detention of the boys violates the Fourth Geneva Convention Articles 49 and 76.

British-Danish security giant G4S has provided security equipment to both al-Jalame and Megiddo prisons, according to a March 2011 report on the firm by Who Profits.

Solitary confinement cells in al-Jalame

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London, (Pal Telegraph) – While there have been emotional scenes after the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, concerns are being raised about the plight of 164 Palestinian children from the West Bank in Israeli custody.

They were either sentenced or are being detained, mainly for stone-throwing, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which, along with other international organizations, is appealing to the Israeli government to release all Palestinian children in Israeli military detention.

It is unclear whether the children will be part of the second wave of 550 releases in the coming two months.

“UNICEF calls on the Israeli government to release Palestinian child detainees so that they can be reunited with their families,” said Jean Gough, a UNICEF representative for the West Bank and Gaza. “As stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the detention of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time,” she said.

The Israeli justice ministry was unable to confirm the number of Palestinian children detained by Israel.

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Five years and counting – a Thari family waits for India to release their son Pehlaj.

His father, a white-haired farmer belonging to the Thar Desert’s Bheel tribe, describes the young man as mentally unstable. “His mind would start spinning, and he would be angry for awhile,” said Jummu. “He would refuse to eat, cry for no reason. Then he would become alright again.”

On May 17, 2006, Pehlaj was a loving but moody 13-year-old, attending school and nursing Bollywood ambitions in his tiny hometown of Diplo. That evening, he quarrelled with his parents and stormed out of the house. At the time, neither his father Jummu nor his mother Mula realised that it might be the last time they ever saw their son.

The couple has seven children, ranging in age from 18 to 35 years. Jummu’s daily life is an agglomeration of the hardships familiar to almost all who dwell in Tharparkar district: resources are scarce, water is precious and healthcare is primitive. Pehlaj should most likely be medicated for the seizures he experiences, but a conventional doctor was beyond Jummu’s pocket and schooling.

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Yasser al Zahrani, captured at the age of 16 and detained at Guantanamo until his death in June 2006, which the Department of Defense ruled was suicide.

In May 2008, in a submission to the 48th Session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (PDF), the Pentagon claimed that it had only held eight juveniles — those under the age of 18 when their alleged crimes took place — during the life of the Guantánamo Bay prison. This, however, was a lie, as its own documents providing the names and dates of birth of prisoners, released in May 2006 (PDF), showed that the true total was much higher.

In November 2008, the UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas published a report, “Guantánamo’s Children: Military and Diplomatic Testimonies,” presenting evidence that 12 juveniles had been held, and this was then officially acknowledged by the Pentagon.

The next week, however, I produced another report, “The Pentagon Can’t Count: 22 Juveniles Held at Guantánamo,” providing evidence that at least 22 juvenile prisoners had been held, and drawing on the Pentagon’s own documents, or on additional statements made by the Pentagon, to confirm my claims.

Two and a half years later, I stand by that report, and am only prepared to concede that up to three of the prisoners I identified as juveniles may have been 18 at the time of their capture. In the meantime, I have identified three more juvenile prisoners, and possibly three others, bringing the total back to 22, and possibly as many as 28.

My new research coincides with a new report by the UC Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, “Guantánamo’s Children: The WikiLeaked Testimonies,” drawing on the recent release, by WikiLeaks, of classified military documents shedding new light on the prisoners, identifying 15 juveniles, and suggesting that six others, born in 1984 or 1985, and arriving at Guantánamo in 2002 or 2003, may have been under 18, depending on when exactly they were born (which is unknown, as it is in the cases of numerous Guantánamo prisoners).

 

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Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open-letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees.

Ethan Mccord and Josh Stieber deployed to Baghdad with Bravo Company 2-16 in 2007. Ethan was on the ground at the scene of the shooting, and is seen on the video rushing one of the injured children to a U.S. Vehicle; “When I saw those kids, all I could picture was my kids back home”. Ethan applied for mental health support following this incident and was denied by his commanding officer.

Josh Stieber was not at the scene of the shooting but says similar incidents happened throughout his 14-month tour; “The acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war.”? Josh states that these casualties demonstrate the impact of U.S. military policy on both the civilians and the soldiers on the ground.

Ethan and Josh claim that though their unit was following the Rules of Engagement that day, they are taking responsibility for their role in the incident and initiating a dialogue around it; “Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.”

The letter, which they hope to get to the family who lost their father and whose children were injured in the attack, states that they “are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.”

Ethan and Josh are available for interviews. 

 

AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION & RESPONSIBILITY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE

From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military

Peace be with you. 

 

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