Newly released today, Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI) has produced this short film about Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian children during their arrest, transfer and detention. Alone: Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System contains images of children who found the courage to talk about the appalling treatment.

For example, 14-year-old Ala tells how he was handcuffed and blindfolded during his arrest. “They [Israeli soldiers] put me in the jeep and transferred me to Etzion interrogation center. The interrogator told me to say goodbye to my friend Muhannad, because he was going to throw me from the third floor. No one was there to protect me. No one was with me. I was alone.”
Since 2000, around 7,500 Palestinian children from the occupied Palestinian territories have been detained, interrogated and imprisoned within the Israeli military law system. The film also presents basic information and the impact of their arrest and detention on families.

When 13-year-old Muhannad talks about his arrest, the look in his eyes is heart breaking. His father saw how Israeli soldiers treated his son, “It was as if they were coming to arrest a combatant or an armed fugitive.”

Interrogations are set up to terrorize
In 75 precent of the cases documented by DCI, child detainees suffered some form of physical violence during arrest, transfer and interrogation.

The suffering starts the moment a child is arrested and continues throughout interrogation and court sessions, explains DCI lawyer Iyad Misk. Children are often physically, verbally abused, insulted by soldiers during transport in the jeep. The abuse continues during the interrogation.

Children are also often enticed with offers of immediate release in exchange for confessions. However, what normally happens is just the opposite. Once a child confesses, he is sent to prison and his file is sent to the court. Interrogations are set up to terrorize, says Misk.

Nader Abu Amsha of the East Jerusalem YMCA Rehabilitation Programme says that the purpose of the raids, arrests and interrogations is more than getting information. It is to break the will and spirit of a generation. The purpose is to break the children and make them live in fear and confusion so they become an inactive, unproductive generation.

DCI’s latest film is an excellent tool to inform a wide audience about the ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system. The film can watched on YouTube, or copies of the DVD can be ordered from DCI-Palestine.

First published in the Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

Abeer Baker represents prisoners as a private human rights lawyer and runs the Prisoners’ Rights Clinic at Haifa University’s Law Faculty. She became personally involved with Palestinian political prisoners through Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, where she worked for ten years. Her first case dealt with a prisoners’ petition for permission to study at the Israeli Open University. After her exposure to the life of Palestinian political prisoners, she realized that numerous cases can be brought to court.

Anat Matar is a senior lecturer at the Department of Philosophy of Tel Aviv University. She has been active for many years in the “Refusal Movement” (refusal to serve in the Israeli army). She serves on the steering committee of “Who Profits?”, a project of the Coalition of Women for Peace, and she is the Chairperson of the Israeli Committee for the Palestinian Prisoners. Matar became personally involved with Palestinian political prisoners through “Open Doors”, a small organization which campaigned for the release of all administrative detainees during the 1990s. In addition, she learned more about prison when her son refused to enlist in “an army of occupation”. He was sentenced to serve two years in a military prison. After his release, she wrote me ,“I looked for activities related to the much harder cases, those of Palestinian prisoners”.

Political prisoners movement

According to the editors, several Palestinian solidarity organizations were active in Israel before the establishment of Open Doors. They informed me that the most important and well-known organization, Ansar Al-Sajeen, was closed down several years ago. The defense minister issued a decree to that end based on the allegation that the organization was “supporting terror”. Other organizations are Youssef al-Sadiq and the Friends of the Detainees. They usually focus on humanitarian aid, prison conditions, contact with families, and legal representation. 

The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is different. There is a Ministry in charge of prisoners’ issues and there are legal organizations and support groups, write Baker and Matar. “Needless to say, we have been in contact with most of them. We exchange advice and information and held several meetings in Ramallah with representatives of these organizations.”

Recommendations of international campaigns

The book offers such a wide variety of information that it is difficult to know where to start. I have challenged the editors to identify key issues for international campaigns in support of Palestinian political prisoners. According to Abeer Baker and Anat Matar, the most immediate campaign should focus on acknowledgement of the political character of the arrest, trial and detention of Palestinian political prisoners. They suggest that the following issues should be included in campaigns: 

First of all, the release of administrative detainees. The idea should be, “Stop using this undemocratic tool completely”. Currently, there are over 200 detainees held without a trial, some for years. 

Tamar Pelleg-Sryck wrote an excellent essay on administrative detention for the book which offers the background information that is needed for such a campaign.

Video on administrative detention produced by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association based in Ramallah.

Abeer Baker and Anat Matar continue:

A second goal should be the criticism (mainly by international legal experts) of this legal system, bringing to light its apartheid-like logic.

Sharon Weill clarifies the apartheid logic in her essay. In his review of Threat for The Electronic Intifada, Asa Winstantley wrote:

She [Sharon Weil] proves that because of the separate and unequal legal systems for Israelis and Palestinians there — civil courts for Israeli Jews but military courts for Palestinians — the occupation of the West Bank is best understood as a system of apartheid. 

In addition, Abeer Baker and Anat Matar suggest:

Other burning problems are the arrest and trial of children, the arrest of political activists, like those organizing protests against the Apartheid wall, the transfer of prisoners into Israel, and one issue that is particularly painful – the special situation of the Palestinian prisoners who are Israeli citizens.

The editors are convinced that the Israeli Government cannot halt resistance to the occupation and the denial of rights of Palestinians by detaining Palestinian leaders and activists. “No, we don’t believe this result can be achieved through these means.”

The book Threat, Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel and the recommendations of the editors are excellent tools for designing and planning campaigns in support of Palestinian political prisoners.

First published at The Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org