Did you know that every year, several hundred innocent Palestinian children and teenagers - many of them minors - are taken and held illegally in Israeli prisons? Torture is common. They are often held without charges. Even if they are charged, minor infractions such as stone-throwing merit sentences months, even years. Much of what goes on - most, even - is in direct contradiction with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Below are examples of the stories of the children who have had to endure this suffering while the world looked away.
According to Rami, the Israeli forces who captured him screamed at him in the jeep, told him to confess, and beat him with their guns on his back and head. Once they reached the detention center, the Israeli forces took him directly to the interrogation room at approximately 2:00 a.m. During his interrogation Rami endured the following forms of torture: Israeli agents beat him severely with their hands and feet, they prevented him from sleeping, tied him to a chair (position abuse), ice cold and hot water were alternatively poured on his body. At one point during his interrogation Rami was forced to stand on one foot, and when the interrogator told him to confess and Rami refused, saying he had nothing to confess to, the interrogator began beating him on his standing leg. Once when they forced Rami to walk from one room to another, blindfolded, until he stumbled into some stairs and fell down.
Because of this treatment Rami eventually lost consciousness and was transferred to the Hadassa Ain Karem Hospital in Jerusalem where he was treated and held for one day. (The hospital later requested payment from Rami's family for his treatment.) When the Israeli forces brought him back from the hospital to continue interrogation, he was forced to sit on the ground of the police car. One of the agents in the car beat Rami on his right eye, and when the boy complained of the pain, the man increased the beating.
They brought Rami back to Gush Etzion and recommenced the interrogation. An interrogator asked Rami if he would confess. Rami refused. They beat him with a stick all over his body. Rami's hands were tied behind his back. He was then placed for a time in a three-meter-long room. Later during the interrogation, when Rami refused to confess, they put him in a bathroom and turned the shower on over his head. He heard one of the interrogators say, "He's holding up. He's a donkey." The beatings continued. Eventually they brought a book over to him and forced him to sign a statement written in Hebrew which he did not understand. After more beatings, he eventually signed the false confession and was brought to a small isolation cell.
As of August 2001, Rami had still not been sentenced. He is currently being held in Megiddo prison.
Following his arrest in late 2000, Majdi was charged with throwing stones and two molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers. Despite his very obvious disabilities, the prison administration stated he had no medical problems. He was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison.
Majdi's sentence is all the more remarkable given the release on 20 March 2002 of Israeli businessman Ofer Nimrodi. Nimrodi was found guilty of obstruction of justice, falsifying documents, breach of trust, and intimidating a witness as part of a plea bargain agreement. He was initially accused of conspiracy to commit murder. He was released early serving 2/3 of a 25-month sentence. It seems remarkable that the sentence of a 16-year old mentally disabled Palestinian boy accused of resisting the Israeli occupation should be more than twice the length of one of the most high profile criminal cases in Israeli history.
DCI/PS believes that prison is extremely dangerous for Majdi given his mental condition and calls for his immediate release.
In October 2004, 16-year old Ahmed was arrested and charged with throwing Molotov cocktails in 2002. Since the precise dates of the alleged incidents were not specified, Ahmed's lawyer called on the prosecution to comply with the concept of the best interests of the child and assume that the Molotov cocktails had been thrown in the first half of 2002 – before Ahmed had reached his 14 th birthday. Furthermore, he pointed out that in the two years that had passed since the alleged incident, neither the Israeli police nor military had had cause to detain Ahmed. Before the case came to trial, the defence made a plea-bargain with the prosecutor in which it was agreed Ahmed would receive an eight-month sentence and no fine. The judge believed the sentence should have been much harsher, and so added a 24-month suspended prison term which will hang over Ahmed until 2009.
(Source: Defence for Children International; http://www.dci-pal.org/english/doclist.cfm?categoryid=10)
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