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MIDEAST: Israelis Torturing Palestinian Children
By Nora Barrows-Friedman
DHEISHEH REFUGEE CAMP, Occupied West Bank, Apr 10 (IPS) - Mohammed
Mahsiri, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank,
sits in a
crowded café, a red kuffiyeh wrapped around his neck and an iconic
portrait of Che Guevara
emblazoned on his black t-shirt.
About a year and a half ago, he tells IPS, he and his friend were walking
down the street
when Israeli military jeeps surrounded them, shouted at them in Hebrew to
stop, and
forced them inside a jeep.
"I was taken to a detention centre and interrogated," Mohammed says. "The
interrogation
would begin at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and would finish after eleven
pm. I was beaten
all the time, especially if the soldiers did not get the answers they
wanted.
"I was sent to be beaten by other soldiers and forced to stand in the rain
with only thin
clothes on. They would try to convince me that I did something that I did
not do in order
to get the confession they wanted. After being tortured at the detention
centre for one
month, I was in prison for 13 months."
Shocking photographs of torture at U.S. military bases and detention
centres in Iraq and
Afghanistan outraged people across the globe, but Palestinians say they
have endured
similar treatment inside Israeli interrogation centres since the 1967
occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza.
But Mohammed Mahsiri's story is different. He endured considerable
physical and
psychological torture by Israeli interrogators and prison guards when he
was just short of
17 years old.
What is being witnessed and documented within the detention centres and
prison camps is
widespread, systematic violation of international laws experienced by
Palestinian children
under 18 years old, including torture, interrogation, physical beatings,
deplorable living
conditions and no access to fair trial, according to reports by human
rights groups and
legal observers.
Under Israeli military orders in force inside the occupied West Bank and
Gaza, any
Palestinian over the age of 16 is considered an adult, while inside Israel
the age of an adult
is 18 - even though Israel is a signatory to the International Convention
of the Rights of
the Child, which defines all children as under 18 years old.
Moreover, Palestinian children over 14 years old are tried as adults in an
Israeli military
court, and are often put into prisons with adults. These are also direct
violations of
international law.
According to the latest figures offered by an independent group, there are
398 Palestinian
children currently inside Israeli detention centres and prisons. Ayed
Abuqtaish, research
cocoordinator with Defence for Children International's Ramallah offices,
told IPS that the
youngest child being held in prison is just 14 years old.
"Usually, the Israeli troops invade the child's house in the middle of the
night, in order to
frighten the child and his family," Abuqtaish told IPS. "Many Israeli
soldiers and vehicles
surround the house, and other soldiers invade or force their way into the
house.
"They intimidate the child to prepare him for interrogation. When the
child arrives at the
interrogation centre, they employ different methods of torture."
There are widespread reports of physical beatings, Abuqtaish says, "but
currently, they
concentrate mainly on psychological torture like sleep deprivation, or
depriving him of
food or water, or putting him in solitary confinement, or threatening him
with the
demolition of his home or the arrest of other family members. Children
have also reported
that the Israeli interrogators have threatened to sexually abuse them."
Israel has consistently defended its policies of interrogation inside
detention centres and
prisons, saying that it is a necessary tool against the war on terror. In
1987, according to
Israel's Landau Commission of Inquiry into interrogation policies, the
state determined
that "a moderate degree of pressure, including physical pressure, in order
to obtain crucial
information, is unavoidable under certain circumstances."
"Israel is a state party to the International Convention Against Torture,"
Abuqtaish said. "In
its reports to the committee, Israel always says that their use of
'moderate physical
pressure' is consistent with the obligation of the treaty, but, needless
to say, 'moderate
physical pressure' is obviously torture in itself."
Palestinian children in the Israeli prison system are not given any legal
advocacy and are
denied most of their rights, involved lawyers say.
Arne Malmgren, a Swedish lawyer, has worked as a legal observer inside
Israeli military
courts during trials of Palestinian children. "The Israeli court system
does not look like any
other court system in the world," Malmgren told IPS. "Israeli military
staff, the judge, the
prosecutor, the interpreter - they are all in military uniform. There are
plenty of soldiers
with weapons inside the courtroom.
"The small children come into the courtroom in handcuffs and full chains;
there can be up
to seven children at the same time in the courtroom. One lawyer described
it as a cattle
market. The trial is more like a plea bargain - before the proceedings,
the prosecutor and
the lawyer have already agreed on the child's sentence, and then they just
ask the judge if
he agrees, and he almost always does.
"There are no witnesses, nothing. And the worst thing is what happened
before the child
arrives at the courtroom - when they interrogate these young boys and
girls to get them
to sign confessions to things they may or may not have done."
As negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli officials move forward
this week in a
possible prisoner exchange deal that may include the release of all
imprisoned Palestinian
women and children in a swap for an Israeli occupation soldier captured by
Palestinian
groups in Gaza last June, many Palestinians, including Mohammed Mahsiri,
are hoping to
see relatives, friends and loved ones come home.
"When I was released from prison, it was the best day of my life," Mahsiri
tells IPS. "We
were beaten every day. The food was very bad. It was the hardest thing we
had to face. No
child should ever have to experience that." (END/2007)
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