OFER MILITARY CAMP, Occupied West Bank:
Mohammad, 14, barely glanced at the Israeli military judge as
he was led shuffling into the cramped courtroom, his legs in
shackles. The Palestinian boy had eyes only for his father,
and mouthed the traditional Arabic greeting "salaam aleikum"
- peace be upon you.
Seven minutes later he was sentenced to four months
in an Israeli prison.
The prosecutor claimed the boy had hurled rocks at a
watchtower and at Israel's separation barrier in the
Occupied West Bank. Upon his attorney's advice, the
boy pleaded guilty to avoid spending even more time
behind bars.
Human rights groups say Mohammad's case is typical
for child offenders under the military law Israel imposes
on the Palestinian territory.
As of March 31, 324 Palestinian children were held
in Israeli prisons, according to the Geneva-based Defence
for Children International (DCI), an international rights group.
With conviction rates above 95 percent, Mohammad
didn't stand much of a chance, said his lawyer, Iyad Misk.
"The military trials are a sham. As a lawyer, I'd prefer not
to take part in this charade, but I still try to help the
children. For a lawyer, it's a moral dilemma," Misk said
outside the trailer at the Ofer military camp where his
young client was sentenced.
The trials, conducted in Hebrew and translated into Arabic,
generally last just a few minutes. Lawyers are at times
denied access to documents, when military officials classify
the evidence as secret. Some of the children never get a trial,
but are held without charges under "administrative orders"
that can run up to six months and be renewed indefinitely.
"Everything in military courts is designed in favor of the
occupation," says Khaled Quzmar, who coordinates DCI's
legal unit in the West Bank.
Lawyers say as many as 50 percent of jailed Palestinian
children are held for throwing rocks. The favorite targets
are security forces in watchtowers or armored vehicles, and
the walls, barbed wire and fences that prevent free travel to
Israel and within the West Bank.
After a stone-throwing incident earlier this month near the
Al-Arub refugee camp several Israeli soldiers brandished
their assault rifles and yelled at passers-by but eventually
drove off without finding the culprit.
Shehab, 15, watched the troops nervously from a distance.
"Since my release, I try to avoid any contact with Israelis,
with the soldiers," he says.
He was sentenced to four-and-a-half months in jail last year,
accused of hurling a petrol bomb at a huge concrete
watchtower from which Israeli forces keep an eye on
Al-Arub, near the West Bank town of Hebron.
Shehab says security forces showed up at his house at 2 a.m.,
handcuffed, blindfolded and beat him before taking him to a
military camp for interrogation.
"They broke several of my teeth and my nose," he recalled. "
They put a heater beside my face. They pinched me on the
stomach and chest with pliers. They kicked me."
He broke down and signed a confession. He insists he is innocent,
but says he sees nothing wrong with hurling stones at soldiers "if
they aggress us."
Shehab recounts that while serving his sentence, he only
had a few hours of classes a week at most. Of the 30
children in his cell 14 to 18 were picked at random to
attend the twice-weekly 90-minute class of basic reading,
writing and mathematics.
Watchdogs say the arrest and detention process of Palestinian
children violates the international Convention on the
Rights of the Child, to which Israel is signatory. "
A central aspect of the interrogation phase, is the
use of particular forms of torture and ill treatment,"
says DCI.
Three soldiers were recently indicted for aggravated
assault after Palestinian children they arrested were
allegedly injured while in their custody.
The army says it investigates every claim of abuse
of minors during arrest. "The military advocate general
treats this matter very seriously," a spokesperson said.
The army insisted that "minors are only arrested for
serious offenses."
"In most cases, the charges relate to attempts to injure or
kill," the army said, citing a teenage girl who attempted
to stab a soldier and two instances in which minors were
caught with pipe bombs.
Arrests of Palestinian children must be authorized by
the military advocate general for the West Bank.
"In this way, the arrest of minors is supervised," the
army says.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that the
detention of a child must be used "only as a measure
of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period
of time."
Unlike Israelis who reach legal adulthood at 18,
Palestinians are considered adults at 16 under military
law. Military judges are trained lawyers but are not
qualified to preside over civilian courts in Israel.
"It is discriminatory," Roni Hammermann, a member of
the Israeli Women for Human Rights group, said outside
the Ofer military court, where anxious relatives of
detainees waited for their cases to be called up.
In courtroom five, where a picture of the symbolic scales
of justice hangs in a corner, Mohammad respectfully asked
his father to "greet everyone in the family" before a soldier
led him out to serve his sentence.
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