Desert Peace
12-year-old Child To Be Prosecuted As An Adult By An Israeli Military Court
Saed Bannoura
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| Al Hasan Al Mohtasib – Maan Images The Israeli Authorities decided to file charges against a 12-year-old Palestinian child from the southern West Bank city of Hebron after arresting him and charging him with throwing stones at the Israeli military. The child was identified as al-Hasan al-Mohtasib, 12. His 7-year-old brother was also detained but was released later on. Their father, Fadel, said that his sons were in al-Shallalah Street, in the center of Hebron. His 7-year-old son, al-Amir, was released ten hours after his was kidnapped by the army. He added that local residents told him that soldiers kidnapped his two children and took them to the nearby al-Karaj military camp. He went to the camp and the soldiers told him that his sons were moved to al-Haram military camp in the city. Upon arriving at the second military base, he was informed that his children were moved to the police station in Keryat Arba Jewish settlement, in the center of Hebron. He went to the police station in Keryat Arba’ but to no avail. When he returned back home, he found his 7-year-old child standing in front of the door, shaking and terrified. Later on, an adult detainee at the Ofer detention center, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, phoned him and told him that his son al-Hasan is there, and that he will be sent to court. Al-Mohtasib voiced an appeal to human rights groups, and Defense for Children International, to intervene and ensure the release of his child. |
The following is from Palestine Think Tank
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[Ramallah – According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and temporary Israeli army detention, the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the end of August, was 339.
Disturbingly, the number of young children between the ages of 12 and 15 being detained in August 2009 (39 children), was up 85% on the corresponding period in 2008 (21 children).
Israel is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which provides that ‘the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child … shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.’
Number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008
| Year/Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
| 2008 | 327 | 307 | 325 | 327 | 337 | 323 | 324 | 293 | 304 | 297 | 327 | 342 |
| 2009 | 389 | 423 | 420 | 391 | 346 | 355 | 342 | 339 | - | - | - | - |
(note: these figures are not cumulative)
For further information please see DCI-Palestine’s latest report on Palestinian child prisoners
Also view the following video
Mohammad (14 years old at the time) was playing with friends on a hill near his village (Biddu, near Ramallah) on 4 February 2008 when he was suddenly apprehended by four men dressed in civilian clothes. The men grabbed Mohammad knocking him to the ground; they struck him several times on the head with a gun whilst his face was sprayed with tear gas. The men then blindfolded him and tied his hands and feet with plastic cuffs before throwing him into the back of a vehicle. Mohammad was interrogated in the absence of a lawyer, deceived into signing a confession to throwing stones, and imprisoned in Israel for four-and-a-half months.
As you can see, the report at the start of this post does not deal with an isolated incident. It is unfortunately the norm in the occupied Territories.
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