FROM ABDUCTION TO PRISON.INFORM EURO-MID OBSERVER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.JULY 2014

Introduction

When Jewish Israeli youth go missing, as occurred with the June 12 disappearance of three
yeshiva students near an illegal West Bank settlement, it is international news and a mass effort is
launched to bring them home and hold the perpetrators to account.
Israeli occupation authorities seized an estimated 2,500 Palestinian children and youth between
January 2010 and June 2014 – with approximately 400 just 12-15 years old. Under the Israeli
military regime, reports the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a child as young as 14 or
15 years old can potentially receive a sentence as long as 20 years.
Palestinian children are typically seized off the streets or from the privacy of their
homes -- sometimes for no stated reason at all, other times to obtain intelligence for use against
their own family members, and still others as punishment for acts such as peaceful protests that
are not considered criminal under international law. Such practices contradict the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, which Israel ratified in 1991. Article 37(b) states,)Children should
not be deprived of their rights arbitrarily and illegally…and they should be arrested legally only
as a last resort and for as short a period of time as possible).
Once they are seized, Palestinian children are interrogated, threatened and often beaten.
International humanitarian agencies have documented that 75 percent of Palestinian children
detained by Israeli forces are subjected to treatment that meets the definition of torture. Once
detained, a military tribunal sentences a quarter of these children, who are deprived of the
opportunity for support from their parents or an attorney. Contrary to international law, these
proceedings typically take place in Israel, far from and inaccessible to their homes.
In a February 2013 report, UNICEF concluded that “ ill-treatment of children who come into
contact with the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and
institutionalized throughout the process. ” The purpose of this report is to further document the
ongoing abductions of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, followed by systematic violations of
their human rights throughout their time in detention.
It is hoped that this report will inspire as much international concern and outrage as shown upon
the disappearance of the three Israeli teens. Are not the lives and liberties of Palestinian children
worth as much?



Arrest

Israeli forces orchestrate their actions to humiliate and terrorize Palestinian children.
Fearing they are in grave danger, the children are “primed” to plead guilty to the accusations
against them or to implicate others in their community – even when the charges are false.
In more than half of the cases, Palestinian children are seized from their beds after midnight,
typically between 2 and 5 a.m. It is not uncommon for Israeli forces to surround the houses with
tanks and other military vehicles, bomb the front doors open and enter with masked faces. Even
mature adults would be traumatized.
According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all persons, including
children, must be advised of the reasons for their arrest at the time they are detained.
Likewise, their parents should be informed, in a language they can understand, as soon as possible.
This rarely happens, however.
Testimonies

A group of West Bank children who had been detained by Israeli forces described their ordeal to a
Euro-Mid team: After the soldiers checked their IDs, they were blind folded and their hands and
feet were chained – often for hours on end. They then were transported to a temporary detention
center. Their parents were prevented from accompanying them and were not told the reason for
their seizure or where they were being taken.
A 17-year-old youth named Samer (surname withheld at the request of his father) testified that
Israeli soldiers forced him to walk about 20 hours while his arms were chained together, until they
reached a waiting military vehicle. One of the soldiers called him and his mother profane names.
Rasheed Rasmi Al-Rishq, a 14-year-old child from the
Old City of Jerusalem, told this story:
“On Feb. 10 (2014), while I was going to Alwad Street
in Jerusalem to buy some necessities for home, a group
of Israeli soldiers detained and violently beat me. I was
taken to the Alqashla police station where I was interrogated.

Rasheed Rasmy Al Resheq, 14 years old.


Although the army charged that Rasheed had earlier thrown stones and Molotov cocktails during
a clash at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, he denies the accusations.
On March 25, the Israeli occupation authorities released him, but Rasheed was kept under house
confinement for six weeks, forcing the formerly excellent student to miss school and opt out of the
entire semester.
About a month and a half after his release, Israeli occupation forces detained Rasheed once again.
His family reports that a group of Israeli soldiers suddenly raided and ransacked their house. They
arrested Rasheed, saying only that he was being detained on “security grounds.”
Another child from Qattash family ( first name withheld at request of his parents), described
to the Euro-Mid team how Israeli soldiers seized him at the age of 16. He recounted how the
soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands with a plastic chain, then kicked and beat him with
their guns. The child was dragged along the ground for several meters, causing extensive bruises
and other wounds.
Mohammed Farid Subih, a 17-year-old youth from Ras Alain
in Nablus, was detained by Israeli occupation forces in January
2014. According to his mother, a large number of Israeli army
soldiers burst through their door. They checked Mohammed’s ID,
chained his hands, blindfolded him and took him away. “We were
unaware of the reasons of his detention, and we knew absolutely
nothing about him for eight days,” she said.A lawyer later called
the family to tell them Mohammed would be put on trial on
charges of shooting at Israeli vehicles, based on the coerced
confessions of others. It was three months before she was
allowed to visit him in Mjedo Prison.

Mohammed Farid Subih, 17 years old.

Rami Rajabi, a six-year-old child, was held
in the street for approximately 20 minutes
by Israeli soldiers, on charges of throwing
pebbles in Hebrón