New video by Al Jazeera English

🇵🇸 Ahed Tamimi and Child detention in the occupied West Bank | Al Jazeera English
System of Control: Child detention in the occupied West Bank Two teenagers’ run-ins with Israeli soldiers went viral at the end of 2017. You probably remember them. Fawzi al-Junaidi was photographed blindfolded and surrounded by over 20 Israeli soldiers. He spent three weeks in detention and was released on bail, bruised and with a dislocated shoulder. He’s sixteen years old. Ahed Tamimi was also sixteen when she was arrested from her home in the middle of the night. She turned 17 in detention, where she’s been since Dec 19. But while Fawzi and Ahed have become symbols of Palestinian resistance, they’re also kids navigating a military detention system that’s been repeatedly accused of systematically abusing minors. And they’re not alone. 1,467 Palestinian minors were arrested by the Israeli army in 2017, according to local prisoner support and human rights group Addameer. Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) says between 500 and 700 Palestinian kids are prosecuted in Israeli military courts every year. So, how does the system work? Arrests: The West Bank, except for East Jerusalem, has been under Israeli military law since 1967. Palestinians living in the West Bank are subject to this law, while Israeli citizens living in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank fall under Israeli civilian law instead. Under military law, minors as young as 12 years old can be arrested. Most kids are arrested for stone-throwing, which military law considers a ‘security offence.’ It can get up to 20 years in prison, depending on the minor’s age. Lots of these kids are picked up in night raids. “It can be three a.m or two a.m. Suddenly and without any previous alert, they just go inside the house and put all the members of the family in one room and then ask for the specific child that they want,” explains Farah Bayadsi, a lawyer with Defense for Children International-Palestine. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented ~336 night raids by the Israeli army in January 2018 alone.[1] “It’s a method to terrorise the youth and to make sure that that system of control is asserted on people at a young age,” says Dawoud Yusef, Advocacy Coordinator with prison support and human rights group, Addameer. In affidavits collected by DCIP, minors reported handcuffs, blindfolds, physical and verbal abuse during their arrest and transport. “It starts from the very first minute of the arrest, and it may continue for 4/5 hours, and sometimes 6 hours,” Bayadsi explains, “until they get to the interrogation centres.” Interrogation: Kids arrested during night raids arrive at interrogation centres tired and disoriented. Reports show minors are barred from food, water or using the toilet during questioning.[2] Physical and verbal abuse, sleep deprivation, humiliation, threats of sexual assault, and threats against the child’s family have also been reported. These interrogations can span hours at a time. And while minors in military detention are legally entitled to certain protections, they’re not being upheld. According to Israeli military order 1745, audio-visual recordings of interrogations with minors must be filmed. Except when the minor is accused of committing a ‘security offence’ -- like stone-throwing, which is, again, the most common charge brought against Palestinian minors. The right of parents to know their child’s whereabouts, introduced in 2011 through military order 1676, is also often neglected. Parents are supposed to be presented with a form written in Arabic, detailing why their child is being arrested and where they’re being taken. But affidavits collected by DCIP showed that parents weren’t notified in most cases that were sampled.[3] Of the few times where the form was presented, it was in Hebrew. And while children have the right to a lawyer under the same military order, it’s not usually the case. 97% of the minors DCIP interviewed were denied access to legal counsel before and during interrogation.[4] Kids between 12 and 16 need to be brought to a judge within two days of arrest. For 16 and 17-year olds, it’s four days. “We only see the children in the court after they’ve taken the ‘endless hell’ journey,” says Bayadsi. “We hear about the violations committed against them in the court hall.” Subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook http://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 Check our website: http://ift.tt/snsTgS