Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system 

Approximately 2.9 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, of which around 45  percent are children under the age of 18. 

Palestinian children​ in the West Bank, like adults, ​face arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment  under an ​Israeli military detention system​ that denies them basic rights.  Military law ​has applied to Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967, when Israel occupied the  territory following the Six Day War. Jewish settlers, however, who reside within the bounds of the  West Bank, in violation of international law, are subject to the Israeli civilian legal framework.  Accordingly, Israel operates two separate legal systems in the same territory. Palestinian children  who live in Jerusalem generally fall under Israeli civilian law. 

Israel has the dubious distinction of being the ​only country in the world​ that automatically and  systematically ​prosecutes children in military courts​ that lack fundamental fair trial rights and  protections. Israel prosecutes between ​500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts​ each  year.  

Children typically arrive to interrogation ​bound, blindfolded, frightened, and sleep deprived​.  Children often give confessions after ​verbal abuse, threats, physical and psychological violence  that in some cases amounts to torture.   Israeli military law provides ​no right to legal counsel during interrogation​, and Israeli military  court judges seldom exclude confessions obtained by coercion or torture.  From testimonies of 739 Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces from the occupied West  Bank and prosecuted in Israeli military courts between 2013 and 2018, DCIP found that: 

■ 73 percent​ experienced ​physical violence​ following arrest 

■ 95 percent ​were ​hand tied  

■ 86 percent​ were ​blindfolded 

■ 49 percent ​were detained from their ​homes in the middle of the night 

■ 64 percent​ faced ​verbal abuse, humiliation, or intimidation 

■ 74 percent​ of children were ​not properly informed of their rights 

■ 96 percent​ were interrogated ​without the presence of a family member 

■ 20 percent​ were subject to ​stress positions 

■ 49 percent ​signed ​documents in Hebrew​, a language most Palestinian children don’t  understand 

The ​No Way to Treat a Child ​ campaign seeks to challenge and end Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians by exposing widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system. It is a project of ​Defense for Children International – Palestine​ and the ​American Friends Service Committee​. Learn more at: ​www.nowaytotreatachild.org​ ​|​ ​www.dci-palestine.org​ ​|​ ​www.afsc.org

Since 2000, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli forces from  the occupied West Bank and held in the Israeli military detention system.  Israel in 1991 ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which requires  that children should only be deprived of their liberty as a measure of last resort, must not be  unlawfully or arbitrarily detained, and must not be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman  or degrading treatment or punishment.  Despite sustained engagement by UNICEF and repeated calls to end night arrests and ill  treatment and torture of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, Israeli authorities have  persistently failed to implement practical changes to stop violence against child detainees.   Reforms undertaken by Israeli military authorities so far have tended to be cosmetic in nature  rather than substantively addressing physical violence and torture by Israeli military and police  forces.  » For more information, go to ​www.nowaytotreatachild.org​ ​or​ ​www.dci-palestine.org​. 

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 2407 The Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act

Whereas​, numerous international human-rights organizations (UNICEF, Defense for Children International-Palestine,  Human Rights Watch,  B’tselem) and even the US Department of State have documented ill-treatment, frequent arrest, detention without due process, and in some cases torture of Occupied Palestinian children by the Israeli military detention system; and

Whereas, every year, 500 to 700 Palestinian children as young as 12 years old are arrested (often taken from their beds at night by Israeli soldiers and police), bound, blindfolded, driven to detention centers and denied access to lawyers and their parents during interrogations and frequently to sign coerced confessions presented in Hebrew, a language they often don’t understand; and

Whereas, ​with 40 percent of the Palestinian population under the age of 14, a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians starts with promoting the dignity and the inherent human rights of Palestinian children; and

Whereas​, Israel is the single greatest beneficiary of US military assistance, receiving $3.8 billion, some 25 percent of its defense budget, from US taxpayers each year; and

Whereas​, Israel is allowed to spend as much as $800 million a year of this US taxpayer assistance with little transparency, accountability or oversight by U.S. officials; and

Whereas​, the passage of H.R. 2407 will amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (“The Leahy Law”) to provide that “no funds authorized to be appropriated for assistance to a foreign country may be used to support the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of children in violation of international humanitarian law …”; and

Whereas​, the passage of H.R. 2407 will authorize to be appropriated not less than $19 million each fiscal year to be made available for monitoring human rights abuses associated with Israel’s military detention of Palestinian children and make public the findings of such monitoring, and to provide treatment, support, and rehabilitation for Palestinian children victims of military detention, abuse and torture; and

Whereas​, responsible adults, especially elected officials, have a duty to speak out and work to seek justice wherever children are being abused, mistreated, or degraded,

Now therefore​, we the undersigned call on our New York Congressional representatives to join Congresswoman Betty McCollum and other Congresspersons in co-sponsoring H.R. 2407.

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Circulated by the Justice for Palestine Committee of the Syracuse Peace Council. (315)472-5478 │ ​ spc@peacecouncil.net ​ │2013 E. Genesee St., Syracuse NY 13210