Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News
Palestinian Children Face Violence From Israeli Military
Pic Credit: CPT
Three in four Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank last year endured physical violence during arrest and interrogation, according to Defense for Children International Palestine research.
Data compiled by DCI-Palestine from 98 affidavits of Palestinian children aged 12 – 17 also showed that night arrests between midnight and 5 am increased to 56.1 percent from 45.4 percent in 2012. In 21.4 percent of cases, Israeli military, police and security agents held children in solitary confinement for an average of 10 days for interrogation purposes.
“Despite international condemnation and awareness of Israel’s widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian child prisoners, there have been no practical steps taken to curb violations,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCI-Palestine. “The international community must demand justice and accountability.”
Israel is the only state to automatically and systematically prosecute children in military courts that lack basic standards of due process. Around 500 – 700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12, are arrested, detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military detention system each year. The majority of Palestinian child detainees are charged with throwing stones. No Israeli children come into contact with the military court system.
DCI-Palestine research shows that children arrive to Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived. Unlike their Israeli counterparts, Palestinian children have no right to be accompanied by a parent during an interrogation. In 96 percent of cases documented by DCI-Palestine in 2013, children were questioned alone and rarely informed of their rights, particularly their right against self-incrimination.
The interrogation techniques are generally mentally and physically coercive, frequently incorporating a mix of intimidation, threats and physical violence with a clear purpose of obtaining a confession. More than one in five of the 2013 cases, children signed statements in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
DCI-Palestine demands that Israeli authorities end night arrests, prohibit the use of solitary confinement, and ensure that evidence obtained by force or coercion during interrogations is excluded as evidence in the Israeli military courts. DCI-Palestine calls on Israeli authorities to allow access to legal counsel prior to interrogations and the presence of a parent during interrogations.
DCI-Palestine demands that Israeli authorities end night arrests, prohibit the use of solitary confinement, and ensure that evidence obtained by force or coercion during interrogations is excluded as evidence in the Israeli military courts. DCI-Palestine calls on Israeli authorities to allow access to legal counsel prior to interrogations and the presence of a parent during interrogations.
Impunity for violations was a significant obstacle in 2013 as DCI-Palestine filed 15 complaints with Israeli authorities concerning the ill-treatment and torture of 10 children while in Israeli military detention. Not a single indictment has been issued against a perpetrator. Many Palestinian families refuse to file complaints for fear of retaliation or simply because they do not believe the system is fair or impartial.
Recent amendments to Israeli military laws concerning children have had little to no impact on their treatment during the critical 24 – 48 hours after an arrest, where most of the ill-treatment occurs at the hands of soldiers, policemen and interrogators.
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UNSCEAR report says: “Doses received by children and adults from the same source of ionizing radiation can have differing impacts, and therefore, should be considered separately in order to predict risk following exposure more accurately for children,” was the main thrust of the report “Effects of radiation exposure of children” presented today at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The report highlights some important issues. For instance, for a given radiation dose, infants and children are more at risk than adults of developing a variety of tumours. This risk is, generally, not always immediate but extends later into life. In all, the Committee reviewed 23 cancer types in their report, some of which are highly relevant for evaluating the radiological consequences of nuclear accidents and of some medical procedures. Children were found to be more sensitive than adults for the development of about 25 per cent of tumour types including leukaemia, and thyroid, brain and breast cancer. The risk can be significantly higher, depending on circumstances. On the other hand, for about 15 per cent of cancer types such as colon, children were found to have the same radiation sensitivity as adults, and for 10 per cent of cancer types, such as those affecting the lungs, children were less sensitive than adults. Data were too weak to reach any conclusions for 20 per cent of cancers such as those affecting the oesophagus and there was a weak or non-existent link between exposure and risk at any age for 30 per cent of cancers such as those of the prostate, rectum and uterus or Hodgkin’s disease.
It also pointed out that health effects are also dependent on a number of physical factors. For instance, when it comes to internal exposure to radiation, there are differences in the doses received by children and adults from exposure to the same distribution of radioactive material in the environment. For example, children may receive higher doses from Radioiodine in the environment due to higher intake of milk compared to adults.
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Ashton’s spokesperson Maja Kocijancic confirmed that High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Vice-President of the European Commission