Children are paying the price of injustice

[delad]

The beating of a pre-pubescent youth by soldiers is just another example of human rights abuse in the occupied territories



Whereas Israeli youths are treated as children in the eyes of the law until they turn 18, Palestinians are not accorded such humane treatment, and can be imprisoned from the tender age of just 12. Since September 2000 Israel has arrested and detained almost 6000 children, with 700 under-18s arrested in 2007 alone.



After his violent treatment at the hands of the troops, Muhammad was taken to a police station for interrogation, where he was duped into signing a confession. "A man showed me a piece of paper in Hebrew and told me if I signed it I would be released, so I did", he said. "Immediately he told me that I had just signed a confession, and that I should now expect a prison sentence".

After receiving medical treatment for his wounds, which required an overnight stay in hospital, Muhammad was transferred to another jail until his court case in front of a military judge. He was not permitted to see a lawyer until five minutes before his trial, and throughout his entire ordeal (including his four and a half month prison term) was not allowed to see any member of his family.




Wheelchair-bound, his mother explained how Muhammad's absence affected family life at home. "He is my firstborn, and used to help me around the house all the time", she explained. ", we were constantly worried about what had happened to our son, since we had no way of getting in touch with him".

She described the changes that had come over Muhammad since his traumatic experience. "He has been affected in two ways", she said. "He has lost an academic year of his studies, and also suffered greatly psychologically". The family filed a complaint against the army, "but no action was taken in response", she said flatly.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/16/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast

[Violet_Crumble]

1. There's no excuse for this sort of thing...

Whereas Israeli youths are treated as children in the eyes of the law until they turn 18, Palestinians are not accorded such humane treatment, and can be imprisoned from the tender age of just 12.

It doesn't matter what nationality a child is, a country must treat ALL children the same when it comes to being arrested, and not discriminate based on nationality or ethnicity. A fourteen year old not being allowed an adult to represent them and being coerced into signing a confession in a language they don't know is so wrong...