Concerns over Palestinian children in Israeli custody

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"While there have been emotional scenes after the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, concerns are being raised about the plight of 164 Palestinian children from the West Bank in Israeli custody.

They were either sentenced or are being detained, mainly for stone-throwing, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which, along with other international NGOs, is appealing to the Israeli government to release all Palestinian children in Israeli military detention.

It is unclear whether the children will be part of the second wave of 550 releases in the coming two months.

“UNICEF calls on the Israeli Government to release Palestinian child detainees so that they can be reunited with their families,” said Jean Gough, UNICEF special representative in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). “As stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the detention of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time,” she said.

The Israeli Justice Ministry was unable to confirm the number of Palestinian children detained by Israel."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94013

[King_David]

1. Hamas should of asked for their release

Instead of terrorist murderers. But that is Par for Hamas' course.

[Jefferson23]

2. Unable to confirm?

An investigation conducted by B'Tselem shows that, during the past year (November 2009 to October 2010), at least 81 minors from Silwan have been arrested or detained for questioning, the vast majority on suspicion of stone throwing. The arrests and detentions followed confrontations between Palestinians and settlers in the neighborhood, where there is great tension resulting from the taking of control of houses and archeological sites by settlers.

http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201012_caution_children_ahead

Long history of Detentions
Thousands of Palestinians, including scores of children, were detained by Israeli forces in the OPT. The majority of those arrested were later released without charge, but hundreds were accused of security offences. Some 9,000, including more than 300 children and Palestinians arrested in previous years, remained imprisoned at the end of 2007. More than 900 were held in administrative detention without charge or trial, including some held since 2002. Among those detained were dozens of former ministers in the Hamas-led PA government and Hamas parliamentarians and mayors who were seemingly held to exert pressure on Hamas to release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured in 2006 who continued to be held in Gaza by the armed wings of Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).

Almost all the Palestinian detainees continued to be held in jails inside Israel, in violation of international humanitarian law, which bars the removal of detainees to the territory of the occupying power.

In October, following a habeas corpus petition filed by a human rights organization, the Supreme Court ordered the army and the prison administration to explain why the transfers of Palestinian detainees from one place of detention to another were often not recorded. The case remained pending at the end of the year.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/israeloccupied-palestinian-territories/report-2008

[Scurrilous]

3. Thanks.

:thumbsup:

[Jefferson23]

4. You're very welcome. n/t