Persecuted from age 12: Palestinian children tried by military courts in Israel

“Children are usually arrested at home. Dozens of soldiers attack the house in the middle of the night, sometimes breaking down the door, asking for the child and entering the child’s bedroom with guns to wake him up and take him away.

This is how lawyer Khaled Quzmar describes many of the detentions of Palestinian minors that the organization he leads, Defense of Children International – Palestine (DCIP), has been able to document.

After the arrest, Quzmar tells BBC Mundo, the children are taken to interrogation centers, where they are not accompanied by family or lawyers.

“There they are subjected to psychological and sometimes physical torture and many confess under pressure to crimes they have not committed,” denounces this Palestinian specialist in humanitarian law.

But the Israel Penitentiary Service (IPS) told BBC Mundo that “they are not aware” of these complaints, and that prisoners and detainees “have the right to file a complaint which will be fully investigated by the authorities.”

Although the situation of Palestinian minors is the subject of study and concern by several international organizations, such as Save the Children or UNRWA itself (United Nations agency for Palestinians).

According to a report by Save the Children, these minors suffer “physical and emotional abuse.”

Four in five (86%) claim to have been beaten, 69% report being stripped naked to be searched and almost half, 42%, were injured at the time of arrest, some with bullets and others with bones. to the NGO’s research published last July.

military courts

Because the West Bank and East Jerusalem are under Israeli occupation and under the jurisdiction of the Israeli military, Palestinians arrested in these areas are subject to military trials, including children.

According to Save the Children Palestinians are the only children in the world who are “systematically persecuted by military courts”. The organization estimates that approximately 10,000 Palestinian minors have been held in Israel’s military detention system over the past two decades.

The establishment of these military courts, according to what the Israeli military told BBC Mundo, “is recognized by the Fourth Geneva Convention and their operation complies with all relevant obligations under international law.”

In accordance with this legislation, which is regulated, inter alia, by the “Order on Safety Equipment” (Military Order 1651), Children from the age of 12 can be tried and imprisoned. In Israel, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is also 12 years.

However, Khaled Quzmar denounces that Israeli military law allows the arrest of Palestinians of any age. DCIP assures that it has registered cases of children up to 6 years old who have been detained and released after 5 or 6 hours.

Interrogations

One of those held and interrogated for several hours was Karim Ghawanmeh, 12, who was held by Israeli soldiers at his home in the Jalazone refugee camp in the West Bank.

Arab BBC journalist Muhannad Tutunji was at the boy’s home when his mother received a call from the boy from the interrogation room where he was being taken.

Karim could not be accompanied by his parents during that time and was allowed to talk on the phone for less than a minute.

He was held without charge for seven hours.

A video of him playing with a gun, which Karim claims he found in a bag under a tree and later handed over to police, led to the arrest.

During the arrest Karim claims he was abused, punched and beatenas he told the BBC journalist.

He also claimed he was forced to watch footage of two Palestinian children shot dead by the Israeli army this week, videos that have caused widespread shock among Palestinians. If he ever threw stones, he says the soldiers told him, he would suffer the same fate.

According to the Israeli military, BBC Mundo is told that “the interrogation of minors is carried out with careful consideration and taking into account their rights, including the right to remain silent and the right to consult a lawyer.”

Sadness

Because he has turned twelve, Karim is no longer considered a child by military justice, but a ‘young man’. From the age of 14 to 16, minors are already ‘young adults’.

Quzmar explains that if the child is not yet 14 years old on the day of sentencing, the maximum penalty he can be sentenced to is one year in prison. This is as long as the crime for which you have been convicted is punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

But if it is a crime that carries harsher penalties, you could be sentenced to up to 20 years.

From the age of 14, the penalty can be life imprisonment.

Stone throwing, one of the most common crimes for which Palestinian minors are detained, is punishable by sentences of 10 to 20 years, depending on who, according to human rights groups such as DCIP, Addameer or B’Tselem. stone is pointed.

Israel’s Prison Service told BBC Mundo that the minors were imprisoned in custody “by order of the court, after being charged with serious crimes of various kinds, including attempted murder, assault and throwing explosives,” the Israeli Prison Service told BBC Mundo . .

One of the best-known cases, reported by numerous human rights organizations, is that of Ahmed Manasra, who was arrested when he was 13 years old, accused of attempting to stab two people in a settlement. It was finally proven that it was his cousin and not himself who committed the attack, but Manasra has been imprisoned for eight years.

“Although the courts concluded that he did not participate in these events, he was found guilty of attempted murder,” Amnesty International denounces. During his captivity, Manasra developed serious psychiatric disorders. He has been in solitary confinement for two years.

Detention without charge

As with adults, many children arrested by the Israeli military are underage administrative detentionwithout being formally accused of any crime.

So months can pass, as is the case with Iham Nahala, who was released during the hostage crisis after spending 14 months in prison without any charges being filed against him.

Nahala was one of 169 minors released during the latest ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which allowed the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages and other nationalities captured by the armed organization on October 7.

In 2022, UNRWA reported the case of another boy, Amal Muamar Nakhleh, who suffered from a rare autoimmune disease and had been held in administrative detention without charge for a year.

“Access to visit Amal in prison and receive updated information about her health remains very limited,” the agency noted.

Families’ access to minors after they are taken into custody is very limited. denouncing human rights organizations.

Save the Children assures that among the measures imposed on Palestinian children by Israeli authorities is denial of access to legal representation and seeing their families.

Israel assured BBC Mundo that “all law enforcement agencies in the Judea and Samaria region (as Israeli authorities call the occupied territory of the West Bank) are working to protect the rights of minors in all administrative and criminal proceedings, including compliance with obligations. relating to the arrest, investigation, prosecution and sentencing of minors.”

In a 2013 report, UNICEF concluded that the abuse of children in Israeli military detention “widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest to the child’s treatment and final sentencing.” Since then, the organization has maintained a dialogue with Israeli authorities to try to improve the situation.

Military detention also has psychological consequences for children, human rights organizations say.

According to their 2020 report, around half of those arrested told Save the Children that they had been unable to return to their normal lives after their release. Defenseless (Helpless).

Teenager Mohammed Nazzal, 18, who was released under the agreement between Israel and Hamas after more than three months of administrative detention, was physically abused during his captivity, he told BBC reporter Lucy Williamson. broken hands.

But the damage extends further…

“This is not the Mohammed we knew,” his brother Mutaz complained.

“Now his heart is broken and full of fear,” he concluded. (JO)