Monday 30 Nov 2015 - 13:05 Makkah mean time-18-2-1437
Ramallah, (IINA) - The Palestinian human rights groups -Addameer, and Defense for Children International Palestine Department (DCIP), have issued a joint statement on Saturday in which they expressed grave concern over recent Israeli amendments of laws and proposed laws aimed at harming Palestinian youth, especially children, WAFA reported.
Addameer is a rights group working specifically for the Palestinian prisoners while DCIP is meant for safeguarding rights of children. The two NGOs said that a recent bill that was approved by the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation proposes imprisoning children, as young as 12, convicted of “nationalistic-motivated” offenses.
A first reading of the bill in the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, on November 25, resulted in a vote of 64 in favor and 22 opposed. “While these should apply to Israeli Jews and Palestinians alike, in practice they discriminately target Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel”, the statement said.
On the other hand, the groups said, Israeli extremists and settlers rely on their government to ignore their attacks against Palestinians, adding: “Israel’s record of seldom holding perpetrators accountable speaks for itself”.
According to data compiled by DCIP, between January and June 2015, 86% of Palestinian children incarcerated in Israeli jails endured some form of physical violence following arrest, marking a 10% increase from 2014.
It added that Israeli interrogators used position abuse, threats, and solitary confinement to coerce confessions from some children. In the majority of these cases, Israeli authorities deprived children of legal counsel and improperly informed them of their rights.
One of the children detained at Givon prison, Ahmad Nasser, 17, told Addameer that on October 5, while he was on his way home from school in Jerusalem, a dozen Israeli soldiers and police officers savagely beat him and transferred him to a police station in a nearby settlement, they then proceeded to remove his undershirt and wrap it around his head and face before photographing him.
Israeli prosecutors used these photos of his covered face as evidence of Ahmad having participated in clashes and charged him with throwing stones at an Israeli police officer. Addameer has documented several similar cases in recent months.
Addameer and DCIP expressed their outrage over the dangerous trend of excessive use of lethal force against Palestinian children.
Since the start of October, DCIP has confirmed 20 Palestinian child fatalities, all except five while carrying out alleged stabbing attacks. A further 283 Palestinian children have sustained injuries, based on DCIP’s initial data.
“Security cameras and eyewitness reports in several of these incidents reveal that the alleged child assailants no longer posed a threat when Israeli forces shot them multiple times at close range,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at DCIP.
He added: “While all states have the right to protect their citizens from violence, it cannot be used to justify extrajudicial killings or the unlawful use of intentional lethal force”.
AG/IINA
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