Today, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child accused Israeli forces of torturing Palestinian children.
The report (pdf)comes within a year of three other reports: a UNICEF report on children in military detention last winter; a British report of a year ago, Children in Military Custody, which gained wide attention for its assertion that Israel was torturing children by holding them “routinely and for substantial periods in solitary confinement;” and this Breaking the Silence report last summer on Israeli soldiers’ abuses of Palestinian children, which included many reports of children getting beaten “to a pulp.”
Reuters: Palestinian children tortured, used as shields by Israel: U.N.
A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields.
……….
“Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released,” it said in a report.
……
“If someone simply wants to magnify their political bias and political bashing of Israel not based on a new report, on work on the ground, but simply recycling old stuff, there is no importance in that,” [Israeli Foreign Ministry] spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
The “old stuff” FM spokesperson Yigal Palmor is referencing is the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) February report Children in Israeli Military Detention, Observations and Recommendations (pdf) on the “widespread, systematic and institutionalized” abuse of Palestinian children held in Israeli custody.
After UNICEF released its report, Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed in March that it would “study the conclusions and… work to implement them through ongoing cooperation with UNICEF.”
But that didn’t happen. No; instead, in a bizarre twist, a month later UNICEF attempted to sanitize its own findings at a press conference in Jerusalem.
No doubt Palmor would much rather deal with UNICEF than with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which issued today’s report, since Israel joined UNICEF’s board this year, and UNICEF’s new Jerusalem bureau chief has been very respectful of Israel.
Back to Reuters:
The U.N. committee [OHCHR] regretted Israel’s “persistent refusal” to respond to requests for information on children in the Palestinian territories and occupied Syrian Golan Heights since the last review in 2002.
Today is a good time to be reminding Israel to stop torturing Palestinian children. It’s World Refugee Day, established by the U.N. in December 2000, nearly 50 years after the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It is observed every year on June 20th to raise awareness of the plight of refugees.
Palestinian refugees represent the longest suffering and largest refugee population in the world.
(Hat tip Taxi)
If the US government ignores this, then we are just as guilty and without soul as the Israelis.
There’s no room for excuses, none. If this is how our ‘greatest ally’ behaves, then we should abandon them by $, veto votes, etc. And it should be said loud and clear.
These are really horrible people. They have to be “reminded” not to torture children? Torture children? In 2013? Delegitimizing their bloody nation is the kindest thing that can be done to them.
I do not mean to be disrespectful in this post:
But the Palestine Refugees video belongs in a separate thread, because it will generate distinctive commentary. I would love to see the firestorm of threads about the right of return that video generates; both pro- and con-
Torture is one issue.
Who owns the land is another.
You are going to get mixed commentary, when both issues are worthy of their own threads. They are both great topics, and should not be mixed.
Good idea! Hmmm! And from a Christian Zionist.
We do have them once in a while.
Come on people, let’s be fair to the Israelis here.
When you’re the nation of choice for people like Abraham Mondrowitz, fleeing charges of rampant paedophilia and rape, you have to let them blow off steam somehow and obviously since Jewish kids are sacrosanct when there’s an option available, why not stick the sickos in the IDF and let them loose on some unimportant Palestinian brats? Who cares what happens to the untermensch? Right? Right!
Zionism is so disgusting! Twenty years in prison for a ‘stone-throwing’ Palestinian kid. Unbelievable! Come forth mister and missus israel and explain to us this ugly thing you call your ‘jewish democracy’. Is it like some sort of mish-mash of Apartheid and Stalinism and nazism? Cuz it sure sounds like it, looks like it, IS in fact IT.
May israel never ever ever ever EVER live in peace. May zionist israel overdose on it’s own cruelty and die a memorable and horrendous death. And it’s about time it died – for all the diabolical crimes against children it’s been committing since 1948. Dear lord, may I live to see the day when all the children of Palestine dance on its grave.