Despite the global coronavirus pandemic, Israel has stepped its arrest of Palestinian children in the occupied territories, a new report from Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) says.
According to the report, released on Tuesday, 194 Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centers, marking a six percent increase from January.
Using data released by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), DCIP found that as of March 31 only 28 percent of Palestinian child detainees were actually serving out sentences, while the rest, over 60 percent of them (117 out of 194) were being held in pretrial custodial detention.
The data also indicated that the majority of the detainees were ages 16-17, while 30 were ages 14-15. Israeli forces have been documented as arresting Palestinian children as young as 12 years old.
Additionally, more than 70 percent of the child detainees were being held in prisons inside Israel in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which states that, when facing detention by an Occupying Power, the detainee has the right to remain in the occupied territory during all stages of detention.
DCIP, along with several other rights groups, has previously called for the immediate release of all Palestinian child prisoners amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Tuesday’s report, the group doubled down on those calls, saying “the fact that Israeli forces continue to detain Palestinian children and hold the overwhelming majority in pretrial detention is unconscionable given the increased risk presented by COVID-19 to people deprived of their liberty.”
“Palestinian children imprisoned by Israeli authorities live in close proximity to each other, often in compromised sanitary conditions, with limited access to resources to maintain minimum hygiene routines,” the report said.
“COVID-19’s impact is exacerbated by these living conditions making Palestinian children in Israeli prisons and detention centers increasingly vulnerable.”
According to DCIP, Israel arrests anywhere between 500-700 Palestinian children every year.
From the time of arrest — which usually takes place in the middle of the night — until the time they are processed in court, children face a number of rights violations, including physical harm, verbal abuse, coercion during interrogation, and being denied the presence of parents or lawyers during their interrogation.
DCIP estimates that “nearly three out of four Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces experiences some form of physical violence.”
Palestinian children, like adults, are processed in Israeli military courts, which boast a 99.7 percent conviction rate for Palestinians.
Meanwhile:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-an-arab-family-of-doctors-on-israel-s-coronavirus-front-lines-1.8786492
“The Majadlas: An Arab Family of Doctors on Israel’s Coronavirus Front Lines” by Dina Kraft, Haaretz, April 21/20
“Five doctors in one family are battling to save lives, Jewish and Arab, during the pandemic, and wondering if this historic moment will be a turning point in the war against discrimination of their community.”
EXCERPT:
“Dr. Riad Majadla’s 20-hour days begin in darkness, before sunrise. He awakens at 5 A.M. at home in the Arab village of Baka al-Garbiyeh in central Israel, and is soon driving south to Sharon Hospital 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, where he is the director of the coronavirus department at the only hospital in the country that’s specifically designated for those who have contracted the virus.
“Before doing his rounds, and like the medical staff he supervises, the 63-year-old Majadla – a veteran internist who in his ‘old,’ pre-coronavirus life headed Sharon’s emergency room – suits up in personal protective equipment, covered head to toe with a hooded white coverall, mask and plastic face shield. The hospital’s most critical cases are on ventilators in the intensive care unit, while the serious and more moderate cases – all under his supervision – are treated in separate wards. Any exposure to a COVID-19 positive patient poses a risk to Majadla and his coworkers’ health.
“When his shift ends at 4 P.M. at Sharon Hospital, which together with Beilinson Hospital is part of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, and he prepares to leave, his second-oldest son, Amer Majadla, 29, is just arriving for his own 16-hour shift and donning his protective gear. It is Amer’s turn to monitor patients, checking their EKGs and analyzing their blood work.
“Meanwhile, in other medical facilities in…Israel, Riad’s eldest son Omar, 31, Omar’s wife Nadine, 28, and son-in-law Kadri Mawassy, 37–all of them physicians.”
The best defense is a good offense. Kids throwing things and lone wolf acts, have not. Going for equal rights while turning against all violence is where power is.