Report: “Israel Kidnapped 80 Children in Jerusalem Since The Beginning of 2011”

From Sarah Abdallah's Blog

Report: Israel illegally interrogates, tortures children 

By Jeany Massad - IMEMC News

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainee Affairs published a new report Wednesday documenting the torture of children as young as seven in Israeli prisons. Since the beginning of this year, Israeli soldiers have abducted 150 children and all of them were interrogated during the course of their imprisonment. Many were subjected to harm treatment such as hitting, psychological abuse, violence and the threat of violence without a parent or adult representative present.

One of the children mentioned in the report was Omar Tahsin Abu Saker, a seven-year old child from Tulkarem, who was taken to prison on 19th February from a street in his neighborhood; the Israeli government accused him of throwing stones near the Wall gate.

Amir Masalmeh, a seventeen year old from Nablus, was mentioned in a declaration under oath by a female lawyer who visited him in prison on 9th December 2009, who asserted that the boy was subjected to torture while under interrogation.

Muhamman Naeem Ibrahim Quazieh, a fifteen year old child from Bethlehem, was taken from his home on the 27th December last year. According to the report, Israeli Soldiers took him to an Army camp near Bethlehem and kept him there handcuffed and blindfolded for hours. After that, he was taken to Atsyon prison and left him alone in an extremely cold cell.

A seventeen year old detainee from Ramallah reported that he was taken from his home at three o'clock on the early morning. The soldiers blew off the door of the house, in order to take him from where he was sleeping in his room. They hit him multiple times in different parts of his body, then took him to an interrogation center in order to question him.

There are currently over 35 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison camps who are under the age of sixteen, and 190 who are between sixteen and eighteen years old.

Report: “Israel Kidnapped 80 Children in Jerusalem Since The Beginning of 2011”

By Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Research and Documentation Unit at the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER) reported that Israeli soldiers and policemen kidnapped more than 80 Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem since the beginning of this year.

The center said that Israel is escalating its violations and attacks against children and youths in Jerusalem by kidnapping them, attacking them and enforcing house arrests.

It Research Unit said that the army and police kidnapped recently nine children from Silwan town, and violently attacked and tortured them.
It also stated that the children are tortured during interrogation and, when released, they are forced under house arrest.

Out of the 80 kidnapped and detained children, 40 are from Silwan town, the center added.

All kidnapped children were interrogated in a number of police stations in Jerusalem and were accused of hurling stones at Israeli soldiers, policemen, and under-cover units of the Israeli army.

Most of them were severely tortured and were violently beaten by the arresting soldiers and officers.

The Center also said that Israeli settlers and settlement guards also participated in the arrests, the transfer to detention center and even the interrogation of the detained children.

In related news, the Israeli Authorities handed on Sunday February 27th, a military order to the residents of Al Omaraa’ residential tower in Beit Hanina in occupied East Jerusalem, informing them that the residential tower will be demolished.

The JCSER reported that the 22 families living in the residential tower were granted ten days to appeal the decision.