When the boys return

[Jefferson23]

A group of Palestinian youths try to come to terms with their experience of being jailed by Israel.

Filmmaker: Tone Andersen

In Hebron in the West Bank, 11 young Palestinian men come together each week in a room at the YMCA.

All of them have spent time in Israeli jails. They are just a few of the 7,500 Palestinian minors aged between 12 and 18 who have gone through the prison system over the past 11 years.

The arrests of these youngsters, undertaken by the Israeli army, often happen at night. The most common charge is stone-throwing and the average sentence is two years.

Upon release, many former detainees display symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and almost all find it difficult to slip back into the position they occupied in their families and communities prior to arrest.

Among the group are 15-year-old Mohammad Jamil, who was newly-released from prison when filming commenced, and 17-year-old Hamze Mahfouz.

remainder: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2013/01/20131810428343551.html

[bemildred]

1. Schools for violence, schools for terrorists.

And all to "show them their place" and avoid "looking weak" and "doing nothing".

I remember when I was nine, riding my bicycle, which I was proud of, at night, perhaps 8 PM, and two LAPD officers stopped me. I'd never been stopped before, and I did not respond with the fear and deference they wanted, so they lectured me and gave me a ticket for not having my bicycle licensed. And ever since then I have known that the cops are not my friends, no matter what the teacher said, they are dangerous, the enemy, and you have to watch out for them, they are not there to protect YOU.

[Jefferson23]

2. I think so, and aside from criminal, it is counterproductive on every level.

Even at a young age, as you say, one can sense when an act has nothing to do with benevolence.

[azurnoir]

15. yep they are indeed just that schools for violence

heck simply living in that atmosphere of constant threat everyday don't even have to leave home it's always there, and what are these kids taught by all this, their parents can say anything, teach them anything, but reality is what they see everyday is teaching them too

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. The most common charge is stone-throwing and the average sentence is two years.

Really, for kids between 12-18?

How can a society imprison a child of 12 years of age? Do Israeli children face the same penalties? If so it is a travesty.

[Jefferson23]

5. Israeli children? No.

Statistics on Palestinian minors in the custody of the Israeli security forces
http://www.btselem.org/statistics/minors_in_custody

More here: Only one Palestinian minor acquitted out of 835 charged with stone-throwing in past six years
Published:
18 Jul 2011

New B'Tselem report reveals for the first time official data on treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military court system in the West Bank: 93% of all minors convicted of stone throwing were given jail sentences. This includes 19 children under age 14, who under domestic Israeli law could not be held in detention.

The rights of Palestinian minors who are suspected of stone-throwing in the West Bank are violated severely throughout the criminal justice process. These are the finding of No Minor Matter, a new B’Tselem report, published today (Monday, 18 July).

The report brings, for the first time, full official data on Palestinian minors tried for stone-throwing in the past six years, and is based on dozens of court cases, and on interviews with 50 Palestinian minors who had been arrested on suspicion of stone throwing, and with defense attorneys.

http://www.btselem.org/press-release/2011-no-minor-matter

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

11. A clear example of Israeli apartheid that will be overlooked again and again.

Two sets of rules for two populations. This is sad. Very sad.

[Jefferson23]

12. Two sets of rules, yes. A few excerpts:

snip* At the beginning, nearly all deny the accusations. Most say they are threatened; some report physical violence. Verbal abuse – "You're a dog, a son of a whore" – is common. Many are exhausted from sleep deprivation. Day after day they are fettered to the chair, then returned to solitary confinement. In the end, many sign confessions that they later say were coerced.

These claims and descriptions come from affidavits given by minors to an international human rights organisation and from interviews conducted by the Guardian. Other cells in Al Jalame and Petah Tikva prisons are also used for solitary confinement, but Cell 36 is the one cited most often in these testimonies.

snip* Their statements show a pattern of night-time arrests, hands bound with plastic ties, blindfolding, physical and verbal abuse, and threats. About 9% of all those giving affidavits say they were kept in solitary confinement, although there has been a marked increase to 22% in the past six months.

Few parents are told where their children have been taken. Minors are rarely questioned in the presence of a parent, and rarely see a lawyer before or during initial interrogation. Most are detained inside Israel, making family visits very difficult.

snip* Handcuffed with a plastic tie and blindfolded, he thinks he was first taken to an Israeli settlement, where he was made to kneel – still cuffed and blindfolded – for an hour on an asphalt road in the freezing dead of night. A second journey ended at about 8am at Al Jalame detention centre, also known as Kishon prison, amid fields close to the Nazareth to Haifa road.

After a routine medical check, Shabrawi was taken to Cell 36. He spent 17 days in solitary, apart from interrogations, there and in a similar cell, No 37, he said. "I was lonely, frightened all the time and I needed someone to talk with. I was choked from being alone. I was desperate to meet anyone, speak to anyone … I was so bored that when I was out [of the cell] and saw the police, they were talking in Hebrew and I don't speak Hebrew, but I was nodding as though I understood. I was desperate to speak."

During interrogation, he was shackled. "They cursed me and threatened to arrest my family if I didn't confess," he said. He first saw a lawyer 20 days after his arrest, he said, and was charged after 25 days. "They accused me of many things," he said, adding that none of them were true.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/22/palestinian-children-detained-jail-israel

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

13. Even if the kids were throwing rocks there are so many ways to find a suitable punishment

than what the article suggests is nearly a daily affair.

If Israel wants a prison population that hates their very lives then they are doing a great job in the ongoing fostering of such evil.

We wouldn't tolerate that in the USA so why should we tolerate it in an ally?

[Jefferson23]

14. I do believe the rationale is about keeping the other side afraid and in their place.

Although it is criminal conduct on Israel's part, it is also short sided to prospects for peace.

[azurnoir]

7. No different age standards between Israeli children and Palestinian children in the West Bank

Israeli children cannot be jailed under the age of 14, while Palestinian children as young as 12 have been held by Israel. Israeli children must be given access to a lawyer within 48 hours, whereas Palestinians can be held for three months without legal aid

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=534074

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

10. That's pretty sad.

from the same article:

In June, a delegation of senior British lawyers issued a report saying that by applying separate legal regimes for Israeli and Palestinian children, Israel is in breach of international laws against discrimination.

Israel "in breach of international laws." Well, there's a first for everything I guess.
---
Israel is also breaking international humanitarian law by transferring Palestinian children from an occupied territory into Israel, it notes.

Could this be considered human trafficing? I hope not. I would hate to see Israel besieged by another UN resolution.

[oberliner]

4. Are there only males?

Do you have any numbers on female prisoners?

[Jefferson23]

6. Number of Palestinian girls in Israeli detention:

http://dci-palestine.org/content/child-detainees

[oberliner]

8. So no more than 1 since 2010?

Usually zero.

Based on this chart, it seems like the vast majority of these Palestinian child detainees are 16-17 year old males.

What do you make of that?

[Jefferson23]

9. Vast majority? No. There is much more data that

goes back to 1996 compiled by B'tselem.

Google it if you're interested.

What to make of criminal behavior by the Israeli government toward Palestinian children? The government
has a long documented history of abuse, they should end the practices.