Sharp rise in the number of Palestinian children in prison
The number of Palestinian minors being held in Israeli prisons has soared following the wave of violence that started last October.
Figures submitted by the Israel Prison Service show that the number of Palestinian minors imprisoned for security-related offenses rose from 170 last September to 438 in February. Some 54 percent of the prisoners, 238, are in custody until the end of the legal process against them. Seven have been detained without being charged, including one who is not yet 16.
Human rights groups say that locking up minors infringes on their rights and increases the chances of their returning to violence or terrorist activity.
While no Palestinian youths younger than 14 were held in prison last September, by February five were incarcerated, including one girl. The number of prisoners aged 16-18 rose from 143 to 324, while the number of prisoners aged 14-16 rose from 27 to 98.
The figures show the growing involvement of girls in violent activity. While only one Palestinian girl was serving a prison sentence in September, 12 girls were in prison by February, including one younger than 14 and six others who were detained until the end of legal proceedings.
The minors are mostly being held in the Ofer, Megiddo and Hasharon prison facilities. All the young girls are being held in Hasharon Prison. Prisoners who commit security-related offenses do not receive rehabilitation sessions, since the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority deals only with criminal prisoners, by law.
Although most minors being held are not associated with any terror organization, 18 of them declared that they belonged to the Palestine Liberation Organization. One minor said he belonged to Hamas and another to Islamic Jihad.
Most of the minors, 106, came from Hebron, with a further 104 from East Jerusalem and 86 from Ramallah.
Itamar Barak, a data coordinator from the B’Tselem human rights nonprofit, criticized Israel’s policy of jailing minors. “This is an oppressive system based only on incarceration. There is no attempt to provide alternatives to imprisonment,” he said.
“The question is what a 14- or 16-year-old who spends a year in prison with security prisoners learns about life, the world and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It only sends them back to the cycle of violence,” he added.
Barak warned of Israel’s expanding use of detaining minors without charging them for any offense or putting them on trial – a measure rarely used until recently. “We must ask ourselves, What great danger is posed by a 16-year-old boy that required imprisoning him without trial?” he said.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel also criticized the tactic. The nonprofit published a report in February, Arrested Childhood, about the repercussions of policy and legislation changes on minors suspected of security offenses such as stone throwing and disturbance.
“The main, possibly only thing the state considers is deterring the minors, not rehabilitating them and making them abandon violence,” finds the report, written by attorneys Nisreen Alyan and Meytal Russo. “This troubling practice is contrary to the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and infringes on the instructions and principles of Israeli law.
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page//.premium-1.716006
