CFL ALERT: PALESTINIAN CHILDREN TORTURED

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For Immediate Release
April 17, 2003
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Palestinian Children Tortured

CFL ALERT: Human rights organizations charge Israel with the illegal arrest and detention of over 300 Palestinian children. Many of these children are being held without charges, others have been held for months for merely throwing stones at Israeli tanks. The arrest and detention of Palestinian children is both backwards and illegal. Please contact the Bush administration and your Representatives and let them know that they must stop supporting of Israel as long as they continue to arrest and detain Palestinian children.

TALKING POINTS:

*The Israeli army concedes that it does arrest Palestinian children, yet they have conveniently decided to treat children age 16 and up as adults. Israel is defying the U.N. Convention on the "Rights of the Child", which defines minors as persons younger than 18.

*Roundups of Palestinians have intensified in the past year, and the International Committee of the Red Cross states that a total of 7,600 Palestinians are currently in custody in camps and prisons. Red Cross officials have so far visited 260 Palestinian children being detained in Israeli prisons.

*B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, estimates that about 300 Palestinian children are in detention. They also say that most of those detained are held for minor offenses such as throwing stones.

*Palestinian child-prisoners complain that they are being beaten, tortured, and starved. They are being placed in overcrowded rooms and they are not allowed regular access to bathrooms.

*Many child-prisoners are interrogated without the presence of lawyers and are held for months without visits from their parents.

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Citizens for Fair Legislation is a grassroots organization committed to encouraging a fair domestic and foreign policy with an emphasis on the US/Arab world.
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