Israel Terrorizes Palestinian Children

Israel Terrorizes Palestinian Children

by Stephen Lendman

Israel is a fascist police state - a racist apartheid one run by criminals masquerading as democrats.

Netanyahu is a world class thug - exceeding the worst of Sharonian evil. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy once admitted he "can't stand him." Obama replied to his comment saying "I have to deal with him every day."

He's adamant against Palestinian statehood. He once called the peace process a waste of time. He wants continued conflict and instability.

Peace defeats his agenda. It includes brutalizing Palestinian children - some too young to understand what's happening and why.

Israel criminalizes Muslims for praying to the wrong God the way Nazis persecuted Jews. Instead of death camps, its policy is slow-motion genocide - unrelenting, ongoing for decades.

The late Edward Said called Palestine an isolated prison, an entire population suffocated for not being Jewish - impoverished, starved and slaughtered with impunity, a wasteland of human misery through an endless "cycle of violence (and) slow death."

Volumes have been written about how Israel brutalizes Palestinian children. A new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report titled "Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children" discusses horrific mistreatment during arrest and detention of kids young as 11 (at times younger).

They're assaulted, choked, attacked with stun grenades, as well as beaten and otherwise abused during arrests and grueling interrogations - treated like hardened criminals for alleged stone-throwing.

They're kept isolated - denied contact with family members or legal counsel. Parents aren't told where their children are held.

HRW interviewed boys aged 11 - 15. "They and their parents gave accounts of abuses during arrest and interrogation that caused the children pain, fear, and ongoing anxiety."

"Human Rights Watch has seen photos and marks on the body of one of the children, consistent with the accounts he and his parents had given; the children’s accounts were also consistent with each other."

They told horror stories of horrific mistreatment - then forced to sign confessions in Hebrew they didn't understand or beatings and other forms of abuse would continue.

HRW said two boys it interviewed explained "they had urinated on themselves in fear at the time of their arrests, and three said they had experienced nightmares and difficulty in sleeping afterward."

"The families of a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy said they were not allowed to visit or even call during their detention - 64 days for the girl and 110 for the boy."

Another boy was threatened, strip-searched, beaten and jailed for nearly a month on "suspicion of throwing rocks and a Molotov cocktail at a settlement…released to indefinite house arrest (then) jailed again" for nearly two and half months "for failing to appear at a court hearing."

He's been harassed since release. These cases aren't isolated incidents. Israel terrorizes hundreds of Palestinian children annually - on average around two a day. They're treated as brutally as adults - subjected to torture, other forms of abuse and prolonged isolation in solitary confinement.

They're guilty by accusation. During grueling interrogations, they're shackled, blindfolded, beaten, threatened and sleep-deprived. They're forced to confess to alleged offenses they may not have committed or brutal treatment continues until they do.

They're fair game for Israeli ruthlessness with no recourse for justice. At times they're targeted with live ammunition. In 2014, Israeli security forces murdered 11 Palestinian children threatening no one.

Excessive force and horrific brutality are longstanding Israeli practices. Fatalities and injuries follow. Arrests occur almost daily during regular community raids. Children are targeted at home pre-dawn, going to and from school or at play.

Rule of law principles don't matter. Israel brutalizes Palestinian children, youths and adults with impunity. They have no rights whatever.

HRW's Sara Whitson said "Israel has been on notice for years that its security forces are abusing Palestinian children’s rights in occupied territory, but the problems continue."

In 2013, UNICEF said "the ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized."

Defence of Children International Palestine (DCIP) explains the same thing in reports it issues. Abuse is longstanding, horrific, and systemic.

Israel is the only nation "automatically and systematically" prosecuting children in military courts with no due process or judicial fairness whatever.

Guilt is automatic. Innocence is no defense. State terror is official Israeli policy. So is apartheid worse than South Africa's.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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