‘Israeli authorities have an established pattern and practice of targeting young Palestinian males for arrest and prosecution on the basis of their Palestinian identity rather than based on any legitimate law enforcement objective.’
We were sitting in the courtyard of a house as swallows flew back and forth to their nests in the rafters. Amjad walked around the corner, smiling despite a clearly swollen face. Amjad is a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager who was just released from 10 days in Israeli military prison. Two weeks before, Amjad had filmed a settler who was grazing his sheep in a field belonging to Amjad’s family. The next day, the army raided his home and arrested him. The soldiers claimed it was for kicking the settler, but Amjad insists that this didn’t happen.
Unfortunately, Amjad is not an anomaly in being detained like this. Israel is the first and only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts, despite the Convention on the Rights of the Child saying the detention of under 18s should be a measure of last resort. According to a 2020 study by Save the Children, between 500-700 Palestinian children are detained per year, and recent findings suggest that this has risen further since the escalations in violence after the attacks of 7th October 2023. The Israeli government also approved a new law on 7th November 2024, which would allow Israeli courts to impose prison sentences on Palestinian children aged 12.
Children are detained for an array of reasons, but like Amjad, it is often precipitated by interactions with settlers, with Israeli human rights organisation, Military Court Watch finding that of Palestinian children detained, they lived an average of 900m from a West Bank settlement. The most common offence they are charged with is throwing stones, which can hold a maximum sentence of 10 years, or 20 years if thrown at a vehicle. However, increasing numbers are detained under Administrative Detention – a system by which someone can be detained without charge for an indefinite period on the suspicion that an offence may be committed in the future. Administrative Detention does not require a legal hearing; the detainee rarely receives legal representation, and the judge does not require evidence to be shown in order to sentence someone.
Once arrested, Amjad was blindfolded, handcuffed, and taken to a local prison for one night. After this, he was taken to a prison in Jerusalem, where he was placed in a cell with six others, of which he was the oldest. He described how they were given rotten eggs and mouldy bread to eat, and Amjad described how ‘the blankets we were given smelt so bad that I could barely sleep,’ and that the guards ‘beat his morning and evening’ – the bruises were still clearly visible as we sat talking.
For the next 10 days, he was interrogated daily about the settler he was accused of attacking and asked to provide information on members of the community and activists who were present at the incident. He was then made to sign many different papers – presumably confessions – in Hebrew, which he can’t read.
‘Under Israeli military law, Palestinian child detainees have no right to a lawyer during interrogation. Israeli military court judges seldom exclude confessions obtained by coercion or torture, even those drafted in Hebrew, a language that most Palestinian children do not understand. In fact, military prosecutors rely, sometimes solely, on these confessions to obtain a conviction.’
This is, again, all against international law. Not only should prisoners not be beaten and ill-treated, but civilians also cannot be removed from occupied territory for imprisonment, and they must be provided with information on their arrest and charges in a language they understand. However, all are routine in the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, both adults and children.
Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organisation focusing on prisoner rights found that;
‘from the moment of their arrest, Palestinian children are subjected to arbitrary policies and relentless abuse, enduring harsh conditions and mistreatment that worsen with each passing day.’
The removal of detainees to Jerusalem makes it incredibly difficult for lawyers and family members to visit or find out details of their arrest, as Palestinians require permits to leave the West Bank. In Amjad’s case, Israeli peace activists who support the family were able to find some information about his case. They are often able to get better access to the police and can read any information provided, which is largely in Hebrew. However, none of the family was able to visit. His father told us that for the 10 days he waited, he was sick with worry and he couldn’t work or go out with his sheep, saying;
‘Every day you prepare yourself for new news, bad news.’
Fortunately, Amjad was able to return to his family and settle back into school and community life, and when we visited a week later, he recovered well from his injuries. However, many children detained suffer from much longer-lasting problems. Having been arrested once, children are much more likely to be arrested again, with 1/2 of the boys surveyed in detention by Save the Children having been detained more than once. The ill-treatment they receive during detention;
‘leaves a deep psychological impact on both the children and their families, contributing to a pervasive atmosphere of fear and anxiety that persists even after their release from Israeli prisons and detention centres’.
They are at risk of developing PTSD, health problems deriving from poor conditions or injuries sustained in detention, and mental health issues resulting from a loss of a sense of security and safety. These effects are exacerbated if they suffer from isolation or solitary confinement – a practice strictly prohibited under international law but used on around half of child detainees. Those who have been detained for longer periods of time also miss out on large periods of education and struggle to reintegrate with old friendship groups or communities.
‘The deprivation of liberty experienced by Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention and military court system is arbitrary by default because Israeli authorities systematically disregard and deny fundamental protections and guarantees concerning the right to a fair trial to the extent that nearly any deprivation of liberty as part of the military court system is of an arbitrary character.’
Take action!
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Please take some time to educate yourself and your loved ones about life under occupation in the occupied West Bank, a reality that is so often absent from mainstream media reporting. This powerful new film by Palestinian and Israeli activists Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham has won an Oscar: No Other Land.
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Our friends at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Christian Aid, and Save the Children UK have launched Ally to Atrocities – a joint campaign demanding urgent action from the UK Government to end its complicity in the Israeli government’s violations of international law. Click here to access, use and share the campaign resources now.
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Read more about Palestinian children living in the West Bank by visiting our Children page.
What does international law say?
