{"id":188,"date":"2012-08-27T11:28:56","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T11:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/usa\/?p=188"},"modified":"2024-11-04T15:39:05","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T15:39:05","slug":"children-on-front-line-in-the-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/children-on-front-line-in-the-west-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Children on front line in the West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0 Israel Defence Forces&rsquo; arbitrary use of violence against Palestinian\u00a0 children, including forcing them to act as human shields in military operations,\u00a0 has been exposed by veteran soldiers in detailed statements chronicling dozens\u00a0 of brutal incidents.<\/p>\n<p>The most disturbing trend that emerges from the soldiers&rsquo; testimonies relates\u00a0 to the wounding and killing of children in the West Bank and Gaza by either\u00a0 targeted shooting or by failing to protect minors during military operations,\u00a0 according to the report from Breaking the Silence, an organisation of veteran\u00a0 Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbThere was an ambush where a kid coming up with a Molotov cocktail had his\u00a0 leg blown off. They laid ambush exactly at that spot. Kids came, the soldiers\u00a0 were there, the kids lit a bottle, and they were shot in the leg,\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0 one former\u00a0 soldier states.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cT-imageLandscape --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Keeping the peace \u2026 Israeli troops restrain two Palestinian girls after their\u00a0 mother is arrested for protesting against Jewish settlers in the village of\u00a0 al-Nabi Saleh. <em>Photo: AFP<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The release of the testimonies follows the publication of two damning reports &#8211; one from a group of eminent British lawyers who visited Israel&rsquo;s military\u00a0 courts and the other from the human rights organisation Defence for Children\u00a0 International &#8211; that detail multiple violations of international law by Israel\u00a0 in its treatment of children.<\/p>\n<div id=\"adspot-300x250-pos-3\"><small>Advertisement<\/small><noscript>&lt;iframe id=\u00a0\u00bbdcAd-1-4&Prime; src=\u00a0\u00bbhttp:\/\/ad-apac.doubleclick.net\/adi\/onl.smh.news\/world;cat=world;ctype=article;pos=3;sz=300&#215;250;tile=4;ord=4.6089458E7?\u00a0\u00bb width=&rsquo;300&prime; height=&rsquo;250&prime; scrolling=\u00a0\u00bbno\u00a0\u00bb marginheight=\u00a0\u00bb0&Prime; marginwidth=\u00a0\u00bb0&Prime; allowtransparency=\u00a0\u00bbtrue\u00a0\u00bb frameborder=\u00a0\u00bb0&Prime;&gt; &lt;\/iframe&gt;<\/noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"dcAd-1-4\" src=\"http:\/\/ad-apac.doubleclick.net\/adi\/onl.smh.news\/world;cat=world;ctype=article;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=58156551?\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>These include Israel&rsquo;s practice of holding Palestinian children in solitary\u00a0 confinement and denying them legal representation, as well as its use of\u00a0 physical violence, shackles and coerced confessions in interrogations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbIt is crucial that people in Israel are confronted about what it means for\u00a0 Palestinian children to live under military occupation,\u00a0\u00bb says Yehuda Shaul, a\u00a0 founder of Breaking the Silence.<\/p>\n<p>The incidents detailed in the report occurred in what Israel admits was a\u00a0 \u00a0\u00bbquiet period\u00a0\u00bb &#8211; from 2005 to 2011, after the violence and suicide bombings of\u00a0 the second Palestinian intifada in which at least 972 Israelis and 3315\u00a0 Palestinians died.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli soldiers and Palestinian children come into regular conflict as\u00a0 Israel seeks to maintain\u00a0 control over areas of the West Bank where 300,000\u00a0 settlers live across the 1967 Green Line in contravention of international law.\u00a0 Children throw stones as a form of resistance, to protest\u00a0 the presence of\u00a0 soldiers and settlers, sometimes with deadly consequences, soldiers say.<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0 Shaul says that does not excuse the use of excessive force against\u00a0 children or the military&rsquo;s consistent arbitrary invasion of villages and homes\u00a0 as part of a campaign to suppress the Palestinian population of the West\u00a0 Bank.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbEvery soldier who has served in the occupied territories has these images\u00a0 of breaking into a house in the middle of the night, little children are crying,\u00a0 you wake up the family,\u00a0\u00bb he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbThat is 24 hours a day, seven days a week you have patrols that bump into\u00a0 random houses and disrupt the life of people &#8211; that is the idea &#8211; it is what we\u00a0 call in the military &lsquo;Litzur tchushat nirdafaut&rsquo; or &lsquo;to create the feeling of\u00a0 being chased&rsquo;.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>Shaul says\u00a0 only once soldiers have finished their active duty and begin to\u00a0 think as civilians\u00a0 can they see the military&rsquo;s actions in a different light &#8211; and the order to shoot to kill a child\u00a0 200 metres away and not threatening\u00a0 anyone stops making sense.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbThis is what our society is made of, you cannot ignore it, you cannot just\u00a0 run away from it &#8211; this is who we are\u00a0 \u2026\u00a0 this is something we should\u00a0 face.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>But according to the Israeli government, Palestinian children pose a grave\u00a0 threat to the country&rsquo;s security.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbWe have seen Palestinian minors involved in violence against Israeli\u00a0 civilians, whether it is throwing rocks at cars, whether it is throwing petrol\u00a0 bombs,\u00a0\u00bb says Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Prime Minister, Benjamin\u00a0 Netanyahu. \u00a0\u00bbWe have established a parallel system to deal with minors because\u00a0 we recognise minors have special needs and \u2026\u00a0 we are trying to do this in a\u00a0 manner that is as sensitive as possible in very difficult conditions.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>It was unfortunate,\u00a0 Regev said, that militant Palestinian organisations\u00a0 chose to put minors \u00a0\u00bbon the front line\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>He urged anyone with a complaint against the Israel Defence Forces to come\u00a0 forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbWe have a very strict code of behaviour under which our soldiers are\u00a0 allowed to act and if there are violations of that code of behaviour, soldiers\u00a0 face discipline and they can go to jail.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbThere is an independent part of the military that investigates all such\u00a0 allegations \u2026\u00a0 I don&rsquo;t think it is the norm but in any large system there are\u00a0 aberrations and we have to stamp them out.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>Sixteen-year-old Anan Tamimi has been arrested three times by the Israel\u00a0 Defence Forces, and released each time without charge. He lives in the West Bank\u00a0 village of al-Nabi Saleh, where there are weekly clashes between the army and\u00a0 residents, who are protesting against attempts by Israelis from the Halamish\u00a0 settlement and its outposts to take over the al-Qawas Spring and the surrounding\u00a0 land.<\/p>\n<p>Two human rights organisations &#8211; B&rsquo;Tselem and the Association for Civil\u00a0 Rights in Israel &#8211; have consistently expressed grave concerns about the\u00a0 behaviour of the IDF at al-Nabi Saleh.<\/p>\n<p>The first time Anan was taken by the IDF, the soldiers came at 3am. His\u00a0 mother, Boshra Tamimi, says at one point there were more than 30 soldiers, some\u00a0 with dogs, on the second floor of the family&rsquo;s home.<\/p>\n<p>The soldiers had a photograph and\u00a0 were searching Anan&rsquo;s closet and drawers\u00a0 to try to find clothes that matched the person in the photograph, Mrs Tamimi\u00a0 told the <em>Herald<\/em>. They found nothing to link her son to the photograph\u00a0 but they took him anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbWhen they took me outside the house \u2026\u00a0 they turned my hands back to my back\u00a0 and they tied my hands with this plastic tie and blindfolded my eyes\u00a0 immediately,\u00a0\u00bb Anan says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbI spent 17 hours in the settlement here, then another three hours in\u00a0 Binyamin for interrogation, then they transferred me to Ofer [Prison] \u2026\u00a0\u00a0 on the\u00a0 fourth day, they took me to the court and \u2026\u00a0\u00a0 I was released.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>The second time he was arrested, he was again taken to the nearby settlement\u00a0 of Halamish, where after several hours he was released, still with his hands\u00a0 tied tightly behind his back and blindfolded, and left on the side of the road,\u00a0 Anan says.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after, using the same photograph that had been found by the IDF&rsquo;s own\u00a0 military court to have no link to Anan, he was again arrested. This time the\u00a0 16-year-old spent 15 days in\u00a0 prison before he was released without charge.<\/p>\n<p>With the quiet bravado of a teenage boy, he says he is not worried about\u00a0 whether the Israeli army will raid his house again at night and take him\u00a0 away.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbIf I am frightened of the soldiers, I will not live my life, so it is\u00a0 better not to be afraid.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>The most common offence children are accused of is throwing stones, says\u00a0 Gerard Horton, head of Defence for Children International in Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbBut in many cases, it is very difficult for the army to actually identify\u00a0 who was throwing the stones \u2026\u00a0\u00a0 so the modus operandi of the army appears to be\u00a0 that when an incident of stone-throwing does occur, someone has to be punished\u00a0 for that, even if you cannot identify who the perpetrator is.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbThe army needs to maintain control in the West Bank and they need to\u00a0 provide protection to 300,000 settlers who are living in the West Bank, contrary\u00a0 to international law.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbIn order to do that, they need to make sure that any form of resistance, no\u00a0 matter what form that takes, has to be crushed.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0 IDF spokesman, Major Arye Shalicar, defends the military&rsquo;s actions.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00bbIn the end, if you compare it to 10 years ago, we have had a decline in\u00a0 suicide attacks,\u00a0\u00bb he says. \u00a0\u00bbWe had hundreds of suicide murders in 2002 and\u00a0 none in 2012. It shows that there is some kind of effectiveness in the actions\u00a0 of the security establishment and its co-ordination with the Palestinian\u00a0 security forces.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>If there is maltreatment of Palestinian children, it is important that the\u00a0 IDF investigates the claims, he says.<\/p>\n<p>He expresses frustration that Breaking the Silence does not provide the IDF\u00a0 or other relevant bodies with the information\u00a0 to launch an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0 Shaul says it is important to protect the identity of its sources, many\u00a0 of whom are breaching IDF policy to expose the system of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/world\/children-on-front-line-in-the-west-bank-20120826-24uhw.html#ixzz24kyawyph\">http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/world\/children-on-front-line-in-the-west-bank-20120826-24uhw.html#ixzz24kyawyph<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0 Israel Defence Forces&rsquo; arbitrary use of violence against Palestinian\u00a0 children, including forcing them to act as human shields in military operations,\u00a0 has been exposed by veteran soldiers in detailed statements chronicling dozens\u00a0 of brutal incidents. The most disturbing trend that emerges from the soldiers&rsquo; testimonies relates\u00a0 to the wounding and killing of children in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[157],"class_list":{"0":"post-188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-palestine","7":"tag-featured"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16356,"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/16356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/algerienetwork.com\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}