RAMALLAH, August 9, 2011 (WAFA) – Minister of Social Affairs, Majida Al-Masri, condemned Tuesday ‘Ofer’ court decision to deport 16-year-old Palestinian, Muhammed Awad from his home in Hebron for six months.

In a press release, Al-Masri said “the decision of the Israeli court comes as a continuation of the Israeli government’s practices, targeting Palestinian children by discouraging and terrify them, which demonstrates the racist mentality that the occupation forces follow against Palestinians of all ages and social classes.

She indicated that punishments imposed by the Israeli authority through its illegal courts, infringe the basic Palestinian children’s rights, which are guaranteed by all international laws, conventions and resolutions, especially the child right agreement and declaration stipulating the child’s right to life.

She added that the Palestinian children in the Israeli prisons suffer from harsh and inhuman detention conditions, lacking the least bit of international standards of children and prisoners rights, and that prisoners in general and children in particular suffer during the arrest and interrogation from the worst kinds of torture without paying any consideration to their age; they are subjected to different physiological pressures and physical assaults.

She also called on human rights organizations and institutions concerned with children’s’ rights to move fast and stop the dangerous violations, which Israel practices against the Palestinian children and to implement international laws concerning children’s rights.

M.G./F.R.