PASADENA, Friday, November 11, 2022 (WAFA) – An Episcopal Church in the US Thursday urged its followers to take action to secure the release of Palestinian children in Israeli imprisonment.
The All Saints Church sent a letter to its followers asking them to write their members of the Congress to urge them to contact the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs at the State Department Hady Amr to press for the release from imprisonment without charge of Shadi Khoury and other Palestinian children.
The Church also asked its followers to join the six California co-sponsors who support H.R. 2590, the legislation introduced by Congresswoman Betty McCollum to prohibit US taxpayers' dollars from being used to abuse Palestinian children, or sponsor a companion bill in the Senate, which would prohibit U.S. military aid from being used by foreign armed forces to support the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of children in violation of international humanitarian law.
The letter referred to the case of Shadi Khoury, the 16yr old grandson of the Sabeel Palestine Liberation Theology Center cofounder Samia Khoury, who was arrested, beaten and dragged bleeding from his home in the pre-dawn hours of October 18th by Israeli forces. He has had multiple court hearings during his three-week detention, yet no charges have been filed against him.
The letter went on to explain that it was unclear what crime he might be accused of. He is an 11th grade student at the Friends (Quaker) School in Ramallah, a school known for its non-violence and peacebuilding. After his most recent hearing he was moved from Jerusalem’s notorious Moskobiya Interrogation Center to the high-security Damon prison near Haifa.
“There is speculation that his parents were the real target of this action. His father, Suhail, directs the Edward Said National Conservatory and his mother leads the Yabous Palestinian Cultural Association. Both have been previously arrested for their non-violent activism,” it read.
“Shadi’s next hearing is scheduled for November 14th, but there is no guarantee we will learn anything more since Israel’s policy of “Administrative Detention” allows people to be detained for up to three months without charges being filed. These three month long detention orders can, and often are, renewed repeatedly, sometimes for years,” it read.
The letter explained that the arrest of Sahdi is not an isolated and an unusual case.
“Five other teens were also arrested and similarly treated that same day. The Israeli military prosecutes between 500 and 700 children each year in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Organizations such as UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem, have found that ill-treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli forces is widespread, systematic, and institutionalized from the moment a child is detained in the Israeli military detention system,” it said.
“The United States Department of State and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have also raised serious concerns about the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military custody,” it added.
The All Saints Church asked its followers “to sign a letter to their members of Congress urging them to get involved by applying pressure on the Administration and passing legislation (H.R.2590) that will reflect the dire current reality faced by Palestinian Christians and others who are, and will be facing increasingly difficult times under the new hardline right-wing Israeli government and occupation.”
According to the latest figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are currently 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 190 children and 30 female prisoners.
This number includes approximately 800 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
Mass arrest of Palestinians is nothing new. According to a 2017 report by Addameer, over the past 50 years, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel, this figure is now believed to be closer to 1 million. This means that about 40% of Palestinian men and boys living under military occupation have been deprived of their freedom. Almost every Palestinian family has suffered the imprisonment of a loved one.
K.F.
