RAMALLAH, January 18, 2015 (WAFA) –
The Israeli authorities continue to detain Palestinian eighth grader, Malak
al-Khatib, 14, for the 19th consecutive day in the Israeli prison Hasharon, reported
the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC).
Al-Khatib was arrested near her
school in the Ramallah village of Beitin on December 31, 2014 for alleged
rock-throwing at Israeli forces.
A military decision was supposed to
be made on January 4th, however, the Israeli Ofer military court postponed
her hearing to January 11, yet no decision has been reached so far.
Malak’s family wasn’t able to visit
her at the detention center, but only saw her at the court on Sunday January 4th
during a court hearing. Her father said that she looked distressed and scared.
“After all she is only 14,” he explained desperately.
According to UNICEF, “All children
prosecuted for offences they allegedly committed should be treated in
accordance with international juvenile justice standards, which provide them
with special protection. Most of these protections are enshrined in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
It should be noted that, “Israeli
military law technically applies to all those present in the West Bank,
including Israeli settler children, however the latter are invariably processed
under Israel’s civilian legal system, which contains far greater safeguards and
protections,” according to Defense for Children International.
On 29 September 2009, a military
juvenile court was established following mounting criticism that the Israeli
military had been prosecuting children as young as 12 years in adult military
courts for over four decades, it said.
However, “The new order makes no
change to the time period during which a child can be denied access to a
lawyer, which remains at 90 days for both adults and children.”
On August 1, 2012, military order
1685 came into effect. The new order reduces the time within which children
detained by the Israeli military must be brought before a military court judge
for the first time.
The organizations stated that, “The
critical period for Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military is
the first 48 hours after arrest. It is during this period that most cases of
physical and psychological abuse occur and the child is interrogated without
the benefit of legal advice or the presence of a parent. The amendment which
now requires children be brought before a military court judge within 96 hours
of arrest adds no additional protection.”
B'Tselem, the Israeli Information
Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said that, “From the
beginning of 2005 to the end of 2010, at least 835 Palestinian minors were
arrested and tried in military courts in the West Bank on charges of stone
throwing. Thirty-four of them were aged 12 - 13, 255 were 14 - 15, 546 were between
the ages of 16 - 17. Only one of the 835 was acquitted; all the rest were found
guilty.”
The center said
in a report titled, No Minor Matter that “The rights of Palestinian minors are
flagrantly violated at every stage of the proceedings conducted against them,
from the initial arrest and removal from their homes, through interrogation and
trial, to serving the prison sentence, and then release […]. The amendments to
the military legislation are marginal and have failed to bring about meaningful
change in the military system’s treatment of minors.”
T.R/M.H
