I plan to write much more on Palestinian political prisoners, torture, and the unlawful imprisonment of minors through the Israeli military and police in the next weeks. Right now, after the somewhat publicized release of 50 children from Israeli prison, there are over 100 children currently held in Israeli (military) prisons.
http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/israel-release-55-106-palestinian-children-remain-jail-shackling-continues
Yesterday alone (3.1.2012), three children were temporarily detained by Israeli forces. Among them was six year old Mohammad Ali Dirbas, who was on his way to a neighborhood store in his native al Issawiya, occupied East Jerusalem, when an undercover unit charged amid a barrage of tear gas canisters and stun grenades and randomly kidnapped him, while other children managed to escape. The Israeli forces then interrogated Mohammad for hours in an unlawful attempt to force him to name children who allegedly threw stones.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/388435_341535405856770_136633479680298_1365111_1044954208_n.jpg
I think of the child from silwan i met days after he had been kidnapped and interrogated (badly beaten) for hours until he passed out. He was still shaken. I also remember seeing a mother in silwan crying in the streets and searching frantically for her little son when the iof stormed the neighborhood after the funeral of 16 year old Milad Ayesh. It was terrible. Eventually, she did find him, but it made me think of this stubborn rumor that Palestinian mothers willingly send their sons to die. What a racist, cynical claim.
Also yesterday, 12 year old Mo’at al ‘Araj and another 12 year old child were arrested in Silwan, in addition to, Maha Ghazi Barham, a young woman from Kufr Qaddum near Qalqilya, who was detained at a checkpoint on her way home.http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449787 and various others.
Today, 15 year old Sa’ad ‘Abd el Fattah Mansour and Mahmoud Ahmad Ridwan and 14 year old Mahmoud Ahmad Othman were detained in al Issawiya. In the past 3 days of this new year, nine Palestinian children have been detained so far.
Here are a few recent reports on the imprisonment of children and torture through Israeli forces
http://dci-palestine.org/documents/submission-use-solitary-confinement-palestinian-children-held-israeli-detention
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/stone-cold-justice-israels-detention-torture-of-children-policies/
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/israel-torture-palestinian-children-by-electric-shocking-sabbah-report/
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/btselem-jerusalemite-children-tortured-by-israeli-interrogators/
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/category/torture/
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/israel-collected-900-000-in-fines-imposed-on-jerusalem-children-in-nine-months/
a video-piece about the detention of Palestinian children:
https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/stolen-children-stolen-lives-israels-arrest-and-abuse-of-palestinian-children-video/
a short video documenting the sudden assault of an undercover unit on Palestinian children playing in silwan https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/undercover-forces-captured-on-film-kidnapping-a-palestinian-child-in-jerusalem-video/