News

An Israeli soldier detains a Palestinian child as a man argues with
the soldier during an army operation in the West Bank city of Qalqilia,
May 2008. (Khaleel Reash/MaanImages)

MEMO, August 25, 2010

A member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has condemned as
"unethical and inhumane" the methods used by Israeli soldiers to
investigate Palestinians, particularly children. Dr. Afu Agbaria MK
claimed that "Israel's own statistics confirm that 14% of detained
Palestinian children were subjected to sexual abuse threats by Israeli
soldiers."

He referred to a report by the Palestinian Prisoners' Ministry which
revealed that 65% of detainees, most of them children, face brutal
torture and ill-treatment during their detention and interrogation; 32%
apparently signed confessions without understanding their content
because they were written in Hebrew. Dr. Agbaria also drew attention to
one hundred complaints presented by human rights organizations to
Defence for Children International (DCI) against the ill-treatment of
Palestinian detainees. The organizations demanded that detainees aged 16
and 17 should be dealt with as minors, in accordance with Israeli law,
and an end to prison sentences for those under 14 years old.

DCI and the Israeli Organisation for Children's Rights has, said Dr.
Agbaria, called upon Israel's Attorney G... >>>