Palestinian children’s rights violations under Israeli military regime
Miranda Cleland and Ayed Abu Eqtaish from Defence for Children International — Palestine (DCI-P) addressed a packed meeting in Hastings, UK, about the multiple human rights violations inflicted on Palestinian children every day…
By Katy Colley
When Miranda Cleland described the ill treatment meted out to Palestinian children by the Israeli military at her talk in Hastings this weekend [April 16], she was calm and softly spoken.
There was no need for emotive language — the facts spoke for themselves.
‘We’ve documented cases of children held in solitary confinement for 39 days,’ she said.
‘Any amount of time for a child to be in solitary confinement will be physically and psychologically damaging.
‘We have documented many cases of children who talk about how distressing it is to be in a situation of solitary confinement, how small the rooms are, how bad it smells. The lights never go out, they’re always on. No windows.’
DCI-P Advocacy Officer Miranda Cleland, from Washington, DC, and Ramallah-based Ayed Abu Eqtaish, spoke to the meeting, organised by the Hastings and Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign, at the start of their UK launch tour for the No Way To Treat a Child Campaign [NWTTAC],
The campaign is supported by partner organisations Amnesty International, War on Want, Unison and Palestine Solidarity Campaign among others and the speakers planned to address their concerns to a group of MPs later in the week.
The NWTTAC campaign draws particular attention to the abuses suffered by Palestinian children held in military detention, documented through 766 sworn affidavits.
The Israeli military detains around 700 children through the military courts each year; it is the only country in the world that systematically detains children in this way. Miranda outlined this process step by step.
Of those children arrested, nearly 60% were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and 75% suffered physical violence at the hands of Israeli forces while being detained.
‘They are often beaten, kicked, punched, sometimes slapped with the soldier’s helmet or the stock of his rifle,’ said Miranda. ‘This whole system is designed as a system of control. It is not a justice system.’
Once arrested the child’s hands are bound with zip ties (97%), they are blindfolded (89%) and then forced inside the back of a military vehicle. They are then transferred to an interrogation centre.
‘The child is not told where he is being taken, the parents are not told where he is being taken,’ said Miranda.
On arrival at the interrogation centre, most Palestinian children are strip-searched (80%) and then interrogated.
‘Interrogation techniques violate most human rights you can think of. The children are denied access to a lawyer, denied access to have a parent with them. Sometimes they are verbally harassed, physically beaten, subjected to informants and sometimes subjected to stress positions. And many are subject to solitary confinement as a tool of interrogation.’
Of those held in solitary confinement for more than two days, the average length of time for that particular form of torture is 15 days. This deserves to be called out, said Miranda, for the pernicious way it is used to extract confessions from children.
Accountability Programme Director Ayed said young children are particularly susceptible to psychological damage from this technique.
‘Every child who passes through this experience will be psychologically affected,’ he said. ‘The level of impact depends on the age of the child when they have been arrested, the type of ill treatment and torture he is exposed to in addition to time spent in solitary conditions.’
Worryingly, Ayed says solitary confinement is being used more and more frequently on children.
‘The whole idea of these techniques is to put as much pressure as possible on the person under interrogation and to keep his resistance as low as possible,’ he explained. ‘When they start physically abusing somebody he will collect all his strength in order to resist.
‘But when they are placed in solitary confinement the person will not be able to make the connection between the miserable situation he is under and the military interrogators. So he collapses from within.
‘He starts to blame himself and to say, “I’m in this situation from my own doing”. The majority of children placed in solitary confinement give confessions to the Israeli military interrogator because they fear they cannot get out without writing a confession.’
The child under interrogation has no access to a lawyer, their parents or any outside help until they appear in military court, typically 24–72 hours after arrest.
Miranda explained: ‘When we say a military court that means every single person participating in that courtroom is an Israeli soldier — the judge, the prosecutor, translator, all of these people are soldiers.
‘They are speaking in Hebrew which is a language most Palestinian children don’t understand. So the whole system is designed to make you feel helpless and powerless, and that everything is out of your control.’
Many children take a plea deal because it is fastest way to get out of the military detention system.
This form of military imprisonment sits alongside the practice of ‘administrative detention’ where both adults and children are detained without any charges or evidence at all. In other words, imprisonment without trial.
Today, there are 11 Palestinian children being held by Israel in administrative detention.
‘Their detention is based on secret evidence that is not disclosed to them, their parents or their lawyer,’ Miranda explained.
‘If you don’t know what you are being charged with it is impossible to prepare your own defence. This is a tool we’ve seen Israeli authorities use to extend a child’s detention again and again and again… indefinitely. We have documented cases where children are detained in administrative detention for more than a year.’
Since 2015 more than 60 Palestinian children have been subject to administrative detention. During a short video shown to the meeting Mohammad Mansour, 18, described being held aged 16 in administrative detention for more than 400 days ‘like a life sentence’.
Miranda and Ayed went on to describe another area of the military occupation where Palestinian children’s rights are being systematically violated: home demolitions.
In certain areas like East Jerusalem it is almost impossible for Palestinian families to obtain a building permit so they are forced to build homes without them. These are subject to sudden and arbitrary demolition orders.
‘They will show up and demolish their house right in front of you, sometimes with as little as 10 minutes warning,’ said Miranda. ‘We also see cases where, if a family has received a demolition order against their home, which of course involves a number of fees, they will make you pay to demolish your own house. A lot of families do demolish their own homes instead of waiting for the Israeli military to show up which could be at any time of day.’
In a second video shown to the meeting, six-year-old Manal talks about the day the Israeli soldiers turned up to demolish her home.
‘When the soldiers came I got scared. I was crying and I was very sad and upset,’ she said. ‘I thought they were going to take my dad away.’
Manal was forced to watch as her home was bulldozed: ‘When I saw them destroy my room and my cabinet and my toys I was very upset. This was my house and I loved it very much.’
DCI- P’s advocacy work, drawing attention to these rights violations, has prompted an extreme reaction from the Israeli authorities.
In 2021, alongside five other prominent human rights organisations, they were designated a ‘terrorist organisation’ by the Israeli military and stripped of their legal status. In August last year their offices were raided, the doors were welded shut and their work deemed illegal.
‘Now there is an issue of uncertainty because we don’t know what will happen in the future,’ said Ayed. ‘They may arrest our staff, seize our assets or do whatever they want because they declared it terrorist and illegal. The main purpose of this move is to disconnect us from international support and solidarity.’
However, levels of support for DCI-P’s work have remained constant — indeed, Miranda says she has been amazed by the huge outpouring of solidarity.
‘I’ll never forget the day we were designated a terrorist organisation,’ she said.
‘We started getting these emails from all over the world. They just kept coming and coming for weeks in the immediate aftermath of the designation and all from groups like this one.
‘I can’t even remember how many countries, solidarity groups from all over the place emailing us to say — we saw this happen, we stand with you. One group in France ended their email: “We will not let you down.”
‘It was really scary, especially in those few days afterwards because this is really a huge escalation from the Israeli authorities.
‘It was really encouraging to know there were so many people who saw this and recognised it for what it was and not taking the Israeli authorities designation at face value.
‘Understanding this was a strategic move to shut down human rights organisations because they know what they’re talking about. Our documentation speaks for itself.’
The DCI-P will be working with their partner organisations to call for action later in the year as it seeks to put a Private Member’s Bill and Early Day Motion to the House of Commons.
In the meantime, Miranda asks supporters to keep up the advocacy by visiting the NWTTAC website where there are resources to host a film screening or event.
‘Trust your instincts,’ said Miranda. ‘If you think something is wrong it’s probably wrong. The opposition like to tell you “It’s so complicated, nobody can possibly understand”. Of course you can understand! It’s not rocket science. Apartheid is clear as day and if you see something on TV or hear a story or watch a video of a child saying what it was like when a soldier showed up and demolished their home and you know that’s wrong, believe your own instincts and follow that. It’s no more complicated than that.’
To find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved visit nowaytotreatachild.org
Becoming a member of your local PSC branch is an important way to support the work of human rights organisations like DCI — visit hastingspalestinecampaign.org to join today.
