12 and 13 Year Olds Arrested for Throwing Stones at the Wall

Why we have to keep demonstrating and fighting for real change:

www.dci-pal.org

[RAMALLAH, 22 January 2009] – Seven children from Toura al-Gharbeiah village (Jenin Governorate) were arrested on Tuesday by the Israeli authorities; they are currently detained in Salim detention and interrogation centre, in the north of the West Bank. Two of the children are only 12 years old; two are 13; another two are aged 15; and the seventh is 17.
A DCI-Palestine lawyer yesterday visited the children. According to information collected by the lawyer, between midnight and 4:00am on Tuesday 20 January, the Israeli intelligence, police and army entered Toura al-Gharbeiah village and arrested the seven children from their respective homes.
The children were then assembled in a public building in the village, and interrogated there. They were alleged to have thrown stones at the Wall and were intimidated into confessing. The eldest, Murad (17), was accused of possessing weapons, but he denied the allegation. Murad told the DCi-Palestine lawyer what happened on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after midnight, Murad was watching television at home when he heard noise outside. He got up to look through the window and saw four jeeps belonging to the Israeli police guards.
Less than a minute later, someone knocked and Murad opened the door. An Israeli police officer, accompanied by two soldiers, asked Murad his name and told him “Do not try to escape, the house is surrounded”. He asked him to wake up other family members.
After the rest of the family was up, the soldiers took Murad outside, laid him on the ground, tied his hands behind his back with plastic cords, and blindfolded him. Murad lay on the ground for half an hour while the soldiers searched the house. Then, they walked him to the military jeep. While they were walking, a soldier started beating him on the face and hands. Murad reported that one of his fingers started to swell as a result of the beating.
They shoved him into the jeep, and drove for 20 minutes. Then Murad was taken out of the jeep and brought to a billiards room. He was still in the village. His blindfold was removed and an interrogator told him that they had found weapons in his house. He pressured Murad to confess to owning them; all the while screaming at him and threatening him. The interrogation went on for 40 minutes. Murad did not confess.
When the interrogation was over, Murad was blindfolded again, and left in the room until 9:00am. ... During that time, he heard the voices of other young detainees, including his brother Bashir (15). Some of the children were crying.
At 9:00am Murad was transferred to Salim detention and interrogation centre. During the journey, a soldier was sitting beside him shouting at him and insulting him; he felt very scared.
After being interrogated in the billiards room in the village, the children were transferred to Salim detention and interrogation centre, near Jenin. When the DCI-Palestine lawyer met them on Wednesday, 21 January, the children had already confessed, under duress, to throwing stones at the Wall. Murad had still not confessed.
DCI-Palestine and their partners Addameer believe that such young children are particularly vulnerable to abuse in the Israeli military justice system and should be released immediately, all the more so, in light of the trivial nature of the alleged offence. The children's lawyer has requested a hearing today, Thursday 22 January, in order to ask the military judge for the release of the young children.

The children are:
Morad Q. (17)
Bashir Q. (15)
Osaid Q. (12)
Subhi A. H. (12)
Amer Q. (13)
Mohammad A. (13)
Emad A. (15)

At the end of December 2008, there were 342 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons and detention/interrogation centres, including 7 girls, and 5 administrative detainees. The December 2008 figures reveal the highest reported numbers of child detainees in 2008. In addition, on 17 January, DCI-Palestine issued a statement expressing concern that numbers of children arrested by the Israeli authorities in the West Bank has doubled in the first two weeks of January.

"Only Democracy in the Middle East" Shoots an Unarmed Protestor

Fatal shooting at West Bank protest

A Palestinian has been shot dead and several others wounded after Israeli security forces opened fire during a protest in the West Bank against Israel's war in Gaza.
The man died after being shot in the head when clashes broke in the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday, medics and witnesses said.
Israeli soldiers had opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets after youths throwing stones had apparently tried to march towards the Israeli-controlled area of the city, witnesses said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/

"The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." Dr Martin Luther King Jr

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." Dr Martin Luther King Jr

CALL the Israeli Government (numbers below) and demand that it immediately STOP attackingthe civilian population of Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent humanrights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.

For more information, please contact:(Cyprus) Lubna Masarwa, +357 97 625 828 (Cyprus) Mary Hughes, +357 99 081 767 (Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497 freelance@mailworks.org

(Mediterranean Sea, 15 January 2009) - The Israeli navy today threatenedto kill unarmed civilians aboard a mercy ship on its way to delivermedical supplies and doctors to besieged Gaza. The Free Gaza Movement ship, SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, left Cyprus Wednesday morning carrying doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and parliamentarians. The ship also carried over a ton of desperately needed medicines donated by the European Campaign to Break the Siege, intended for overwhelmed hospitals in the Gaza Strip. At the request of the ship’s organizers the passenger list and manifest were publicly released, and Cypriot authorities searched the boat prior to its departure in order to certify that it only carried humanitarian items. The organizers also sent an official notification to the Israeli government of their intent tobreak through the blockade of Gaza.
At roughly 3am UST (1am GMT), in international waters 100 miles off thecoast of Gaza, at least five Israeli gunboats surrounded the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY and began recklessly cutting in front of the slow-moving civiliancraft. The Israeli warships radioed the SPIRIT, demanding that the ship turn around or they would open fire and “shoot.” When asked if the Israeli navy was acknowledging that they intended to commit a war crime by deliberately firing on unarmed civilians, the warships replied that they were prepared to use “any means” to stop the ship. An earlier attempt by Free Gaza to deliver doctors and medical supplies ended on 30 December when Israeli gunboats deliberately and repeatedly rammed the DIGNITY, almost sinking that ship. Rather than endanger thelives of its passengers, the SPIRIT is now returning to Cyprus. Israel's reckless and shocking threats against an unarmed ship on amission of mercy are a violation of both international maritime law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which states that "the high seas should be reserved for peaceful purposes."

Mark Regev in the Prime Minister's office:+972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264 mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il

Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence:+972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148 mediasar@mod.gov.il
The Israeli Navy Spokesperson:+ 972 5 781 86248

###The Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group, sent two boats to Gaza inAugust 2008. These were the first international boats to land in the portin 41 years. Since August, four more voyages were successful, takingParliamentarians, human rights workers, and other dignitaries to witnessthe effects of Israel's draconian policies on the civilians of Gaza.http://www.FreeGaza.org

Over 1000 Dead People in Gaza

This age is a knife, kings are butchers; justice hath taken wings and fled.In this completely dark night of falsehood the truth is never seen to rise.- Guru Nanak Sahib


It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest.
The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.- Harold Pinter

If the UK Were Gaza

• There would be roughly 34,194 dead and 137,846 injured.
• Our tiny Island would be surrounded by checkpoints, walls, fences and no man's land, we wouldn't be allowed to get out.
• Our fishing industry would have collapsed, as would most of our economy- 41 million of us would be living in poverty- that is on less than 32p per day.
• In the past 14 days the houses of Parliament, the Department of Education, local Government buildings would have been destroyed during air raids. Our police force and associated infrastructure would have been all but decimated a week and a half ago.
• Over 80,000 people would have been forced from thier homes. Our children wouldn't have slept in 14 nights.
• Our hospitals would be running out of blood, anaesthesia, bandages, syringes after having to treat 137,846 injured people in 15 days.
• Our army would be attempting to defend us using home made armaments.
• Our neighbours in France and Ireland would be ignoring our plight and not allowing in supplies of food and medicine. There would be no end in sight.

The world would be blaming us for reacting to a year of enforced starvation with home made rockets. They would be saying that all of this was our fault for breaking a ceasefire agreement that our enemy never, ever stuck to in the first place. Infact 205 of us were killed in an airstrike 5 months into the ceasefire. But we were meant to ignore that and carry on suffering malnutrition, water shortages and powercuts without a murmur of protest.

Shame on us all for allowing this to happen.
Shame.