MIDEAST: Israeli Raids Target Children http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50680

Muslem Odeh, 10, tells IPS that he was taken by Israeli forces on Mar. 11 at 3 am, after police broke into the family's home in Silwan's Bustan neighbourhood and pepper-sprayed his father who attempted to protect him. "They were banging on the door, and demanded I come with them. They told me that I had thrown stones at a settler. But I never threw stones." Guards inside the interrogation centre took Muslem around the jail and showed him the cells, threatening to hold him in one of them if he did not confess to throwing stones. At one point during the six-hour interrogation process, Muslem asked a guard if he could go to the bathroom. The guard refused.

"I said, 'would you let me go if I were a Jewish child?'" Muslem tells IPS. "And the guard was ashamed. He finally let me use the toilet." Muslem's mother, Hiyam Odeh, says that her son's behaviour has changed dramatically since his arrest and interrogation. "He can't sleep at night. When he does, he has intense nightmares. He has had hallucinations of police at the window who threaten to grab him," she tells IPS. "Muslem and other children in Silwan are very distracted at school. They worry about whether they'll be able to return home without getting attacked or taken by the police or whether they'll even have a home to return to at the end of the day." 

Murad Shafaa of the Committee to Defend Bustan Neighbourhood says that Silwan is on the frontlines of Israeli settlement expansion policy in occupied East Jerusalem. "In Bustan, these Israeli attacks have created an enormous stress on the community," he tells IPS. "The children have been especially affected by the tension, to the point where they take their favourite toys and clothes with them to school because they fear that at any point their house could be demolished."  "The Israeli forces are threatening the families through the children," Shafaa continues. "In the cases when the police come in and arrest the children, they will only release them on an expensive bail, and every day, the community continues to fear what will happen to their kids." 

Sarit Michaeli of Bt'selem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories in Jerusalem, says that the treatment of youth by Israeli forces has raised serious concerns regarding the overall protection of the rights of minors within the Israeli military court system. "Children should be afforded extra protection under international law," Michaeli says. "However, Palestinian children who are arrested for allegedly throwing stones are being detained at very young ages. Palestinians are tried as adults at 16 years old, in contrast to the age of 18 for Israeli minors. They're being held inside prisons with the adult population."