Israel: 800 youths held over rock attacks in last five years - report

Over the past five years, Israel’s military has detained more than 800 Palestinian youths and children for pelting rocks at Israeli soldiers, and has interrogated and jailed many of them, a rights group said in a new report.

Drawing on military statistics and interviews for its 70-page report, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem counted 835 minors who were taken into custody from 2005 to early 2011, including 34 children who were 13 or younger.

B’Tselem said an 8-year-old who was seized in the West Bank in February.

Soldiers released the boy after realising he was not the child they were after, and that they wanted his nine-year-old brother. Troops handcuffed the nine-year-old, blindfolded him and took him to a detention centre where he was interrogated and held for five hours, according to the report. Israeli forces released the boy after it was determined he was a minor.

A military spokeswoman said around 160 civilians and soldiers were wounded in violent attacks by minors. Some 10 were wounded when Palestinian youths threw projectiles, the spokeswoman said.

Of the more than 800 minors charged with hurling rocks over the past five years, one youth was found guilty in a court trial.

The other 93% were given jail terms after making plea bargains, agreeing mostly because they feared being detained while they waited for their cases to reach trial, said Baumgarten-Sharon.

More than 500 of the youths were around 16 years old, the report said. Another 255 were 14 and 15, and 34 were 13 or younger. The older the youths, the more likely they were given longer sentences, sometimes of months in jail.

B’Tselem acknowledged that Israeli authorities needed to enforce the law, but said night raids, handcuffing, blindfolds, interrogations and the denial of access to lawyers to children for hours were frequently disproportionate to the crime.

“The authorities need to enforce the law, but they should do it in lawful ways that is appropriate for the crime and the people committing the crime,” said the report’s author, Naama Baumgarten-Sharon.

Military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich said that in general the military handled children with sensitivity and that their arrest was a justified response to violence.

The B’Tselem report noted the situation for child detainees improved after the military built special juvenile courts, but said Palestinian minors were denied rights afforded to Israeli children.

Israel has complained for decades about Palestinian children taking part in often-violent demonstrations, saying that they are being exploited. Some Palestinian parents see their children as young fighters resisting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

Rock throwing, specifically, is seen as symbolic of their struggle.

The issue has flared in the past few years as Palestinians hold weekly demonstrations in West Bank villages in which young men and boys throw rocks and chunks of concrete at Israeli soldiers.

Soldiers have used tear gas, rubber bullets and sometimes live fire in response, killing some demonstrators and badly wounding others.

Leibovich said the children’s fate lay with their families and Palestinian groups, whom she accused of sending out young people to confront Israelis.

“We are talking about minors that actually use rocks and explosive devices to target Israeli civilians and soldiers,” she said.