MCW Newsletter - September 2022
Detention figures – According to data issued quarterly by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 30 September 2022, there were 4,529 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 129 children (12-17 years). In the case of children there was a 4 percent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual decrease of 12 percent compared with 2021. Seven children were held in administrative detention. According to the IPS, 68 percent of child detainees were transferred to prisons inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. More statistics
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Annual Report (2022) - The report considers developments relating to the arrest and detention of children by the Israeli military authorities in the West Bank in 2021 and 2022 (reporting period). In addition to reviewing relevant legal and procedural changes in the system, the report considers the findings from 100 testimonies collected from children detained during 2021. The report also includes a comparative graph tracking 13 issues of concern since 2013 based on 1,002 testimonies. Some points to note: 95 percent of children detained live within 900 metres of an illegal Israeli settlement; solitary confinement rates have skyrocketed from a long-term average of 2 percent up to 42 percent; and some ICC member states continue to block legal accountability.
Report
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Evidence update: Documentation in Hebrew - In 2013, following an extensive review of the treatment of children held in Israeli military detention,
UNICEF found evidence indicating that Palestinian children and their parents were frequently presented with documentation written in Hebrew by Israeli military authorities at the time of arrest, during interrogation and in the military courts. At the time of making these recommendations, the evidence indicated that Palestinian children in the military detention system were being shown, or made to sign, documentation written in Hebrew in 62 percent of cases. Almost a decade later, Palestinian children and/or their parents are being presented with documentation in Hebrew in
80 percent of cases.
Read more
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Military Courts Unit: Updated briefing note - In September 2022, Israeli military officials at Ofer military court, near Jerusalem, commenced distributing an updated
Briefing Note produced by the "Military Courts Unit in Judea and Samaria". As in previous years, this official briefing note relies on
Article 66 of the Fourth Geneva Convention as the legal basis for prosecuting Palestinian civilians, including children as young as 12 years, in military courts. Whilst this provision does provide a legal basis for prosecuting civilians in military courts on a temporary basis, it worth recalling that the same Convention
prohibits settlement construction in occupied territory and designates such activity as a
war crime.
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A child's testimony - On 25 April 2022, a 17-year-old minor from Beit Ummar was arrested by Israeli soldiers at 6:00 a.m. at home. He reports being transferred to Ofer interrogation centre where he was held in solitary confinement for 25 days while being interrogated. "I woke up at around 6:00 a.m. to the sound of loud banging at the front door. An Israeli soldier broke open our front door and many soldiers entered our home. I got up and went to the living room which looked like a battlefield. The commander asked me for my name and then grabbed me abruptly and took me to my bedroom. He pushed me to the floor and swore at me."
Read more
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