Newsletter - March 2023
Detention figures – According to data issued quarterly by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 March 2023, there were 4,747 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 151 children (12-17 years) (150 boys / 1 girl). In the case of children there was a 1 percent increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual increase of 11 percent compared with 2022. Ten children were held in administrative detention. According to the IPS, 70 percent of child detainees and 80 percent of adults were unlawfully transferred to prisons in Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. More statistics
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The UNICEF Report: 10 Years On - Ten years ago, UNICEF reviewed the treatment of Palestinian children held in Israeli military detention and concluded that their ill treatment "appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process". Ten years on, 97 percent of UNICEF's 38 recommendations remain substantially unimplemented. More children are now arrested at night; more children are blindfolded; more children report physical violence and/or threats; there has been a surge in the number of children held in solitary confinement during interrogation; and 71 percent of child detainees are unlawfully transferred out of the occupied West Bank - 18 percent more than in 2013.
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US State Department Human Rights Report (2022) - The Annual Report confirms that the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem is occupied territory and therefore subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention. However, the Biden administration continues to recognise Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, contrary to the same legal principle that prevents recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea. The Report confirms that Israel continues to apply two legal systems in the West Bank (military and civilian) based on race or national identity and notes that 67 percent of Palestinian child detainees were unlawfully transferred out of the West Bank to prisons in Israel during the year, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
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Can the ICC retain legitimacy while selectively prosecuting the unlawful transfer of children? - In March 2023, the Court issued arrest warrants for two Russians responsible for the unlawful transfer "of at least hundreds of children" from occupied Ukraine to Russia on the grounds that these children are "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Based on data released by the Israeli Prison Service, it is estimated that more than 22,000 Palestinian children, "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention, have been unlawfully transferred out of the occupied West Bank to Israel since June 1967. Many of these children report abuse following their transfer. A politicised Court will lose legitimacy.
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A child's testimony - On 16 October 2022, a 17-year-old minor from Tubas was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 3:30 a.m. He reports being held in
solitary confinement for 35 days in Al Jalama interrogation centre, near Haifa, after being unlawfully transferred from the occupied West Bank. He reports being denied his basic legal rights under Israeli military law: "The cell measured about 1x1.5 meters and was not long enough for me to spread my legs. Initially, I found it hard to sleep and I was in distress. The cell had no windows and the light was turned on 24 hours a day. I could not tell day from night."
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1,033 Testimonies MCW Annual Report (2022) Two Kids a Day (Trailer)