This 12-year-old Palestinian was taken to an Israeli interrogation centre without a lawyer or parent, after being accused of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.
A 12-year-old Palestinian in the Occupied West Bank has been detained for hours at an Israeli interrogation centre before being released. He told Al-Jazeera about the intimidation, fear and threats he faced.
Israel has over 7,000 Palestinians in prison, most held without charges. The others faced long sentences for gathers of 10 or more for what Israel calls political expression. Palestinians are banned from displaying their flag or political symbols. Again a 10 year prison sentence. 10 years if a Palestinian orally attempts to influence public opinion in a way Israel thinks would harm public peace. Remember, these rules only apply to the Palestinians, not the Israeli settlers in Palestinian territory. Life in prison for any act that Israel determines a disturbance or a danger to the security of the area or threats the security of the IDF (military). That includes kids throwing rocks at the illegal wall Israel built in Palestinian territory. Of course the laws are written very vague so they can be applied to anything a Palestinian does that someone in Israel doesn’t like. Remember that while Israeli media and people held huge events celebrating the return of their family members, the Palestinians were warned they would be all be arrested if there was a similar celebration of returning family members.
Do you not see the Palestinians are kept in an open air prison with every aspect of their lives under the military control of Israeli IDF and at the mercy of any Jewish citizen who harms them. I recently watched a video of an illegal Jewish settler walk up to a Palestinian man who was unarmed and just shoot him. A few feet away was an Israel Soldier who did nothing. On the Palestinian’s land, he was a farmer shot on his own property. The Jewish man was never charged. There is more in the video. Hugs. Scottie
Israel has been engaged in harrowing negotiations to recover the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza following the October 7 attack. In exchange for their release, the Israeli government has a bargaining chip that is extremely valuable to Palestinians: the thousands of Palestinian prisoners locked up in Israeli prisons.
Each one of these Palestinian prisoners has been processed by Israel’s military court system, which exists completely separate from the civilian court system that Jewish Israelis interact with. This system and the military orders that govern it have their origins in the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967.
In this video, two experts explain Israel’s military court system, why it’s been a focus of outcry from human rights organizations and why hostage negotiations have historically involved the exchange of Palestinian prisoners.
So the haters again got what they wanted. This is terrorism. They got something they hate / dislike shut down even though it was not harming anyone. Plus tell me how it is “protecting the children” to threaten to blow them up? I think we need to stop giving in to the threats. The bomb threats always turn out false, no bomb, and yet the events get cancelled. I am an atheist, a few weekends ago a church sent squads of believers in to our park without permission and they went door to door bothering people. Does that give me the right to threaten their church or them? This attempt to control what other people can do, see, hear, places they can attend, and how they dress is Taliban shit. It is horrible. Why? So a group of regressive people can be happy by forcing the world to be just like them? Hugs. Scottie
A popular restaurant and bar in Takoma Park, Maryland, received bomb threats on Saturday morning over a drag brunch and story time event. The restaurant, Motorkat, bills itself as “a safe space for people of all orientations and backgrounds.
Motorkat was forced to cancel the drag brunch to keep its patrons safe, the restaurant said in the release. Those with tickets will get a full refund.
Police were emailed a bomb threat toward attendees at the restaurant’s drag event, and the police department and a bomb squad “swiftly responded to the threat, ensuring the safety of both patrons and staff,” Motorkat said.
Because drag brunch and story hours harms children but threatening to kill children, their parents and drag queens does not. How the warped conservative mind works.
The threat was emailed to the police, not the restaurant, that is odd…and probably from a local source. Email should be easy to trace. Even if sent from a public library computer, time stamps and security cameras everywhere will help identify the terrorist. But if a maga police officer receives (or even sent) it will the electronic trail be lost like a rape victim’s DNA kit?
Exactly my thoughts! How dumb do you have to be to email a threat? It could easily be traced back to the sender. But on the other hand, right-wingers are not known for their intellect.
Technically, it can be traced back to the IP address from which it was sent, not the person. That said, it’s not 100% true that an email can always be tracked back to the actual IP address, either. (And yes, I used to be a tech guy who worked with people occasionally tasked with tracking the source of an email – which usually led to some student spoofing the identity of a person of authority.)
Takoma Park and the rest of Montgomery County are fairly liberal areas right up against D.C. I’m worried that there aren’t “safe places” anymore. Maybe the concept was always an illusion.
Perhaps a few high profile prosecutions and harsh prison sentences will convince people that making terrorist threats doesn’t qualify as “free speech”?
Takoma Park is as blue as it gets. It’s probably Indigo. If a drag brunch is threatened by a bomb, shows that this is a very serious threat to the LBTQIA community.
I just watched an upsetting movie on Netflix last night about Americans turning on each other. So, one of my first thoughts was “did the email come from outside the police station or inside?”
Remember just a few years ago when this wasn`t a thing. Then the Repugs told the non-thinking rubes it was a thing, a very important thing along with CRT and “saying Gay”, etc. Though the rubes may have always disliked some of it most of it was stuff they never even thought about as being important until they were told it was. In fact now it is so important that a certain percentage of the rubes are willing to kill you over it to save our society. While they wait to be told what the next important thing is of course. It`s the time honored way the Repugs have always operated. Be afraid, be very afraid, only we can save you. You don`t need to think about it or ask why (as if you would anyway) drag shows are bad so get to work. Keeps the rubes occupied and keeps their votes and always works.
I think it has more to do with hatred and fear of transgender people than it does with drag. The ignorant dimwits involved in the protests and threats don’t understand that they are not the same thing. They think that drag queens=trans and that they are “promoting transgenderism” when they appear in public.
Grown adults, simply dressing up in whimsical, flamboyant costumes on a Saturday morning and trying to have some fun and help others do the same while they enjoy a meal. Sure, why not call in a bomb threat? That sounds just awful and depraved. Save the children! Christ on a cracker.
Yes, I personally feel like Putin has had more direct responsibility with these recent flare-ups of homophobia and transphobia than Trump himself, not that Trump was totally innocent. Also, the willingness of big sports stars and sports associations/leagues to sell out to Qatar, Bahrein, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other sponsors/venues which are effing horrible for women’s rights and LGBT rights. This has been a big social back-sliding moment.
This is the last one I am going to post this morning on Palestinian kids being abused by the Israeli military. They simply don’t see these kids and the other Palestinians as humans like themselves. They feel they alone have a right to the land and all on it. They feel entitled to it despite it belonging to someone else, so they feel they have a right to just take it while abusing those that might be on it. Hugs. Scottie
Some of the abuses are sexual in nature, in addition to being beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded, a report says.
Human rights groups in Israel have denounced the use of unnecessary force to arrest or detain Palestinian children and other violations [File: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images]
Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli forces face immense emotional and physical abuse, according to the rights group Save the Children, which has revealed the tragedy minors go through as detainees in a new report.
In the report published on Monday, the group said some of the former child detainees it spoke to reported violence of a sexual nature, while many others were beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded in small cages in detention centres and upon being moved between centres.
Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director in the occupied Palestinian territory, said Palestinian children are the only ones in the world to experience systematic prosecution in military courts.
There is a marked increase in the number of former child detainees who suffer nightmares and insomnia and have difficulty returning to their normal life, with many reporting a decrease in hope for their futures.
The study said 86 percent of the 228 former child detainees surveyed were beaten in detention, and 69 percent were strip-searched, adding that 42 percent were injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones.
They were also interrogated at unknown locations without the presence of a guardian or caregiver and are often deprived of food, water and sleep, the report says.
In addition, they were often refused access to legal counsel, according to the research.
Save the Children said the former child detainees surveyed were from across the occupied West Bank and had been detained for one month to 18 months.
The report says: “The main alleged crime for these detentions is stone-throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children.”
Palestinian children are the only ones in the world to experience systematic prosecution in military courts [File: Getty Images]
The new research comes as the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 presents evidence on Monday to the Human Rights Council on Palestinian children in detention.
It is estimated that between 500 and 1,000 children are held in Israeli military detention each year.
Former detainee accounts
Osama Arabi, a former detainee who is now 44 years old, said he was strip-searched when he was arrested as a minor.
“I did not understand what they were searching for. They didn’t say. It was humiliating; it made me very angry,” Osama, who was arrested as a 14-year-old, told Al Jazeera.
Save the Children said these practices are a serious and longstanding human rights concern and called for the government of Israel to end the detention of Palestinian children under military law and their prosecution in military courts.
Khalil, who was arrested when he was 13, said he did not receive essential healthcare.
Save the Children quoted him as saying: “I had an injury in my leg. I had a cast and had to crawl to be able to move. I felt my body being torn apart. I had no canes to help me walk, I kept asking soldiers for help during the transfer, but no one helped me.”
Country director Lee said: “Our research shows – once again – that they [Palestinian children] are subject to serious and widespread abuse at the hands of those who are meant to be looking after them.”
Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli forces face immense emotional and physical abuse, according to the rights group Save the Children, which has revealed the tragedy minors go through as detainees in a new report. In the report published on Monday, the group said some of the former child detainees it spoke to reported violence of a sexual nature, while many others were beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded in small cages in detention centres and upon being moved between centres.
At a time when Israel is on a full court media press to look like the aggrieved party, with the Anti-Defamation League paying for commercials touting that what we all need to remember right now was how badly Israeli was attacked and abused. They want us to ignore the 15,000 Palestinian deaths, 1/3 of those are children. They want us to ignore the abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank who are being killed, having their property destroyed and taken, and being treated like prisoners by Israeli settlers backed up by the IDF. Now the world is seeing the Israeli government for what it truly is. Hugs. Scottie
Ynet said that just a few months after he convinced the IDF that he should remain in the military, the soldier began to commit the series of serious sexual offenses against Palestinians from 2013 to 2015.
A military court permitted news outlets to report on Wednesday that the soldier was imprisoned for the rape, as well as committing sexual assault against other Palestinian women and a man and extorting them for sexual favors, among other crimes, ending a years-long gag order on the case.
In addition, the officer was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment for repeatedly asking a Palestinian man and an acquaintance of his to have sex.
Soldier had reportedly faced disciplinary committee over sexual harassment of female officers, but convinced military to allow him to remain in service
Illustrative: An IDF soldier sits in a military court. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
An Israeli Defense Forces officer who has been imprisoned since 2017 for multiple sexual offenses, including the rape of a Palestinian woman, had faced dismissal from the military months before the attacks over his sexual harassment of female officers, it was reported Thursday.
The Ynet news site, which first broke the story of the serviceman’s sexual offenses, said the officer, whose name remains barred from publication, came close to dismissal from the military after two incidents in which he sexually harassed female soldiers.
Although he was found guilty in a disciplinary case on the matter, he managed to convince the military that he should remain in the army, presenting letters of recommendation from his officer and certificates of excellence he had received during his service.
A disciplinary committee also found that the soldier slapped a female soldier in 2005, propositioned another soldier and watched pornography with a group of soldiers.
Additionally, Ynet said the committee was told that he was involved in three other incidents “of a sexual nature, verbal sexual harassment and even physical,” but was not prosecuted for those.
Ynet said that just a few months after he convinced the IDF that he should remain in the military, the soldier began to commit the series of serious sexual offenses against Palestinians from 2013 to 2015.
In his defense, the officer claimed that the details of the sexual harassment were taken out of proportion. He said that he did not slap the female soldier, but it was a slight touch and he apologized for it. The officer was held in a military prison for a week for striking the soldier. He denied all other charges and has said he was not warned he was in danger of dismissal, Ynet reported.
A military court permitted news outlets to report on Wednesday that the soldier was imprisoned for the rape, as well as committing sexual assault against other Palestinian women and a man and extorting them for sexual favors, among other crimes, ending a years-long gag order on the case.
The Israel Defense Forces’ Court of Appeals decided to rescind the gag order on the affair, which was considered to have potentially serious security ramifications due to its dramatic nature, following an appeal by the Ynet news site and years of legal battles. In a statement, the military said the gag order had been deemed necessary, in part, “to preserve national security.”
The officer served in the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which is tasked with overseeing the day-to-day management of the West Bank. The officer, a major, was responsible for issuing permits for Palestinians to enter and work in Israel, a position of power that he repeatedly exploited in order to receive sexual favors from Palestinians.
He was first indicted in early 2016, but the case was subjected to a strict gag order, allowing news outlets at the time to report only that he had been charged with “serious sexual crimes and other crimes of moral turpitude.”
He was convicted nearly a year later, in December 2016, and sentenced two months later to 11 years in prison. The major was also stripped of his rank and summarily dismissed from the military.
In addition, he was forced to pay NIS 18,000 ($5,600) in damages to the women he raped and NIS 9,000 ($2,800) to the woman he sexually exploited.
At the time of his sentencing, the Israel Defense Forces said he had been convicted of “sexual offenses, sexual harassment, bribe-taking, fraud, breach of trust and exceeding his authority to extent of posing a national security risk.” Few other details about the cases were permitted to be published at the time.
Illustrative: Israeli soldiers check a Palestinian woman as she waits to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, April 23, 2021. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)
This week, some four and a half years later, the IDF Court of Appeals — effectively the military’s internal supreme court — ruled that additional details could be published about the case, including the specific offenses of which the officer was convicted.
In their ruling on removing the gag order on the case, the panel of three judges from the IDF Court of Appeals wrote: “There is no dispute that there is a public interest in publicizing the details of this case, which has severe implications for the wider public.”
The officer was found to have raped one Palestinian woman, who had come to him to receive a permit to work in Israel, on at least two occasions. He also repeatedly sexually harassed her, trying to get her to have sex with other people as well.
The military court, based in part on audio recordings that the woman made, determined that in the first instance of rape, the officer had forced her to have sex with him and then made her clean up the floor afterwards, before giving her the work permit.
A few days later, he called her and told her that he had rescinded the permit and again forced her to have sex with him in order to get it back.
In both cases, the Palestinian woman refused his demands for sex, and in both cases, he threatened to take away her work permit if she told anyone about the rape.
He was also convicted of receiving a bribe by forcing another Palestinian woman to have sex with him multiple times in exchange for a work permit. Despite the clear power imbalance, this was not deemed to have been rape as the victim did not explicitly refuse his demands for sex.
In addition, the officer was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual harassment for repeatedly asking a Palestinian man and an acquaintance of his to have sex.
In a somewhat separate case, the officer was also convicted of sharing intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet security service with two Palestinian women who had asked him for work permits.
In March, the officer appealed his sentence to the IDF Court of Appeals. The court upheld his 11-year sentence but overturned the lower court’s decision to discharge him from the military, instead demoting him from major to private.
It was largely a procedural decision, as the officer had anyway been fired from the military. The punishment of dismissal from the military is generally reserved for crimes that more directly harm national security.
The officer was sent to a civilian prison to carry out his 11-year sentence.
Illustrative: An IDF soldier sits in a military court. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
Illustrative: Israeli soldiers check a Palestinian woman as she waits to cross the Qalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, April 23, 2021. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)
Scottie's Playtime 