US Church urges followers to take action for the release of Palestinian children prisoners

A Catholic Church based in the United States yesterday urged its followers to take action to secure the release of Palestinian children imprisoned in Israeli jails, reported Wafa news agency.

The All Saints Church, in a letter, encouraged its followers to contact the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs at the State Department, Hady Amr, and press for the release of 16-year-old Shadi Khoury and other imprisoned Palestinian children.

In the letter, the Church also urged its followers to join the six California co-sponsors who support the legislation which prohibits US funding from being used to abuse Palestinian children, or to sponsor a companion bill in the Senate which would prevent US military aid from being used to support the Israeli military detention of children in violation of international humanitarian law.

The letter explained the case of Shadi Khoury, who was beaten in his home by Israeli Occupation Forces and was taken away bleeding. He was then interrogated without a lawyer or his parents present, and remains in detention without charge.

Moreover, he has had multiple court hearings during his three-week detention, yet no charges have been filed against him.

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It wrote: “There is speculation that his parents were the real target of this action. His father, Suhail, directs the Edward Said National Conservatory and his mother leads the Yabous Palestinian Cultural Association. Both have been previously arrested for their non-violent activism.”

“Shadi’s next hearing is scheduled for 14 November, but there is no guarantee we will learn anything more since Israel’s policy of ‘Administrative Detention’ allows people to be detained for up to three months without charges being filed. These three-month long detention orders can, and often are, renewed repeatedly, sometimes for years,” it added.

The letter noted that the arrest of Shadi is not an isolated case, as five other teens were also arrested and similarly abused that same day.

“The Israeli military prosecutes between 500 and 700 children each year in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Organisations such as UNICEF, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, have found that ill-treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli forces is widespread, systematic, and institutionalised from the moment a child is detained in the Israeli military detention system,” it said.

“The United States Department of State and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child have also raised serious concerns about the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military custody,” it added.

In a report published yesterday by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC), it stated that Israel has detained 6,000 Palestinians since the start of this year, including 141 women and 739 children.

According to the report, the highest number of detainees was recorded in Jerusalem, where 2,700 Palestinians had been detained.

The report also found that there are a number of wounded prisoners and those with medical ailments inside Israeli jails, stressing that the lack of proper treatment and medical care puts their life at stake.

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