Latest targets of arrest campaigns: youth

Bethlehem / Najib Farraj – Minors are the latest target of Israeli arrest campaigns, as reported by the Palestinian Prisoner Society. On a daily basis school and universities students, and youth in general, are put in Israeli prisons. Many are not afforded a charge or trial, held indefinitely under the term “Administrative Detention.”

Every week Palestinians hold nonviolent demonstrations at the Red Cross demanding the release of Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli prisons.

During a visit to an Israeli detention camp near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a PPS lawyer reported that approximately 30 boys are being held. Most were arrested either at home during general raids, or upon their return from school at Israeli checkpoints imposed throughout the West Bank. Some of the checkpoints are permanent fixtures, while others are randomly imposed at crossroads and other entrances to cities and towns.

Since the fifth of this month, several have been held. The PPS lawyer met with Fayaz and Asif Ali, Mohammad Douriri, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Atta, Adham Mahmoud Ali Alyan and Hazem Said, all of whom are students at a school near Tulkarem.
He met with several other boys, including Imad Mohammad Abdullah Hachahman from Nablus’ Balata Refugee Camp who was arrested on 4 February. The young man underwent interrogation concerning several charges, all of which he denied any relation to. Walid Abdul Jalil and Mohammad Amr of Nablus were arrested on the sixth of this month. Jihad Fawz Ahmad was taken on 7 February from a town near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Mustafa Mohammad Sa’ed Abu Arman was taken from a checkpoint on the fourth.

In the southeastern West Bank of Jericho, Israeli forces arrested a number of boys at dawn on Sunday, including 18 year old Iyad Mahales. A number of young people were recently taken from the southwestern Bethlehem town of Al Khader. None of the young people have been charged with any crime, even under the laws of the Israelis, nor have they been afforded trials.

They describe torturous interrogations and beatings in the Israeli prison system. Currently there are some 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society is appealing to human rights organizations, including the International Red Cross, to work for the release of these students and minors. The continued detention contravenes international conventions and treaties. The PPS points out that they must be allowed to return to their schools as the right to education in paramount in international human rights laws and the United Nations.

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