While in Ramallah, we met with an organization called Military Court Watch. This is a legal organization that monitors Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system.
Some notes:
I wanted to devote a special section just to Administrative Detention. This is a practice allowed under international law, but only under very strict circumstances. The example given to us was a fictional country's leader dies. As a result, the leaders of various factions start inciting their groups leading to destabilization of the country. The government could legally detain the faction leaders for up to 6 months in order to remove the catalysts for the destabilization.
This is not how Israel is using AD though. Israel is using this in a horribly broad way. The attorney we met with told us of a man who was wanted by the IDF. He was eventually tracked down and killed. The Israeli government then placed his two sons under AD. They were 14 and 16 years old. The two sons were held for 6 months, and as they were packing their belongings to leave, the Israeli government renewed their AD for another 6 months. Both sons ended up serving 18 months in Israeli prison, without charges ever being filed. The practice of renewing AD at the last second is a means of psychological warfare. They are basically telling these kids that "if you dare resist us, this is what your life will become". Keep in mind, these kids were not even suspected of violating any law.
Currently, there are 12 children being held under AD. The record for one person being held, without charges, under AD is 8 years. Yes, someone was forced to serve 8 years in prison without ever being charged with a crime.
I will say that this meeting was the first day that I got back to our residence in Hebron and had lost all hope. When someone who is intimately aware of the powers at play here on the international level details all of this, it leaves one with this feeling of "how can we even defeat this?" He discussed a lot of the geopolitical issues at play and the international obstacles to peace, and it was quite disheartening. But, our delegation leader gave us a quote that evening in our daily "reflection" time that really helped. It was a quote from Mother Theresa: "God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful." That completely changed my perspective. We may not be successful, but that isn't going to stop me from being faithful to the way of Christ.
If you would like to know more about Military Court Watch, here is their site: http://militarycourtwatch.org/index.php
Some notes:
- Since 1967, over 750,000 Palestinians have been detained/prosecuted under the military court system
- More than 10 Palestinians protesting is illegal. Organizer can receive up to 1 year in prison, even if the protest is nonviolent
- According to rules of occupation, an occupying military's primary objective is to keep the occupied population safe. This has been flipped upside down with the creation of the illegal settlements. As a result, the IDF now focuses on keeping the settlers safe, often at the expense of the Palestinian people.
- The IDF has been extremely effective in this task. In 2012, zero West Bank settlers were killed by Palestinians. The 7-yr average is roughly 5 per year. To put this into perspective, imagine the US created illegal settlements in Afghanistan and moved 600,000 Americans over there. The numbers killed would be exponentially higher. The IDF has been extremely successful in this task.
- Primary means used to keep order are mass intimidation and collective punishment. They will threaten to pull work permits in order to create new informants
- Children as young as 12 will typically be sentenced to 3 months in military prison for throwing stones, even if the stone is thrown only at the wall
- Process for finding rock throwers: will immediately start with males 10-30 yrs of age from the nearest village. Guilt is unimportant. Often individuals will received "suspended sentences", creating a sense of dread of even going outdoors. If someone with suspended sentence is rounded up in a rock throwing arrest, often receive 5 yr sentence. Dust on hands is also one of the primary sources of "evidence" used.
- Night raids are another form of intimidation being used to subdue the population. In a village north of Ramallah, there were 16 night raids in one month. Only 1 person was arrested in total, but these night raids will force all the residents to be awake for much of the night. The raids were conducted during the month the Palestinian children were going through their academic testing, and were simply a means to adversely impact the children during this time. There was no credible evidence to justify the raids, and as mentioned, only 1 arrest was even made during the 16 different night raids.
- The military court system has a 99.74% conviction rate, which calls into question the "justness" of the system.
- There are currently approximately 440 children in the Israeli military court system.
- Settlements are considered a war crime under international law
- Unlawful transfer of prisoners is a war crime under international law. Under international law that Israel is a signatory of, if a civilian is arrested in an occupied territory, their trial and detainment MUST take place in the occupied territory. Currently, 90% of convicted Palestinians are moved to Israeli prisons outside the occupied territories. This is considered a war crime.
- US complicit in this due to providing a blanket Security Council veto for all things related to Israel
- International Criminal Court has jurisdiction due to Palestine becoming signatory. Most obvious cases are the settlements and unlawful transfer of prisoners. Neither side denies these are taking place. Israel is not a signatory to the ICC, but can still be indicted due to the crimes taking place in an area that is a signatory.
I wanted to devote a special section just to Administrative Detention. This is a practice allowed under international law, but only under very strict circumstances. The example given to us was a fictional country's leader dies. As a result, the leaders of various factions start inciting their groups leading to destabilization of the country. The government could legally detain the faction leaders for up to 6 months in order to remove the catalysts for the destabilization.
This is not how Israel is using AD though. Israel is using this in a horribly broad way. The attorney we met with told us of a man who was wanted by the IDF. He was eventually tracked down and killed. The Israeli government then placed his two sons under AD. They were 14 and 16 years old. The two sons were held for 6 months, and as they were packing their belongings to leave, the Israeli government renewed their AD for another 6 months. Both sons ended up serving 18 months in Israeli prison, without charges ever being filed. The practice of renewing AD at the last second is a means of psychological warfare. They are basically telling these kids that "if you dare resist us, this is what your life will become". Keep in mind, these kids were not even suspected of violating any law.
Currently, there are 12 children being held under AD. The record for one person being held, without charges, under AD is 8 years. Yes, someone was forced to serve 8 years in prison without ever being charged with a crime.
I will say that this meeting was the first day that I got back to our residence in Hebron and had lost all hope. When someone who is intimately aware of the powers at play here on the international level details all of this, it leaves one with this feeling of "how can we even defeat this?" He discussed a lot of the geopolitical issues at play and the international obstacles to peace, and it was quite disheartening. But, our delegation leader gave us a quote that evening in our daily "reflection" time that really helped. It was a quote from Mother Theresa: "God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful." That completely changed my perspective. We may not be successful, but that isn't going to stop me from being faithful to the way of Christ.
If you would like to know more about Military Court Watch, here is their site: http://militarycourtwatch.org/index.php