Rampant abuse in horrific Israeli jail

Israeli soldiers violently taking into custody a Palestinian minor (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/222601.html

A recent report shows that minor Palestinian detainees are physically and verbally abused by Israeli guards in the Al Jalame prison in northern Israel.

According to a report published by theGuardian on Sunday, minor Palestinian detainees, mainly kept in solitary confinement in Cell 36 of Al Jalame, are commonly abused physically and verbally by Israeli prison guards.

Cell 36 is one of a number of Israeli cells where Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement for “days or even weeks.”

Israel arrests between “500 and 700 Palestinian children” each year, mostly for “throwing stones at Israeli soldiers or settlers.”

Palestinian minors are rarely questioned in the presence of a parent and they are often denied access to a lawyer before or during initial interrogation.

The minor detainees in Al Jalame are sometimes shackled for hours by hands and feet to a chair while being interrogated.

The Defense for Children International (DCI), an independent non-governmental organization, has since 2008 collected sworn testimonies from 426 Palestinian minors detained in Israeli prisons.

The testimonies indicate a pattern of “night-time arrests, hands bound with plastic ties, blindfolding, physical and verbal abuse, and threats.”

Human rights groups are concerned about the long-term impact that the Israeli ill-treatment leaves on Palestinian minors in detention.