Child arrest – a concept which should be unnecessary

As an accompanier I have learnt to use several new words: occupation, checkpoint, settlements, house demolitions and so on. None of these new words are pleasant to use but there is one concept in particular which I wish I would not have to use as often as I do: Child arrest.

Cordoba School principal Noora Zayer tries to protect one of her students from being arrested.

One of our main tasks as accompaniers in Hebron is to be present when children go to and from a school in the Israeli controlled part of the city. The school is surrounded by four settlements (illegal according article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention) and several of the students must pass through a military checkpoint on their way to school.

Foreign observers are always present here in the hope that our presence will deter some settlers from attacking the children and that the soldiers will stick to the rules and harass the children a bit less. The soldiers frequently behave in a threatening manner and check the schoolbags of the students even though they are not supposed to do this.

Before we arrived in Hebron we were warned that the Israeli army increasingly were arresting Palestinian children on their way to and from school. They have continued doing so and in the run-up to the recent examination period tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets were a near-daily experience for children at another Palestinian school. Unfortunately, child arrests have continued while I have been on duty in Hebron.

An afternoon at the end of April my British colleague Liz and I were standing along the way to Corodba School while the children were walking home. The children walk through Shuhada Street, a street which used to be the main shopping street in Hebron before all the shops were ordered to close by the Israeli commander. The street is now closed to all Palestinian (but not Israeli) cars and Palestinians are banned from walking on all but a short section of the street.

Two Israeli settler children were walking in the opposite direction while eating candyfloss. They shouted at the Palestinian children and decided to throw the sticks from the candyfloss at them. When the Palestinian children shouted back, the Israeli soldiers were quick to react. Three Palestinian boys were detained. The Israeli children on the other hand were patted on the head by the soldiers who looked after them until their mother came and collected them.

Separate legal systems apply to Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank. While the illegal settlers are governed according to Israeli civil law (which allows for settlements) it is Israeli military decrees which decide how Palestinians in the areas directly controlled by Israel are treated. In addition to this we see that the army and police see it as their primary task to protect the Israeli settlers, while they seldom care about whether Palestinians are subject to crimes committed by settlers and others.

The soldiers accused the Palestinian children of having thrown stones at the settler children. Liz, who had been standing closer than the soldiers, did not see anyone throw stones. More soldiers came and one of the newcomers who spoke to Liz claimed to have been there the whole time and said he had seen the Palestinian children throw stones. “Do you think I’m stupid”, she asked. “Yes, you’re stupid”, he simply responded.

Teachers from the school and Palestinians who live in the area were also converging on the spot. The soldiers pushed the three detained children up against a wall. The school principal was arguing with an officer and managed to get him to release one of the very frightened children. The two others, brothers aged 11 and 12, were forced into a military car and transported away for questioning.

Neither parents nor a lawyer were present while the children were interrogated. When the children were released some hours later the soldiers threatened their parents with a fine if the children did something wrong “again”. A couple of months later, the parents say that one of the brothers is not the same after the detention. He is afraid and is seldom smiling.

Last week, the boys were cooking and selling corn in the street where they live. An Israeli settler with a rifle came and chased them away before he threatened their father and said he would burn down the family’s house. The soldiers were quickly on the spot. They threatened to arrest the children.

Hebron is special because it is a city with Israeli settlements in the centre but Palestinian children are arrested in the West Bank all the time. I have written earlier about 14 years old Ahmed who was arrested by Israeli soldiers who stormed the house of the family during the night. This is surely the way to secure future enemies.