By Ramona Wadi
A recent joint press release by Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) and Palestinian prisoners’ NGO Addameer has laid bare the facts regarding Israel’s prosecution of children within the context of the current uprising. Around 350 Palestinian children have been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank recently, which has led to a marked increase in children being incarcerated since September. Statistical data summarised by both organisations has revealed a systematic implementation of collective punishment and deprivation of human rights, including the fabrication of evidence, solitary confinement, torture and coerced confessions. According to DCIP, such methods have been experienced by 86 per cent of Palestinian minors detained between January and June this year.
While the earlier days of the Jerusalem Intifada were marked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s macabre incentives to increase surveillance with the intention of eventually escalating to unbridled murder, it is clear that Israeli tactics have, this time, shifted in focus. The intention is obviously to target the younger generation of Palestinians first and foremost.
Recently, the state’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation proposed a bill that stipulates the lowering of the age at which people can be imprisoned to 12 for Palestinian children convicted of “nationalist-motivated” actions. There are precedents to this law, notably the recent harsher sentences for Palestinians embarking upon resistance tactics such as stone throwing and restricting the possibility of suspended sentences. Israel has also reinstated administrative detention for Palestinian minors, meaning that they can be imprisoned without charge or trial indefinitely.
At the other end of the spectrum, Israel has, under the pretext of security concerns, permitted the extrajudicial killing of Palestinians. The aforementioned press release includes a very pertinent quote from DCIP’s Accountability Programme Director, Ayed Abu Eqtaish: “While all states have the right to protect their children from violence, it cannot be used to justify extrajudicial killings or the unlawful use of intentional lethal force.”
Targeted assassinations, in such a context, would unravel the intent of Netanyahu’s calculated strategies. The current Palestinian resilience may prove to be more formidable despite the reluctance of resistance movements to involve themselves beyond rhetoric. However, Israel’s narrative of security concerns allows for a drawn-out phase that will eventually synchronise with the perpetual use of “self-defence” jargon with which it tries to justify its heinous actions.
Ya’alon’s adherence to this alternative strategy is not a result of his aversion to targeted assassinations. Rather, it is a systematic refining of tactics that, despite initial furor, tend to generate the illusion that violence is routine and, as such, is nothing to be concerned about. The maiming and murder of Palestinian civilians year after year results in hardly any outrage; it is the context of the latest intifada that has propelled Israeli violence to the fore. Netanyahu’s government has embarked upon an approach that refines the existing macabre legislation, in a manner that allows for international law violations under the pretext of security concerns while gradually increasing the number of Palestinian victims.
(This article was originally published in Middle East Monitor – MEMO)
While it might be fun to editorialize, the following paragraph needs to be substantiated, rather than be just normal hyperbole:
While the earlier days of the Jerusalem Intifada were marked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s macabre incentives to increase surveillance with the intention of eventually escalating to unbridled murder, it is clear that Israeli tactics have, this time, shifted in focus. The intention is obviously to target the younger generation of Palestinians first and foremost.
Israel’s recent tightening of the screws on Palestinian resistance as described above may represent the initial phase of its Final Solution to its “Arab problem.” Rather than flex its muscles by periodic slaughters in Gaza (which, if anything serve to increase resistance), Israel’s opting for intensifying its perpetual low intensity war, anticipating that this will eventually break the spirit of resistance, after which Palestinians, as a demoralized and defeated people, will go the way of Iraq & Libya, torn by infighting between various factions, prone to chaos and anarchy, with little or no will for mass action against the occupiers.
Another deceitful article, failing to note all these ‘targeted’ young folk were knife-yielding / car directing into civilians or soldiers with the sole purpose to murder them.
For some strange reason all those above end up wounded or murdered. But no… those ‘poor’ palestinians just happened to be chopping onions preparing ‘tabuoli’ and those evil, evil Jews passed by and fell on their knives.
I want to see you threaten a police officer in the US with a knife or a gun, you’ll be shot on the spot no questions asked.
As long as palestinians continue to choose this culture of death thinking it will lead them somehow to ‘Jannah’ or to their own state, the outcome will be the same.