| The worst of the anti-Israel claptrap removed, for the sake of the Reader's blood pressure. |
"The Israeli soldiers come in the night," she says, staring at a faded photograph of a teenage boy. "They take our children."
Three of her seven children spent time in Israeli prisons on stone-throwing charges when they were minors. Two of them, now adults, are still behind bars.
| Such good boys... |
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
three times -- the first when he was 16.
In Dheishe, Umm Abdullah's story is often the norm. According to Defence for Children International (DCI), around 700 West Bank children are tossed in the slammer
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
every year, most accused of stoning Israeli soldiers and military vehicles.
Other charges include making petrol bombs and involvement in "terrorist groups".
| Just youts gone wild, nothing you wouldn't see in certain suburbs of Paris these days... |
Stone throwing, a symbol of Paleostinian resistance to the Israeli occupation, began among the youth of Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gazoo Strip during the first Paleostinian uprising (1987-1993). And 25 years on, with those children now adults, their own children continue do the same.
Under Israeli military order 1651, throwing stones is an offence which can see a child as young as 14 sentenced to 10 years behind bars if it is directed at a person with the intent to harm, or up to 20 years if thrown at a vehicle. DCI says children as young as 12 can be tried in Israeli military courts and imprisoned without charge for up to 188 days, although most are jugged
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
for between two weeks and 10 months.
In a 2012 report on stone throwing, Israeli rights group B'Tselem found that between 2005 and 2010, the military prosecuted 835 minors on stone-throwing charges.
"The IDF (Israel Defence Force) does not take lightly such serious incidents which endanger the safety of residents," the army said in a written response.
Of the 30 children in his class, Dheishe resident Mohammed al-Jareishi says that 24 ended up in Israeli jails on charges of stone throwing and political involvement. And the remaining six who weren't tossed in the slammer
Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up!
that year were all later sent to prison, he adds.
At 17, he himself was charged with throwing rocks and belonging to the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine... Paleostinian Marxist movement, founded in 1967. It is considered a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries including the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica. The PFLP's stated goal is the establishment of a socialist State in Paleostine. They pioneered armed aircraft hijackings in the late 60s and early 70s...
(PFLP) -- which Israel and the United States see as a terrorist group.
Jareishi described how children as young as 12 were made to choose a "political affiliation" -- either Fatah, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, or PFLP -- by which they were grouped in prison.
Although some children are actively involved in political groups and even smuggle weapons into refugee camps, others insist they are falsely accused.
Jamal Fraj was 14 when he was tossed in the slammer
Drop the rock and step away witcher hands up!
for throwing petrol bombs at soldiers who raided Dheisheh. Now, more than 20 years later, his son Khaled is in Ofer prison near Ramallah on similar charges. When he was small, Jamal threw stones at soldiers who entered the camp at night because he thought it was a game of cops and robbers. He says it was an attempt to normalise the abnormal.
| Where'd he learn that phrase? |
