URGENT APPEAL: Ref: UA 03 / 11. VIOLATIONS: Violent Arrest of Palestinian Children of Silwan
18-2-2011An appeal to end the use of violence by the Israeli army and police during the arrest of children from Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.
The neighbourhood of Silwan is situated just outside the Old City walls of Jerusalem, located in the occupied east of the city. Approximately 16,500 Palestinians live in the central section of the neighbourhood. Although accepted as occupied territory under international law, Israel purported to annex the east of the city after occupation in 1967, and applies its own domestic law to the territory. The annexation has no legal validity under international law, and is not recognised outside Israel. According to the UN, Silwan has become one of the main centres of Israeli settlement activity and is currently home to 380 settlers, who live in properties taken over by various means from their original Palestinian residents.
In 2010, reports of a sharp increase in the number of children being arrested from Silwan and East Jerusalem have been recorded. According to Israel Police figures, between November 2009 and October 2010, the Jerusalem District opened 1,267 criminal files against Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem who were accused of throwing stones. During the same period, the Israeli NGO, B’Tselem reports that 81 children from Silwan have been arrested or detained for questioning, mostly on suspicion of stone throwing.
‘children and teenagers related that they had been dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night or arrested in their neighbourhoods by undercover detectives and special security forces; taken in for questioning while handcuffed and unescorted by their parents; in certain cases, the families were not notified of the arrest in real time; minors were asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release; were threatened and humiliated by their interrogators; and some of them were even subject to physical violence while taken in for questioning and under interrogation.’
Please press the TAKE ACTION BOX to send letter of protest to H.E. RADHIKA COOMARSASWAMY Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, H.E.RIYAD H.MANSOUR, Ambassador, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine and H.E. MERON REUVEN, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
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