Please join the #nowaytotreatachild campaign co-leaders from Defense for Children International – Palestine and American Friends Service Committee for a webinar on July 25 at 12 p.m. Eastern / 9 a.m. Pacific / 5 p.m. BST.
Palestinian rights organizers, activists, and advocates across the United States have been busy working to advance the Palestinian Children and Families Act, H.R. 3103, which aims to prohibit Israel from using U.S. taxpayer funds to detain and torture Palestinian children, demolish or seize Palestinian homes and property, and further annex the occupied West Bank. During this webinar, several special guests will share their experiences advocating for Palestinian rights in the U.S. and share tips for how you can make progress with your elected officials.
Background
Approximately 2.9 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, of which around 45 percent are children under the age of 18.
Palestinian children in the West Bank, like adults, face arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment under an Israeli military detention system that denies them basic rights.
Since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are subject to the civilian and criminal legal system whereas Palestinians live under military law.
Israel applies civilian criminal law to Palestinian children in East Jerusalem. No Israeli child comes into contact with the military courts.
Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year.
Ill-treatment in the Israeli military detention system remains “widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process,” according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations.
Children typically arrive to interrogation bound, blindfolded, frightened, and sleep deprived.
Children often give confessions after verbal abuse, threats, physical and psychological violence that in some cases amounts to torture.
Israeli military law provides no right to legal counsel during interrogation, and Israeli military court judges seldom exclude confessions obtained by coercion or torture.
ABOUT #NOWAYTOTREATACHILD’S WEBINARS AND ZOOM:
For this webinar, we will be using the Zoom platform. Additional instructions and details for joining the webinar will be shared by email with individuals that have registered.
WHEN
July 25, 2023 at 12:00pm – 1pm
WHERE
Online via Zoom
CONTACT
Brad Parker · info@nowaytotreatachild.org
