Quaker school student, 16, held without charge by Israeli military

A 16-year-old student at Ramallah Friends School in Palestine has been arrested and held without charge by the Israeli military since 18 October, according to a Quaker report on the case.

The student’s grandmother, Samia Khoury, founder of Sabeel, a Jerusalem-based Christian institute, said he was beaten and dragged from the family home in Jerusalem in the early hours, barefoot and blindfolded. She said he had been beaten during interrogation and had not received medical care for injuries sustained during his arrest, including marks on his neck, body, arms and face. These are her accounts; the report does not include independent verification of them.

The school said on its Facebook page: “Our students and community are in pain. We love and miss [him] very much. We feel helpless that we, as a community, cannot even offer our children the simplest of protections. [He] should be preparing for his IB diploma and should not be in a prison cell being interrogated by soldiers.” Students at the 1,400-strong school have held a vigil for their friend, appealing for his release and reflecting on what they describe as abuses endured by children under military occupation.

Paul Parker, recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, said: “As a child, [he] should be at home with his family, instead of being locked up, terrified, in military detention.” He added that the case was not unusual and pointed to what he called a documented history of the Israeli military violating the human rights of detained Palestinian children. Quakers are urging the UK government to press the Israeli state to uphold the human rights of all, especially children, and to allow the student to return home.

The report cites UN figures stating that at least 37 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territory so far this year, with 175 in Israeli detention. It also notes that UNICEF has raised concerns with the Israeli authorities about the rights of children in military detention since 2013. Save the Children, the report says, found that children in the Israeli military detention system face inhumane treatment: of 470 children interviewed, eight in 10 were beaten. Protecting children who are held in such circumstances is the point of concern the report presses (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Ramallah Friends School, a 150-year-old Quaker institution, attends silent meeting for worship regularly and is guided by the Quaker testimonies of peace, simplicity, integrity and equality. Students also learn about nonviolent peacemaking, in line with Quaker values, the report says.

The report also points supporters to Defense for Children International – Palestine, which it describes as supporting, defending and advocating for Palestinian children arrested and detained by the Israeli military. It states that the Israeli government has recently designated DCI Palestine a “terrorist organisation” for exposing human rights violations against Palestinian children, and that its staff have faced increasing military harassment, repression and silencing.

Readers are invited to sign a petition urging their MPs to sign the 2021 Early Day Motion, which rebukes Israel’s failure to implement previous recommendations to safeguard the rights of Palestinian children and to protect them against abuse in the Israeli military legal system.

Source: Read the original report