Palestine: Remember Rachel Corrie

The Pain Doesn't Go Away - Rachel Corrie's Parents on Reality Asserts Itself (1/3) 

Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist who was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli bulldozer on March 16, 2003. On Reality Asserts Itself, Craig and Cindy Corrie tell Paul Jay, "we inherited from our daughter a cause"; her experiences "completely changed our view of the whole situation."

Israel killed more Palestinians in 2014 than in any other year since 1967

More than 2,300 Palestinians killed and more than 17,000 injured, according to annual report by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

the Guardian,

26 November, 2014

Israel killed more Palestinian civilians in 2014 than in any other year since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began in 1967, a UN report has said.

Israel’s activities in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem resulted in the deaths of 2,314 Palestinians and 17,125 injuries, compared with 39 deaths and 3,964 injuries in 2013, according to the annual report (pdf) by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The conflict in Gaza in July and August was largely responsible for the dramatic increase in fatalities. It claimed the lives of 2,220 Gazans, of whom 1,492 were civilians, 605 militants and 123 unverified.

More than 11,000 people were injured and about 500,000 Palestinians were internally displaced at the height of the conflict. About 100,000 remain so.

There was also a sharp rise in fatalities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where 58 Palestinians were killed and 6,028 injured – the highest number of fatalities in incidents involving Israeli forces since 2007 and the highest number of injuries since 2005.

Most of the incidents took place in the second half of the year, following the abduction and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which led to daily riots and protests in East Jerusalem.

Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was kidnapped and killed in July, following the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers the previous month.

The report, entitled Fragmented Lives, documents an increase in the number of Palestinians injured, incarcerated and displaced, compared with the two previous years.

It notes an increase in the Israeli armed forces’ use of live ammunition, which accounted for almost all fatalities and 18% of injuries.

Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians – mostly settlers – and security forces also rose in 2014, with Israeli fatalities increasing from four to 12. Incidents of settler violence resulting in Palestinian casualties and injuries increased, but the number of incidents leading to Palestinian property and land being damaged decreased.

The number of Palestinians held in administrative detention by Israeli authorities increased by 24% in 2014, but decreased when it came to children. A monthly average of 185 were held last year compared with 197 in 2013, a decrease of 6%. No children under 14 years old were held in military detention in 2014.

Nightmare: Masked IDF troops interrogate, traumatise Palestinian kids

RT,

27 March, 2015

Videos have emerged exposing masked IDF soldiers raiding Palestinian homes in the dead of night to interrogate children suspected of throwing stones at the Israeli military. Hundreds of underage are prosecuted each year in the occupied territories.

B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has posted two videos to the web showing what it claims are masked Israeli soldiers searching Palestinian homes at night in Hebron on February 23 this year. 

The soldiers, in full combat gear and with Tavor assault rifles at the ready, order to all kids in the house be brought out, ignoring protests of the parents that the children are fast sleep. 

The company officer explains that the soldiers came at such an hour because stones are thrown at Israeli service personnel “all day long.”

The officer tells an indignant Palestinian father that he doesn’t need to “explain his schedule” to him and orders the unit to “use your barrels right on the rooms you haven’t yet checked or opened.”

“Do you sometimes throw stones here?” a nine-year-old boy is asked.

Videos have emerged exposing masked IDF soldiers raiding Palestinian homes in the dead of night to interrogate children suspected of throwing stones at the Israeli military. Hundreds of underage are prosecuted each year in the occupied territories.

B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has posted two videos to the web showing what it claims are masked Israeli soldiers searching Palestinian homes at night in Hebron on February 23 this year.

The soldiers, in full combat gear and with Tavor assault rifles at the ready, order to all kids in the house be brought out, ignoring protests of the parents that the children are fast sleep.

The company officer explains that the soldiers came at such an hour because stones are thrown at Israeli service personnel “all day long.”

The officer tells an indignant Palestinian father that he doesn’t need to “explain his schedule” to him and orders the unit to “use your barrels right on the rooms you haven’t yet checked or opened.”

"Do you sometimes throw stones here?” a nine-year-old boy is asked. 

Children on the videos are of varying ages, from eight to 16. The officer orders all children to be photographed when the procedure is over. 

“The children were shaking with fear,” Mirvat Qafishah, 37, a mother of six, told B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari about the soldiers’ search of her home.

“My children were really scared,” Nayef Da’na, 53, a father of seven, also told B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari about the armed soldiers’ entry into his home.

It is not out of the ordinary for children to suffer mistreatment from the Israeli military

IDF soldiers are subduing young suspects on arrest; there is at least one piece of video evidence of Israeli soldiers setting a dog on a Palestinian youth.
Though the military promised a full inquiry into that incident, human rights activist Bill Van Esveld told RT he has no doubt that the incident is going to be dropped. 

“The incidents we know of have had no kind of inquiry,” he said. 

READ MORE: UN: Dozens of children homeless after Israel illegally demolished Palestinian houses

The military cannot treat civilians as though they are potential criminals, nor is the military permitted to use its soldiers as a deterrent against civilians, B'Tselem wrote in an article dedicated to the incident, calling the Israel security forces’ policy of entering the homes of Palestinian civilians by night “unjust and terrifying.”  

The Israeli military, unfortunately, has a very poor record for accountability. There is no indication that the night arrests of children, which is a policy that has been going on for years, and that is clearly approved by the higher echelons,” Van Esveld revealed, stressing that the problem is not the soldiers carrying out such orders, but the officials who order this policy to be implemented. 

Bill Van Esveld believes that mistreatment of children won't stop soon. Only “serious international pressure” could force Israel to put an end to unlawful policies of using attack dogs on kids and breaking into homes. 

READ MORE: Filming for freedom: 8yo Palestinian girl uses smartphone to report on Israeli occupation

The statistics of mistreatment of youngsters in the West Bank is disturbing.
According to Defense for Children International Palestine, up to 700 youngsters 12-17 years old are prosecuted in Israeli military courts every year, which is about two kids more in custody every day.

The underage of the West Bank are arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli army, police or security agents. The arrested children are tied and blindfolded.

Then they are taken to interrogation centers, some of which exist on the territory of settlements on the occupied territories. They are not given the right to be accompanied by a parent during interrogation. When questioned, the children are rarely informed of their rights. 

The interrogation techniques include “intimidation, threats and physical violence with a clear purpose of obtaining a confession.” The documents presenting to children sometimes are in Hebrew, a language not many Palestinian children speak, the organization informed.

It is estimated that over 15 years, around 8,000 children have been detained and prosecuted. 

The majority were charged with throwing stones. 

READ MORE: 469 Gaza children killed, over 370,000 need ‘psychosocial aid’ – UNICEF