Palestinian kids allegedly tortured by Israeli military

Australian Herald

Israeli human rights organizations have joined with Defense for Children International to complain of routine torture of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

DCI have filed two official complaints over the alleged treatment of a 15-year old boy earlier this year. The boy from the village of Beit Ummar, near Hebron, was arrested at the end of May on a charge of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. He denied the charges.

After five days of what the human rights organizations described as “cruelty and torture,” the boy then confessed. He appeared in court and was remanded despite his lawyer telling the court the boy had been sexually abused and tortured.

The judge of the military court at the time, Lt. Col. Avshalom Meushar, said "The substance of the confession made by the suspect, and the detailed nature of his answers, constitute evidence that the answers he gave were not provided under pressure or torture, but of his own free will.” Lt. Col. Meushar added there was no evidence to support the boy’s claim of abuse.

The human rights organizations investigating the case said the boy had told them how he was abused, laughed at by other soldiers watching, handcuffed in a humiliating position, and was stripped naked and had an electric cable attached to his genitals. He says he was told he would be given an electric shock unless he confessed that he was throwing stones at the time of his arrest.

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