How Israel Treats Palestinian Children

While politicians and the mainstream media vilify and prosecute Hamas for its kidnapping of Israeli citizens, one examination of the treatment of human beings, particularly children, in Israel/Palestine sheds a different light on the actions of the "terrorists" who are currently the target of massive Israeli bombardments.

 

To set the stage for this posting, it is important to consider that of the 2.9 million Palestinians living in the West Bank, 45 percent are children under the age of 18.  These children are highly vulnerable to prosecution by Israel with between 500 and 700 Palestinian children being prosecuted annually.  According to a report by Save the Children, Palestinian children who find themselves in the unfortunate position of being detained by the Israeli military detention system are likely to face inhumane treatment, often for the "crime" of throwing stones at Israeli tanks and other heavily armed military vehicles.  Save the Children's consultation found the following:

 

1.) 47 percent were denied contact with a lawyer.

 

2.) 52 percent were threatened with harm to their families.

 

3.) 81 percent suffered physical beatings

 

4.) 86 percent were subjected to strip searches

 

5.) 88 percent did not receive adequate and timely healthcare even when it was clearly requested

 

6.) 89 percent suffered verbal abuse

  

Additionally, up to half of the children detained reported that they were held in isolation or solitary confinement for periods of up to several weeks during which they were not allowed to see their families. 

 

Another study by the Defense for Children International have found the following issues among arrested Palestinian children:

  

1.) 73 percent experienced physical violence following arrest

2.) 95 percent were hand-tied

3.) 86 percent were blindfolded

4.) 49 percent were detained from their homes in the middle of the night

5.) 64 percent faced verbal abuse, humiliation, or intimidation

6.) 74 percent of children were not properly informed of their rights

7.) 96 percent were interrogated without the presence of a family member

8.) 20 percent were subject to stress positions

9.) 49 percent signed documents in Hebrew, a language most Palestinian children don’t understand

Palestinian children who are detained by Israel are not subject to the civilian justice system, rather, they are subject to military prosecution.  This is in clearly violation of international law and Israel finds itself standing out as the only nation in the world that prosecutes children in military courts automatically.  This, despite the fact that Israel actually ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991which, under Article 27, states that: 

 

"States Parties shall ensure that:

 

(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

 

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

 

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

 

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.

 

...and, under Article 40:

 

1. States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society.

 

Every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law has at least the following guarantees:

 

(i) To be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law;

 

(ii) To be informed promptly and directly of the charges against him or her, and, if appropriate, through his or her parents or legal guardians, and to have legal or other appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of his or her defence;

 

(iii) To have the matter determined without delay by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body in a fair hearing according to law, in the presence of legal or other appropriate assistance and, unless it is considered not to be in the best interest of the child, in particular, taking into account his or her age or situation, his or her parents or legal guardians;

 

(iv) Not to be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt; to examine or have examined adverse witnesses and to obtain the participation and examination of witnesses on his or her behalf under conditions of equality;

 

(v) If considered to have infringed the penal law, to have this decision and any measures imposed in consequence thereof reviewed by a higher competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body according to law;

 

(vi) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if the child cannot understand or speak the language used;

 

(vii) To have his or her privacy fully respected at all stages of the proceedings.

 

It would appear that from Israel's perspective, the Convention on the Rights of the Child apply only to non-Palestinian children.

 

Since 2000, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and held in their military detention system.

 

Isnt' it funny how you won't see this reported on the Western mainstream media?  But then why would you expect Israel to treat the offspring of "human animals" with any sort of compassion?  If Israel is really trying to create the next generation of occupation resistance fighters, it would appear that their current treatment of Palestinian children will do and has done exactly that.

Shattering Palestine - The Evolution of the West Bank and the Nakba Part II

While Gaza is bearing the brunt of Israel's military abuse, the West Bank has not been unscathed since the events of October 7, 2023.  According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between October 7th and November 10th 2023, 168 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, including 46 children.  In addition, 8 Palestinians, including 1 child, have been killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.  This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank to 416 in 2023.

 

The West Bank has long been the focus of Israel's attempts to further its agenda to isolate Palestinians from each other, in other words, to divide and conquer these "human animals".  Thanks to maps and information provided by B'tselem, a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose goal is to document human rights violations committed by Israel it the Occupied Territories, we can see the evolution of Israel's plans for the West Bank.

  

The West Bank's original boundaries were defined by the Green Line, the ceasefire line between Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan which were agreed upon in 1949 after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.  The Green Line essentially defined the boundaries of what was left of historical Palestine after the Nakba or displacement of the Palestinian people which was prescribed by the United Nations Resolution 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine.

 

Here is a map showing the Green Line as it stood at its inception:

In June 1967, after the Six-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan and, at the time, an Israeli-conducted census of the Occupied Territories showed that there were 660,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank (excluding Palestinian refugees who Feld or were deported by Israel.  At the same time, Israel annexed 7000 acres of West Bank land to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem which is now known as East Jerusalem as shown on this map:

From August 1967 to May 1975, Israel declared 150,000 hectares or 26.6 percent of West Bank land as "closed military zones" which were off-limits to Palestinians who did not have a special permit.  Here is a map showing the original closed military zones:

 

Additionally, between 1967 and 1977, Israel established nearly 30 settlements in the West Bank with an overall population of 4,500 Israelis as shown on this map:

 

Many of these settlements were built on privately owned Palestinian lands which were seized because it was determined that the lands were needed for "military purposes" and were declared as "state lands".  From 1979 to 1992, over 90,000 hectares of Palestinian lands were seized by Israel as "state lands".  As it stands today, 120,000 hectares or 22 percent of the West Bank is no longer under the control of Palestinians as shown on this map:

 

Between 1979 and 1993, Israeli settlements on the West Bank continued to develop:

 

 

In January 1991, the Israeli government implemented a requirement that any Palestinian that wished to enter Israel or East Jerusalem must obtain a permit from Israel's Civil Administration to do so; this policy was expanded until the West Bank was fully closed and isolated by the use of permanent Israeli checkpoints, apart from the areas annexed by Israel.  This policy split Palestine into three parts; the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem with transit between the three parts requiring permits for Palestinians. 

 

In 1994, under the Oslo I Accord, Israel withdrew its military personnel from Palestinian towns and refugee camps in Gaza and Jericho which were returned to the control of the newly created Palestinian Authority.  In 1995, under the Oslo II Accord, the West Bank was divided into three areas based on demographics as shown on this map:

 

Areas A and B are the most densely populated by Palestinians and control of these areas was handed over to the Palestinian Authority.  These 165 "islands" are non-contiguous and consist of 40 percent of the West Bank's total land area.  The remaining Area C fully contiguous lands which consist of 60 percent of the West Bank are still under full control of Israel and include all of Israel's West Bank settlements.  Israel has complete control over construction project permits in Area C meaning that it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to build homes in this area.  As well, Israel still controls all crossings from the West Bank into Israel and Jordan, further isolating Palestinian West Bank residents.

 

In 1997, Israel declared an additional 54,000 acres of West Bank land to be closed military zones that are off-limits to Palestinians; at this point, access to 176,500 hectares or nearly one-third of the West Bank is now forbidden to Palestinians as shown on this map:

 

 

In June 2002, the Knesset decided to construct the Separation Barrier around the West Bank as shown on this map:

 

You may notice that the Separation Barrier is constructed well inside of the so-called boundaries of the West Bank, further dividing it as shown here:

 

So, let's summarize.  While, to much of the world, a map of the West Bank looks like this:

 

...in reality, here's what the West Bank really looks like from the perspective of Palestinians:

 

 

Is it any wonder that there is anger in the streets of West Bank Palestinian villages, towns and cities?  All that Israel's actions in the West Bank have done is create the next generation of so-called anti-Israel "terrorists".  But, for some reason, Western leaders have chosen to completely ignore the shattering of the West Bank, preferring to accept Israel's version of the Nakba Part II.

The Economy of the Palestinian Territories - Explaining the Anger Against the Oppressors

With the latest iteration of violence between Palestinians and Israelis focussing the world's attention on the Middle East, I thought that it would be a prudent exercise to better understand why Palestinians have become increasingly angry at their oppressors.  It is quite clear that they are being economically punished by Israel which continues to limit the development of the economies in both the West Bank and Gaza.  In this posting, we'll look at a selection of economic data from both areas with the hopes that we can all better understand the geopolitically complex nature of the ongoing violence.

 

According to data from the World Bank, we find the following key economic indicators for the West Bank and Gaza combined:

 

Population (2022) - 5,043,612

 

Population Growth (annual percent in 2022) - 2.4 percent

 

GDP in US dollars (2022) - 19.11 billion

 

GDP per capita in US dollars (2022) - 3,789.3

 

GDP Growth (annual percent in 2022) - 3.9 percent

 

GDP per person employed (constant 2017$ in 2022) - 28,277

 

Unemployment (percent of total labour force in 2022) - 25.7 percent

 

Labour Force Participation Rate (2022) - 44 percent

 

Employment to population ratio (aged 15+) - 33 percent

 

Population living in slums (percent of urban population in 2020) - 20 percent

 

Life Expectancy at Birth (2021) - 73 years

 

Refugee Population (2022) - 2,454,258

 

Poverty Headcount Ratio (2016) - 0.5 percent

 

The near-blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007 by Israel has led to a far worse situation for Gaza residents compared to their West Bank peers.  According to the World Bank's September 2023 publication, "Racing Against Time", the Palestinian economy slowed during the first months of 2023.  While the economic activity in the West Bank rose by 4.3 percent in Q1 2023, the Gaza economy contracted by 2.6 percent due to worsening performance in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sector with the fishing sector experiencing a 30 percent decline after the Government of Israel restricted the sale of Gazan fish in the West Bank in August 2022.

 

Here is a graphic comparing the economic growth of the West Bank to Gaza:

 

While Palestine saw its overall unemployment rate rise marginally from 24.4 percent in 2022 to 24.7 percent in Q2 2023, Gaza's unemployment situation was far, far worse than the West Bank's:

 

West Bank:

 

2022 - 13.1 percent

 

Q2 2023 - 13.4 percent

 

Gaza:

 

2022 - 45.3 percent

 

Q2 2023 - 46.4 percent

 

Here is a table showing labour market statistics for Gaza, the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority as a whole for Q2 2023:

 

What is most shocking is the level of youth employment in the Gaza.  At 59.3 percent, it is completely understandable why there is such anger among young Gazan males at their political masters who have essentially destroyed their hope for a positive and even modestly prosperous future.

  

Let's close this posting with a look at the same economic data for the state of Israel, the nation which is crushing the Palestinian economy:

 

https://data.worldbank.org/country/israel

 

Population (2022) - 9,550,600

 

Population Growth (annual percent in 2022) - 2.0 percent

 

GDP in US dollars (2022) - 522.03 billion

 

GDP per capita in US dollars (2022) - 54,659.8

 

GDP Growth (annual percent in 2022) - 6.5 percent

 

GDP per person employed (constant 2017$ in 2022) - 100,222

 

Unemployment (percent of total labour force in 2022) - 3.5 percent

 

Labour Force Participation Rate (2022) - 64 percent

 

Employment to population ratio (aged 15+) - 61 percent

 

Population living in slums (percent of urban population) - no data

 

Life Expectancy at Birth (2021) - 83 years

 

Refugee Population (2022) - 1,207

 

Poverty Headcount Ratio (2016) - no data

 

Israel has nearly twice the population of Palestine but its GDP is 27 times larger, its GDP per capita is 14.4 times larger and its GDP per person employed is 3.5 times larger.  Palestine's unemployment rate is 7.3 times higher and Gaza's is 12.9 times higher while the West Bank's is "only" 3.7 times higher.  To top it off, Palestinians have a life expectancy that is 10 years shorter than Israelis. 

 

While you are watching the mass media coverage of the latest hostilities between Israel and Palestine, I think that it would be prudent to keep the data that I have presented in this posting in mind as it goes a long way to explaining the anger in the streets of Palestine and why its citizens are expressing their outrage at their decades-long oppressors.

When you treat people as though they are subhuman and not worthy of respect for decades, I'm not sure why Israel's leadership is shocked at how Israel is now being treated by Palestinians.  What is most ironic is that Nazi Germany widely regarded the Jews as "untermenschen", with Jews being the lowest race of humans after Slavs and Roma.  You'd think that lessons would have been learned from history but apparently not.

Mike Pompeo and the Death of the Two-State Solution

While the following question and answer session with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 24, 2020 appears to greenlight Israel's unilateral annexation of at least part of the West Bank as quoted here:

 

"QUESTION: Hi. Israel may be annexing parts of the West Bank and Jordan Valley in a week, and Jordan has said annexation could kill its peace treaty with Israel. UAE’s Ambassador to the U.S. Otaiba said it would end any hopes of normalizing relations with the Gulf and Arab states. So my question is: How concerned are you about potential ramifications of annexation? And do you favor an incremental approach or an immediate annexation of 30 percent, as proposed in the White House peace plan? 

 

POMPEO:  Your first question was about Israel. We unveiled a Middle East peace vision some number of months ago now, and we’re continuing to work down that path. Decisions about Israeli and extending sovereignty in other places are decisions for the Israelis to make, and we are talking to all of the countries in the region about how it is we can manage this process for our end state objective. It’s, I think, the objective that the prime minister has certainly acknowledged he wants, right. He wants our Middle East peace vision to be successful. The Gulf states have all indicated that they are hopeful that we can put that in place. I regret only that the Palestinian Authority has refused to participate in that, right. They simply have rejected this out of hand. We simply asked that they come to the negotiating table based on what’s outlined in the Vision for Peace, and they have chosen not to. They have chosen to threaten, to bluster, to assert that they’re going to deny the ability to do security – that’s not good for the Palestinian people. It’s dangerous for the people that live in those places too.

 

What we’ve asked is for them to come together, for Israel and the Palestinian people to come to the table to negotiate a path forward and to find a resolution to this decades-long challenge. I remain hopeful that in the coming weeks we can begin to make real progress towards achieving that."

 

Thanks to the Washington Institute, we have maps showing several options for annexing the West Bank.  Let's look at two of them:

 

1.) Full annexation of all 130 settlements with 78 Palestinian communities (these enclaves would lie within the future Palestinian state but be under full Israeli control.  This would result in annexation of 29 percent of the total area of the current West Bank:

 

 

2.) All 52 Israeli bloc settlements within the barrier.  This would result in the annexation of 7 percent of the total area of the current West Bank:

 

 

While Mike Pompeo seems to be turning a blind eye towards Israel's annexation of the West Bank or any part thereof, there has been backlash from some key groups including a significant number of influential Jewish leaders:

 

1.) European Parliamentarians - 1080 European parliamentarians have signed a letter strongly opposing Israel's plan to unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank, warning that the move could be "fatal to the prospects of peace" as shown here:

 

 

2.) Israeli Policy Forum - Over 130 American Jewish leaders have sent the following to Israel's Alternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz and Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabi Ashkenazi :

 

 

3.) Commanders for Israel's Security - Israeli media outlet Haaretz featured a full-page advertisement by the Commanders for Israel's Security outlining their negative position on annexation.  In total, 200 Israeli generals and their equivalents signed this petition:

 

 

4.) Members of the United States Congress - 

 

 

In case you were curious, here is the text of House Resolution 326 which supports the two-state solution:

 

 

Israel's plan to annex any portion of the West Bank (beyond the territory already occupied by the significant number of Israeli settlements) would likely be seen as a move that will undermine the pillars of Washington's strategy in the region.  Given the West Bank's geographic proximity to Jordan, annexation could destabilize Jordan's America-friendly monarchy and it could impact Israel's growing relationship with Saudi Arabia, a nation that provides Israel with a territorial buffer from its archenemy, Iran.  Annexation may also prove to be very unpopular with everyday Israelis as shown in this article from Haaretz:

Creeping Annexation of the West Bank and the Death of the Two-State Solution

Updated February 2020

Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group has assembled an interesting database that shows how the situation in the West Bank is evolving from a state of occupation to a state of annexation, an evolution that gets very little coverage in the Western and, in particular, the American press.  This is particularly pertinent given the Trump Administration's recent recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights which was seized from Syria during the 1967 war and annexed by the Israeli government in 1981 and controlled by the Israeli military.  It is important to note that international law prevents annexing territory that is conquered during armed conflict; occupied territory must be held temporarily under a regime of occupation until circumstances change and the territory is returned under an official agreement.  It is also important to remember that Palestinian residents of the West Bank are not citizens of Israel and do not have the right to vote meaning that they have no ability to influence the legislation passed by the Knesset on their behalf.

Let's look at some background information.  According to the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories or B'Tselem, at the end of 2017, there were 131 government-sanctioned Israeli settlements in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem and settlements within Hebron) and an additional 110 settlement outposts located throughout the West Ban that are not official recognized by the Israeli government.  According to data from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2017, 413,400 Israelis were living in West Bank settlements and an additional 209,720 Israelis living in Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem at the end of 2016.  In 2017, the population growth rate of Israeli settlements on the West Bank was 3.5 percent compared to 2 percent in Israel itself with much of the population growth accounted for with the arrival of new immigrants to Israel and Israelis that relocate to the West Bank.

Here is a map showing Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank current to the end of 2016:

The Palestinian areas are shown in white; as you can see, Israeli settlements have created a number of Palestinian-controlled areas that are isolated from each other by Israeli-controlled "no-go" zones.

Here is a map showing the population growth of Israeli settlements since 2009:

Here is a map showing Israeli construction starts since 2013:

Here is a map showing demolitions of Palestinian structures that have taken place in the West Bank since 2009:

Lastly, here is a map showing how Palestinians have lost control of most of their homeland since 1946:

With that background, let's take a look at Yesh Din's annexation legislation database.  According to Yesh Din, during the 20th Knesset from March 31, 2015 to April 28, 2019, there was a marked shift in Israel's policy toward the West Bank.  What was once de-facto annexation became de-jure annexation with sixty bills pertaining to annexation being proposed during the 20th Knesset.  Of the sixty bills introduced by right-wing members of the Knesset, eight became law.  This shows the world that Israel's parliament regards itself as the legislative authority in the West Bank.  Let's look at some examples of proposed legislation which would result in Israel's annexation of the West Bank and their current status:

1.) Annexation of the Entire West Bank Bill - presented for preliminary debate :

2.) Norm Law Bill - presented for preliminary debate:

3.) Expropriation Law - approved:

4.) Encouragement of Capital Investments in Settlements Law - approved:

As you can easily see from these four examples, there is a strong movement in Israel's legislative body to increase its control over the West Bank.

In a poll in March 2019, 42 percent of Israelis backed total annexation of the West Bank with only thirty-four percent supporting a two-state solution.  Israel's moves in the West Bank have sent one very clear message to Palestinians; the two-state solution is dead.  A one-state reality for Israel and Palestine is now firmly in place.