Yochanan Visser als Crimineel 17

Yochanan Visser met JNF-petje

Yochanan Visser is a Dutch-language analyst for the Israel Facts Group (www.israelfacts.eu), a European media watchdog organization, as well as manager of Israel Facts Monitorgroup and www. israelfacts. eu. He lives in Efrat, Israel.

Yochanan Vissser,

Zou u een reactie kunnen geven op de cijfers zoals gepubliceerd door Defence for Children International? Ik bedoel, hoe zou u reageren als de Palestijnse Autoriteit joods-Israelische kinderen gevangen zou laten nemen en dat aantal zou met 64 procent stijgen?

December 09, 2009

Detention of young children up 64%

[Ramallah, 9 December 2009] - According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and temporary Israeli army detention facilities, the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the end of November, was 306.

In November, the number of Palestinian children held in Israeli detention facilities fell to 306, the lowest figure this year. However, the monthly average number of Palestinian children held in Israeli detention in 2009 still remains high, at 360 per month, compared with 319 in 2008. This represents an increase of 13%.

Table 1 - Number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008

Year/Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2008	327	307	325	327	337	323	324	293	304	297	327	342
2009	389	423	420	391	346	355	342	339	326	325	306	-

(note: these figures are not cumulative)

DCI-Palestine continues to be deeply concerned by the high number of young children between the ages of 12 and 15 being detained. At the end of November 2009, 41 children in this age category were being held in Israeli detention facilities, compared with 25 children in November 2008. This represents an increase of 64%.

Table 2 - Number of young (12-15) Palestinians in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008

Year/Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2008	38	40	45	39	37	34	33	21	23	23	25	30
2009	50	54	53	47	39	47	42	39	40	44	41	-

(note: these figures are not cumulative)

One child, Hamdi al Tamari, remains in administrative detention, being detention without charge or trial. Hamdi is currently serving his fourth consecutive administrative detention order.

As a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), Israel is legally bound to give effect to Article 37 which provides that 'the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child... shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.'

If you wish to take action, then please consider lobbying your elected representatives and demand that pressure be applied on Israeli authorities to cease the practice of prosecuting Palestinian children as young as 12 in military courts, and detaining them inside Israel.

For further information please see DCI-Palestine's latest report on Palestinian child prisoners.

http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=1323&CategoryId=1

In afwachting van uw antwoord,

Stan van Houcke

Journalist/schrijver

Amsterdam