UK lawyers timidly criticise Israel’s treatment of children
by Jay Knott
Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
A group of some of Britain’s top lawyers has issued a report critical of the way Israel treats Palestinian children.
It says the Israeli forces
- force Palestinian children to make false confessions
- make them sign statements in Hebrew
- hold them for eight times as long as Israeli children before bringing them to court
- hold them for forty-five times as long before allowing them access to a lawyer
- hold them five times as long (188 days) before charging them
- sentence younger children to custodial sentences
- do night-time arrests
- use blindfolds and painful plastic wrist ties
- commit physical and/or verbal abuse
- fail to inform children of the right to silence or to see a lawyer
- use solitary confinement and self-incrimination
- allow extremely restricted access to families
- break the United Nations convention on the rights of the child in six different ways
These lawyers are backed by Britain’s Foreign Office, not an organization known for militant anti-Zionism. The above statements err on the side of caution.
Israel claims to be a state committed to the rule of law and international standards. To make good that claim, it must formulate a legal structure for all Palestinian children in compliance with the convention of the rights of the child and international law. Further steps must be taken to close the gaps between the treatment of Israeli and Palestinian children…
whine the lawyers.
These lawyers are clever people. They know as well as I do that Israel is not committed to the same standards as the other Western countries – it’s an overtly racist state. They know that is the reason it mistreats Palestinians – its very existence is premised on ethnically cleansing them. They know that the mistreatment of non-Jewish children is part of the essence of the Jewish state.
Working for the UK government, they can’t really say that. So they confine themselves to half-truths and ineffectual pleading:
The prohibition on violent, threatening or coercive conduct towards children should be strictly observed…
they say, as if Israel is going to listen.
Whom do they think they’re kidding?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/26/israel-palestinian-children-injustice
Posted by Jay Knott
on June 26, 2012. Filed under Britain,Human Rights.
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8 Responses to UK lawyers timidly criticise Israel’s treatment of children
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Roy Bard
June 27, 2012 at 11:56 am
According to the Independent:
The only evidence of “frequent” “lethal acts” involving Palestinian children is their being killed by the IDF – so not technically a lie – just very misleading…..
Not that the UK has any right to get snotty about abuses of human rights.
Ariadna Theokopoulos
June 27, 2012 at 8:48 pm
I don’t think timidity has anything to do with it.
This does not strike me a well-intentioned initiative of a group of lawyers who alas were too timid for the job. This was a government mission (and we’re talking about the UK government, not known to wish to upset Israel) and also “backed by Britain’s Foreign Office.”
The mission was thought up in the wake of growing international condemnation of Israel’s barbarous treatment of Palestinian children.
They are like any committee appointed to study a grievance, issue directives for remedies and recommend more studies so as to bury the issue until further upheaval when they can point to having addressed it…
It is done well: with enough criticism of Israel to make it believable but ending with an all-time whimper.
Let’s be serious if there are Geneva Conventions and other international human rights laws trampled systematically, egregiously, don’t you turn to your own government and to international bodies recommending steps against Israel until redress obtains?
Do you just “advise” Israel on what they need to do to correct themselves and even that without any term, any date of compliance, any standards of measurement?
It is a white wash job.
Jonathon Blakeley
June 27, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Good article … more paper tigers.
Ariadna Theokopoulos
June 27, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Zionists are not recognized for their unique talent as origami artists
Jonathon Blakeley
June 27, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Origami Salami Zionista Tsunami
Jonathon Blakeley
June 30, 2012 at 12:46 am
PressTv Report:> Complaint lodged against Israeli treatment of child prisoners
who_me
June 30, 2012 at 1:08 am
israeli jews have given themselves the inheritance of the nazis and the american slavocracy. that’s is a remarkable achievement, but special people are special that way.
israel needs to be dismantled and a thorough reckoning of israeli criminals and crimes needs to be done.
Laura Stuart
August 2, 2012 at 12:59 pm
A reply from my MP Theresa Villiers to my letter about the child prisoners in Israeli jails.
Dear Mrs Stuart,
Thank you for your e.mail about the treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.
I have noted the points that you have made. My colleagues in the Foreign and Commonwealth office have discussed this issue with the Israeli authorities.
You may be aware of Israel’s decision to raise the age of legal majority for Palestinian children in the Israeli miliary justice system which I hope you will welcome.
You may also be interested to learn that the UK Government has also funder a number of projects aimed at improving the situation of Palestinian children.
yours sincerely Theresa Villiers.
Well, at least it brought it to her attention, we have to wait for the State of Israel to collapse for any real improvement.