News Release

“No Way to Treat a Child”

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JENNIFER BING, jbing at afsc.org, @nwttac

BRAD PARKER, brad.parker at dcips.org
Parker is international advocacy officer and attorney for Defense for Children International – Palestine. Bing is director of the Palestine-Israel program for the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group.They co-lead the No Way to Treat a Child campaign. See: NoWayToTreatAChild.org.

They will be hosting a congressional briefing on Monday.

The campaign states: “Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children each year in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections.

“Children within the Israeli military detention system commonly report physical and verbal abuse from the moment of their arrest, and coercion and threats during interrogations. Under Israeli military law, Palestinian children have no right to a lawyer during interrogation.

“Ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank has been widely documented. In 2013, UNICEF released a report titled ‘Children in Israeli military detention: Observations and recommendations.’ The report concluded that ‘ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing.'”