Alwaght- In an ideal 21st century world, a 13 year old boy’s biggest concern would be his homework. Under the Israeli occupation this idealistic notion has evaporated into thin air. In the shadow of the Zionist regime that has occupied Palestine since 1948, Palestinian children have been denied their basic human rights as they have been robbed of their childhoods under the rule of aggression.
The Manasra Case
In the latest incident exemplifying Zionists brutality that has not even spared children, Palestinian news agency Ma’an was able to obtain a video capturing Israeli officials while abusively interrogating a 13-year old Palestinian.
With pleading eyes and quivering lips, Ahmad Manasra, 13, can be heard saying that he cannot remember what happened as Israeli investigators accused him of stabbing two Israelis near the illegal Pisgat Zeev settlement in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Mansara can then be seen striking himself on the head, crying, and asking to be taken to a doctor for check-up. Throughout the interrogation, Manasra is verbally abused.
The boy is eventually pressured into confessing but maintains that he has no recollection of the incident.
"Everything you're saying is correct, I cannot remember. From what I've seen on the camera it's 100 percent correct, but I cannot remember anything,” Manasra pleads.
The time the footage was taken could not be verified.
The right to remain silent
Clearly traumatized and having been hospitalized as a result of being deliberately hit by a vehicle, Manasra can be seen coerced to confess in the footage in the absence of a legal guardian.
In 1991, the Israeli regime ratified the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child. However, with its long record of child abuses, the Israelis have continuously violated this treaty as it seems that Tel Aviv does not believe that Palestinian children are entitled to these rights.
Because listing the Israeli violations with regards to this convention would open new files, Article 40 will suffice to examine the legal violations against Mansara.
“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,” the article stipulates.
The video proves otherwise as the Israeli interrogator does not leave a shred of dignity on Manasra.
Article 40 goes on to ensure that state parties are responsible of presuming the child innocent until proven guilty, directly informing him or her of charges through parent or legal guardians, and providing fair trial among other decrees.
Despite the clarity of the article, Manasra is denied the presence of adult assistance throughout the interrogation.
“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,” the convention reads.
Another point of contention is the forced confession out of Manasra. Despite his insistence that has no recollection of the incident and obvious signs of being disturbed, the teen is pressurized into professing into what he is not aware of.
“Not to be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt,” the human rights agreement demands.
Stuff of childhood
Following the incident Israeli news site Ynet claimed that Ahmad and his cousin carried out the operation after returning from school. They decided to be martyrs after discussing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Gaza.
At the scene of the attack, Hassan Manasra, 15, was shot dead. Ahmad, on the other hand, was run over and gravely wounded.
A video showing Ahmad on the ground sobbing in a pool of his own blood has circulated in social media causing uproar among activists. An Israeli passer-by can be heard shouting at Ahmad: “Die…Die!”
Ahmad is not 14 yet. This means he cannot serve jail time and this means that he will remain in a closed facility until trial. The Israeli court has rejected a request to keep him under house arrest.
Both Manasra’s may have been only teenagers but they held the weight of their nation on their shoulders. At this age, in a fair world, they would be enjoying the stuff of childhood; endless bicycle rides, kicking a ball around, and going back and forth to school without packing fear among their books. But what these kids learned on their way to school was more enlightening than anything they could have learned within its walls. They learned to resist.
Stolen dreams
If the allegations prove to be true, the attack carried out by these boys would be exonerated in the eyes of humanity should it look at how their childhoods were stolen from them the day they were born. The politics of existence is intrinsically carved into the minds of these children who live and die under the humiliating rule of the occupation.
“The lives of Palestinian children lack a fundamental and necessary ingredient, that of hope. Palestinian children born and raised under occupation have systematically been denied any kind hope in living a life of dignity where they are given the right to determine their own destinies,” says Marion Holmberg, an American defender of human rights, in an interview with Alwaght.
Article 6 of the UNCRC speaks of “the inherent right to life.” But what kind of life do Palestinian children lead under the occupation, that is, if they are permitted to at all?
“I think that Ahmad has been treated inhumanely from the very beginning of his life living under a brutal and inhumane occupation,” regrets Holmberg before she continues, “Ahmad is a child of occupation whose rights have been denied from the day he was born.”
According to the Permanent Observer Mission of The State of Palestine to the United Nations, one Palestinian child was killed by Israeli occupation forces every 3 days between 2000 and 2013. Around 700 children are detained and interrogated by the IOF each year, and are subjected to strip-searches, physical and psychological abuse, as well as other forms of intimidation during imprisonment. The findings of the report also included casualty figures from 2014 estimating that 13 boys were killed by the IOF and settlers in the West Bank and al-Quds, 1,218 were injured, and 600 were displaced as a result of house demolitions.
The fact sheet points out Palestinian children’s struggle in their pursuit of education.
“Schoolchildren are often intimidated and terrorized by extremist settlers and the IOF…There are instances of settlers throwing rocks, glass bottles and Molotov cocktails through classroom windows. The IOF disrupts class time by holding students at checkpoints and detains backpack-wearing children on a regular basis.”
The children of the occupation have been robbed of their privileges. Children in Palestine speak the language of the oppressed and no one can blame them for their strained accents or their Intifada jargon. In occupied Palestine, children play “rock, bullet, knives” in a zero-sum life game.
“The life of a Palestinian youth has nothing in common with the lives of children of their age around the world. Basic nutritional needs are a luxury their parents can't afford, even if it’s available,” Nafeh Abunab, a Palestinian journalist and international activist told Alwaght.
The author of the book “Nothing” said Palestinian children “dread crossing the checkpoints going to schools and back where they know they're going to get humiliated, even asked to strip. They're subject to be detained at any point for no reason and thrown in prisons and tortured for no crime they committed except being born under occupation.”
Speaking to Alwaght, Marwan Sultan, deputy Governor of al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank, described Mansara’s case as representative of all Palestinian children who are humiliated by the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian Territories, adding that these children have learned to resist.
“Here the Israelis are targeting the future of Palestinians by killing the kids and frightening them. But it is the kids who are saying No to the occupation now,” he said.
Deafening silence
Since October 1st, more than 80 Palestinian have been killed including 17 children in the unrest, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The events that spiralled into a wave of stabbing operations have drawn international attention only to highlight the double-standards with which the international community responds to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The international community's silence has been deafening and reveals that international laws have been relegated to serving the oppressor rather than the oppressed,” noted Holmberg as she condemned this hush-up policy.
If world leaders choose to speak for the Palestinians, their speech would be brief and often ends with a blaming remark. Others speak but take no action.
For example, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has criticized Israeli policy in dealing with Palestinian children but refrained from adding the Zionist regime to the UN blacklist of states and groups that violate children’s rights in war.
“I urge Israel to take concrete and immediate steps, including by reviewing existing policies and practices, to protect children, to prevent the killing and maiming of children, and to respect the special protections afforded to schools and hospitals,” Ban stated.
Under the occupation, children carry knives. Whether they use these knives or not is another story but the issue at hand is that of fear, frustration, and oppression. In the absence of international support, Palestinians rely on themselves and a few friends to face their enemies. In the absence of their rights, Palestinian children grow up before their time as they go to bed each night with dreams they can’t realize and wake up every morning to the nightmare of life under the occupation.
