A Palestinian youth is arrested by Israeli soldiers during clashes at a rally marking the fourth anniversary of the death of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Hebron. (Mamoun Wazwaz, Maan Images)

During Israel's first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session on December 4 in Geneva's UN Palais de Nations, a number of issues were brought to the fore by representatives of the UN member states sitting in the room. The UPR, a new Human Rights Council mechanism whereby a country's own national report on human rights is subjected to scrutiny by its fellow countries, is supposedly aimed at creating a means of addressing human rights violations occurring throughout the world. Among the concerns voiced by state parties towards Israel’s national report was concern over its treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli prisons. While Israel’s panel of experts attempted to put to rest this issue by claiming that a total of six Palestinian minors from the occupied Palestinian territories were in Israeli prisons or detention centers and that all of these minors were 17 years of age, there are a number of Palestinian and international organizations that beg to differ.

The Palestinian prisoner issue has long been at the forefront of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and has often been used as one of the more flexible bargaining chips that Israel is willing to utilize under the umbrella of "good will gestures". There are over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners currently in Israeli prisons and detention centers both in the Palestinian territories and inside Israel. While this issue continues to remain a grave concern for Palestinians, the incarceration of children is no doubt an even graver concern and a clear breach of several international laws and charters protecting the rights of the child.

According to the Geneva-based Defense for Children International (DCI), as of December 3, 2008, there were 297 Palestinian children being held in Israeli custody. A child, by international standards, is any person under the age of 18, which is also the case under Palestinian law. While this is the case in Israel proper as well, Israeli military authorities governing the West Bank set the bar at 16, with several sub-distinctions that should be taken into consideration.

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According to Israeli Military Order 132, a Palestinian child is defined as anyone under the age of 12. A teenager is between the ages 12-14, an adolescent 14-16, while an adult is any Palestinian aged 16 or above. Furthermore, according to Section 78 of Military Order 378, a Palestinian child can be detained by an ordinary, low ranking Israeli soldier or police officer for 96 hours. Afterwards, a child can be held for interrogation for eight days prior to being taken to Court through a formal detention order made by a higher ranking military official. A judge of the military court has the power to extend this period of detention for interrogation up to 90 days. A judge of the military court of appeals has the power to extend this 90 day period further, to a period of up to three months. (DCI)

This is over and above the fact that Palestinian children are tried in the same military courts as adults and not in juvenile courts like Israeli children. Military orders are ordinarily much harsher than Israeli law against Israeli children.

It goes without saying that the detention of children in military detention centers shared by adults is a flagrant breach of international and humanitarian law. Likewise, under the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, it is prohibited for individuals to be transported from the occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power. This is more the norm than the exception with child prisoners held in prisons inside Israel such as Hasharon (Telmond) and Meggido, both inside Israel. The interrogation of prisoners, including children, is often carried out in Israeli military detention centers inside the West Bank such as Bet El or Ofer.

To read the full article please visit MIFTAH.