For years, children’s rights organizations in Canada and elsewhere have raised deep concerns over Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinian child detainees.
To explore the problem, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) set out to compare the treatment of child detainees in Israel against the treatment of child detainees in Canada.
The resulting report confirms that, as compared to Canada, the treatment of Palestinian child detainees under Israeli occupation is appallingly harsh and callous.
CJPME’s report acknowledges up front that it does not address the broader flaws in the criminal justice systems in both countries examined. Indeed, the report recognizes that both systems may have broad issues of discrimination or abuse against certain communities – Canada especially with Indigenous communities.
Instead, the report is a systematic comparison of the two countries’ laws regarding child detainees, both as written and as practiced. And by examining side-by-side Canada’s treatment of child detainees generally, and Israel’s treatment of Palestinian child detainees in the occupied West Bank, a stark and troubling picture emerges.
Israel’s harsh treatment of child detainees has been on the radar of human rights organizations for decades.
Canadian human rights activists published “Palestinian Children and Israeli State Violence” in 1991, calling attention to Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinian child detainees as early as the 1980s.
Much more recently, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has noted that Palestinian children detained by Israel are “systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture” and that Israel has “fully disregarded” recommendations to comply with international law.
One of the first points emphasized by CJPME’s report is the fact that Palestinian child detainees in the occupied West Bank are routinely tried in Israeli military courts. Israel, as the occupying military power, does have the right to establish such courts. But as a rule, the UNCRC has always strongly discouraged having children handled through such courts.
Nevertheless, the 500 to 700 Palestinian children detained each year by Israel are systematically interrogated, prosecuted and imprisoned through Israeli military courts.
And the conviction rate in Israeli military courts is higher than 99 percent, attained through plea deals as children are pressured into signing confessions in hopes that they will get a lenient sentence.
Even apart from the “conviction” rate, the Israeli military court system faced by Palestinian child detainees is cruel and unforgiving. Palestinian child detainees are routinely denied bail, routinely held for long periods without trial, routinely isolated from family and lawyers for long periods, and routinely interrogated so harshly that the treatment amounts to torture.
By way of comparison, CJPME’s report points out that in Canada, the incarceration of children is considered an act of last resort. Israel’s military court system, on the other hand, functions as if prison sentences are the default sanction – seemingly using detention as a form of punishment.
In Canada, during interrogation, child detainees have the right to have a parent or lawyer present.
Under Israeli military law, Palestinian children don’t enjoy this right, and in practice, are almost universally denied access to legal counsel.
When interrogation of a Canadian child is planned, the child is expected to have access to a lawyer within hours. But the Israeli military courts can deny a Palestinian child access to a lawyer for up to 90 days.
Statements made by Canadian child detainees are only admissible if they were made voluntarily, whereas Palestinian children under Israeli military law routinely face mental and physical coercion to force confessions.
One of Israel’s most shameful practices is the arrest of Palestinian children at night. In Canada, except in emergencies, police officers must obtain a warrant before entering a private residence. Nevertheless, Israel frequently uses night arrests against Palestinian children and their families as a form of intimidation and terrorism.
Ultimately, the Canada-to-Israel comparison is deeply revealing, and the portrait of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian child detainees is highly disturbing.
Civil society organizations in Canada have called for years for Canada to appoint a special envoy for Palestinian children, to monitor and report on their human rights situation – and this is the top recommendation of the report.
Clearly, such constant international scrutiny is required, as Israel has done almost nothing to address its systemic problems despite years of criticism from human rights groups.
The report also calls for Israel to respect the findings of the UNCRC regarding Israel’s treatment of Palestinian child detainees. The UNCRC has criticized Israel harshly in the past, and is expected to issue a new and scathing assessment in the coming months.
Finally, the report calls on Israel to end the persecution of human rights organizations in the occupied West Bank which advocate for the rights of Palestinian children. Perhaps the most prominent of these organizations is Defense for Children International – Palestine, which has had its office raided by Israeli forces, and whose employees live in fear of arrest for their work.
UN organizations, Canadian civil society, and Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations have all produced comprehensive and undeniable evidence of Israel’s systemic mistreatment of Palestinian child detainees.
The devastating impacts on successive generations of Palestinian children can no longer be ignored. For Canada, failure to intervene now will amount to complicity.
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