The abuse of Palestinian children who come into contact with the military detention system in Israel appears to be “widespread, systematic and institutionalized.”
Save the Children, 2026? No: UNICEF, 2013. Thirteen years ago, Israeli lawyer Smadar Ben-Natan contributed to a report by the UN children’s rights organization that broadly made the same findings as Save the Children now.
Following it NRC-article of April 9 about the torture, sexual abuse and starvation of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons, D66 stated Parliamentary questions to Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, D66). MPs Hanneke van der Werf and Mpanzu Bamenga urge, among other things, access for the Red Cross and lawyers to the underage prisoners.
A motion submitted by the Party for the Animals on unfettered Red Cross access to Israeli detention centers was adopted. Not all MPs were convinced of the abuses: as one-person Mona Keijzer, who also voted against the PvdD motion, stated: on X that D66 gives anti-Semitism in the Netherlands “an extra push” by using a “rattling research”.
Injuries and weight loss
The facts about child abuse “cannot be disputed in any way,” says Ben-Natan by video link from the American west coast, where she works at the University of Oregon. “Numerous international and Israeli human rights organizations have identified it. And today it is also reflected in the injuries and weight loss that released children, just like adults, show.”
Ben-Natan, who is also a board member of the Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem and Parents Against Child Detention, notes that Israel is doing everything it can to avoid responsibility. She gives the example of an adult prisoner who was attacked by guards and suffered injuries to his anus, probably due to penetration with a sharp object. “In this blatant case of abuse, although an investigation was opened and the attackers charged, the case closed.”
At the same time, she notes, the executioners are welcomed as heroes in Israeli society. “They appear masked in news broadcastswhere they proudly talk about what they do with prisoners. The message is that a true patriot abuses prisoners.” Ben-Natan also sees this paradoxical pattern of covering up and applauding in the media attention in Israel for critical reports from human rights organizations: it is nil.
Also read
Palestinian children tortured in Israeli cells: Save the Children report points to untenable situation
Ben-Natan was not so surprised that child abuse in prisons has increased sharply since October 7, 2023 – the day the Palestinian militant organization Hamas committed a large-scale attack in Israel. “Because that pattern had already been shown in adult prisoners, and the prison regime makes no distinction between children and adults.”
Israel, says the lawyer, sees children as a “violent, political and demographic” danger. “The rhetoric of Israeli politicians is so dehumanizing, and genocidal in relation to Gaza. Even babies are seen as a threat. During the famine in Gaza, Israel limited import of baby food.”
That policy is related to the idea that Palestinian children pose a demographic threat, according to Ben-Natan. “Now they are still young, but they are growing up. Because of possible future threats, they are already seen as targets. They are arrested in the middle of the night, which causes a severe shock. They are kept in poor conditions. They are shouted at. Remember that children are more vulnerable than adults.”
Now Palestinian children are still young, but they are growing up. Due to possible future threats, they are already seen as targets by Israel
The scientific research behind the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes that the mental and cognitive development of young people is not complete until the age of 24. Ben-Natan: “Children take risks, sometimes do stupid things. Precisely for that reason they should not be tried as adults. The treaty states very clearly that the detention of children can only be a last resort.”
Palestinians have the right to resist the occupation. Many offenses for which children are arrested are justified under international law. Nevertheless, says Ben-Natan, there are situations in which Palestinian children are rightly arrested, for example if they have endangered civilians. “But not in these numbers, not for this duration, and not without charges.”
Since 2009, Ben-Natan has heard promises from the Israeli army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the situation of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons would be improved. “A lot of effort has gone into selling the improvements, not in the improvements themselves. They are supposedly concerned about their fate. It’s all talk. Cosmetic changes.”
After the 2013 UNICEF report, Israeli authorities promised, among other things, to reduce nighttime arrests and interrogate children in their own language. But two years later, UNICEF concluded that child abuse had barely decreased. Since October 7, 2023, the language towards Palestinians has changed significantly: a minister like the ultra-right Itamar Ben-Gvir (National Security) wants to worsen the situation of prisoners as a deterrent.
Not a normal life
Israel now transports Palestinian prisoners, including children, to prisons within Israel. Since October 7, anyone classified as an ‘unlawful combatant’ has found themselves in a Guantanamo-like situation in which all rights are suspended and prisoners are subjected to starvation, violence and overcrowded cells. Access to a lawyer can be delayed for up to six months. Two years ago three Israeli human rights organizations noted although these actually put Palestinian prisoners permanently in solitary confinement, without any contact with the outside world.
Jewish Israeli perpetrators and suspects are in the same prison system, but in different buildings or departments. None of this applies to them. A person’s ethnicity determines which prison regime he or she receives, says Ben-Natan. “For Palestinians there is a parallel, alternative constitutional state. You could call that apartheid.”
