The feature presentation this morning is an address to a conference organized by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in Washington DC. by Brad Parker. Parker is International Advocacy Officer & Attorney at Defence for Children International, Palestine section. DCIP is an advocacy and legal group seeking to defend Palestinian children, who continue to face major abuse, including incarceration, at the hands of the Israeli military.
As Parker reports, when children encounter Israeli forces, theyâre arrested, detained, beaten, blindfolded, their hands are tied, put in a military jeep and taken off to an interrogation center. Guilt or innocence is irrelevant. Violations of children's basic rights are widespread, systematic, and institutionalized by Israeli forces. Parker has been trying to wake up the US Congress to its ultimate responsibility for this situation, with just a bit of success. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) has rounded up at least 22 colleagues in support of a change in US funding and arming of these soldiers.
If you are Palestinian, old or young, you are governed by Israeli military law, which is set up to deny rights. For example, under Israeli military law, children donât have the right to an attorney during interrogations. Thatâs sort of the primary example of fair trial protections that just donât exist. Aside from that, of these estimated 500 to 700 Palestinian children that are arrested by Israeli forces each year and prosecuted in the military courts, around 75% of them experience some form of physical violence during arrest, detention, transfer. There's no requirement for a warrant; soldiers can arrest on "suspicion." The majority of children are charged with throwing stones, which is a specific offense under the Israeli military law. What happens is children are accused of throwing stones, arrested, denied access to attorneys, not allowed to have a parent present during interrogation, etc. etc. etc., almost always found guilty, and sent to military jail.
Before all this, we begin this week with a recording of Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the refreshingly brave, articulate, newly elected, and sole Palestinian member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She spoke to a delegation who had come to Washington on a lobbying mission. A delegation member sent us a recording of her presentation, which we now play back.
Begun in 2004, This Week In Palestine (a weekly 8am feature of Truth and Justice Radio (TJR) is an award-winning 45-minute (or more) segment of news from Palestine and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland. It speaks from the point of view of Palestinians and those who care about them. TJR is aired Sundays 6-10am ET on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, also streamed live and archived for two weeks at wzbc.org; TJR's modest website, truthandjusticeradio.org, has a link to This Week In Palestine archives back thru 1-6-2008; editions are also accessible at radio4all.net. TJR sometimes airs Palestine coverage IN ADDITION to that provided by This Week In Palestine. We hope you'll write to us at tjradio@fastmail.com if you rebroadcast our work, or have questions or comments. Stay tuned!
This Week In Palestine 5-5-2019
Brad Parker of Defence for Chilldren International, Palestine, reports how children are abused by the Israeli military
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