Israel - Palestine Conflict
Damning new evidence of Israel's abuse of Arab children has
emerged, adding another tier to the stack of human-rights
violations committed over the past six weeks of violence.
It comes amid deepening controversy surrounding the visit to the
region of Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, whom
Israel's Foreign Minister has refused to meet to discuss
accusations of excessive force. A report by Amnesty International
released last week, but barely publicised, describes how Arab
teenagers have been arrested in the middle of the night, subjected
to high-pressure interrogations including beatings and held behind
bars for more than a month.
The focus of Amnesty's latest investigation was not the
Palestinians taking part in riots in the occupied territories, many
scores of whom have been shot dead by the Israeli army, but members
of Israel's one million Arab population. Hundreds of Palestinians
living within Israel have been arrested after riots erupted in Arab
towns early last month in protest over killings by the Israeli
security services in the early days of the intifada. Some have been
held in custody, denied bail or immediate access to lawyers.
Amnesty's findings are further evidence that, after moves towards
reform, Israel is slipping back into the pattern of widespread
human-rights violations that characterised the first six-year
intifada.
It includes the story of two young Palestinians in east Jerusalem
who say they were beaten, shackled, and kicked while lying on the
ground with hoods on their heads. They say they were repeatedly
slapped during interrogation. One said that 20 police officers
entered their detention cell where he and 30 other young Arabs were
held and randomly beat them with batons.
Israel's Arab population a fifth of the total has long complained
of sweeping civil-rights violations by the Jewish majority. But the
riots, the worst in the 52-year history of the state, dealt a
severe blow to the already strained inter-ethnic relations.
Thirteen Israeli Arabs were killed during the unrest.
According to Ha'aretz newspaper, the security forces have drawn up
plans to fortify Jewish communities close to Arab villages in
Israel on the grounds that they are next to "hostile populations".
The government plans to begin a major demographic drive to increase
the Jewish population in predominantly Arab areas, notably
Galilee.
Amnesty's report states that Palestinians arrested, including
children (those under 18), were beaten, shouted at, and threatened
while indetention. It says that a round-up of Palestinians is still
continuing in Israel, a month after the riots ended. Although they
are mostly accused of relatively minor public-order offences, some
have been held in custody for weeks in what the Israeli authorities
justify as an effort to establish calm. The human rights group also
says that several hundred Jews were arrested after anti-Palestinian
riots, some of whom have also been badly mistreated. But a far
higher proportion of Palestinians have been kept behind bars.
Israel - Palestine Conflict
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