Israel to Continue Night-Time Arrests of Children
Print This
By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Friday, Jan 30, 2015
|
Israeli soldiers arrest a young Palestinian boy in Hebron, on June 20, 2014. | Photo: AFP |
Israel has shut down a program meant to decrease the number of night-time arrest raids targeting children in Palestinian homes after less than a year, the Military Court Watch (MCW), a Palestinian organization focused on the legal treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli detention, said today in a statement.
In February 2014, Tel Aviv's military authorities announced the introduction of a pilot program to issue written summonses instead of arresting children in the West Bank at night.
During the period in which the pilot program was in force there was a five per cent reduction in the number of children arrested at night. However, in 67 percent of cases in which summonses were used, they were delivered by the military after midnight in a process that continues to terrify the civilian population, MCW said.
The report also says no details of the pilot study were made public to enable an independent assessment and the military had since conceded that no records were even kept to begin with.
The program to end nighttime raids targeting children was initially promoted by Israel following concerns raised in the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and by UNICEF about the devastating effect of repeated night-time incursions into Palestinian communities by the Israeli military. However it has now been suspended; and no statistics were kept by the military during the course of the pilot program.
Source URL
|
Print This
|