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Stolen Youth is
the first book to explore Israel's incarceration of
Palestinian children. Based on first-hand information from
international human rights groups and NGO workers in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, it also features interviews with children
who have been imprisoned.
 The
result is a disturbing and often shocking account of the
abuses that are being carried out by Israel, and that have
been widely documented by human rights groups such as Amnesty,
but yet have never been addressed by the international
community.
The book presents
a critical analysis of the international legal framework and
the UN system, arguing that a major failure of these
instuitutions is their appeal to neutrality while ignoring the
reality of power. The book attempts to address the inadequacy
of these institutions by placing the issue of Palestinian
child prisoners within the framework of Israeli strategy and
the overall system of control.
The book is
divided into three main sections: the first chapters introduce
the major issues, and propose a framework for understanding
Israel's policy towards Palestinian detainees, particularly
children. The second section examines the actual experience of
children from the moment of arrest until their release from
prison based on hundreds of affidavits collected from children
released from prison. The final section of the book analyses
in detail the reasons underlying Israel's incarceration of
children and the impact on Palestinian society. It outlines
Israel's system of institutionalized discrimination and state
torture, challenges the legitimacy of Israel's 'security'
argument, and argues that Israel's treatment of Palestinian
detainees forms one pillar of a policy designed to quash
resistance to the occupation. |
