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During a May 1987
address at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, U.S. Ambassador to
Israel Thomas Pickering
declared the United States government's "strong condemnation"
of the "harsh treatment
and measures used by the Israeli government against the people of
the West Bank and Gaza."
He pointed out in particular the detention, deportation and
restriction of persons
who are denied due process of law as a matter of official policy,
and
the routine refusal of
the state to present any evidence of guilt.
Many of the people to
whom Ambassador Pickering referred in his address are children
between the ages of 12
and 14 who are arbitrarily arrested, sometimes directly out of the
school room, by Israeli
security forces. They are systematically humiliated and beaten
during the course of
their interrogation and detention. Many are imprisoned without
charge
and released without a
trial. These children can be detained incommunicado for up to 18
days, during which time
they are not allowed to contact their families, an attorney or human
rights organizations.
Only after 14 days is the Red Cross permitted access to imprisoned
children and youths.
Children and youths who are brought to trial appear before a
military
judge who often bases
his decision upon a confession forcibly extracted from the
individual
or upon the testimony of
another young person who was coerced into providing such
information. A
"confession", written in Hebrew, may not be reviewed by an attorney
or
translated into Arabic
until after it has been signed. There are neither appeals nor
commuted sentences for
good behavior.
Eyewitness defense by
parents, neighbors or teachers is routinely dismissed in favor of
testimony by Israeli
military personnel. Suspicion of guilt is adequate for a court to
impose
a heavy sentence or
fine. If the family cannot pay the fine, the young person is
sentenced to
additional time in
prison.
Israeli military prison
personnel beat children and youths imprisoned there with fists,
sticks,
wires, wooden truncheons
which are sometimes modified with nails and metal strips, iron
rods and other
bludgeoning instruments. Young detainees have been kicked, dragged
on
the ground or floor,
hung by their wrists from the ceiling and blindfolded or hooded with
heavy cloth sacks that
have been fouled with urine, excrement, vomit or blood.
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