HUMAN RIGHTS

STOLEN YOUTH: THE POLITICS OF ISRAEL’S DETENTION OF PALESTIAN CHILDREN

Catherine Cook, Adam Hanieh & Adah Kay

[Pluto Press, 197pp., 2004]

Review by FATIMA BAHLOUL

Violent pounding on the door … they blindfolded me … started to beat me with rifle butts and boots … opened fire … extinguished cigarettes on my body … tied my hands and feet to the chair … punched in the stomach … head smashed on table … nose appeared broken … threatened to sexually assault us … I was frightened.

These words are part of a collage formed from the accounts of Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel. It is out of these desperate experiences that Stolen Youth is born. It is a book about pain, isolation and the ruptured: of Palestinians growing up under Israeli occupation.

Before anything else, the authors explain their intent: deliver the voices of incarcerated Palestinian children to raise international awareness of their tragic lives and protect the future generations from encountering the same fate.

This book is undoubtedly rated R for violence and disturbing images. It combines documented evidence from human rights organizations with intimate tales of young Palestinians and paints a portrait of Israeli terror and abuses, the kind usually found only in Hollywood drama.

Stolen Youth confronts the issue of child imprisonment by introducing the reader to the Palestinian territories, its children and their imprisonment. The first part presents the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a backdrop for understanding the specific issue of child imprisonment. But it doesn’t go into too much detail. On the bright side, the history of the conflict is not a prerequisite for fully appreciating the chapters that follow.

The main point of the first section is to give readers an aerial perspective of the economic and political conditions that led to the most recent surge in Palestinian resistance: the al-Aqsa Intifada. It cites Israel’s efforts to fragment the Palestinian population through Jewish settlements and the Palestinians’ lack of freedom of movement to help frame child imprisonment within a larger political context.

The authors then dive into Israel’s legal and military order systems, the details of which are unknown to most people. As distinct structures of power, the systems essential for understanding how Palestinians are removed from international protection and subjected to domestic oppression. They are equally important for understanding the daily suffering of Palestinians as understanding the occupation through malnutrition and lack of water. Since 1967, prison has been a central feature of life for more than 600,000 Palestinians, the authors argue.

In the next section, the authors discuss the international standards related to children’s rights, imprisonment, and ultimately, the treatment of child detainees. This includes human rights treaties such as the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed and ratified by Israel. This background helps provide a framework for understanding Israel’s specific violations against child detainees. It is a dismal situation in which Israel is in complete violation of numerous international regulations concerning the treatment of children.

Staying true to the title of the book, the authors recount a series of violations that literally steal Palestinian children’s youth. Every step of the incarceration process—from the moment the children are arrested until their release—demonstrates Israel’s refusal to accept that these so-called terrorists are merely children, 95% of them guilty only of throwing stones. Legally, Israel defines Palestinian children as anyone under 16 and Israeli children as anyone under 18. For the authors, these legal definitions symbolize how Israel views Palestinian children—like Palestinians in general, they are a group undeserving of internationally recognized rights. Worse still is that fact that all Palestinian detainees are treated in the same way—there is no difference between the way Israel arrests, interrogates, sentences and imprisons an 11-year-old and a 40-year-old.

One of the many strengths of this book is that no matter how the reader views the Palestinian-Israeli issue, the book will inspire horror of the fact that children are systematically subjected to various forms of abuse and torture. The book succeeds in capturing our heart’s attention, but does not use children to further a political goal.

Most Palestinian child detainees are routinely denied a legal reason or explanation for their arrest, denied legal counsel and family visits. It is painful to read how the mother of an imprisoned 16-year-old suffered when she could not visit her child. It is painful to learn that the child detainees are deprived of food and drink and are often exposed to extreme temperatures. As if that weren’t enough, there is also the horrific fact that, according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 85% of all Palestinian detainees are tortured. There is real pain in this book.

Throughout the book, a theme emerges—Israel’s child incarceration policy is motivated by a desire to instill fear and defeat in the Palestinian people. As the authors put it, “Israel will reach out and target anyone, including the weakest and most vulnerable sectors of Palestinian society.” Palestinians are thus forced into a complete state of anxiety and vulnerability knowing that at any given moment, anyone can be torn from their community and placed at the complete mercy of Israel. For example, in March and April of 2002, 2,350 Palestinians were arbitrarily detained and held for more than a month without being charged or tried. Furthermore, according to Military Order No. 898, Israeli settlers have the right to detain any Palestinian whom they deem to be “acting suspiciously.”