UN report accuses Israel of child torture

cyberhog

Geneva: A United Nations human rights watchdog has accused Israel’s police and military of abuses against Palestinian children ranging from torture to threats of death and sexual assault in prisons.

In a report on Israel’s record, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its ‘‘deepest concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the police’’.

The committee said soldiers arrested Palestinian youngsters regularly during night-time sweeps, tying their hands painfully and blindfolding them, and often transferring them to detention centres without informing their parents.

It also said that arrested Palestinian children were subjected systematically to physical and verbal abuse, threatened with death, physical violence, and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, as well as having access restricted to toilets, food and water.
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‘‘These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pre-trial detention,’’ said the committee.

It had obtained its information from other UN rights bodies, military sources and Israeli and Palestinian rights groups.

Israel did not cooperate with requests for information on the issue, it said.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/un-report-accuses-israel-of-child-torture-20130621-2om9x.html

If this report were on Syria we would hear loud condemnation of the regime by Western powers and calls to intervene to save the children. But when Palestinian children are being mistreated and traumatised by Israeli forces Western powers just shrug their shoulders and usually turn their ire on those who criticise Israel instead.

There is something desperately wrong with the Western powers mentality that they can't even condemn Israel when it is torturing children.

Seaneh

Read this report this morning as was absolutely horrified by it.

Where is the "red line" for Israel's behaviour?

Jonny7

cyberhog wrote: »

If this report were on Syria we would hear loud condemnation of the regime by Western powers and calls to intervene to save the children.

This happens in Brazil on a daily basis

It happened in Northern Ireland

My friend was beaten up by the Gardai when he was a teenager - that is "child torture"

I don't condone it in any way shape or form, but a little context.

srsly78

Jonny7 wrote: »

My friend was beaten up by the Gardai when he was a teenager - that is "child torture"

Ah now, the Gardaí are a great bunch of lads. We all know that it's just people falling down steps and hitting their heads off doors etc whilst in Garda stations.

cyberhog

Jonny7 wrote: »

This happens in Brazil on a daily basis

It happened in Northern Ireland

My friend was beaten up by the Gardai when he was a teenager - that is "child torture"

I don't condone it in any way shape or form, but a little context.

Like Israel, Brazil and Ireland have always had good relations with the US. In those cases the most you will hear from US officals is that they are "deeply concerned" about whatever abuses are happening.

The US reserves condemnation to use as part of its propaganda offensive against unfriendly states that it wants to topple like Iraq , Libya, Syria, Iran and so on.

cyberhog

I'll give you another example

The UN also voiced deep concern at the "continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields..."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-palestinian-israel-children-idUSBRE95J0UJ20130620

And if you remember in Libya when Gaddafi used children as human shields the West were up in arms about it.

Yet the West still won't condemn Israel for doing the exact same thing.

Weevil

Jonny7 wrote: »

This happens in Brazil on a daily basis

It happened in Northern Ireland

My friend was beaten up by the Gardai when he was a teenager - that is "child torture"

I don't condone it in any way shape or form, but a little context.

The context is provided by the quoted article.

hatrickpatrick

The West will not be able to properly condemn Israel as long as the US is beholden to the Israel lobby and the anti-semitism / Hitler card remains influential enough to cause embarrassment / shame when they play it. Pathetic but that's the way it is.