Palestinian child detainee figures on the rise again

July 09, 2009 Palestinian child detainee figures on the rise again

[Ramallah, 9 July 2009] – According to the latest figures compiled by DCI-Palestine from sources including the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) and temporary Israeli army detention facilities, the number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons and detention centres inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory is on the rise again after falling for three consecutive months. The child detention figures for June 2009, show a 2.6% increase over the previous month, and a 9.9% increase over the corresponding period in 2008. DCI-Palestine continues to be concerned by the sharp increase in the number of Palestinian children being arrested in the West Bank by Israeli authorities in 2009, a trend that coincided with the start of the war in Gaza. During the whole of 2008, the monthly average number of children held in detention was 319. In the first six months of 2009, this average has risen to 387, an increase of 21.3%. Number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention at the end of each month since January 2008 Year/Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2008 327 307 325 327 337 323 324 293 304 297 327 342 2009 389 423 420 391 346 355 - - - - - - (note: these figures are not cumulative) DCI-Palestine is not in a position to conclusively explain the reason for the increase, but in the first three months of this year, the percentage of children being charged with throwing stones increased from 26.7% to 61%. DCI-Palestine suspects that the increase is linked to a rise in the number of protests arising out of the war in Gaza. On 6 March 2009, the President of Defence for Children International (DCI) wrote to the Israeli Minister of Justice, Daniel Friedmann, seeking an explanation for the sharp increase in the number of Palestinian children being detained by Israel and notified the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child of these developments. To date, there has been no response from the Israeli authorities. If you would like to take action, then please consider lobbying your elected representatives and demand that more pressure be applied to the Israeli government to cease the practice of detaining children as young as 12 years from the occupied West Bank. For further information please refer to DCI-Palestine’s latest report.