ARRESTATATO PERICOLOSO TERRORISTA DI 7 ANNI

VOICES FROM THE OCCUPATION, THE ARREST OF A 7 YEARS OLD BOY

SPECIAL REPORT BY DCI - DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL

At around 2:45am, on the morning of 10 June 2010, Israeli soldiers deliver a summons to the family of a 7-year-old boy from Beit Ummar, near Hebron, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

„We woke up to banging on the front door of our house accompanied by people shouting in Hebrew: “open the door, it‟s the IDF,”‟ recalls ‘Alia, the mother of 7-year-old M. „My husband answered the door and three Israeli soldiers stormed the house. One of the soldiers asked my husband, in mixed Arabic and Hebrew, for our son M, our youngest child.

‘Alia’s husband informed the soldier that M was seven years old, and showed the soldier his birth certificate. „The officer read the date of birth, which is on 17 September 2002, and laughed, but still handed him the summons „inviting‟ my son to Etzion Interrogation and Detention Centre the next morning because he is “wanted for interview,”‟ recalls ‘Alia.

The document handed to ‘Alia’s husband is a standard form document printed in Hebrew and Arabic with specific details filled in handwritten Hebrew. The unsigned document appears to have been issued by the Israeli District Coordination Office on behalf of the ‘Israeli Defense Forces’ at Etzion. The document is an ‘invitation’ for M ‘to attend to meet Captain Tamir at ‘Etzion Centre’ at 2:00pm, later on the same day. Etzion Centre is a place well known to the local residents as an Israeli Interrogation and Detention Centre, located inside the settlement of Gush Etzion, halfway between Hebron and Bethlehem, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Seven year old M slept through the night time raid by the Israeli army, but was told what had happened the next morning by his mother. „My siblings and my mother were shocked to know that the soldiers wanted me to go to Etzion Centre because I am very young,‟ recalls M, „I am still in the second grade and after the summer break I‟ll be in the third grade. I don‟t want my father to take me to the Centre because I know, and hear people saying, that it is a prison, and if I go there, they will take me away from my family.‟

M’s father had to visit a relative in hospital later that day and did not take his son to the interrogation centre as requested. „I still don‟t know if my father will take me there or not,‟ worries M, „my family doesn‟t know whether the soldiers will come back to the house and ask me why I haven‟t gone. Israeli soldiers often come to our town. Six months ago they came and took my uncle, and he‟s still in prison. They also took my cousin, and he‟s still in prison. Prison has rooms surrounded with bars and its doors are always closed so that prisoners can‟t leave the rooms and so stay trapped inside.‟

The Israeli army routinely arrests and serves documentation written in Hebrew on the families of Palestinian children during the night. In 2009, children were arrested between midnight and 4am in 65 percent of cases handled by DCI-Palestine. Night time raids conducted by the Israeli army into Palestinian villages in occupied territory, creates fear and uncertainty within the local population, and especially among the children. It transpires that the summons was not intended for 7-year-old M, and the name on the document, written in Hebrew, is that of another person. It appears the Israeli army delivered the summons to the wrong house, in the wrong village. The family has not received an explanation or apology from the Israeli authorities. END

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