For the current generation, imprisonment is as common and conventional as attending university. This is not due to an extraordinary level of concentrated crime, but a result of Israel?s strategic political and social methods of control. When put into context, the emphatic incarceration of Palestinian children reflects Israel?s wider aims of controlling and weakening the OPT. Through a combination of military discourse and flexible definitions, Israel repeatedly flaunts international law, and uses the legal system as a veneer to legitimize its military practices, and in this way indirectly legitimize the occupation. Although children are detained as adults, the DCI argue that they are singled out because they are children. 1

Since the outbreak of Second Intifada in September 2000, more than 2500 Palestinian children have been arrested. According to the Defence for Children International/ Palestinian Section (DCI/PS), 323 Palestinian children2 are currently being held in Israeli prisons and detention facilities3. This is about four times the number prior to September 2000. The conditions in which the Palestinian children are held are below the minimum standards laid down by the UN and the Fourth Geneva Convention4. According to Article one of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC)5, a child is defined as ?every human being below the age of 18 years?. Although Israel is a signatory to the convention, and applies this definition to its own citizens, Israel does not apply its domestic law to Palestinians in the OPT (only to Israeli settlers). In the OPT a Palestinian child over the age of 16 is under ?military law? and therefore considered an ?adult?. For many of these younger prisoners, imprisonment may indeed constitute the end of their childhoo

Child detention is a reflection of Israel?s discriminatory policies. The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice states that the standard minimum rules should be applied to juvenile offenders, ?impartially, without distinction of any kind, for example as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status6?. Universal laws are non-negotiable and yet Israel has managed to steer the band wagon of ?terror threats? and ?in the name of security? re-valued the rights and liberties of one ethnic group over another. Through a cunning transfer of paper authority to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israel has successfully managed to relinquish its role as guarantor of basic human rights in the OPT.

Unfortunately, for Palestine?s children, a legal black hole has been dug, whereby Palestinian child prisoners no longer exist as far as the various human rights mechanisms and structures are concerned. They are excluded from Israel?s report to the CRC, while the PA has neither the political mandate nor the international support to protect them. In reality this means that Palestinian children as young as nine have been arrested and interrogated. Palestinian children may be charged and sentenced in military courts from the age of twelve. Seventy eight of the current child prisoners are sixteen and under.
 

Political considerations should not override basic universal human rights. However, the danger of the ?security? argument is that it focuses on the specific; that child rights are forfeited in order to safeguard the Israeli state and its citizens. In the meantime the very premise of the security discourse remains unquestioned. As Leah Tsemel, an Israeli Human Rights attorney observes:
 
In the last two years things have got much rougher. Palestinian children are seen less as children and more as Arabs and there is more indifference towards them. This is reflected in newspaper reporting. Now an eight-year old is reported as a ?Palestinian that got shot? and youngsters as ?mechabelim? (Hebrew for terrorists). Now you hardly see any separation on the basis of age. They are as dehumanised as the adults, dehumanised and feared by Israeli society.7
 
Any act of resistance to the occupation is labelled as a threat to security; regardless of whether it is just, and regardless of its form. Moreover, in the current atmosphere, when ?security threats? are re-branded as acts of ?terrorism?, this means that imprisonment for membership to a radical political party or for picking up a stone and throwing it goes unquestioned. In Israel, the legal right to continued education whilst in prison is even ruled as detrimental to security.8
 
Palestinian parents are often blamed by the uninformed of encouraging their children to throw stones at the Israeli army and settlers. Palestinian parents are often blamed with encouraging their sons to become fighters, martyrs and suicide bombers. However, for most Palestinian parents their fear increases with time, as the chances of their child?s arrest grows with age. It could be argued that stone throwing constitutes one predictable and relatively harmless acts of empowerment for today?s youth. They are few alternative ways to demonstrate ones resistance. Likewise, the many restrictions on travel and the frequent curfews also mean that there is little choice of recreational activities. Unfortunately, it also happens to be an ?arrestible? offence. In practice, ninety five percent of all child prisoners are accused of throwing stones.9

 
A child need not be a stone thrower or a ?criminal? in order to be arrested. ?Mass arrests? was one of the major characteristics of Operation Defensive Shield in March-April 2002. The Israeli army would use loudspeakers to order all Palestinian men and boys aged between 14 and 60 to gather in nearby locations. As a result many innocent, but statistically vulnerable young men took to hiding in nearby caves or forests. Arbitrary mass arrests without evidence or connection to any particular crime, reveals one of the most alarming aspects of their imprisonment; that is that hundreds of Palestinian children were terrorised and abused simply for being male and Palestinian. This reflects the multiple uses of Palestinian prisoners as political pawns, a means to fragment Palestinian communities and a way to quell resistance:

On the surface, Palestinian children may seem like any other juvenile offenders charged with offences that violate the law. But rather than been guilty of a textbook definition of crime such as theft or drug abuse, they have instead been charged with violating military orders that have been established to maintain an illegal occupation.10
 
Mass and sporadic imprisonment of minors is an effective policy of intimidation, which reaches beyond the individual. The likelihood that any Palestinian male can be arrested at any time exerts a psychological toll on the entire population.11 It also acts as a warning light to all potential dissidents, sending out a strong message, ?that resistance to the occupation comes at a heavy price.? Arbitrary arrest is also an act against their parents and symbolic of their powerlessness and inability to protect their children. According to a survey carried out by the Palestine Monitor, 77 percent of children are arrested at their homes (and without any warrant). The home is the place the child should feel most secure. House arrests shatter this illusion as parents can do nothing but watch as their children are forcibly removed. Children are targeted because they are the future leaders of community. Imprisonment interrupts their education, while causing serious practical and psychological problems upon release.
 

Children are protected under international law precisely because they are vulnerable. They require special consideration because their personality structure, cognitive and physical self is still developing.12 International law recognises that traumatic events may scar them for life and emphasises that imprisonment of a minor should operate upon the ?Best Interests? Principles. This ?places a child?s welfare above all other considerations in actions concerning children.?13 A child should be imprisoned for the shortest possible time if at all. Israeli state practises have tended to turn this formula around. Palestinian children are often detained without charge and receive disproportionately long sentences. Around 400 Palestinian prisoners have exceeded the age of 18 while in prison. What is of added concern is that numerous affidavits from child prisoners document extreme forms of physical and psychological abuse.
 
Usually the arrests take place during the night when they are separated from their families and blindfolded. They are often driven unnecessarily long distances to a nearby location in order to increase their disorientation and in many cases, increase the opportunity to be beaten whilst inside the vehicle. They are taken to military bases in settlements or in military camps. Without the automatic right to legal representation, the danger is that the child is forced into isolation and intensive interrogation sessions. Such a method reflects the military court systems reliance upon the information gathered from detained children in order to arrest and convict others.
 
A child can be judged ?guilty? exclusively on the testimony of another child detainee. This method of ?collaboration? is another destructive tool within Palestinian society, and is indicative of the fact that the impact of imprisonment extends beyond the period of incarnation. Given the climate of fear and physical mistreatment, ?children tend to confess relatively quickly, even if they are innocent?.14
 
Systematic violation of children?s rights reflects the thoroughly institutionalised system of state sanctioned violence15. When asked roughly how many child prisoners were tortured, Abueqtaish replied:

In gneral every child prisoner passes through a type of torture. But the period and methods vary from one child to another.16

Torture is the systematic destruction of person, family, neighbourhood, school, work, formal and informal organisations and nation, with the purpose of controlling a population the state perceives to be dangerous?torture?s purpose is to change the behaviour, the thinking patterns, and the personalities of the victims ? many do not survive it.17

Well documented forms of abuse include: sexual abuse (or threats of), position abuse (shabeh where the prisoner is being made to sit or stand in difficult positions for long periods of time), being handcuffed and blindfolded for extended periods of time, shaking until unconscious, denied food, medical treatment and sleep, or being forced to sleep outside. Child prisoners have also been released with multiple burn marks from cigarettes being stubbed out on their body. Israel targets children?s cultural, national and religious identity by exposing them to humiliating and degrading situations beyond the child?s usual cultural-religious. Prisoners? organisations have documented numerous cases where girls have been handcuffed to a bed with their limbs spread or forced to strip naked.18 Several years after their release, many ex-detainees still complain of headaches from multiple beatings. Research shows that 90% of torture victims suffer from chronic psychological symptoms.19
 

The psycho-social affects of child imprisonment combined with the limitations to fair legal representation, means that the primary focus for many Palestinian human rights and prisoner support groups is shifting from legal aid to group and individual counselling. This generation of Palestinian child prisoners are children of the occupation. Upon release, they do not return to a safe environment, but to the environment they have grown up in; of curfews and incursions, unemployment and collective punishment. Ex-prisoners are also issued with special an identity card, which makes obtaining travel permits for daily movement throughout the OPT even more difficult.20
 
It is estimated that 45% of Palestinian children suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a sign of trauma, the long term effects of which include depression, anxiety, antisocial behaviour and non-specific physical complaints including change of identity, low self-esteem, emotional instability, fatigue and social withdrawal and a wide range of psychosomatic complaints such as headaches and stomach pain.
 
For evidence on the psychological effects of imprisonment on children, an extreme case is the world?s youngest political prisoner. Nour was born in prison shortly after his pregnant mother, Manal Naji Mahmoud Ghanem was arrested on the 17 April 2003. Noar has so far served one and a half years in Tilmond Central Prison, Israeli. He is one and a half years old, and is already suffering marked mental trauma 21, comparing himself to his peers (women prisoners) and alienated from other males and other children. Consequently, his sense of ?self? is markedly skewed, which at such a young age already poses social and communication problems as well as psychological unbalance.
 
The type of torture experienced by Palestinian children should be conceived in the framework of state torture. It is a conscious decision of the Israeli state to employ these techniques as part of an overall strategy aimed at weakening any actual or potential resistance to occupation. It is not aimed solely at the individual, but at the entirety of Palestinian society. As the DCI reported, ?the deep rooted community spirit and sense of collective responsibility means that the suffering and stress of individual members affects everyone.?22 The cumulative effect of the occupation and generational arrest means reaches beyond the individual to the social fabric as a whole.

The facts on the ground show that situation is growing worse for child prisoners. The numbers are growing, as are the disproportionate length of sentences. Local Palestinian human rights groups such as the DCI/PS are desperately trying to raise international attention beyond the UN legislation and ICJ ruling, which they rightly argue ?still remain on paper?. The DCI/PS has published a comprehensive book documenting the rapidly escalating problem of child prisoners, or as they have entitled it about the Stolen Youth. From 30 June ? 2 July 2005 they will host an international conference, Kids behind bars: A child?s rights perspective in order to rally international pressure on Israel

The current international passivity towards Israel?s actions turns universal human rights law into a two tier system, which protects certain ethnicities and ignores others. Moreover, the financial and political backing of Israel by the two power blocks, the US and the EU, provide Israel with the political legitimacy and economic means to continue its occupation.
 
In the meantime, Israel has embarked upon a series of public relations stunts or ?concessions?. On 21 February 2005, after Sharm El-Sheikh meetings, Israel released 500 Palestinian prisoners. The fate of Palestinian child detainees has been all but forgotten, and not one child has been released as part of this initiative. Once again, under international law, their release should be a priority. Instead, the freed prisoners had nearly completed their sentences, which coincidently were primarily for minor offences, such as travelling with an incorrect permit. This reflects the use and abuse of the prison population as a bargaining chip. The ?revolving door? nature of the arrests is part of this process, and distorts the prison figures as Palestinians are continually arrested, released and then picked up again at a later date. Meanwhile, the current Palestinian generation is growing up with the same experiences as their parents? generation; second class ?citizens? without a state or a representative government on either the national nor the international stage. This is the daily reality, which Palestinian children, including babies such as Noar, have to suffer the consequences of.