A letter from Kate Taber serving in Israel-Palestine
december 2014 - child military detentions
Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem… He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn (Luke 2:4a, 5-7).
Dear friends,
Holiday greetings from Bethlehem!
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A Christmas tree and nativity scene decorate Manger Square in Bethlehem, in front of the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where Jesus is said to have been born
In Bethlehem there is a huge Christmas tree in Manger Square, lights strung over every old city street, and Christmas bazaars popping up everywhere. It is incredibly special to spend this season in the place where our faith was born! Yet Bethlehem looks much different from what I always imagined it. It is not a small or quiet town. It is instead one of the larger urban Palestinian areas, with about 60,000 residents. Tourism drives the economy, so there are now countless hotels. And because of the way Israel-Palestine, and especially Palestine, is avoided during tense times of this conflict, there is room in every inn. There is also now a wall cutting the entire city off from Jerusalem and the rest of Israel, including Nazareth.
Yet for all the differences between Mary and Joseph’s Bethlehem and the Bethlehem of today, there are some tragic similarities. The gospel of Matthew tells us that Herod felt threatened by the child Jesus and therefore persecuted all the local children. Today it seems the current occupying force also feels threatened by Palestinian children and responds with persecution. Palestinian children face many traumas—from home demolitions to settler attacks to denial of family unification. However, one trauma in particular has caught the attention of all human rights advocates: the treatment of children in Israeli military detention.
This issue affects all of our Palestinian mission partners because child detention is shockingly widespread. According to the Israeli military authorities, 1,004 Palestinian children from the West Bank were detained by the military in 2013. The military courts have jurisdiction to prosecute children as young as 12 years old, although they frequently detain children much younger. Virtually all charges are somehow related to Israel’s security and the security of Israeli settlers in the West Bank; the most common charge is stone throwing.
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Palestinian children sit shackled in a military courtroom, waiting for trial-Photo courtesy of Military Court Watch
Most Palestinian children are arrested in the middle of the night by heavily armed soldiers during raids into homes. Most of the time children are taken without arrest warrants and not informed of a charge against them. Parents are not informed of where the military is taking their child. Children are typically blindfolded with their hands tied, often painfully, and many report being transported on the metal floor of a vehicle. Many report verbal and physical abuse by soldiers during transfer. Children are made to wait outside at a military outpost, regardless of conditions and usually still blindfolded and tied, until morning, when they are taken to an interrogator. Rarely are they offered food and water during their wait and they are frequently prevented from sleeping.
During interrogations children are denied access to parents, adult advocates, and lawyers. Interrogations tend to be verbally, and often physically, coercive. Interrogators use threats of violence, long-term imprisonment, and violence to family members. If a confession to the charge, most often stone throwing, is still not obtained, the interrogations become physical and children are pushed, punched, slapped, and kicked. Most children confess to offenses they may or may not have committed and are forced to sign documents in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.
Further significant violations of rights and dignity occur during children’s trials, imprisonment, and release.
I, along with other visiting Presbyterians, had the opportunity to witness such trials firsthand. We visited the military court with staff from Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), a global mission partner. I noticed that groups of three to seven teenagers would be brought into the court at a time, handcuffed and shackled. Ayed from DCI-P said there is no connection among the teenagers. It is simply faster for the court to “hear” them in a group, even though their arrest and charges are different for each. No facts were presented. No case was made. Rather, sentences or trial delays were handed down by the judge quickly and with almost no discussion by any lawyers.
When I asked about the families sitting around us, I learned that until children are sentenced, which can take two months, they are not allowed visits from family. So for many of the teenagers we saw the only opportunity they had to see their families was in the courtroom during their hearing.
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Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program Director at Defense for Children International-Palestine, a mission partner of the PC(USA)
I watched as a mother spoke urgently across the courtroom to her son, who appeared to be about 16 years old. She told Ayed she had not seen him in two months, since he was arrested. The proceedings had not begun, but the judge yelled to the mother to stop talking to her son. The mother ignored her, telling her son not to worry, that she loved him. The judge sent a prison guard to throw the mother out of the courtroom. She then promised to be quiet, but the judge indicated with a wave of her hand that the guard must throw her out. She locked eyes with her son as she left the room.
As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child this season, it is impossible for me not to imagine what his life would have been like, or Mary’s as his mother, had he been born in Bethlehem today. Mission partners like DCI-P faithfully advocate for the rights of children, year after year. Ayed himself has been on staff there for 14 years. Yet sadly the traumas are only getting worse and more widespread. As people of faith we must demand that the rights of children all over the world be honored, and especially here where the Son of God was born. As you celebrate the story of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem this season, remember the children of the Holy Land today. Pray for them. Learn about them. Advocate for them. Explore how you might partner with them.
During this season of hope, I give thanks for each of you and the ways you provide hope to me and to the people of Israel-Palestine through your prayers, your communications and advocacy, your partnership, and your contributions to this ministry. May God bless each of you with joy and hope this holiday, and may the Prince of Peace rule in our hearts and in this world.
Kate
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 344
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