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A mass arrest has taken place in Hebron in the West Bank by the IDF. 27 people were arrested,
some of them as young as eight years old. We spoke to B'Tselem, a human rights watch
group in Israel who told us all about the arrests.
"The school boys were arrested on route to school in a Palestinian neighborhood of Hebron.
The army detained 27 children, they were all taken in a vehicle to the police station and
of those, of that number, 20 were released quickly into the custody of the Palestinian
authorities and seven were interrogated in the Hebron police station - which is an Israeli
police station. The reason given is increasing acts of stone throwing on cars and on people
who drive down the roads that these schools are on. According to the army's announcement
which we heard there was also an attempt to throw a Molotov cocktail at a car that was
driving down that road. Video that we received that was filmed by an international volunteer
in Hebron shows the soldiers actually dragging these children with their rucksacks into custody.
The age of criminal responsibility both in Israel and the West Bank is 12 so under the
age of 12 regardless of the suspicions against the child it is prohibited to arrest them
even to detain them for a moment. They simply have no criminal responsibility. The army
admitted that at least 14 of the children were actually under the age of 12. We managed
to put together a partial list of the names and dates of birth of some of the children
who are between eight and ten, very very young ages. Children that cannot be legally arrested.
We think it is unacceptable to simply have this sweeping mass arrest operation of these
children without taking them to the police station and interrogating them without the
presence of their parents and in some cases without even informing the parents.
This is actually in violation of the Israeli youth law, the Israeli youth law that protects
children of this age. Does not apply to Palestinian boys and youths in the West Bank because Palestinian's
are actually subject to Israeli military law. However, the system now generally the Israeli
military courts in the West Bank generally accept and recommend that Palestinian minors
are treated with respect to the provisions of the Israeli youth law. We received information
about the numbers of prisoners and detainees on a monthly basis from the Israeli prison
service on the basis of a freedom of information request that we submit. In February of 2013,
which is the latest amount that we have figures for, a total number of minors which is anyone
under 18 that are in Israeli custody was 235. It's important to acknowledge that stone throwing
in Palestinian society is viewed in an almost completely opposite way to how Israeli's view
it. Israeli's view stone throwing as a very dangerous terrorist act, many Israeli's view
it this way. Whereas Palestinian's view it as a symbol of, and in some cases an actual
measure of, the struggle for liberation and it's completely socially sanctioned for children
to throw stones at soldiers. They don't necessarily think that all Palestinian's support throwing
stones at then. We're not ruling at who's right but trying to present to show the complexity
of the situation and of very different and disparaging position the Israeli-Palestinian
communities have on this issue.
So what do you think? Can the IDF's actions in this scenario be justified? Let us know
your thoughts about this story in a comment. Hit like on the video and hit subscribe if
you haven't already. We'll see you again next time.