Nablus – The family of 13-year-old Mohammed Basil Zalbani has been in fear and anxiety since he was arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities more than 5 months ago and imprisoned on charges of carrying out a stabbing attack inside an Israeli bus near the entrance to Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem.
The family strives to refute the accusations of the occupation, especially since their child is a minor who is not tried in actual prison as stipulated by law, but they fear the attempts of the occupation to manipulate his age to become 14 years, and thus facilitate his accusation and trial as an adult and transfer him from the boarding school (care home) to prison.
The concerns of the Zalbani family coincide with Israeli attempts to pass a bill in the Israeli Knesset, introduced by extremist member Yitzhak Kreuzer, to amend the criminal code to allow the arrest of Jerusalemite children at the age of 12.
Basil Zalbani, the father of the child prisoner Mohammed – Al Jazeera Net – says that the occupation has so far held 4 trial sessions for his minor child, who admitted that he is "guilty", to take the rule of the minor and remain in a boarding school as it is now, and does not transfer to prison and tried as an adult.
The father insists on refusing to blame his son on a sin he did not commit, as the occupation authorities claim, namely "the killing of his colleague by the Israeli policeman during the stabbing operation".
On February 13, the Israeli occupation arrested the child Mohammed Al-Zalbani from inside a bus at the entrance to Shuafat refugee camp, and accused him of carrying out a stabbing attack inside the bus, during an identity check carried out by two Israeli soldiers, during which one of them opened fire at the place and killed his colleague by mistake.
Charge Entry Al-Aqsa
Like the Zalbani family, Jamal Abu Hamdan's parents from the village of Beita near Nablus in the northern West Bank fear an "unknown fate" for their son languishing in Megiddo prison, as the proposed legal amendments affect West Bank children who are more or less captive and whose suffering is compounded by trials according to "military orders."
The danger of the new occupation measures lies in "expanding the type of punishment" and not just lowering the age, so the accused of "entering Al-Aqsa Mosque without a permit" faces a large sentence that exceeds the act he committed, according to Jamal's mother, Mrs. Ghada Abu Hamdan.
She adds that her son was arrested about two months ago and subjected to interrogation for 40 days and a trial of 6 sessions in harsh and intimidating conditions that accompanied him since his arrest, and not only during his movement between the court and prison.
Jamal Abu Hamdan is one of more than 160 Palestinian children arrested by Israel and tried by laws that it is amending to increase their suffering, which prompted the Palestinian street to come out to reject these repressive measures, the most prominent of which was in the city of Nablus.
Racism and the expansion of the type of punishment
Sahar Francis, director and lawyer of Addameer Association for Prisoner Support and Human Rights, explained that the Israeli Penal Code does not originally stipulate that any child is actually arrested, regardless of the crime he has committed, and that those under 14 years old are transferred to rehabilitation centers, held at home or fined financially, but without being arrested in prisons.
Sahar shows – for Al Jazeera Net – that with the arrest of the Jerusalemite child Ahmed Manasra in 2015, Israel amended its law to become the arrest of those aged 14 years associated with only three crimes, namely "murder, attempted murder and difficult harm."
As for the new draft law, it aims to abolish the old procedure and arrest children as young as 12 and punish them with actual imprisonment while expanding the charges against them, such as introducing any crimes related to what the occupation calls "terrorism" and interprets it in its own way, such as throwing stones and participating in demonstrations, among others.
The new law also mainly affects Jerusalemite children and is not linked to the Military Courts Law and military orders that Israel deals with detained children from the West Bank, which enables the occupation to detain children for hours even if they are 5 years old, and to detain others over 12 and immediately imprison them, and try them.
This is "duality and racism", according to Francis, by which Israel deals mainly with Palestinian child detainees, and increases its racism by defining the Israeli child as those under the age of 18, while his Palestinian counterpart is the one who is under 16 years old.
The dangers of the amendment also lie in expanding the type of punishment, thus transferring any Jerusalemite child arrested to the occupation prisons in Damon, Ofer and others, and not to care homes or home or fined.
Francis says the type of punishment Israel uses with children violates international conventions on the rights of the child, which already prohibit detention and call for the care and rehabilitation of child captives, and amending the law would allow Israel's military commander in the West Bank to "amend military orders" to make them more unjust.
Regardless of the age of the child prisoner or the action taken against him, Israel has been violently committed against him since his arrest, arresting him in a state of great intimidation, taking him from among his relatives in handcuffs, subjecting him to abuse during interrogation and moving between prisons and courts, isolation alone as well as an unfair trial.
Israel has been violent with child captives since their arrest (social media)
Military orders
Amani Sarahneh, media officer at the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, said Israel does not treat detained Palestinian children as children, which violates international laws and norms.
Sarahna adds to Al Jazeera Net that regardless of the laws on the trial of children or their amendments, the injustice of the occupation is mainly a racial distinction between the Jerusalemite child who dealt with it in accordance with the Israeli civil law, and his counterpart in the West Bank, which is treated by military orders related to juveniles, "it begins with legal amendments and then moves in one way or another to military orders in the West Bank."
Sarahneh pointed out that the danger lies in the fact that these amendments are taking place under the shadow of an extreme right-wing government that turns all the slogans it raises and threats into laws and legislation, and incites a great public incitement against the Palestinians, adding, "The occupation state wants to legalize the violence it practices in various forms against Palestinians, especially prisoners, including children."