REFLECTION
Paulette Schroeder
I am most concerned these recent weeks in
children are disappearing from our neighborhood in the Old City of Hebron. It’s
not by kidnapping. It’s not by trafficking. It’s not an unknown person
with a criminal record perpetrating the crimes. Rather, the Israeli military is
again pressing its boots down harder on the heads of the Palestinian
people. If restrictions on travel and commerce, land confiscations,
home invasions, and forced business closures have not succeeded in convincing
Palestinian families to leave their land, then MAYBE taking their children
will.
Our Palestinian neighbor sent
her 15yr.old son to buy bread. Fifteen minutes later, Israeli soldiers
blindfolded and handcuffed him, accusing him of throwing stones. The boy
insisted he did not throw stone/s at the soldiers. Nevertheless, he is now
spending time in the Israeli prison system. Having spent the first 17 days
in Ofir Prison among men who may/ may not have committed serious crimes, he
continues to insist on his innocence. He will spend 4 or 5 months in
another Israeli prison until his court case is completed. All for the “crime” of
supposedly throwing a stone at soldiers!
Mohammed, and Eissa too, were
walking with the 15 yr. old. Mohammed is 14yrs. old and Eissa is 19. The
Israeli authorities held Mohammed in Ofir Prison until a donor
contributed 2000 shekels. (This amounts to $500.00 approximately.
also serving time in Ofir. Both these boys insist they did not throw a
stone.
Near our CPT apartment soldiers
accused a 12 yr. old boy of throwing stone/s. He too spent one week in
Ofir prison.
Soldiers recently blindfolded and
handcuffed an 8 yr. old boy for stone throwing. They forced him to spend 8
hours with a dog behind a military gate.
A 14 yr. old neighbor boy was
helping his dad in his store, cutting cardboard boxes filled
with wares. The soldiers saw him with a knife, blindfolded him, whisked him away
behind the military gate, holding him for two hours while the father pleaded at
the gate.
A 15 yr. old boy in the
neighborhood ran an errand for his father. The soldiers saw him running,
grabbed him, and likewise detained him behind the military gate for 2 hrs. as
his father also insisted his son did no wrong.
Besides the issue of the boys’
ages, and the severity of the sentences imposed, there is also the persistent
need of the parents to travel 2 hrs to the prison, their consequent loss of
work, and their travel expenses involved. (Approximately
$15.00 each trip) Sometimes before a child’s case is settled, the parents
must travel 4 or 5 times to the courtroom.
I have only begun to enumerate the
stories of children recently taken from our midst. Though the people’s
patience has been great and their will to resist persists; yet anyone who
witnesses these actions firsthand will call them insanity, dehumanization,
oppression, collective profiling. From my point of view, this problem in
embarrassment to humanity, and a horrid usage of tax dollars. It is urgent that
the international community pressure the state of
each one’s own government to put a stop to this
madness.