RAMALLAH: As of January 1, 2013, there were 193 child prisoners in Israeli military prisons, according to Addameer Prisoner Support Network. From this total, at least 23 were under 16-years-old. On average, Addameer estimates, some 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted in Israeli military courts each year, despite the international community's moral and legal objections. In December last year, Israeli soldiers arrested 13-year-old Saddam Hussein Al-Ja'abari in Hebron, the largest city in the occupied West Bank, without bothering to inform his frantic parents. Earlier this month, when Israeli forces forcefully prevented a peaceful demonstration in the South Hebron Hills, an 18-month-old child was arrested along with its mother, three other children, and an 80-year-old man. But backwards analysis continues to dominate the public discourse on Israel-Palestine. In perfect harmony the non-logic inherent to mainstream media bias, a recent Jerusalem Post blog depicts all Palestinian children as terrorists, absurdly painting millions of kids born into dispossession and occupation as fanatics who “get trained as ‘Jihad Warriors' …indoctrinated to regard its privilege to perform a ‘courageous suicide operation.'” The author concludes by decrying “decades of determined Palestinian efforts to teach children that violence and terrorism are noble and admirable.” These are the faces of Palestine's children. It will be left to the reader to decide whether they are as helplessly terrifying and threatening as their detractors incessantly portray them. – – – – – – – – – BN
