The Al Aroub Children

Ages as of arrest: 16
Place of residence: Aroub Refugee Camp, Hebron
Date of arrest: 30 October 2008
Source of picture: www.maanimages.com

 

Hatem is a teacher in the Palestine Technical College. He told Addameer that on the 30th October 2008 at approximately 10:15 a.m. the Israeli Occupation Forces arrived at the college in four military jeeps. Hatem was the only teacher present in the playground area at that time. One of the soldiers shouted at him, “Where are the boys that threw stones?” There had been an allegation that stones had been thrown at an Israeli civilian car by a person who came from the Refugee Camp and who had been wearing a black jacket. Hatem told the soldier that the typical school day is from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. so all of the children were inside their classes. The soldier then pushed Hatem to the ground and ordered the other soldiers to search the college. Around ten soldiers entered the college. They kicked open the doors and entered one of the classrooms where the children were taking their practical classes. They closed the door, and one of the soldiers started beating a physically disabled student that was sitting in the first row. The soldiers started yelling at the boys and then pushed one of the students, MD. One of the soldiers grabbed MD and shouted, “You are the boy that threw the stones!” MD was arrested along with six other boys from that room. The soldiers then entered the other classrooms and began randomly arresting students. They specifically targeted those who were wearing black jackets. The soldiers then took all of the boys to the playground area and prevented the teachers from talking with them.

 

The soldiers subsequently started to beat one of the students, RB, by slapping his face and kicking him on his head. Hatem tried to help him, but the soldiers threatened to open fire. They then fired stun grenades and live bullets into the playground area. The soldiers continued to beat some of the other detained students. Hatem states that he could hear the students screaming from the beatings, however, he was prevented from doing anything to help them. The director of the college called an ambulance, but it was delayed because the soldiers were blocking the entrance of the Camp. The soldiers then blindfolded and shackled 19 students and forced them to sit at the base of the military tower at the entrance of the Refugee Camp. After fifteen minutes, the soldiers released nine students and took the rest into custody.

 

Testimony from RB, one of the 16 year-old students arrested on 30 October 2008, taken by Addameer Attorney Firas Sabbah on 3 November 2008 at Gush Etzion Military Detention Centre:

My name is RB. I was born on the 26th of October 1992. I’m a 10th grade student at the Palestine Technical College where I study agriculture. On the 30th October 2008, as usual, I went to school. I was supposed to have an exam that day. At around 10:30 I was terrified when I saw soldiers entering the classroom. They started randomly arresting my classmates. Then the soldier told me to get out of the class. I was taken to the playground area of the school. When the soldier saw me looking at him he grabbed my head and slapped me on the face. He told me to keep my face to the ground. After that he made all of us stand in one row and we were forced to walk one after the other towards the military tower. I lost my place in the row and the soldier hit me on my legs and kicked me. Another soldier beat me until we reached the gate of the Refugee Camp. After that, the soldier laughed in my face and when I looked back he slapped me and beat me so hard on the chest that I felt it was difficult to breathe. I fell to the ground where I continued to be beaten. After about three hours I was blindfolded and shackled and pushed into the military jeep. My blindfold slipped in the process of getting into the jeep so I was beaten again.

 

On 6 November 2008, the eight children were brought to Ofer military court. They had been detained for eight days with adults in an adult facility. All eight boys were charged with throwing stones at a moving vehicle, even though the sole evidence against them were the testimonies of three Israeli soldiers.

 

Addameer Attorney Mahmoud Hassan argued in their defense that detaining these children with adults in an adult facility is a direct violation of international law. Less than two weeks previously, Adv. Hassan had successfully used a similar argument to secure the release of two 14 year-old boys who were arrested from their homes in Beit Ummar on the 9 October 2008. Each boy in that case was released with a bail of 8,000 NIS (Approx $2,111). According to Addameer’s experience, this marked a landmark decision, in that it was the first time that a military judge agreed to release children under the recognition that it is illegal for them to be detained with adults. On this occasion, however, the military judge rejected Adv. Hassan’s argument and ordered that the eight boys were to be detained until the end of their trial. Adv. Hassan appealed this decision and called for the boys to be released on bail. The appeal was successful, and all eight were released on bail for the duration of the trial, which is now underway.

 

While securing the boys’ release on bail marks a small victory for them, and for the rule of law in the military courts, it cannot overshadow the ease with which Palestinian children are subjected to ill-treatment and months of detention and stressful trials, often, as is the case here, based on no evidence at all.

 

On 4 June 2009, the first witnesses were heard in the trial against the eight boys. None of the eight confessed while under interrogation in Ofer, and there is no external evidence in the file against them; there have been no complaints submitted from any of the Israeli civilians in the cars allegedly subjected to stone throwing on 30 October 2008. The prosecution’s entire case thus rests on the statements of three Israeli soldiers who claimed to witness the children throwing the stones. However, these statements are tenuous at best, and are replete with alarming inconsistencies. For example, in the statements the soldiers speak only in generalities and they do not identify specific children or on what basis they arrested the eight boys; all they do say is that there was a stone throwing incident and they arrested these children. In addition, the three soldiers all claim in their statements to not have entered the school when carrying out the arrests. However, in their statements to Addameer, the school’s teachers and the school manager all said the soldiers entered the school and arrested the eight boys there.

 

Even more indicative of the capricious nature of the selection and arrest of the eight boys, one of the three soldiers confirmed under cross examination in court on 4 June 2009, “I don’t know how many I arrested, I don’t know who was throwing stones, but I’m sure that I arrested the ones who were throwing stones”.

 

The next hearing in the trial is set for September 24, 2009.