London Protest Demands Free the Children! Free Ahed Tamimi!

inminds
13 January 2018

London protest demands freedom for Palestinian child prisoners including Ahed Tamimi #FreeAhedTamimi

On 12th January 2018, Inminds human rights group held a vigil on the Southbank of the River Thames to demand freedom for Palestinian child prisoners, including Ahed Tamimi, caged by the illegal Israeli occupation.

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "Ahed Tamimi's abduction by Israeli soldiers has received some publicity in the western media which is very rare. Of course most of it is spun negatively, to fit the Israel lobby's carefully manufactured stereotypes of Palestinians as terrorists who don't care about their own children. But none the less her photo is out there in the media, as is her video, so people can make that rational leap past the propaganda and see an unarmed young girl taken from her family by armed soldiers for no reason other than her attempt to stop them from trespassing on her yard, in her village which is illegally occupied by Israel. Even the British Foreign office minister Alistair Burt condemned the arrest saying "The truth is the soldiers shouldnâ€™t have been there and the young woman shouldnâ€™t have needed to do what she did". We are here to inform the public that Ahed's case is not an isolated incident, that hundreds of far worse cases of young Palestinian children being dragged from their families, caged, abused and tortured by the Israel army exist today. We shared a few such examples that have just happened in the last few weeks."

Last year 1,467 Palestinian children were abducted and caged by Israel, that's one Palestinian child taken from their family every 6 hours. This shocking figure is increasing, with twice as many children abducted by occupation forces during 2 weeks in December than in the whole of the previous month. This surge in the targetting of children by Israel is alarmingly, as is the brutality of the arrests. Currently there are over 359 Palestinian children suffering in Israeli dungeons.

Torture

Torturing of children is routine for Israel. 75% of Palestinian children detained by Israel are physically tortured. Figures for Jerusalem show that 40% of the children were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation.

The United Nations "Rights Of The Child" report 4th July 2013 documents the brutal torture of Palestinian children as standard practice during interrogations in order to coerce confessions. It states that children are â€œsystematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture.. physical and verbal violence, humiliation, painful restraints, hooding of the head and face in a sack, threatened with death, physical violence, and sexual assault against themselves or members of their family, restricted access to toilet, food and water. These crimes are perpetrated from the time of arrest, during transfer and interrogation, to obtain a confession but also on an arbitrary basis as testified by several Israeli soldiers as well as during pre-trial detention..â€

London protest demands freedom for Palestinian child prisoners including Ahed Tamimi #FreeAhedTamimi

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel states that over a 1000 complaints of torture have been submitted but not a single complaint has led to a criminal investigation, let alone a trial or a conviction. Israeli law has never criminalized torture and whilst Israel is a signatory to the UN Conventions Against Torture it insists that it doesn't apply to Palestinians. United Nations funded Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture for Occupied Palestinian Territory, in 2014, treated 845 Palestinian victims of torture including 317 women and 135 children.

The protest focused on a few recent examples from the last few weeks of the arrest, detention and torture of Palestinian children by Israeli occupation forces.

Asala Abu Ryyan

15 years old school girl Asala Abu Ryyan was with her cousin Manar when Israeli occupation forces started firing at the girls. The girls were injured with Asala being shot in the hand. The Red Cross ambulance taking the girls to hospital was stopped by Israeli soldiers at gunpoint. The soldiers entered the ambulance and started beating the injured girls inside the ambulance before dragging them out. Asala's hijab was ripped off her head and her head was slammed against the jeep. The whole brutal episode was captured on video. Parts of the soldiers rifle, the sniper scope and stand, were later found in the ambulance, having broken off during the violent beating. The abducted girls were taken to the police station in the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba where they were tortured. They were hit on their heads and insulted and put in a freezing cold container which was open at the bottom.

This attack on a Red Cross ambulance was in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention and constitutes a war crime. The girls had committed no crime and weren't even accused of committing a crime, and yet they were tortured. Eventually in exchange for the rifle parts left in the ambulance the girls were released without charge.

Fawzi al-Juneidi

Due to his fatherâ€™s injury and his motherâ€™s terminal illness, 16 years old Fawzi al-Juneidi is the bread earner in his family. He sacrificed his education to support his family. Whilst he was shopping for groceries he was ambushed by over two dozen Israeli soldiers. He was severely beaten during arrest and tortured during interrogation. Photos of his arrest, blindfolded, disoriented, with torn jeans, surrounded by over 25 armed occupation troops wearing armour padding has gone viral.

Almost every soldier who ambushed him, took turns to beat him with their rifle butts. He was so badly beaten one of his upper ribs moved 3cm out of place after repeatedly being struck with a rifle. The soldiers also dislocated his shoulder. His whole body was covered in bruises. The beating continued during interrogation, at one point he hide under the desk in the detention centre for cover, but they pulled him back up and continued to savagely beat him. They then threw him into a tub filled with cold water and took his shoes off and crushed his legs, trying to get him to confess to throwing a stone - a charge that carries a 20 year sentence. He was left bound on a concrete floor, denied medical treatment for 4 days until a judge ordered he be taken to hospital. Even in hospital the interrogation continued with the soldiers threatening him if he didn't confess.

With his condition rapidly deteriorating, he was finally given bail 14 days later, on ransom of 10000 shekels. As soon as he was released he was rushed to hospital. But he is not free and has to appear in military court next Thursday, 18th January 2018, facing a possible 20 year sentence.

Ahed Tamimi

16 years old school girl Ahed Tamimi is a prominent child activist in her village of Nabih Saleh which is under Israeli military occupation, surrounded by checkpoints and watchtowers and illegal settlements.

She was arrested after video of her courageously standing up to armed soldiers who had invaded her yard, who had less than an hour earlier shot her 14 years old cousin, Mohammed Tamimi, in the head at close range, went viral. Mohammed, in critical condition, had to be put in a medically induced coma for several days before seven surgeons operated on him for six hours to save his life.

After the video went viral, armed soldiers raided the Tamimi house in the early hours of the morning and abducted Ahed. When her mother Nariman went to the police station to support her daughter she too was arrested. Both mother and daughter are caged at Israel's notorious HaSharon prison facing multiple charges of resisting the occupation. If found guilty by the military court, which has a conviction rate of 99.7% for Palestinians, she could face over 20 years imprisonment. Ahed's next court date is next Monday, 15th January 2018.

These are just 3 examples from the last few weeks of Palestinian child prisoners. Today there are over 359 Palestinian children suffering in Israeli dungeons.

London protest demands freedom for Palestinian child prisoners including Ahed Tamimi #FreeAhedTamimi

HP - Complicit in Torture

The protest finished by showing people what they as individuals could do in support of Palestinian child prisoners..

What Can We Do?

One of the questions that arises is what can we do? Other than contact our local representatives, MPs, MEPs, and ask them to do something, what can we do ourselves?

There is a very well know computer company that is seeped in complicity with these crimes against Palestinian children. We can take action against this company, boycott their products and demand they stop their complicity. This company is Hewlett Packard, we know it as the friendly printer company, but it has a very dark side.

Hewlett Packard provides the essential IT services and infrastructure that enable the Israeli Prison Service to function. Their prisons and interrogation centres where Palestinian children are caged and tortured are powered by HP.

In 2012 HP provided the central servers for the operational system of the Israeli prison service ("Tzohar") and its on-going maintenance. In a contract worth $35 million, HP has also executed a project for e-mail storage and archive for the Israeli prison service.

HP developed the Kidma information system for the Israeli Prison Service which includes the prisoners management system and intelligence subs systems, helping the occupation keep illegal records on Palestinians it has abducted and their families.

We ask people on conscience to join us in boycotting HP products and to demand demand HP end its complicity in the torture and caging of Palestinian children; and to demand freedom for the children; and freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners.

Free Palestine!

London protest demands freedom for Palestinian child prisoners including Ahed Tamimi #FreeAhedTamimi

Zionist Federation former vice-chair mounting counter demo against protest in solidarity with child prisoners
outside the US embassy - with Saudi flag flying in unity with the Israeli flag as partners against Palestine on 13th Jan 2018
Photo credit: Lara Khalidi

Zionist Counter Protest

The Zionist Federation's former vice-chair mounted a one man counter protest against our protest. He was heard spouting lines from the official propaganda sheet prepared by the Israeli government for its paid trolls - something about Palestinians are suicide bombers, etc. When one young black couple he accosted refused to swallow the Israeli government propaganda he shouted at them that they were racists. They just laughed at him in pity. The next day this same Zionist Federation's former vice-chair was seen mounting another counter demo against another protest in solidarity with child prisoners outside the US embassy - this time he was seen with a Saudi flag in unity with the Israeli flag as partners against Palestine and the axes of resistance. We wonder how much of the Zionist Federation budget is now bankrolled from Riyadh?