391 Palestinian children are still detained in the Israeli occupation prisons

Article June 21, 2004

Dear Dr. El-Najjar:

I read where two 15 year old Palestinian girls were arrested in Nablus by Israeli forces.

Do you know if these or any of the other 2,500 children detained by Israel have been released yet.

Can't the UN or some other agency help, or is Israel too powerful a political force?

I am very disturbed by what is happening in Palestine, Iraq, and other war-torn countries.

Sincerely,

Rev. Gene Nelson

Editor: About 391 Palestinian children under 18 years are still detained in Israeli detention centers, as political prisoners, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society website, which also has statistics and several reports about Palestinian political prisoners, including females and children. Here's the link: http://www.ppsmo.org/e-website/

The very first article in the website, Statistical Update: Palestinian Child Political Prisoners in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions reveals the following statistics at the top of the article.

Palestinian Child Political Prisoners in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions

Monthly Update

October 2004

Issued by Child &Youth Department

Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs

Key Figures and Facts:

At least 2500 children have been subjected to arrest since Sept 2000.
391 Palestinian children under 18 years are still detained in Israeli detention centers. While More than 400 prisoners (just) exceeded age 18 in prison.
7% of child prisoners suffer diseases and denied medical care.
50% of child prisoners from rural areas.
77% of child prisoners arrested from their homes.
25% of child prisoners from Nablus area.
83% of child Prisoners are school students.
Average family size of child prisoners is 9 members.
74% of child prisoners belong to families with 7-12 members.
41% of child prisoners belong to families with very low income.

Since the outbreak of Al Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, more than 2500 Palestinian children have been arrested. 391 children are still prisoned in Israeli prisons and detention facilities. Most of them are held within the Israeli proper far from their place of residency. While about 400 Palestinian prisoners exceed age 18 in prison.

US sanctions against Sudan

For the last several months, I have been receiving emails from the True Majority.org on many topics, from election to Sudan. However, I am quite perturbed by the latest move asking the Congress to impose sanctions against Sudan. They wanted me to sign a petition, which I avoided. Instead, I sent a note out that opposes sanction. Sanction, IMHO, harms only the innocent people, and never the regime, no matter how evil they are. Like Iraq, I also see a blueprint for future invasion or bombardment of Sudan, which would only create more problems for its poor people. As you may know, under US pressure, a special session of UN was moved recently to Kenya to pressurize the regime in Sudan to signing a treaty with the southern rebels. In all likelihood, within 5 years, a plebscite would seal the fate of southern Sudan as a separate state, much like what happened with East Timor.
I personally don't have any problem with autonomy or independece for any community that does not want to live together with the mother state. But when such opportunities are selectively applied to western surrogates, I smell a rat, and am offended. I, therefore, urge you to kindly write a letter to your reps to oppose sanction on Sudan. As a sample, I have left my letter below. If you don't have enough time to write, you can at least copy and paste some portions of it.

Thanks,

Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Here is the link for your congressman: http://www.capwiz.com/rollcall/dbq/officials/directory/directory.dbq?

command=congdir

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Dear Congressman Weldon,

I am against any sanction against Sudan. As past experiences have shown, sanctions kill only innocent human beings. There are more terrible places in the world today, if one were to punish a country for its crime against its people, than Sudan. Why select Sudan? Is it because it is an African country with a Muslim majority? Whom are we trying to fool? Is not the world body smart enough to read between the lines of our hypocrisy?

As to a list of countries where UN mandated actions are deserving (should there be one), I mention only a few glaring examples. The first example I cite is Chechnya where its people have been facing genocide under Putin (and previously under Yeltsin). Just a reading of reports of various human rights group is sufficient to understand the severity of the case. In the last 200 some years, the Chechens never agreed to their being part of Russia. They have a right to their independence. Still, our government, which tries to sell itself as the symbol of freedom, has not taken a stand that would mitigate suffering of Chechens. Instead, under Bush Jr., the murderous Putin has become a 'trusted' friend. How ridiculous, how immoral!

Then there is Kashmir. For the last 57 years (since 1947), the Kashmiri people in IOK have suffered one of the most inhuman persecutions that the world has seen at the hands of the Indian government. Let us not forget that the Indian government has failed to carry out the UN mandated plebiscite for nearly six decades. Nearly a million people have been killed. Torture, rape, disappearance of Kashmiris are routinely practiced by Indian security forces. Yet, our USA government has not done anything to mitigate the problem. Where is the moral outcry for those suffering there?

The third example is the suffering of the Moro Muslims in the southern Philippine islands of Mindanao. Let us not forget the fact that they lived and ruled the entire island nation before the Spaniards came and occupied the territories, forcing most people to embrace Christianity. The remnants of those who tried to retain their traditional faith were subsequently marginalized and were forced to be cornered around the Mindanao islands. These people have been fighting for autonomy for more than a century. Filipino Christians have been killing them routinely for all these years. Yet, our government is the greatest supporter for such heinous crimes. Why not solve the problem there before getting too excited about Sudan?

How about the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians? Do I need to remind our elected reps that they have miserably failed to take actions that would have mitigated sufferings of people within the disputed territories? What about six dozen of UN Resolutions against Israel? Why not implement those against the rogue state?

So, when I see that our reps are now all agog about punishing Sudan, I smell a rat, albeit a rotten and fat one, and feel that some evil, hideous agenda is behind such initiatives.

No, I cannot stand for any sanction against any country. Let those who feel strongly about their moral responsibilities, prioritize their actions on the basis of years of suffering of the persecuted humanity (Chechnya, Moro and Palestine/Kashmir, Rohinga, Kurdish, Acheh, Sudan in that order) and not for some political agenda that fits with expansionist goal of our Bush administration.
Regards,

Stop Using Dissident or Exiles for Intelligence Verification

It is so often we read in western media that the dissidents or exiles of the country are always quoted to verify the existence or the pursuit of WMD.

Most of these dissidents or exiles are political or economic or both in nature – they are not happy with the political agenda in their home country, the government threatens to persecute them or simply they migrated for better prospects. They may not be spies, they do not work for any intelligence agency and they have every reasons and motivations to make claims against their government.

What makes them a credible source of informants ?. They could be some street vagabonds from foreign country wandering in the street of America among the poor and homeless Americans, telling some large and sophisticated agencies that their government is running a uranium enriched program. And voila! The media will quote them as some credible source of information, or the media will quote the intelligence agency that quotes the dissidents or exiles. This does have the impact for readers to believe the dissidents or exiles as they are more willing to provide information and therefore likely to be true that their country is pursuing WMD. And of course when dissidents or exiles are mentioned, the country is portrayed in the negative sense and therefore sanctions and pre-emptive strikes can be justified. Iraq has been one such case. Watch out 'axis of evils'- the dissidents and exiles are making you look more evil - with the help of the media, of course

Fauzi Shahab, Malaysia