More child arrests

Partial view of Silwan, with the Dome of the Rock  and Al-Aqsa mosque on the skyline

Three 14- and 15-year old boys were arrested at their homes before dawn this morning in Silwan, a Palestinian community of 55,000 located just below the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. I learned at the monthly meeting of the Silwan Task Force that frequent arrests of minors has been one of the community's major problems.

Another view of Silwan

The meeting was held at the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, which keeps a monthly tally of arrests, demolitions, and confrontations.Their website, as the sign says, is www.silwanic.net.

Jawad Sayam

The Center's director, Jawad Sayam, says the three boys arrested this morning on charges of stone-throwing will probably appear before a judge tomorrow. He says many boys are released the same day they are arrested, but under Israeli law the maximum possible penalty for the offense is 20 years, and the longest sentence to date is 46 months.

Jawad said 26 Silwan  boys were arrested in January and February,  but the number decreased in March, owing in part to the fact that many are under "house arrest" and off the streets.  He says it takes a while for the police computers to register the end of house arrests, and his own nephew was arrested once at 12:15 a.m., even though his detention period had ended at midnight. It took three hours to get him released.

He says five 16-year-olds have been in custody since February, and police seek four-year sentences for them for throwing Molotov cocktails. "Even if they did this, they should be entitled to see lawyers and their parents," he says.

Some boys in Silwan

A report issued last year by the Madaa Creative Center of Silwan says that 90% of children arrested did not have their parents present during their initial interrogation, 87% of them were psychologically abused, and 77% were physically abused. In terms of the impact on the children, the report says 90% experience anxiety, 80% have nightmares or insomnia, and 40% have a drop in school performance.

One positive trend: the number of children arrested in Silwan decreased from 189 in 2011 to 94 in 2012, according to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, but the number of days of house arrest increased.

Street in Silwan with Old City wall on hilltop

House in lower Silwan

City of David park

According to the Madaa Creative Center report, about 1,500 Palestinian residents of the Al-Bustan section of Silwan face possible displacement because demolition orders are pending against their houses to make way for a "Biblical garden" as part of the City of David settlement project. We heard earlier that those demolition orders have been frozen until the October municipal elections.

Handala

In the office of the Wadi Hilweh Center I saw a reproduction of the ubiquitous icon of Palestinian defiance and resistance, the barefoot refugee boy Handala with hands clasped in rejection, always facing away. He was created by cartoonist Naji al-Ali, who was assassinated in 1987.