June 25
GUEST: Shaina Low, U.S. Advocacy Officer at Defense for Children International - Palestine and former Development Coordinator for The Freedom Theater in Jenin, talks about police abuse and HR 2407, the "No Way To Treat a Child" Act.Defense of Children International - Palestine
There is no trouble finding pictures of Israeli soldiers arresting children. Some are so young that you wonder what they could have done. Most have done absolutely nothing as it turns out. They are arrested almost indiscriminately as punishment for comunities that are demonstrating against house demolitions, checkpoints, and the grinding brutality of occupation.
So most arrests are made in the middle of the night, with doors pushed in and children torn from their beds. Children are routinely abused and often tortured to get them to admit some made up offense, usually stone throwing. They don't have lawyers; there is no proof offered. If they want to go home to their parents, they sign. These apartheid plea deals are made in almost every case.
Apartheid? Well Palestinians don't have anywhere near the rights of Jews in Israel and the occupied territories. All the punishments are more sever, and all the judges are members of the Israeli Defense Force.
Now that so many Americans have come to understand the horrors of the "New Jim Crow," perhaps we can also comprehend the monster we have created in our colony, Israel. We fund the monster to the tune of 3.8 billion dollars a year. We defend the monster at the UN and in other international bodies. And with all of our money money and protection, the monster can't even treat Palestinian children with humanity. Shame on us for letting this happen.
