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Defence for Children International (DCI) Palestine "is a national section of the international non-government child rights organisation and movement (dedicated to) promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children," according to international law principles.
Each year, hundreds, under 18, are arrested, detained, interrogated, tortured, and prosecuted, around 6,500 since 2000 alone.
In June 2009, DCI/Palestine's report titled, "Palestinian Child Prisoners," documented their systematic, institutionalized torture and abuse, including testimonies providing chilling evidence, including from Mahmoud speaking for others saying:
"I went from having a normal life at home to handcuffs, deprivation of sleep, shouting, threats, rounds of interrogation, serious accusations," beatings and other abuse. As a result, "life (is now) dark, filled with fear and pessimism - tough days that words cannot describe."
On January 6, DCI/Palestine issued an "urgent appeal (for the) children of Silwan," an Arab village adjacent to Jerusalem's Old City, one of 28 such communities incorporated into the city.
Evidence of serious forms of abuse were documented. In 2010, sharp increases in child arrests occurred. According to Israeli police data, 1,267 criminal files were opened between November 2009 and October 2010, accusing children of throwing stones, based solely on unconfirmed suspicions.
On November 24, 2010, 60 prominent Israeli professionals, including educators, authors, psychiatrists and psychologists, social workers, and children's rights specialists wrote Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top officials saying:
"....children and teenagers related that they had been dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night or arrested in their neighborhoods by undercover detectives and special security forces; taken in for questioning while handcuffed and unescorted by their parents; in certain cases, the families were not notified of the arrest in real time; minors were asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release; were threatened and humiliated by their interrogators; and some were even subjected to physical violence while taken in for questioning and under interrogation."
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