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Ahmed was released. The next day he didn't want to go to school. Who could blame him. His parents persuaded him. He didn't go to classes. He stayed in the principal's office all day.
"He wants to be a doctor when he grows up".His mother says he is a good student and a good boy." He has "seven brothers and sisters. The five boys sleep in one room, on two beds and on mattresses on the floor."
Ahmed's mother knows Israeli arrests happen often. "We are used to it," she said. It doesn't make it right. It gets worse. Palestinian children are terrorized, traumatized, tortured, abused, and imprisoned. Most sentences range from two weeks to 10 months.
Sworn affidavits obtained from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PACTI), Adalah, DCI-Palestine, and other human rights groups say systematic cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are commonplace.
Children are forcefully arrested, painfully handcuffed, blindfolded, intimidated, verbally abused, strip searched, beaten, threatened, isolated, sexually threatened and abused, and forced to sign confessions in Hebrew they don't understand.
It's standard practice. On average, it happens twice daily. What's a child to do? Going to school, running errands for parents, or playing with friends is risky. Normal life under occupation's impossible.
Charging children with stone throwing is commonplace. It's unconscionable. It happens daily. Under Military Order 1651, Section 221, it's punishable as follows:
- against people or property, it carries a maximum 10 year penalty; for children aged 13 or younger, it's six months; and
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