A sickening tale of institutionalized child abuse in occupied Palestine.

How many violent settlers are jailed and tortured by the Israel Defence Forces?

[H/t msanthropics]

ADDENDUM: An Israeli judge rules that interrogation of children without lawyers or parents or informing the child of his rights is perfectly OK.

If you’re a Palestinian kid on the West Bank (but not a settler), this can be your fate:

Defense for Children International and B’Tselem, which gather evidence from minors and monitor the courts’ activities, note that the arrest procedures for minors remain the same.

They are still often arrested in the middle of the night, dragged out of their beds by armed, and often masked, soldiers. In some cases, 12- and 13-year-olds have been arrested on stone-throwing charges while they were on their way to visit relatives or work in the family’s field.

The hands of the minors are still bound with tight plastic handcuffs and their eyes are covered, and they are regularly tossed onto the floor of a jeep full of soldiers who often strike them. And they are brought to police stations and interrogated without their parents being present, and frequently without having a chance to consult with a lawyer.

…[T]he indictments indicate that even the prosecution is not quite sure about the details of the charges. The charge sheets contain the standard formula that the defendant threw stones in unknown locations and “at a time unknown to the prosecution.”