Horrifying childhood of Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons

PETALING JAYA - Apart from the mass killings of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, people rarely here about the Palestinian prisoners, especially children.

As part of a systematic policy, the Israeli occupation targeted Palestinian children, subjecting them to murder, injury, arrest, detention and trial.

Author of “The Prisoners’ Diaries” Puan Sri Norma Hashim said although the horrifying truth of the Israeli occupation has always been portrayed on traditional and social media on the bombings, mass killings and arson on Palestinian villages, the news were never enough to cover everything.

It has been there for many years, she added.

She said children as young as eight who were supposed to be in school and play with their friends were detained in Israeli-run prisons instead.

“Today, what they would do to the small children is they will pick them off the street, those who were on their way to school with the school bag.

“They will put them in detention, scare and terrorise them and then release them,” she said during an interview with Sinar Daily on its Fireside Chat programme.

She said despite not being in prison for a long time, the act against the children would scar them for life, causing them to suffer a horrible childhood.

As for children who were 12 and older, they would be thrown into solitary confinement for years, Norma shared.

“Their whole lives were taken away from them; they were beaten up and tortured,” she said.

Norma who is also non-government organisation Viva Palestina Malaysia treasurer said she once encountered a story of a teenager who was forced to confess (to an offence), despite not having committed any offences at all.

“Recently, he (a Palestinian child prisoner) said he was suicidal and that he would rather to be dead than be in a cold flood in a bad smelling dungeon.

“Imagine the trauma they had to go through,” she said.