The violation of children’s rights by the Israeli and Bahraini regimes is more than mere coincidence. It is indicative of a much broader strategic alignment that has emerged between the Zionist regime and the Persian Gulf Arab monarchies. The use of state terrorism against children by Israeli military and Bahrain regime forces is not some random, isolated aberration. The scale and systematic pattern of the violations strongly suggests that the regimes are collaborating closely in methods of counter-insurgency. In recent months, hundreds of children, under the age of 18 and some as young as five years-old, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained without trial in both the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and in Bahrain. In Bahrain, it is exclusively the majority Shia communities that are targeted by regime forces of the Saudi-backed Al Khalifa monarchy. Over the past four months, up to 100 children have been snatched from their homes without warrants, detained indefinitely, interrogated and even tortured, according to Bahraini human rights sources. Some of the children have been convicted of terrorism on the basis of forced confessions and given jail sentences of up to 15 years. Meanwhile, a similar policy of persecuting children is extant in Israeli-occupied Palestine. Over the weekend, four children aged between five and nine years were cuffed and hauled off to unknown detention centers by Israeli soldiers. The arrests took place after Israeli military, firing stun grenades, attacked a peaceful protest, which had been attended by international observers. This misconduct by Israeli and Bahraini state forces is a gross violation of international law. In legal terms, the unlawful detention of children in this way is tantamount to kidnapping by the state. The interrogation and mistreatment of the children in custody and their long-term incarceration further compounds the flagrant barbarity. The conclusion is clear: this targeting of children has to have been formulated as a deliberate policy of state terrorism. No doubt the calculation of those engaged in the black arts of population control is that traumatizing young minds is an efficacious method of subjugating future generations.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 03:12:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015