BACKGROUND

Recent reports have shown that there has been an escalation of night raids and systematic arrests of Palestinian children in the Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem. These reports indicate that at least twenty one children in this Palestinian neighborhood have been arrested and subjected to physical abuse in the period from October 8, 2010 to November 3, 2010 alone. Children as young as 10 years old are deliberately targeted, arrested, and taken to al-Mascobiyya center (The Russian Compound), a notorious detention and interrogation center.

According to Defense for Children International (DCI), a Geneva-based non-governmental agency, 700 Palestinian children in the West Bank alone are detained and imprisoned by Israel every year. Furthermore, based on a survey in 2009 of 100 of these children, lawyers found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment is considered torture by the United Nations under international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is a signatory.

Of the estimated 11 million Palestinians in the world today, 7.2 million, including children, live in forced exile or are internally displaced; they have been denied their right to return to their homes and lands of origin by the state of Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics, 43.6% of Palestinian children living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are refugees. While refugee children experience special hardships, they also endure the hardships that all Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are exposed to by the state of Israel. They are systematically and often denied their right to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and expression.

ACTION

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition calls on all its members, supporters and people of conscience to write to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to demand that they direct the state of Israel to immediately cease the targeted arrests of Palestinian children in Jerusalem, and to release all Palestinian children from its prisons. The US
administration must demand an immediate end to all forms of institutionalized and systematic abuse of Palestinian children by the state of Israel.

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear President Obama,

I am shocked and disturbed to learn about the recent night raids and systematic arrests of Palestinian children in the Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem. Twenty one of these children have been arrested and subjected to physical abuse in the period from October 8, 2010 to November 3, 2010 alone. Children as young as 10 years old are deliberately targeted, arrested, and taken to al-Mascobiyya center (The Russian Compound), a notorious detention and interrogation center.

Furthermore, 700 Palestinian children in the West Bank alone are imprisoned by Israel every year. Based on sworn affidavits of 100 of these children, lawyers found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions
written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment by the state of Israel against Palestinian children is considered torture by the United Nations under international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is a signatory.

Therefore, I call on you to direct Israel to

• Stop the night raids and arrests in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem forthwith.
• Immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and
  detention centers.
• End all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse against all
  Palestinian children.
• Implement the full restoration of Palestinian children's rights in accordance with international law including, but not limited to, their right to return to their homes of origin, to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and expression.

The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Address
Phone Number

To contact the White House, please use http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Alternatively, write to:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Call: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461

To contact the Secretary of State:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000
Secretary Hillary Clinton Office: 202-647-5291
Fax: 202-261-8577

Letters in the US may be faxed online via: http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html