Urgent Appeal

UA 1/12

Incident: Locations: Date of incidents: Number of incidents: Ages: Date of issue: Updated:

Solitary confinement Al Jalame, Petah Tikva and Hasharon Continuing 53 15 to 17 years 5 January 2012 12 July 2012
Mahmoud E. (16) (New) On 6 June 2012, a 16-year-old boy from Shuweika village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 12 days in solitary confinement at Al Jalame interrogation centre.

Khaled J. (15) (New) On 10 June 2012, a 15-year-old boy from AlArrub reports being held for 5 days in solitary confinement in Hasharon prison as punishment for being on hunger strike. Khaled I. (16) (New) In June 2012, a 16-year-old boy from Al Arrub reports being held for 7 days in solitary confinement in Hasharon prison as punishment for hanging a Palestinian flag. M. M. (16) On 1 July 2010, a 16-year-old boy from Asira al Qibliya village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 6 days in solitary confinement at Petah Tikva interrogation centre. Odai A. (17) On 15 October 2011, a 17-year-old boy from Osarin village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 16 days in solitary confinement at Petah Tikva and Al Jalame. Rasheed J. (16) On 4 November 2011, a 16-year-old boy from Haris village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 13 days in solitary confinement at Al Jalame interrogation centre.

Othman H. (17) On 1 June 2011, a 17-year-old boy from Azzun village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 1 day in solitary confinement at Petah Tikva. Rami J. (17) On 24 October 2011, a 17-year-old boy from Haris village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 24 days in solitary confinement at the Al Jalame interrogation centre. Saleh N. (17) On 11 November 2011, a 17-year-old boy from Jenin refugee camp is arrested by Israeli police and held for 3 days in solitary confinement at Al Jalame interrogation centre.

2 Wadda B. (16) On 21 November 2011, a 16-year-old boy from Haris village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 12 days in solitary confinement at the Al Jalame interrogation centre. Mahmoud R. (15) On 1 January 2012, a 15-year-old boy from Azzun village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 6 days in solitary confinement at Al Jalame interrogation centre. Sad M. (15) On 4 January 2012, a 15-year-old boy from Azzun village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 1 day in solitary confinement in Al Jalame interrogation centre. Abdul S. (17) On 18 January 2012, a 17-year-old boy from Yatma village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 8 days in solitary confinement at Petah Tikva and Al Jalame. Abdul N. (17) On 18 January 2012, a 17-year-old boy from Yatma village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 8 days in solitary confinement in Petah Tikva and Al Jalame. Osaid H. (17) On 7 December 2011, a 17-year-old boy from Nablus is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 11 days in solitary confinement at Petah Tikva and Al Jalame centres. Abdullah H. (16) On 1 January 2012, a 16-year-old boy from Azzun village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 12 days in solitary confinement at Al Jalame interrogation centre. Mahmoud O.R. (15) On 4 January 2012, a 15-year-old boy from Azzun village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 1 day in solitary confinement at Al Jalame. Isam M. (17) On 18 January 2012, a 17-year-old boy from Deir Istiya village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 10 days in solitary confinement in Al Jalame interrogation centre. Baha M. (17) On 18 January 2012, a 17-year-old boy from Deir Istiya village is arrested by Israeli soldiers and held for 10 days in solitary confinement in Al Jalame interrogation centre.

Nature of incidents Since 2008, DCI-Palestine has documented 53 cases in which children report been held in solitary confinement at the Al Jalame and Petah Tikva interrogation centres, and Hasharon prison. These facilities are located inside Israel and are operated and/or controlled by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and/or the Israel Security Agency (ISA). In most cases the children are arrested from their homes in the occupied West Bank by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. After being tied and blindfolded, the children are transferred to an interrogation centre inside Israel, most commonly to the Al Jalame facility, near Haifa. The children report being held in solitary

3 confinement at these facilities for an average of 10 days. Whilst detained in these facilities, the children are questioned by ISA interrogators and are generally denied access to their parents and a lawyer. No education is provided to children at these facilities. The children taken to Al Jalame describe being held in solitary confinement in a small cell (commonly referred to as Cell 36) measuring approximately 2x3 metres. The children report either sleeping on a concrete bed, on the floor, or on a thin mattress which is often described as dirty and foul smelling. Meals are passed to the children through a flap in the door, thus depriving them of human contact. The walls of these cells are reported to be grey in colour with sharp protrusions which are painful to lean against. There are no windows and the only source of illumination comes from a dim yellow light that is reported to be kept on 24 hours-a-day. Some children complain of suffering pain behind their eyes and adverse psychological effects after being detained in these cells. It appears from the testimonies provided by the children that the dominant purpose for detaining them in these conditions is to break their spirit in order to extract a confession. Many children report being kept in solitary confinement between lengthy interrogation sessions in which prohibited techniques are frequently used, such as excessive shackling of the legs and hands, as well as position abuse, physical violence and threatening behaviour. Most children detained and questioned in these facilities end up providing a confession, which in some cases, is written in Hebrew. Once the children confess, they are prosecuted in a military court and transferred to a regular prison. In response to concerns raised about placing children in solitary confinement, the Israeli Ministry of Justice provided the following written statement on 14 March 2012: The Police and ISA does [sic] not use isolation as an interrogation technique or as a punishment or coercing method in order to exert confessions out of minors. There are certain cases in which an interrogatee will be held alone for several days at most, in order to prevent information in his/her possession from leaking to other terrorist activists in the same detention facility and impairing their interrogation. Note that even in these cases, the interrogatee is not held in solitude, but is entitled to meet with Red Cross representatives, medical and prison staff etc. The letter was signed on behalf of the Ministry of Justice by Advocate Assaf Radzyner. Solitary confinement There is no universally agreed upon definition of solitary confinement. The Istanbul Statement on the Use and Effects of Solitary Confinement defines solitary confinement as the physical isolation of individuals who are confined to their cells for 22 to 24 hours a day. Meaningful contact with other people is typically reduced to a minimum. The reduction in stimuli is not only quantitative but also qualitative. The available stimuli and the occasional social contacts are seldom freely chosen, generally monotonous, and often not empathetic. The detrimental psychological and physical effects of detaining persons in solitary confinement are well documented and include: panic attacks; fear of impending death; depression, including clinical depression; social withdrawal; a sense of hopelessness; unprovoked anger; short attention span; disorientation; paranoia; psychotic episodes; self-mutilation; and attempted suicide. For these reasons, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Mr. Juan Mndez, called for a complete ban on the use of solitary confinement for children, in a report submitted to the UN General Assembly, in October 2011. In his report, Mr. Mndez concluded that the use of solitary confinement can amount to torture or cruel,

4 inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pretrial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles. The call for the prohibition on the use of solitary confinement for children echoes a similar demand made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2007, which recommended that the practice be strictly forbidden (see: General Comment No. 10 paragraph 89).

Update: On 26 June 2012, a group of leading UK lawyers published a report funded by the UK Foreign Office which concluded that holding children routinely and for substantial periods in solitary confinement would be capable of amounting to torture in breach not only of article 37(a) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child but of other well-known international instruments. Children in military custody
Related links The Guardian The Palestinian children alone and bewildered in Israels Al Jalame jail

Al Jalame 100 professionals speak out against the use of solitary confinement on children Psychiatric expert opinion Coerced False Confessions: The Case of Palestinian Children
BTselem and Hamoked Kept in the Dark DCI-Palestine report Bound, Blindfolded and Convicted

Recommended action Please send Urgent Appeals recommending the following: 1. The practice of using solitary confinement on children in Israeli detention facilities must be stopped immediately; That all relevant Israeli civilian and military laws and regulations be amended to ensure there is a legally binding and enforceable prohibition on the use of solitary confinement on children held in Israeli custody; and Every detention facility, including Al Jalame and Petah Tikva, must be opened up to unbiased external inspection, and inspectors must be given free access to any part of the facility at anytime.

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Appeals to: Your elected representatives; and The Israeli embassy in your country [list of Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide].