“Why does Israel need to imprison for 12 years a 14-year-old Palestinian boy (in reference to Ahmad Manasra) who did not injure anyone?” Israeli journalist Amira Hass wondered in an article published by Israeli daily Haaretz.
According to the journalist the childish expression on Manasra’s face which the sadness has turned adult is known to every Palestinian.
“In the Israeli media only the first letter of his name –A- is allowed to be published. That and the fact that his trial was held behind closed doors was the sum total of proper treatment of a boy who was 13 years and 9 months old when he allegedly committed the crimes of which he was convicted—an anti-occupation stabbing attempt” wrote Amira.
The fact that the Israeli occupation forces arrested him with his injury the brutal interrogation the extreme indictment the verdict and the sentence prove that the Israeli judiciary treated the child with a rationale of retaliation she added.
According to Amira the minor was accused of murder but did not in fact stab anyone. Since the first days of his interrogation he admitted that he went out about a year ago with his cousin to Pisgat Ze’ev illegal settlement to scare Israeli settlers with knives they were holding in response to the simmering Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians.
“From the beginning A. told his interrogators and the judges that he and Manasra had decided not to hurt women children or old people” the Op-ed read.
But the judges imposed a sentence of 12 years in prison on the 14-year-old boy who was immediately transferred to jail. His family was forced to pay a bail of up to 180000 shekels.
“Vengeance is sweet and to sweeten it more the judges ordered the minor to pay compensation of 180000 shekels ($46870) to the injured party. Let the family go completely broke why not? The judges could have taken into consideration other verdicts which state that it is impossible to examine the acts of children by the same criteria as those of adults” Amira noted.
“They could have drawn inspiration from judges who imposed sentences of 24 months and 54 months respectively in a closed residential facility on two minors who killed an elderly man after he refused to hand them cigarettes” she further stated.
In the journalist’s words “before us is another boy who has unfortunately on a daily basis experienced police brutality the contempt of the municipality and the evil of the system; Another boy who is confused by the weakness of the adults in the face of all this evil and the childish tendency to imitate.”
In Amira’s view the field executions mass home demolitions and arbitrary prison sentences have been inefficient. On the contrary they convey a message to other Palestinians that the Jews hate and persecute and oppress and expel them only because they are Palestinians.
