“I cannot understand how Israel imprisons me, despite my young age. I will miss my mother, father, brothers, grandmother, family, friends, school, and my mother’s food,” says Ayham Al-Salaymeh (14 years old), days before entering the occupation prison.
Al-Salaymeh spent a year and a half in home imprisonment in his family’s home in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in East Jerusalem, but this punishment was not enough for the Israeli authorities, who, the day before yesterday, Tuesday, ruled that he be placed in actual prison for an additional year, on the eve of World Children’s Day.
Since 1990, the world has celebrated Children’s Day on November 20 of each year, as the anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
The Israeli police had arrested Ayham, his older brother Ahmed, and their two cousins, Muhammad and Moataz, on charges of throwing stones at settlers who had seized Palestinian homes in the same Palestinian neighborhood.
The court ruled to imprison Ahmed, Muhammad, and Moataz, but because of Ayham’s young age at the time, it kept him on trial while he was under house arrest.
20 trial sessions
His father, Nawaf Al-Salaymeh, told Anadolu Agency, “Ayham was arrested on May 15, 2023, along with his older brother, Ahmed, and their two cousins, Muhammad and Moataz, from the house at night. They accused him of throwing stones at the settlers, and they were released on the condition of house arrest while the trial continued.”
He added, “The judge later ruled to arrest 3 because they are over the age under which Israeli law allows arrest, which is 14 years and not 16 years as international law stipulates.”
On November 7, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) finally approved a law allowing the imposition of prison sentences on Palestinian children under 14 years old.
The father continued, “Ayham was under the age of 14, so they imposed house imprisonment on him. The Israeli prosecution requested that he be imprisoned for 3 years, but the lawyer objected, and after 20 sessions, the judge of the District Court in Jerusalem (Tuesday) issued her ruling against my son with actual imprisonment for a year.”
He added, “We appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to be satisfied with the period of home detention, but the Supreme Court rejected the petition and issued a decision forcing us to hand over my son to detention on the first of next December.”
As for Ayham, he wonders why he was arrested despite his young age. He told Anadolu Agency, “I still do not understand how I will be imprisoned even though I am a child.”
He added, “My peers play football or are registered in a football club. They go to school and play with their friends and families, but we, the children of Palestine, are deprived of these things.”
The Palestinian child continued, “I will miss my mother, my father, my brothers, my grandmother, my family, my friends, my school, and my mother’s food.”
Fears
For the father, the prison decision was not surprising, but he fears what he may face in detention. He said, “We were not surprised by the decision because we have been under occupation since 1948. I was a child when I was arrested for the first time and most of the family members were arrested under false pretexts. Therefore, the prison decisions are not a surprise to us, but the biggest shock is the prison conditions.”
Al-Salaymeh was referring to the prison authorities’ tightening of conditions for Palestinian prisoners based on the instructions of the far-right Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.
He said, “Today the prison conditions have changed. You do not know anything about the detainee, neither where he is detained nor any other details. I will not be able to provide him clothes or money or communicate with him.” He explained, referring to his son, “For an entire year, I will miss him and only memories will remain. This constitutes a source of fear and anxiety for me because my son is a child and even his size is smaller than his age, and I do not know what his situation will be like in prison.”
He continued, “We see prisoners entering weighing 80 kilograms and leaving weighing 50 to 60 kilograms after two or three months in prison. My son, Ayham, weighs 30 kilograms. What will his weight be after a year of imprisonment? Will he get out or not?”
Ayham’s brother spent 4 months in prison before he was released in a prisoner exchange deal between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel, which was implemented in the last week of November 2023.
Al-Salaymeh said, “Ahmed was arrested for 4 months and released in an exchange deal in November of last year. My son, Ayham, will be the youngest prisoner inside the prison, and my son Ahmed was the youngest prisoner, and 30 years ago I was the youngest prisoner inside the prison.”
Where is the world?
Al-Salaymeh does not rely on institutions concerned with defending human rights. He said that they have lost hope in human rights institutions. He wondered, “Gaza is being wiped out completely, and there are 350 to 400 children in prisons from all of Palestine. So where are the human rights institutions? Where is the world regarding what is happening in Palestine?” In Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm? Is this an arrogant occupation, a silent society, and ineffective human rights institutions?
Earlier Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs (governmental) said that Israel continues to arrest 270 Palestinian children in harsh conditions and daily abuse.
The authority said in a statement on the occasion of World Children’s Day, “The occupation continues to arrest at least 270 children, who are mainly held in Ofer and Megiddo prisons, in addition to camps created by the occupation army after the war.”
The Israeli army and police do not hesitate to carry out almost daily arrests of children throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, charging them with various charges.
Since the ground operation began in the Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023, the Israeli army has arrested thousands of Palestinians, including women, children, and health and civil defense workers. A small number of them were later released, and the fate of the others remains unknown.
According to the Prisoners’ Commission, “the number of arrests since the start of the ongoing war of genocide and the comprehensive aggression against our people has reached more than 11,700 citizens from the West Bank, including Jerusalem (…) without Gaza, whose numbers are estimated in the thousands.”
