International Campaign to Release Palestinian Child Detainees

Ramallah – The Palestinian Authority announced, on Wednesday, the launch of an international campaign aiming to pressure the Israeli occupation to release Palestinian child detainees, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said in a statement.

The Ministry of Education is sponsoring the campaign, entitled “Give Them Space to Learn and Play,” which will be launched across the occupied West Bank, the society said.

As part of the project, Palestinian schoolchildren will write letters and come up with messages to send to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon.

The letters will focus on Israeli violations against Palestinian children, which have escalated since upheaval swept the region at the start of October.

Since the start of October, Israeli forces have held captive at least 2,044 Palestinians, 345 of which have been children, according to documentation by human rights group Addameer.

Rights group Defense for Children International-Palestine found, in July, that in the first half of the year 2014, “86 percent of Palestinian children experienced some form of physical violence during their arrest or interrogation.”

The group added: “Ill treatment of Palestinian children remains widespread and systematic in the Israeli military detention system as children arrested by Israeli forces arrive at Israeli interrogation centers blindfolded, bound and sleep deprived.”