Studies show that US coverage is Israeli-centric. The main bureaus for CNN, Associated Press, Time, etc. are located in Israel and often staffed by Israelis. The son of the NY Times bureau chief is in the Israeli army;"pundit" Jeffrey Goldberg served in the IDF; Wolf Blitzer worked for AIPAC. Because the U.S. gives Israel over $8 million/day - more than to any other nation - we feel it is essential that we be fully informed on this region. Below are news reports to augment mainstream coverage.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

DCI: 76% of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces in Silwan say they were physically abused

DCI-Palestine- 76% of children arrested in Silwan tell DCI they suffered some form of physical violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation.

...Interrogation of children under 12 years - (8 percent): Under Israeli law which is applied to occupied East Jerusalem, children under the age of 12 are not held criminally liable for their actions and must not be detained. Out of the 13 cases in which DCI-Palestine collected sworn affidavits from children who were arrested, one child (8 percent) was under 12. Since the beginning of 2010, B’Tselem, has documented the detention of four children below this age.

Violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation – (76 percent): The types of violence reported to DCI-Palestine includes, punching, slapping, kicking, beating with a rifle, and in one case, throwing a pen at a child’s head during interrogation.

"A soldier started hitting me on the back with the barrel of his rifle and I screamed out in pain and said to him: “I didn‟t do anything.” But he kept hitting me for about a minute when my mother came and started shouting: “Leave him alone, he must go to work.” But one of them pushed her really hard and knocked her down."
(A. G. – 16 years)

"They put me inside the jeep and one of them started kicking me all over my body and slapping me until we arrived at Al Mascobiyya."(B. R. – 13 years)

...In 2010, reports of a sharp increase in the number of children being arrested from Silwan and East Jerusalem have been recorded. According to Israel Police figures, between November 2009 and October 2010, the Jerusalem District opened 1,267 criminal files against Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem who were accused of throwing stones. During the same period, the Israeli NGO, B’Tselem reports that 81 children from Silwan have been arrested or detained for questioning, mostly on suspicion of stone throwing. Read more