JERUSALEM: 14-year-old Palestinian Ayham Al-Salaymeh will become the youngest person ever to be imprisoned in Israel when he starts his 1-year sentence on 1 December 2024.
Ayham has been under house arrest at his family home in the Ras Al-Amud neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem for the past 18 months, reports Middle East Monior.
His crime? Throwing stones at Israeli settlers who illegally seized Palestinian homes in his area. His father and brothers have also faced jail for resisting illegal incursions by settlers.
“If he were a Jewish kid, would they prosecute him like this?” Salaymah complained in front of international media.
The LA Times report that the proceedings were part of an Israeli incarceration system that rights groups say detains annually anywhere from 500 to 1,000 Palestinian minors in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank for alleged security-related offenses.
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In September, before the war broke out, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem counted 146 minors in Israeli prisons.
Many are held in administrative detention, meaning without charge or trial, for up to six months. Those who do get charged — before military tribunals in the West Bank or civilian courts for youths in East Jerusalem — face a system that operates with a greater-than-99% conviction rate, much of it via plea bargains.
The hostage-detainee exchanges between Israel and Hamas during their pause in fighting have thrown a spotlight on the widespread incarceration of Palestinian minors in Israeli lockups.
Of the 300 prisoners whom Israel considered releasing, the majority were young teens accused of throwing rocks and firebombs during clashes with Israeli security forces.
