Israel okays jailing ‘terrorists’ from age 12

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JERUSALEM, Aug 3, (AFP): Israeli lawmakers approved jailing children as young as 12 convicted of “terrorist offences” in the wake of repeated attacks by young Palestinians, the parliament said on Wednesday. “The ‘Youth Bill,’ which will allow the authorities to imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter even if he or she is under the age of 14, passed its second and third readings… Tuesday night,” an English-language statement said.

It added that the seriousness of attacks in recent months “demands a more aggressive approach, including toward minors.” The statement quoted Anat Berko, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party and the bill’s sponsor, as saying “to those who are murdered with a knife in the heart it does not matter if the child is 12 or 15.”

Violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel since October has killed at least 218 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP count. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities. Many of the assailants were young people, including teenagers. Other youths have been shot dead during protests and clashes with security forces. Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked gave the “Youth Bill” full backing when it came before a ministerial committee last year.

Manasra, a 14-year-old Palestinian, was convicted in May of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October. He was 13 when he carried out the attack and is yet to be sentenced. Along with a 15-year-old cousin he stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev in annexed east Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian human rights organisation condemned recently the latest death sentences handed down by tribunals in the Hamas- ruled Gaza Strip. A military court in the coastal Palestinian enclave condemned a local man to death on Tuesday on charges of collaborating with Israel, while death sentences issued previously against two others were confi rmed by a higher military tribunal. The Gaza Military Court announced a sentence of death by hanging for the man identifi ed as M.S., aged 59, from the Tuffah area east of Gaza city on charges of “collaborating with the Israeli occupation.”

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