Ramallah: The Palestinian Higher Follow-Up Committee for Prisoners in association with the Prisoners’ Affairs Association have launched a global campaign to free 14-year-old Malak Ali Al Khatib, who is considered the youngest female prisoner currently serving a sentence in Israeli jails. She was sentenced to two months in prison and handed a fine for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers.
The organisers of the campaign said that the number of Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli forces has seen a sharp increase with an average of 200-250 arrested monthly. More than 300 Palestinian children are in the Israeli jails of Majedo and Ofar and the organisers are demanding that they all be released. The campaign demands that the international community intervene.
On Wednesday, strikes were organised in Al Beirah and Tulkarem and an official letter was submitted to the Red Cross demanding Malak’s release as a matter of urgency.
Israeli forces arrested Malak after she finished her mid-year exam on December 31, 2014 in front of her school in the village of Bateen near Ramallah. Israeli occupation forces claim the girl was hurling stones at them.
‘Miserable’
However, school administrators and Malak’s friends say the allegations are false.
“Malak was arrested by the occupation forces while she was standing in front of her school,” Malak’s father, Ali, told Gulf News.
“So far, we have not been allowed to visit her. We have seen her from a distance only when Israeli occupation forces brought her to court.”
Under Israeli law, a parent must be present during the interrogation of their child, but the Israeli regime does not apply its own laws to Palestinians.
“Malak has been suffering physically and psychologically and the messages we receive from women prisoners in Israeli jails indicate that she is under miserable psychological conditions,” he said.
Commenting on Malak’s arrest, the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights said in a statement that throwing stones in not even considered a crime under international law and that the Israeli occupation forces often arrest Palestinian minors without a reason and falsely claim they were throwing stones.
