International Campaign to Call for Release of 14-year-old Khalid Sheikh

Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) announced it was joining an international campaign calling for the immediate release of the Palestinian boy Khalid Husam Mahmoud Al-Sheikh, 14, from Beit Anan in Occupied Jerusalem.

Khalid was arrested by Israeli occupation forces on 25 December 2014 and charged with 'throwing stones'. He is currently being held at Ofer prison near Ramallah and suffers from severe Anemia, according to his family who revealed they had no information about him at present. Khalid has so far appeared five times before a military court with the next session scheduled for the 25th of February 2015.

AOHR UK said that their lawyer Ibtisam Al-Anati from Ahrar Centre had expressed her deep concern over the conditions under which he was being held. Al-Anati condemned prison officials for refusing to allow Khalid to receive medical treatment for his serious condition and added that he was increasingly looking jaundiced and tired.

AOHR UK pointed out it was not the first time Occupation forces had arrested minors. According to UNISEF, Israel arrested more than 7000 Palestinian children during the past ten years, 300 of whom are still languishing in Israeli prisons.

AOHR UK added that Arab children are not subject to the same laws as Israeli children. According to Israeli military law, a child is anyone under the age of 16 while the Israeli civil code defines a child as anyone under the age of 18. Israeli military forces sanction the arrest of Palestinian children of any age, with minors as young as nine being arrested in some cases.

Children are treated as adults during arrests and interrogations and are questioned without the presence of a lawyer or guardians. Many cases of torture and abuse, and even blackmail, have been documented.

AOHR UK asserts that Israeli measures against Palestinian children constitute a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions and all international conventions which guarantee the rights of children to a safe environment and the right to be tried as minors.