Ali Murat Alhas
11 December 2017•Update: 11 December 2017
By Turgut Alp Boyraz and Esat Firat
HEBRON, West Bank
Palestinian teenager Fawzi al-Juneidi has become the symbol of ongoing protests against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision last week to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Al-Juneidi, 16, was detained on Thursday during clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) and dragged away blindfolded by dozens of Israeli soldiers.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, the young man’s uncle, Rashad al-Juneidi, said his nephew had been “accidently” detained while grocery shopping for his family.
“He was badly beaten and detained by Israeli soldiers,” the young man’s uncle said.
Al-Juneidi said his nephew was the sole breadwinner for his seven-member family.
“He had to drop out of school and find work to meet his family’s needs,” he added, going on to urge the Palestinian authorities -- and human rights groups -- to help secure the young man’s release.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Monday, al-Juneidi's uncle said his nephew's detention period had been extended for three days by a court at Israel’s Ofer Military Prison.
His nephew, he added, was now slated to appear in court again on Thursday.
Tension has mounted across the Palestinian territories since Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last Wednesday, drawing condemnations from across the Arab and Muslim world.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem -- now occupied by Israel -- might eventually serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.
‘Badly beaten’
Wesam al-Hashlamon, an Anadolu Agency photographer who capture al-Juneidi’s arrest on camera, said scores of Israeli soldiers had managed to “ambush” stone-throwing Palestinian youth in central Hebron.
“As the boy passed by, he was detained -- and badly beaten -- by soldiers,” al-Hashlamon said. “They threw him to the ground, put their boots on his body and blindfolded him before taking him into custody.”
Khalid Kazmar, director of the Palestinian branch of the Movement for the Protection of the World's Children, decried Israel’s policy of detaining Palestinian minors.
“Hundreds of children have been detained by the Israeli army this year, mostly in Jerusalem,” he said. “Most of them were released shortly afterward.”
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, a local NGO, some 300 children are currently languishing in Israeli prisons.
Kazmar said that as many as 700 Palestinian children had been tried in Israeli military courts this year alone.
“Israel is the only country in the world where children are tried in military courts,” he asserted.
"That Palestinian children are subject to detention and torture is a crime against humanity under international law,” Kazmar added.
