by AHMAD BARQAWI
Thirteen is the age for a lot of things; it carries a certain significance for every boy that reaches that age with all the promises that life has to offer; it’s a time when boys get their first bike, enjoy their favorite video games, make it into the school’s football squad, it’s a time when boys begin to marvel at and appreciate the mysteries of life pre-adulthood, and for some; it’s even a time when they experience their first innocent crush; but if you’re a thirteen year old boy in occupied Palestine; you’re placed under house arrest by the Israeli authorities.
Thirteen year old Palestinian boy; Karam Khaled Da’nah was sentenced by an Israeli court to five months of mandatory house arrest in his uncle’s house –away from his parents and siblings- and a 2,000 shekel bail after a shameful charade that isn’t very well masquerading as a court hearing last Tuesday September 28th 2010, in complete disregard for anything even resembling human rights (or even common human decency for that matter); Karam was first arrested on the 20th of September right in front of his school in the old city in southern Hebron, dragged away from his friends and classmates and savagely beaten by Israeli forces before being thrown into the back of their military jeep and driven away; and the charge is… wait for it… lopping stones at (illegal) Israeli settlers.
Counterpunch for more
(Thanks to Ingrid B. Mork)