Barely a few days before the world celebrates International Children’s Day on June 1, the United Nations has issued a warning over Israel’s recent legislative changes enabling courts to sentence Palestinian children as young as 12 to life in prison and allowing other measures that violate international laws.
The amendments, passed by the Israeli Knesset on November 7, 2024, have sparked outrage as they violate international human rights and humanitarian laws, with experts highlighting their disproportionate impact on Palestinian minors.
UN Special Procedures experts focused on two key changes: Amendment No. 25 to the Youth Law and Amendment No. 251 to the National Insurance Law.
Both are deemed discriminatory and incompatible with treaties Israel has ratified, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Under the Youth Law amendment, children as young as 12 can receive life sentences for crimes labelled as “terrorism”, even if committed as part of a protest or unrest.
The law also allows the transfer of children to adult prisons at the age of 14, a violation of international law that prohibits detaining children with adults unless it is demonstrably in their best interest.
The UN has expressed concern that these changes override scientific understanding of child development and undermine children’s right to rehabilitation. It has noted that children aged 12-13 lack full cognitive maturity and should not face criminal proceedings, let alone life imprisonment.
The National Insurance Law amendment strips parents of social benefits, such as child allowances and education grants, if their child is imprisoned for offences classified as terrorism. The UN has warned that this measure could disproportionately target Palestinian families and violate the right to social protection under international human rights laws.
From double standards to racial discrimination
Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children reflects a broader pattern of systemic racial discrimination. While Israeli Jewish children are prosecuted under civilian law, Palestinian children — especially those in occupied East Jerusalem — are often tried under counterterrorism laws that impose significantly harsher penalties.
The UN has urged Israel to repeal both amendments, referring to the 2024 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, which found that Israel’s regime in the occupied Palestinian territories practised racial segregation and apartheid.
The world body’s statement reads, “Israel’s legislation and measures constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD”, which requires Israel to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all practices of racial segregation and apartheid. CERD stands for the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a UN panel.
Decades of military prosecution
The warning adds to years of UN and civil society concern over Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in detention.
Since 1967, Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank have been subject to Israeli military law, making them the only minors in the world consistently prosecuted in military courts.
Each year, an estimated 500-700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12, are arrested, detained, and funnelled into Israel’s military legal system. The vast majority are boys aged 12-17.
They are subjected to a system that allows criminal responsibility at the age of 12, contradicting international law, which defines a child as anyone under 18.
Hundreds of Palestinian minors languish in Israeli prisons as the Zionist state makes a mockery of established global norms to punish youngsters with impunity.
In 1991, the rights group Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) began documenting these detentions. Over the past two decades, the DCIP estimates that around 13,000 Palestinian children have experienced detention, interrogation, prosecution, and imprisonment within the military legal system of Israel.
The military courts routinely deny children access to lawyers or their parents during interrogations, and many are forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Rights groups say these practices violate the most basic standards of juvenile justice and due process.
Despite Israel’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, it rejects the treaty’s applicability to children in the occupied territories.
Israel’s treatment of minors is marked by a host of violations: maintaining two separate legal systems in the same territory, detaining children within military courts, denying them legal assistance, forcibly transferring them out of occupied areas, and in many cases, committing crimes against humanity.
As the world celebrates children’s rights on June 1, Israel’s new laws make sure that not all children are afforded the same protections, especially those living under occupation.
