On November 7, 2024, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) passed a bill authorizing the detention of children under the age of 14 if convicted of murder “as an act of terrorism or within the activity of a terrorist organization."1

Under the new law, which is an amendment to the Youth Bill, convicted minors will be held in a closed residential facility and complete the remainder of their sentence in adult prison upon turning 14. However, if a child is shown to pose a danger to themselves or others, he or she can be transferred to prison for 10 days, and the court can extend this period if the matter persists in the assessment of the prison authorities.

The law also allows children to be sentenced to life in prison for certain crimes, including murder and attempted murder.

Adalah—the Legal Center for Arab Rights in Israel termed the law “draconian.”2

Previously, minors under 12 were exempt from criminal liability, and children under 14 could only be placed in juvenile facilities or under house arrest—not sent to jail.3 In the rest of the occupied West Bank (outside East Jerusalem), where Palestinians are governed by military law (not civil law, as Israel imposed on East Jerusalem in 1967), Palestinian children can be imprisoned at the age of 12.

While the law doesn’t specifically state that it’s aimed at Palestinian children, Adalah noted that Palestinians are more likely to be targeted as they are disproportionately accused of terrorism-related offenses compared to Jewish children.4

“Through these laws, Israel further entrenches its two-tiered legal system, with one set of laws for Jewish-Israelis under criminal law and another, with inferior rights, for Palestinians under the pretext of Counter-Terrorism,” Adalah wrote in its press release on the legislation.5

Indeed, already on December 2, 2024, less than a month after the law’s passage, Ayham al-Salaymah from Ras al-Amud became the youngest prisoner to enter Israeli prison to serve a one-year sentence. He had already served a year and half for allegedly throwing stones at settlers.6

To learn more about how the law may be implemented and the current state of child arrests in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Jerusalem Story spoke with Khaled Quzmar, general director of Defense for Children International–Palestine (DCIP). DCIP is part of an international network that aims to promote and protect the human rights of children. With its headquarters in Ramallah, DCIP is the only organization that focuses solely on the rights of children in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT). Established in 1991, it offers free legal aid to Palestinian children in courts and investigates, documents, and exposes human rights violations against children in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza.

Quzmar joined DCIP in 1995 as a lawyer representing Palestinian children in Israeli military courts. With a master’s degree in international human rights law, he specializes in issues surrounding juvenile justice and violations against children during armed conflict.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Jerusalem Story (JS): What is your response to this law?

Khaled Quzmar (KQ): We live in Palestine under different jurisdictions. In the West Bank, we have the Palestinian jurisdiction for the civil cases, but there is another jurisdiction above the Palestinian one called the Israeli military jurisdiction. The Israeli military jurisdiction [is only] applied to the Palestinians, but not to the Israelis. [Not] far from here—500 meters (less than half a mile)—there is the Israeli Psagot settlement, and none of them are subject to Israeli military jurisdiction. According to the Geneva Conventions, it should be applied there, but in a discriminatory and apartheid way, [Israel] excluded [the settlers] from this jurisdiction, and the Israeli civil system is applied in the settlement for the settlers. But if even a Palestinian gets inside the settlement and does something in conflict with the law, he will be prosecuted in the military court.

From my practice as a lawyer for more than 20 years in the Israeli military court system, and from my position as [DCIP’s] director for around 10 years, I noticed that all the changes undertaken in the Israeli military system make it worse for the Palestinians. They never change that system for the best interest of the child.

Israel links [amendments to the Youth Law] with individual cases. [For example, Jerusalemite] Ahmad Manasra was arrested when he was 12 years old [in relation to a stabbing attack on two Israelis].7 Israel put him in a rehabilitation center for [two] years until he turned 14. They changed the law to hold him, because before that amendment, there was no [imprisonment sentence] for those under 14 years old.

The new case is Muhammad Elewat, who was accused of attempting to kill. So, they changed the law to keep him in prison and to sentence him even before he was 14 years old; this is what I heard from lawyers dealing with the case. Both cases are about serious crimes, which are considered killing or attempting to kill. But when it comes to attempting to kill, sometimes they consider throwing stones as an attempt to kill even if there are no injuries.

JS: Is your organization working to challenge this law?

KQ: We work under the two jurisdictions—the Israeli jurisdiction [inside the official boundaries of the state, notably East Jerusalem] and the Palestinian jurisdiction [outside East Jerusalem, in the rest of the West Bank]. Our purpose of work with the Palestinian jurisdiction is to change the policies, the practice, and the laws to be in the best interest of the child.

In Israel, we are convinced that there is no way to change the laws to respect the interests of the children. It’s an illegal occupation, so any changes in the Israeli civil system when it comes to the Palestinians is considered as cosmetics for the system—to make it nice. But in the end, there is nothing nice under occupation. For me, it is considered a war crime, a crime against humanity. So, our purpose in working there is not to change the system because any changes, any amendments, will never change the core. Our work is to see how the system is functioning, where there is violation of international law, and to be with the child in this. The purpose is to expose and to ask for closing the system and ask for accountability of the criminals, because children are victims.

JS: DCIP reported child arrests have significantly increased since October 7, 2023. Why is that, and what is the current state of child arrests for East Jerusalem children?

KQ: Now they’re arresting children from all over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Before October 7, 2023, the number of children arrested in East Jerusalem was more than the rest of the West Bank. Jerusalem has a smaller population [of Palestinians] than Ramallah [a city in the West Bank], but [Israeli forces] arrested double the number of [children] from the Jerusalem district than from the Ramallah district.

[This is] because politically, [Israel wants to rid] Jerusalem of the Palestinians—how much you complicate the life of the families there to push them out. [Israel uses] different policies [to do this], among them the arresting and targeting of children. Since October 7, 2023, the number of arrests has doubled everywhere [in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank].

The second thing is administrative detention against children. One third of [child] prisoners are under administrative detention—[the largest number] since 1967. They put them under administrative detention because administrative detention is worse than sentencing, [in which] you know why you are in prison and when you will be released.

The maximum [period in administrative detention] is six months, but it can be renewed many times. Secondly, you don’t know what your crime is, what’s the charge against you to be in prison.

JS: How are Palestinian children in East Jerusalem treated when arrested?

KQ: Better than in the West Bank, but not like the Jews. You must enjoy the same law because both are subject to the Israel Youth Law, [so] they should be treated the same, but you can see the discrimination.

[For example,] the law denies the police the right to arrest during the night, except in certain cases. If you do a search of all those who are arrested from East Jerusalem, how many of them are arrested during the night? You’ll find the majority are Palestinians, not Israelis. If you do a search, you’ll find the Palestinians are subject to [interrogation without a family member present], while an Israeli may not even be arrested [or they] come with a family member. In the implementation, you can see the discrimination.