Stolen Childhood: Palestinian Children and the Structure of Genocidal Dispossession,”

Abstract

A recent article published by the Wadi-Hilweh Information Center of Silwan described the arrest of a four-year-old Palestinian child, Mohammad, from the Al-Sa'dyeh neighborhood of Occupied East Jerusalem. In the early hours of Thursday, 28 November, a large military force broke into the Al-Majed family home. Waking his parents from sleep, the soldiers demanded to see Mohammad. ‘Are you sure?’ his father asked one of them, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, ‘Mohammad is only four years old!’ The officer was not convinced and asked his father to wake the boy. Mohammad's father led the soldiers to the room where the children were gathered. He pointed to Mohammad. ‘Do you want to arrest him? Should I send diapers and milk because he's going to need them.’ After realizing that indeed, Mohammad was a mere four years old, and after asking his father a series of questions about the child and his friends, and inquiring into claims that he had injured an Israeli settler, the officer retreated on his arrest order. Leading the other soldiers out of the family home, he warned the family that if the boy was found guilty, he would return to call him for investigation.