Josh Paul details sexual violence in Israeli prisons against minor
4 Min Read
The former US official emphasized that it was important to condemn atrocities that happen "every day to Palestinians in the West Bank."
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Former director of US congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Josh Paul (CNN)
During an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday, Josh Paul, who served as the director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for over 11 years, recalled an incident when he was formerly a part of the human rights vetting process for arms going to 'Israel.'
Paul details how a charity called the Defense of Children International Palestine drew the attention of the State Department to "credible allegations" of a 13-year-old Palestinian raped in the Al-Mascobiyya detention center in West Al-Quds.
The former US official emphasized that it was important to condemn atrocities that happen "every day to Palestinians in the West Bank."
🚨🇵🇸 Un enfant de 13 ans violé dans une prison israélienne. Le Département d'Etat américain demande aux israéliens d'enquêter. Résultat : l'organisation caritative qui a signalé le cas a été déclarée entité terroriste.
— Charlies Ingalls Le Vrai 🤠🐑🐄🐔🐎🤓 (@CharliesIngalls) December 4, 2023
Josh Paul était directeur des affaires publiques et du… pic.twitter.com/0fQ0lsRL1l
After bringing the allegations forward to the Israeli regime, Paul recalled that the very next day the Israelis “removed their computers and declared them a terrorist entity."
Following the complaint, Israeli forces raided DCIP offices twice, on 19 July 2021 and 18 August 2022, when their offices were raided and "sealed off" alongside the offices of seven other Palestinian NGOs, in what Amnesty International described as a "campaign of repression against Palestinian civil society."
Last month, Paul acknowledged that US officials are deliberately overlooking Israeli war crimes due to domestic policy concerns and actively suppressing opposition to providing military support to the regime.
"It is my opinion that Israel is committing war crimes in its actions in Gaza right now. And it’s not just my opinion. I’ve actually heard from officials across government, including elected officials at a very senior level, who share that opinion but aren’t willing to say it in public," Paul told AFP.
His resignation in October stirred controversy in Washington, as he conceded that "criticism of Israel is often seen as a third rail in American politics, particularly in Congress." He highlighted that this perception acts as a deterrent for US officials to publicly express what they privately believe.
Read more: Israeli dark child-killing record ‘shame’ for Western backers: Iran
Palestinian child detainees systematically denied their rights: DCIP
A report released in June by DCIP highlights the systematic denial of fair trial rights to Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces from the occupied West Bank and prosecuted in Israeli military courts.
The report, titled "Arbitrary by Default: Palestinian Children in the Israeli military court system," sheds light on the inherent injustices and arbitrary nature of the Israeli occupation forces' practices in the arrest, detention, interrogation, and prosecution of Palestinian children.
Khaled Quzmar, General Director at DCIP, expressed his deep concern regarding the treatment of children, stating, "Even a superficial review of the detention and prosecution of Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system suggests severe risks of arbitrary deprivation of liberty. A full view, through the experience of Palestinian child detainees, exposes an inherently unjust system of control where arbitrary detention is the default practice."
The report is based on affidavits collected from 766 Palestinian children from the West Bank who were detained by Israeli occupation forces between 2016 and 2022.
The findings reveal that three-quarters of the children experienced some form of physical violence following their arrest, while 97 percent were interrogated without the presence of a guardian.
Furthermore, two-thirds of the children were not adequately informed of their rights. The children were subjected to Israeli "military law", which denies them basic fair trial protections, and were prosecuted in a military court system that lacks independence and impartiality.
