A masked Palestinian youth gestures during clashes with Israeli Occupation Forces in occupied East Jerusalem on October 30, 2014. (Photo: AFP - Ahmad Gharabli)

Published Monday, November 3, 2014

Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved an amendment to the Israeli penal code to enable more severe punishment against Palestinians convicted of involvement in “stone-throwing” attacks against Israeli targets.

The new sections, which will be added to the Israeli penal code, would allow the imposition of a prison sentence up to 20 years for those convicted of throwing stones or other objects at Israeli vehicles.

"Israel is strongly acting against terrorists, against who throw stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu went on to say that the new legislation aims to restore what he called "peace to all parts of Jerusalem."

"We will dedicate massive force and an aggressive legislation to restore quiet and security to every part of our capital," he added.

The new code would slap an imprisonment sentence of ten years against whoever throws stones or other objects at vehicles and 20 years for doing so with the view of exposing passengers to danger. Whoever throws rocks at police cars in order to obstruct the work of Israeli police will be jailed for up to five years.

Moreover, the law would also allow Israeli forces to imprison Palestinian minors under the pretext of allegedly endangering the lives of Israelis by throwing stones.

On Friday, Israeli Occupation Forces in occupied East Jerusalem attempted to detain two Palestinian children, a two-year-old and a nine-year old, on suspicion of throwing stones.
Last week, Israeli forces detained four Palestinian children, aged 13 to 16, for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli cars.

In 2013, a group of seven Israeli soldiers and an officer detained 5-year old Wadi'a Maswadeh after the boy allegedly threw a stone at a Zionist settler’s car at a checkpoint near Hebron.

According to a 2013 UN children's fund’s report, over the past decade, Israeli forces have arrested, interrogated and prosecuted around 7,000 children between 12 and 17, mostly boys, noting the rate was equivalent to "an average of two children each day."

A report by Defense for Children International (DCI) published in May 2014 said Israeli jails 20 percent of Palestinian children prisoners in solitary confinement.

Around 7,000 Palestinians, including hundreds without charge, are currently being held in Israeli prisons, more than 2,000 of whom were arrested by Israeli forces over this summer amid heavy tensions in the West Bank and Gaza.

Tension has run high in Jerusalem since the July abduction and murder of a Palestinian teenager in the Shuafat district by Israeli settlers, which had sparked confrontations between Palestinian residents and Israeli troops.

Confrontations intensified during and after Israel's recent 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip in July and August, which left at least 2,180 dead, at least 70 percent of whom were civilians.

The situation in East Jerusalem has been further aggravated by frequent visits by groups of extremist Zionist settlers to the al-Aqsa Mosque complex, where they are frequently seen performing Talmudic rituals.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories," considering all Zionist settlement building on the land to be illegal.

(Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)