28 April 2016

Israel: 12-year-old Palestinian girl released after over two months in prison

A young girl hugging an old woman below a poster of Yasser Arafat Alkarama welcomes the release, on 24 April 2016, of 12-year-old Palestinian student Dima Al-Wawi, who was arrested on her way to school on 9 February 2016 and, on 18 February, was sentenced by the Israeli Ofer Court to four months in prison for “carrying a knife”, which according to the court, would have been used to kill Israeli settlers.

While we are pleased to hear of Al-Wawi’s release, we remain deeply concerned over the widespread, systematic and institutionalised imprisonment of Palestinian children by the Israeli authorities. Al-Wawi’ s arrest and detention, just like the arrest and detention of Amer Bajawi and Mohammed Mahdi Saleh Suleiman before her, violated numerous human rights obligations that Israel has, and therefore, Alkarama urges the Israeli authorities to stop this practice immediately and respect its international obligations", says Inès Osman, Alkarama's Legal Coordinator..

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).

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