4-year-old Palestinian boy issued Israeli arrest warrant

muhammad-almajidThe Electronic Intifada reported that Israeli occupation authorities issued an arrest warrant for a 4-year-old child, Muhammad al-Majid, a Palestinian Jerusalemite, on November 28.

EI reported that the Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported in Arabic:

Amid their frenzied campaign of arresting children in Jerusalem, Israeli forces raided the home of Zine al-Majid in the Saadia area of the Old City last week in order to arrest his son Muhammad, who is four years old.

The boy’s father told Wadi Hilweh Information Center:

“A big force raided our house at dawn on Thursday, and demanded to know the names of my children. So I told them and they said, ‘we have an arrest order for Muhammad.’ I was shocked and asked one of them if he was sure. Muhammad is only four years old! But the officer was not convinced and asked me to wake him up, and after he saw him he backed down from carrying out the arrest.

The father added: “I told the officer, ‘you want to arrest him; should I send milk and diapers with him?’”

He said that the officer questioned him about his son and his son’s friends and if he was in the neighborhood, under the pretext that an Israeli settler had been injured. He threatened to summon and interrogate the child if the accusations were established

“For children like four-year-old Muhammad al-Majid, there is no safety even inside their houses, as Israeli occupation forces can invade any time of day or night.

As of 30 September, 179 Palestinian children were imprisoned and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system, according to DCI,” EI reported.