Arrested childhood in spaces of indifference: The criminalized children of Occupied East Jerusalem

Abstract

This article discusses the role of the Israeli politico-legal system in framing and constructing the racialization of children and childhood. Drawing on accounts of colonial violence inflicted upon incarcerated children's bodies and lives, and based on Sherene Razack's critical analyses on the "pervasiveness of indifference," we demonstrate how the criminal justice system is fundamental to the Israeli state's targeting of Palestinian children and childhood. Through analyses of political statements by politicians, media coverage, legal transcripts, and individual affidavits of children who have been arrested, we offer an alternative reading of child arrests in Occupied East Jerusalem. We argue that child arrest is a political mechanism through which the processes of colonial dispossession can be seen. We conclude by claiming that the "improved" amendments of the Israeli law dismiss the basic rights of the Palestinian child, thus emphasizing the core role of the Israeli legal system in the state's racist project.