(UPDATED) U.N. ENVOY SLAMS ISRAEL FOR JAILING LITTLE TERRORISTS

IF ONLY SHE SHOWED AS MUCH CONCERN FOR ISRAELI CHILDREN KILLED BY TERRORISTS, IN SOME CASES BY TEENAGE PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBERS. BY THE WAY, I WONDER WHAT SHE THINKS OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH BEING TAUGHT TO PALESTINIAN CHILDREN BY THEIR PARENTS AND GOVERNMENT? COULD THIS BE FEEDING THE "CYCLE OF VIOLENCE."

UN envoy slams Israel for jailing kids (JPost)
A UN envoy said Thursday that Israel's detention of Palestinian children and denial of proper trials are "a problem" that feeds the violence in the region.

The UN's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said she visited Hasharon prison in central Israel, where she said more than 150 minors are held for security and criminal offenses.

She said she urged Israeli officials to consider rehabilitation instead of detention for children detained on minor charges. Some 398 children 12 years or older are held in Israeli jails, she said. This week the Israeli Prisons Authority said 371 Palestinian children under 18 are in prisons.

"The process they are subject to is a military process ... and not a judicial process. That is something that we feel is a problem," she said. "I think children are getting very hard and bitter through this experience."

Coomaraswamy met with four children in the prison, including one held without trial. A 12-year-old and a 16-year-old were jailed for throwing firebombs, she said. "My sense is this kind of detention practice is feeding the cycle of violence."

UPDATE: BACKSPIN HAS AN INTERESTING POINT TO MAKE:

But as the Times of London, Reuters and the Globe & Mail have already documented, a lot of Palestinian kids look forward to being sent to an Israeli prison and deliberately get themselves arrested. Behind bars, they pursue an education, live well, and get street cred. Parents receive generous benefits from the PA, and some kids finishing their sentences find a way to return. The Times estimated that in the past two years, 200 Palestinian kids deliberately got themselves arrested.