By, Sandy Rashty
1 min read
BySandy Rashty, Sandy Rashty
Jewish students have helped raise more than £15,000 for a lawyer to represent Palestinian minors interrogated by Israeli officials.
Around 30 university students took part in fund-raising activities for Kids Court in Conflict, a campaign run by the youth branch of the left-leaning Yachad group.
The amount they collected was matched by a private British Jewish donor to total £30,000, to fund an Israeli lawyer to work on the West Bank for 14 months.
Cambridge student Gabriel Gendler said he decided to join the campaign after spending two hours at an Israeli military court.
Mr Gendler, an 18-year-old madrich at the Noam youth movement, claimed that: "Palestinian children are not being given the same legal rights as Israelis".
A Yachad spokesperson said: "Every year 500 to 700 children are prosecuted in the military court system."
The lawyer will be provided by Gaby Lasky and Partners, an Israeli legal firm specialising in human rights."
A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in London said that all Palestinian minors in Israel's military court system were represented by a lawyer.
He added: "Law enforcement operations in the West Bank take place in the highly complex setting inherent to an armed struggle. The severity of the crimes committed by Palestinian minors and their often ideologically motivated nature create a unique set of demands from the criminal justice system."