Rights as a Divide- and-Rule Mechanism: Lessons from the Case of Palestinians in Israeli Custody

Abstract

Critics have highlighted the complicity of human rights law in mass disempowerment and domination – a criticism equally applicable to child law. This article investigates this issue, as evidenced by three recent developments that Israel has justified by invoking these legal frameworks: an increased separation of Palestinian adults and children in Israeli custody; the Israeli legal system’s growing preoccupation with “rehabilitating” the now-segregated Palestinian children; and the Israeli authorities’ ever-diminishing interest in such rehabilitation for adult Palestinian prisoners. By canvassing the legal architecture, judicial rationalizations, adverse effects, and socio-political context of these developments, this article foregrounds their divide-and-rule logic and structure of driving a generational wedge between Palestinians and potentially weakening their political ties, solidarity, and resistance.

Note: Copyright by permission of the American Bar Association and Blackwell Publishing.

Keywords: human rights, child law, children's rights, prisoner rights, Israel/Palestine, divide and rule