In a normal society, violence toward children is considered particularly appalling.

Yet in Israel, for decades now, Israeli soldiers have arrested and are arresting Palestinian children, often in the middle of the night, on the basis of confessions from other children who were sentenced to months and years in prison after admitting a felony against the occupation.

The children are questioned in the middle of the night and are detained until the end of the procedures, even when they are 13 and 14 years old.

The military judges find nothing wrong with this.

Usually it is best for the children to admit to the crimes quickly (for example, to throwing stones between 2001 and 2004, with no mention of a specific date and place) and sign a plea bargain.

From the most senior military judge down to the private at a checkpoint, hundreds of thousands of racist and nutty Israelis who are also violent at home are perpetrators in the administering, demarcating, restricting and brutalizing Palestinian society while cumulatively damaging its rights, welfare and well-being.

This is a democracy worth preserving.