3 September 2025

In one of my charges, a group of schoolboys began targeting windows of my parishioners on the way home from school. They would pick up a handful of gravel from the residents’ driveway and throw some of the stones at the living-room windows.

This mischief was distressing to one older woman within the congregation. I went to visit. ‘I have contacted Environmental Health.’ she confessed. I was surprised and asked her, ‘Why?’ to which she replied, ‘It concerns the environment and it is affecting my health!’

Boys have been throwing stones for centuries. I threw some with my homemade catapult and on one infamous occasion, I penetrated our living-room window. My father was sitting in his chair. I just missed his ear. He was none too pleased but I didn’t end up in prison.

Recently, I signed a petition organised by the charity, Embrace, and sent an accompanying letter to my MP concerning child detention in the Israeli occupied West Bank. The most common charge for child detainees is stone throwing. It carries a penalty of up to twenty years! Imagine!

‘UN estimates and Israeli military data indicate that around 38,000 to 55,000 Palestinian children were imprisoned under military law between 1967 and 2022.’ writes Embrace. ‘Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 the rate of arrests has skyrocketed.’

Children are  blindfolded, beaten and tied with single plastic ties. The lasting impact includes prolonged mental and physical trauma. But in the Bible,  if people abuse them,  Jesus says, ‘it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.’ (Matthew 18;6)