Five Caabu delegates to Palestine speak in a Westminster Hall debate on Palestinian child prisoners
On 6 January 2016, MPs held a Westminster Hall debate on child prisoners and detainees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The debate was secured by Sarah Champion MP who visited Palestine with Caabu and Medical Aid for Palestinians in September 2015.
Israelhas dramatically increased its detention of Palestinian children in the past months, continuing to subject them to abuse and torture, and holding over half of them in prisons inside Israel in violation of international law. It is an issue which Caabu has worked extensively for some years on, briefing Parliamentarians, organising delegations to Israel’s military courts and producing reports.
Caabu was therefore delighted to see various members of Parliament who have been on Caabu delegations to Palestine so heavily involved in the debate. Caabu board member David Jones MP and Paula Sherriff MP also went on the September 2015 delegation and both made contributions. Bob Stewart MP, who visited Palestine on a Caabu delegation in June 2012, and Andy Slaughter MP who has visited the region with Caabu, also spoke in the debate, which you can watch below. You can also read the debate in full here.
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/c7330fdf-fc8e-43ab-ad04-781545cee8d0
Sarah Champion, who secured the debate, made many contributions throughout. For instance, she describedthe great disparity between the treatment of Palestinian and Israeli children and summarised the overriding cause of this:
“The maximum period of detention without access to a lawyer is 48 hours for an Israeli child, but 90 days for a Palestinian child.”
“The nub of the problem: the Israeli children are tried in civilian courts, but the Palestinian children are largely tried in military courts.”
Bob Stewart bolstered Sarah Champion’s assessment, saying:
“Is not the nub of the problem the fact that there are two legal systems operating and they are not equalised? If a child happens to be Israeli, they are treated much more fairly than if they happen to be Palestinian. That is wrong and Israel should sort it.”
Paula Sherriff also posed a question about the disparity between treatment of Palestinian and Israeli children and highlighted some ways in which Palestinian children are mistreated:
“I visited the west bank with my hon. Friend in September 2015 with the Council for Arab-British Understanding and Medical Aid for Palestinians, and we were briefed by Military Court Watch. Does my hon. Friend share my concern at the significant disparity between treatment of Palestinian and Israeli young people, including lack of legal representation and parental support, allegations of widespread abuse and having to sign confessions in Hebrew, among many others?”
Caabu board member David Jones described the actions being committed by Israeli authorities as war crimes and called on the UK to act:
“The most troubling aspect of the matter is the breach of article 4 of the fourth Geneva convention, which clearly describes the transportation of people in occupied areas out of those areas as a war crime. There can be no doubt that war crimes are being committed by representatives of the Israeli authorities, which should be of extreme concern to everybody in this House and particularly Ministers in the Foreign and Commonwealth office. So I look forward to hearing from my hon. Friend the Minister as to what action the FCO proposes to take.”
Andy Slaughter made an intervention in the debate and spoke about the surrounding context to the issue:
“There is an inextricable link between the systemic human rights violations of Palestinian children held in military detention and the overarching context of prolonged military occupation. The realisation of the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people is the optimum solution for the complete removal of ‘widespread, systematic and institutionalised’ violations against Palestinian children held in military detention.”
Government Minister Tobias Ellwoodconcluded the debate by highlighting importance of the issue and expressing sympathy that it had notbeen held in the main Chamber and given more time. He argued that the Israeli Government has made some progress on this issue but insisted that the UK Government remain concerned about Israel’s extensive use of administrative detention:
“I welcome the positive steps Israel has made in implementing some of the recommendations of the “Children in Military Custody” report, but the Government remain concerned about the treatment of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons. The UK has made repeated representations to Israel about the treatment of child detainees, and I assure Members that this issue will remain a focus for us. We are committed to this matter, and I will raise it when I visit Israel next month. We will remain engaged on it.”
Caabu greatly welcomes these MPs for engaging with this issue and hopes that their visits to the region helped to inform their positions and prompted them to speak up on the issue of Palestinian child detainees. It was a particularly timely debate, with Israel significantly increasing its detention of Palestinian children in recent months. Currently there are 407 Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, the largest number since March 2009. See Caabu director Chris Doyle’s recent article for Al Arabiya news: Exposing Israel’s treatment of Palestinian child detainees.
