08 February 2018

The Rt Hon Alistair Burt MP

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street

London

SW1A 2AH

Dear Alistair,

Whilst I was unable to be in yesterday’s Westminster Hall debate about the military detention of Palestinian children by the Israeli authorities, I did want to add my voice to those raising concerns about the systematic undermining of minors’ fundamental rights. As you know, as many as 350 Palestinian children are currently held by the Israeli authorities, with most Palestinian minors arrested by Israel claiming to have experienced physical violence during detention. Examples include:

·         Saif Abeid, a 9-year-old boy resident in East Jerusalem reportedly had his thumb broken by Israeli police who had chased him after an alleged stone throwing incident.

·         Israel has demolished more Palestinian schools in the West Bank - this directly impacts on the lives and future of Palestinian children and is a source for grievances that does lead to young Palestinians acting out against the Israeli Military.

·         Laith Abu Naim, a 16-year-old resident of the West Bank village of Al-Mugheer, was shot and killed by the Israeli military on Tuesday 30th of January 2018.

·         Earlier in January the Israeli Military killed two Palestinian teenagers and seriously injured a third according to DCI Palestine.

·         Israeli authorities deported a 14-year-old epileptic Palestinian girl from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip earlier this month - this violates numerous international laws including article 76 of the fourth Geneva Convention and the UN convention on the rights of the child.

It is clear too that there’s a deliberate policy of interrogating minors, in violation of their rights and apparently with the sole goal of getting them to incriminate themselves or others. The military courts routinely order children be kept in detention in order to increase the pressure on them to agree to plea bargains. The conduct of the military courts denies minors any real possibility of mounting a defence and renders the whole “justice” system meaningless.

I welcome your statement that “Israel’s treatment of Palestinian minors, particularly the practice of holding them in military detention, remains a human rights priority for this Government” and welcome too that the Government has “repeatedly and publicly called on Israel to fulfil its international legal obligations” with regards children in military custody. It was helpful to read Hansard and the details of what steps the UK has taken to press home these concerns to Israel.

Please can you offer my constituents information about what other steps are being taken? In particular, would you please set out what actions the Government has taken and intends to take if Israel continues to refuse to comply with its legal obligations, including what leverage can be applied through sanctions?  I would further welcome confirmation from you that no UK funds are being used to support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to a two state solution and to the resumption of the middle east peace process and I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,