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Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts – between 500 and 700 each year. The Israel Prison Service revealed that an average of 204 Palestinian children have been held in custody every month since 2012.

Ill-treatment in the Israeli military detention system remains “widespread, systematic, and institutionalised throughout the process”. These were the conclusions of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report ‘Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations‘.

Palestinian children as young as 12 are routinely:

Taken from their homes at gunpoint in night-time raids by soldiers.
Blindfolded, bound and shackled.
Interrogated without a lawyer or relative being present and with no audio-visual recording.
Put into solitary confinement.
Forced to sign confessions (often in Hebrew – a language they do not understand).

More information can be found in the PSC factsheet on Child Prisoners. Please join us in writing to the Foreign Office to demand the UK takes meaningful action to protect Palestinian children.

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Dear Mr Raab, There are currently over <a href="https://www.btselem.org/statistics/minors_in_custody">two hundred Palestinian children in Israeli jail</a>. Each year Israel arrests and prosecutes around seven-hundred children as young as twelve years old. After being separated from their families, exposed to physical, psychological, and emotional abuse, the majority of children are coerced into signing confessions put in front of them by Israeli interrogators – often in a language they do not understand. Very few children are granted access to a lawyer or allowed a family member present during interrogation. With <a href="http://www.militarycourtwatch.org/page.php?id=a6r85VcpyUa4755A52Y2mp3c4v">99% of court cases</a> against Palestinians resulting in conviction, signing a confession and making a plea bargain is often presented as the fastest way of being released and reunited with family. From the moment of arrest Palestinian children encounter abuse at the hands of Israeli forces. In 2013 <a href="https://www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_oPt_Children_in_Israeli_Military_Detention_Observations_and_Recommendations_-_6_March_2013.pdf">UNICEF published a report</a> into the widespread, systematic and institutionalised ill treatment of children in the military detention system. Of the thirty-eight requirements they set out to protect Palestinian children, Israel has implemented only one. According to the charity <a href="https://nwttac.dci-palestine.org/about">Defence for Children International Palestine</a>, three out of four children arrested experience physical violence. Nearly half suffer the traumatic experience of being taken from their families in the middle of the night by armed soldiers. The British Government is aware of what is happening. A delegation of lawyers was sent by the Foreign Office to <a href="http://www.childreninmilitarycustody.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Children_in_Military_Custody_Full_Report.pdf">report</a> on the situation in 2012. It came back with damning conclusions that mirrored those of UNICEF a year later. More recently the Palestine Solidarity Campaign submitted a <a href="https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2018/11/blog-union-stands-cruel-callous-actions-israeli-government/">petition</a> with over ten-thousand signatures demanding urgent action, and MPs tabled an Early Day Motion (<a href="https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/51031">EDM 563</a>) that is the fourth most supported in this Parliamentary session.
I therefore urge you to take three steps:
1)      Give assurances that the British government condemns in the strongest terms all mistreatment of children, and guarantees that UK funds will not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children.
2)      Call on Israel to implement the recommendations made in the 2013 UNICEF report “Children in Israeli Military Detention: Observations and Recommendations” to ensure that international law is upheld and the rights of the child protected.
3)      Announce what actions the FCO will take in response to Israel’s unwillingness to facilitate a follow-up report of “Children in Military Custody”, and what leverage can be applied through sanctions to ensure Israel complies with its legal obligations.
I look forward to hearing your response to this important issue.

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