The treatment of Palestinian children in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem is of deep concern, and an issue on which Ireland has been active for some time. In October 2013, during the universal periodic review of Israel’s human rights record, Ireland expressed this concern and urged Israel to fully implement the recommendations of the February 2013 UNICEF report, entitled “Children in Israeli Military Detention”. We recommended that Israel end urgently night arrests of Palestinian children, the admissibility in evidence in military courts of written confessions in Hebrew signed by Palestinian children, the use of solitary confinement and the denial of access to family members or to legal representation. Bilaterally, our concerns regarding the detention of Palestinian minors have been raised as part of our ongoing dialogue with the Israeli authorities on the overall situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian population, both with the Israeli Embassy here and through our own Embassy in Tel Aviv.
We cannot attempt to follow each specific case in which these issues arise. The case cited by the Deputy has not previously come to the attention of my Department, although it is a clear example of the reasons why these practices are of such concern.
In my view, Palestinian children should be afforded the same rights and protections under the law which Israel rightly considers to be appropriate for Israeli children living alongside them.
The overall human rights situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the treatment of children in detention, remains a matter of concern and will continue to be raised in the relevant multilateral fora, and to feature in the EU’s broader concerns about human rights in the area.
Similar concerns would exist in relation to the detention of children in many other states in the region.
