Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have seen a number of reports relating to this matter. The precise details involved are somewhat confused, and some media reporting may be inaccurate. Nonetheless, there is evidence of unacceptable treatment.

Most media reports seem to follow a report from the NGO, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, but the actual report of that NGO does not mention children. There is a more specific account from the Israeli national Public Defender’s office, detailing some incidents of detainees being held outdoors for some time. It referred to unspecified prisoners in Israeli prisons and was not confined to Palestinians. The specific reports concerning the winter storm related to a prison which holds Israelis convicted of criminal offences and does not hold Palestinians. Likewise it did not mention children, although another document states that minors had been included in this practice, not necessarily on this occasion. The allegations are not of prisoners being housed in the open, but being held there for some time, usually an hour or two, prior to being moved to court, or while a search took place. Indications are that this was a routine practice, which in at least some institutions was continued despite the onset of severe winter weather. This is clearly unacceptable.

I note that it was an Israeli official body, the Public Defender’s office, and an Israeli NGO, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, which raised this issue, and that the Justice Minister immediately issued an order to all prisons to end this practice. I have asked that further inquiries be made and that the situation be kept under review.

Ireland has pursued issues related to conditions of detention, including detention of minors, with Israel in recent years. We have raised these concerns on a number of occasions. Ireland raised the question of treatment of minors under Israeli military justice in the Universal Periodic Review of Israel at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last October. We will certainly be continuing to do so.

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