Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to reports that the Israeli authorities put Palestinian prisoners, including children, in outdoor cages during the severe winter storm that struck the region in the middle of December; his views that this practice is yet another example of Israel abusing and ill-treating detained Palestinian children; and if he will raise the issue with the Israeli authorities. [1503/14]

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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This question relates to the treatment of Palestinian children. At the end of last year, a statement was made by the advocacy group, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, that Israel had put Palestinian prisoners, including children, in outdoor cages during the severe winter storm that struck the region last month. This occurred in the Ramla prison complex, where Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank are regularly detained. I do not believe this is the first time Israel has been shown to detain children, undermining international law and mistreating prisoners. It is on that basis that I put down the question.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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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.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Tánaiste for bringing some clarity to the situation. Again, I was working off reports from the region. As the Tánaiste mentioned, a statement from the public defender who visited the prison and witnessed this said that the practice had been going on for a number of months, a fact that was verified during official visits and was not denied by the Israeli prison service. It is a fact that human rights organisations estimate that up to 700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12 years of age or even younger, have been subject to Israeli military detention each year and 74% of those children experience physical violence during their arrest, transfer or interrogation. That is unacceptable and needs to stop.

Israel remains the only nation to automatically and systematically prosecute children in military courts. Perhaps there are other countries of which the Tánaiste is aware. These are courts where a basic and fundamental fair trial, which must be guaranteed, is lacking. It cannot continue. Can the Tánaiste raise this with his European colleagues and at all levels? The ongoing treatment of children is unacceptable in any civilised society and needs to stop.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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As I understand it, the reports were of cages that were used to hold prisoners before they were taken to court or while a search was under way. My information is that the Israeli justice minister has ordered a discontinuation of that practice. There are wider issues relating to detention that we raise. I am concerned that rather than being extraordinary measures that are only applied in the most exceptional cases, detention orders are being used as part of the broader system of control of Palestinians and legitimate protest as well as violent action. It is not right that such detention orders are renewed indefinitely without a case coming to trial. I, therefore, strongly support the calls for this practice to be brought to an end. Ireland and its EU partners have repeatedly represented these views to the Israeli authorities and the number of cases of administrative detention has fallen during that period. We will, of course, continue to press the issue.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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In respect of the reports coming out of the occupied territories, other human rights organisations have talked about how they found that Palestinian children detained by the Israeli authorities are being systematically subjected to torture and violence including threats of rape by Israeli interrogators in order to force them to confess to crimes like stone throwing. It is unacceptable. I share the Tánaiste's concern about the use of house detentions and illegal detentions - people being released from prison and then re-arrested on spurious charges. We are talking about people being slowly strangled and cut off from resources. These reports came out at Christmas and, at the same time, we saw the situation in Gaza with the floods and people being refused access to supports and aid. It is an ongoing problem but the treatment of these children is just a symptom of what is wrong with that society.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The mistreatment of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in the occupied territories has been a matter of deep concern to us. Ireland with its EU partners has conveyed this concern directly to the Israeli authorities. We feel that this has had some result as the age of criminal responsibility for Palestinian children was raised in 2012 to the same age as that for Israeli children, as should be the case.

In Ireland's statement on Israel for the Universal Periodic Review in October, we urged Israel to implement fully the recommendations of the March UNICEF report, entitled "Children in Israeli Military Detention", including seeking an end to the arrests of children at home and at night. We also raised the issue of conviction based only on unrecorded, written confessions in Hebrew, solitary confinement for minors and the denial of access to family members or legal representation.

It should be pointed out that these issues are not unique failings. Similar or, indeed, worse criticisms could be made of penal systems in many of the neighbouring countries in the wider Middle East. This is not to excuse anything but to point out that we must be equally concerned about human rights elsewhere. I assure the Deputy that we have raised the specific issue of children and will continue to raise and make progress on it.