Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel about the arrest and interrogation by Israeli police of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem, in particular regarding reports that children aged between six and 12 have been arrested and interrogated without a parent present.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We consistently raise the issue of detention of minors with the Israel government. On 27 August our Ambassador in Tel Aviv lobbied the Israeli Military Advocate General on Children in Detention where the issue of child detention was discussed. We are aware of cases when the Israeli police have detained children under 12, and subsequently released them once their age has been verified. When officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv raised this with the police, they were told that the police do not hold children under the age of 12 but are not always aware that a particular child is below age.

According to the law, the police may hold a child over the age of 12 suspected of involvement in a security offence without allowing his/her parents to be present at the time of his/her arrest and interrogation. This is true for both Israeli and Palestinian minors held on security offences. We continue to lobby for the Israeli authorities to consider changing the law for the sake of the well-being of the child.