H.E. Ron Prosor
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
Your Excellency
I am writing to support UNICEF’s request to the Government of Israel to release all Palestinian children currently in Israeli military detention, following the announcement that they will release Palestinian prisoners as part of a prisoner swap deal.
As of 1 October 2011, there were 164 Palestinian children (12 to 17 years) detained by Israel, including 35 between the ages of 12and 15 years; and that Israel's treatment of Palestinian child prisoners has raised serious concerns under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“For example, after an incident of stone-throwing near a village which is situated close to a settlement and two or three days later the army will come into that village, start arresting children from a pre-prepared list, the children will be painfully tied and blindfolded, put into the back of military vehicles and taken off into the night and their parents won't be told why they've been arrested or where they're being taken to.
They'll then be taken to an interrogation centre and usually subjected to both physical and verbal abuse until they provide the confession, and in about 30 per cent of the cases we handle the confessions are actually written in Hebrew, a language they don't even understand.
Then when they get to the military court eight days later, or within eight days, that's usually the first time they see a lawyer. Prior to that, they haven't been told that they have the right to silence which they're supposed to have.
Most of them have provided a confession and then most of them are denied bail, so the quickest way for them to get out of the system is to plead guilty whether they committed the offence or not.”
On humanitarian grounds, I appeal to the government of Israel to immediately and unconditionally release all 164 children, in addition to the prisoners previously agreed to, so they can be reunited with their families.
Sincerely