Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express my concern about the treatment of Palestinian children by the Israeli military. Since 1967, Palestinians in the West Bank have lived under military occupation. Israeli soldiers, checkpoints, roadblocks, ID checks and even using different roads are sadly a part of everyday life. Most children must pass through checkpoints to go to school, to the shops and to visit their friends or family. Often at these checkpoints people, including children, are delayed, detained and questioned. According to Israeli figures, 414 children were held in military detention at the end of April. That figure includes 13 children detained without trial in what Israel calls 'administrative detention'. Children are being held without being charged or given a trial in military prisons. A Palestinian child as young as 12 can be imprisoned in Israel, and they often are. Just this year, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl spent 2½ months in an Israeli prison. By contrast, Israeli children in the same nation cannot be imprisoned until they are at least 14 years old.

These children appearing before these military courts are scared, pressured into confessions without legal representation, and often only given documents in a language they cannot understand. This inhumane treatment of children must stop. I call on the Australian government to raise in the strongest possible terms a request for Israel to ensure that their treatment of Palestinian minors is consistent with the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child.