29/2/2008
MEPs deeply disturbed by reports of Palestinian detainees' plight

 Members of the Human Rights Subcommittee reacted this week with deep concern to descriptions of the lives of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, with some MEPs concluding that the Parliament should try to send a fact-finding mission to Israel.

At a public hearing chaired by Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, FR), the subcommittee heard from Ashraf Al Ajrami, the Palestinian Authority's minister for prisoners' affairs, Fadwa Ibrahim, of the Free Marwan Marghouti Campaign (Ms Ibrahim is the wife of Mr Marghouti, the Fatah Tanzim leader) and Anat Barsella of B'Tselem (the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories). Several MEPs deplored the Israeli Embassy's decision not to send a representative to the hearing.
 
A third of Palestinian men have been in jail
 
There was broad agreement on detainee numbers: currently over 10,000, including more than 300 children, around 100 women and over 40 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.  Since 1967 over a third of the Palestinian adult male population has experienced detention. "If there are so many detainees, this says a lot about the political situation", said Ms Ibrahim.
 
Ashraf Al Ajrami told MEPs that the torture of the prisoners is not only acknowledged but legally authorised by Israel. He listed other problems such as lack of medical care, overcrowding and obstacles facing relatives wanting to visit prisoners (a point later backed by Ms Barsella). He added "the EU should push Israel to respect humanitarian law".   
 
Fadwa Ibrahim emphasised the suffering of prisoners and their families, especially that of children, pointing out that under international conventions the imprisonment of children is supposed "to be a last resort and to be as short as possible".  She called for "political prisoners to be released immediately" and "an end to torture and acts in breach of the Geneva Convention". To questions by EP vice-president Luisa Morgantini (GUE/NGL, IT) and subcommittee vice-chair Richard Howitt (PES, UK) about the situation of Palestinian women, she said "a Palestinian woman often has to be mother and father to her family". 
 
Anat Barsella described the legal position. Of "security detainees", 47% are held because of membership of illegal organisations, which can even include charities. Under "administrative detention", military commanders can detain individuals for up to six months, with unlimited renewals. Israel refuses to apply the Hague Convention and the fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Territories. Minors are not held separately from adults, in defiance of international law.  
 
An EP fact-finding mission?
 
Among MEPs who spoke, Laima Andrikienė (EPP-ED, LT) said "My understanding is that the Israeli security agencies do not act in a vacuum but as part of a system" that includes political support, while Marios Matsakis (ALDE, CY) was "shocked", "disappointed" and "astonished" that Europe had been able to do nothing and that the Israeli Supreme Court, the Knesset and the lawyers' associations had not reacted.
 
Summing up, subcommittee chair Hélène Flautre said the EP should "put pressure on the Commission and Council" to raise these issues with Israel. She also took up a suggestion by Ms Morgantini and Mr Matsakis that the EP should contact the Israeli authorities with a view to sending a fact-finding mission. The aim must be "to get this issue higher up the political agenda: it is still too low ".

Italy's coasts are an entry point for potential asylum seekers, with some 30 per cent of arrivals applying for asylum last year.

In 2007, at least 471 people were reported dead or missing. UNHCR, together with the Italian Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has been working on Lampedusa since March 2006 to assist those fleeing conflict and persecution and risking their lives to cross the sea to Italy.