Tzipi Livni must act on child prisoners

In the light of Tzipi Livni being granted diplomatic immunity for her visit to Britain (Report, 14 May) and with today being Nakba day, we want to draw attention to the recent reports into Palestinian child prisoners in Israel by the Foreign Office and Unicef which catalogue gross violations of the rights of the child and human rights.

Children In Military Custody concludes: "Israel is in breach of articles 2 (discrimination), 3 (child's best interests), 37(b) (premature resort to detention), (c) (non-separation from adults), (d) (prompt access to lawyers), and 40 (use of shackles) of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child. Transportation of child prisoners into Israel is in breach of article 76 of the fourth Geneva convention … Israel will also be in breach of the prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in article 37(a) of the UNCRC."

Unicef's progress report (October 2013) repeated the litany, concluding "violations are ongoing". The Israeli authorities said they would stop the night-time arrests, but the practice continues. A Military Courts Watch progress report (March 2014) concludes: "The evidence gathered by MCW, and the evidence collected by Unicef … indicates that ill-treatment in the system still appears to be 'widespread, systematic and institutionalised'."

We call on Tzipi Livni, who is visiting London today, to stop these abuses immediately. And we call on David Cameron to insist that she does so. Such abuse is a gross violation of Jewish ethical principles. We invited the Board of Jewish Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council to make this call on the Israeli government, but are ashamed to say they have remained silent, so it is left to us to make this demand.
Glyn Secker, Leah Levane, Deborah Maccoby, Clare Ungerson, Rachel Lever, Marion Hersh, Colin Purkey
Jews For Justice For Palestinians

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