BICOM

The state informed the country’s High Court of Justice yesterday that the Israeli army will reduce the amount of time that Palestinian minors in the West Bank may be held in detention before seeing a judge.

Given Israel’s unwillingness to annex the West Bank, which it captured in 1967, and the failure as yet to reach a final status agreement with the Palestinians, a complex system of law has developed in the territory, including the jurisdiction and legal authority of the Israeli Military Court.

In 2010, a petition was submitted to the High Court of Justice by a number of NGOs over the disparity between the incarceration times permitted by the Israeli Military Court in the West Bank for Palestinian minors without seeing a judge and their Israeli counterparts. As a result, in April the High Court of Justice recommended that the state reconsider these regulations.

Yesterday, the state informed the court that as of April 2013, Palestinians aged 12-13 suspected of serious security offences can only be held for an initial period of 24 hours, with the possibility of an additional 48 hour extension before they see a judge. For 14-16 year-olds the initial detention period will be reduced to a 48 hour period, with a possible extension up to 96 hours before seeing a judge. Before 2012, military law permitted Palestinian minors to be held for eight days before seeing a judge, but this was reduced earlier this year to 96 hours.

Improvements have been made in the treatment of Palestinian minors by military courts in the West Bank since a Military Juvenile Court was established in October 2009. In October 2011, the age at which minors could be tried as suspects was raised from 16 to 18, bringing the law in the West Bank in line with Israeli criminal law.