Military authority releases arrest data for 2014
[31 July 2015] - On 8 July 2015, the Public Relations Branch of the Israeli military Spokesperson’s Unit responded to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) regarding the arrest of Palestinian minors in the West Bank in 2014.
According to the Public Relations Branch the Israeli military arrested 3,182 Palestinian adults and children in the West Bank in 2014. The supplied data does not disclose how many additional individuals were detained without being formally arrested. According to the Public Relations Unit this total includes “approximately” 861 minors aged between 12-17 inclusive, representing 27 per cent of the total. This total compares to 1,004 minors arrested in 2013, representing a decrease of 14 per cent.
According to the Public Relations Branch, the 861 minors arrested in 2014 were processed as follows:
- 247 minors (29 per cent) were transferred to the Palestinian police in accordance with the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
- 504 minors (58 per cent) were indicted in Israeli military courts.
- 110 minors (13 per cent) appear to be unaccounted for in the documentation provided by the Public Relations Branch but most likely were released at some point without being indicted.
Although the military authorities did not provide all of the information requested, sufficient data was supplied to indicate that bail was denied in 71 per cent of cases in which minors were indicted in the military courts. However, in the remaining 29 per cent of cases where minors were released on bail, evidence collected by MCW indicates that bail is frequently only granted following days or weeks spent in detention.
The data released by the Public Relations Unit cannot be independently verified by MCW and does not include information about the number of minors detained by the military without being formally held under arrest; a number which is likely to be substantial.
