EU PARLIAMENT CALLS ON ISRAEL TO RELEASE ALL PALESTINIAN CHILD PRISONERS http://www.namnewsnetwork.org/v2/read.php?id=173690

Proinsias De Rossa, Chairman of the European Parliament's Palestine Delegation has reiterated his call for the release of all Palestinian child prisoners held in Israeli jails.According to Israeli prison statistics, there are currently 164 children being held ranging in age from 12 to 17, 35 of whom are younger than 15. Seventy-six of these children are serving sentences and the balance of 88 are being held in pre-trial detention. The children are mainly charged with stone throwing, he noted in a statement Tuesday.

"The positive potential of the prisoner swap currently underway could be greatly enhanced if these children were unconditionally released. For Israel,this would not only bring her into compliance with international law but would be a generous humanitarian gesture which would enhance her reputation globally and in the region," said the Irish Member of the European Parliament.Each year, approximately 700 Palestinian children from the West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts following arrest by the Israeli army. It is estimated that since 2000 over 7,500 Palestinian children have been detained and prosecuted.

"The detention and trial of children by military courts and their mistreatment is directly contrary to the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of children by an occupying powern," he said. De Rossa called on the EU member states and the EU High Representative Catherine Ashton to raise this matter with the Israeli authorities in the context of the current contacts seeking to restart final status negotiations.

[How about EU suspending all avenues of cooperation throughout Europe with research foundations and other relevant institutions and groups in Israel???