A group of 11 British MPs have signed a letter urging the Labour government to send a delegation to inspect Israeli imprisonment sites, reports the Middle East Eye.
In the letter, sent to Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Monday, Scottish National Party MP Chris Law and other signatories ask whether Labour will commission a delegation led by UK judges and lawyers to “inspect Israeli detention sites”.
The move comes in light of documented evidence of the widespread torture and abuse of Palestinian detainees.
In May 2024, David Cameron, the foreign secretary under the previous Conservative government, negotiated a deal with Israel in which two UK legal observers would visit Palestinian detainees.
The letter sent by Law urged Lammy to send a team to “gather evidence and document testimony from freed Palestinian abductees, hostages and prisoners.”
It also asked for a “parliamentary fact-finding mission to assess and report on the current situation with regard to the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners”.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said that the majority of Palestinians released from Israeli-run prisons as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal are being subjected to “systematic torture days before their release”.
In recent reports, the monitor group has noted severe forms of torture and abuse, including burning detainees with boiling water and urinating on them.
Last August, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in torture camps, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.
The report, titled “Welcome to Hell”, was based on 55 testimonies from former detainees from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Israel, the overwhelming majority of whom were held without trial.
As per the MEE report, the letter from the MPs to the foreign secretary highlights “inhumane conditions and human rights violations facing Palestinian abductees, detainees and prisoners held in Israeli prisons and detention facilities”. It suggests there is a “significant perception of a lack of meaningful action, responsiveness, and impartiality” on the part of the government when it comes to human rights violations suffered by Palestinians.
“Extensive documentation” showing the “widespread use of sexual violence and humiliating treatment” has been shared with the foreign office by Palestinian and Israeli rights groups, the letter further notes.
It asks to what extent the government “is aware of the use of torture by Israel”.
“Will you give an undertaking that your department will closely monitor and engage with the situation of Palestinian detainees, and demand that Israel, as the Occupying Power, and the Israeli Prison Services ensure and uphold Palestinian prisoners’ right to life and the highest attainable standard of health and mental health?”
The letter was signed by MPs Law, Shockat Adam, Paula Barker, Jeremy Corbyn, Colum Eastwood, Lord Hain, Graham Leadbitter, Seamus Logan, Zarah Sultana, Nadia Whittome and Pete Wishart.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, over 11,400 arrests were made in the West Bank since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. In Gaza, the numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
