HC Deb 25 March 2002 vol 382 c608W
Richard Burden

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Government of Israel concerning the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1322 with respect to adhering to the Fourth Geneva Convention. [43485]

Mr. Bradshaw

The UK along with our EU partners reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem at the reconvened conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention in Geneva on 5 December 2001, and, in both the Conference Declaration and in the EU statement, condemned the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force to contain violence, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1322.

Richard Burden

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what investigations he has made into Israeli forces' detention, since 12 March, of the British citizen Patricia Rantisi and their occupation of her Ramallah apartment; and what representations he is making to the Government of Israel on the subject. [44672]

Mr. Bradshaw

Our embassy in Tel Aviv have raised concerns with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) about the plight of all British nationals in the occupied territories. Consular officials in Jerusalem kept in regular contact with British nationals trapped in Ramallah between 12 and 15 March, including speaking by telephone to Mrs. Rantisi.

On 14 March, the Permanent Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office delivered a demarche in the name of my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary to the Israeli ambassador to London calling for IDF co-operation over the plight of British nationals in Ramallah. The embassy in Tel Aviv has also raised Mrs. Rantisi's plight with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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