Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations he has made to his Israeli counterpart on the (a) arrest and (b) detention of the Palestinian political activist Mahmoud Nawajaa.

Our Consulate General in Jerusalem have been monitoring Mr Nawajaa's case. Mr Nawajaa was released on 17 August without charge after 19 days of detention. We remain concerned about Israel's extensive use of administrative detention which, according to international law, should be used only when security makes this absolutely necessary rather than as routine practice, and as a preventive rather than a punitive measure. We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and either charge or release detainees. We repeatedly call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law and have a regular dialogue with Israel on legal issues relating to the occupation, including the treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. Officials from the British Embassy in Tel Aviv raised the issue of treatment of Palestinian detainees on 18 June with both the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We also remain concerned by the continued transfer of Palestinian detainees to prisons inside Israel in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. We continue to raise our concerns in our engagement with the Israeli authorities.