EU Foreign Relations Chief urges Israel to respect its international obligations

    The European Union urged the Israeli government to fully respect international obligations pertaining to human rights of all Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and to restore their familial rights immediately. These demands came in the EU Foreign Relations Chief, Katherine Ashton's reply to an earlier letter dispatched to her by the General Federation of Palestinian Communities in Europe regarding Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Federation issued a press statement his morning stating that the official representative of Mrs. Katherine Ashton pointed out that the issue of administrative detention was discussed with Israel at all levels, during a series of meetings between the EU and Israel in December 2012 and January 2013. Ashton said that "we've noticed a reduction in the number of administrative detainees from 307 in December 2011 to 160 detainees in January 2013 and also observed that the Israeli Higher Court's law stipulates the need to change the policy of administrative detention. She accentuated in her letter that a decision to detain a Palestinian citizen should be taken at highest judicial levels under high judiciary supervision and added that the conditions of administrative detention remain worrisome to the European Union. She expressed her utmost worry towards the deterioration of the health condition of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, stressing that the EU is extremely worried in this regard.