Israeli military put on the spot over abuses

A leading Israeli politician has accused soldiers of "gross violations of human rights" in the occupied territories, and the army high command of indifference to the abuses.

The unprecedented accusations came from Michael Eitan, a former cabinet minister and leader of Ariel Sharon's Likud party, as he chaired hearings of the Knesset's law committee.

Although Israeli and foreign human rights groups have long documented evidence of systematic abuses by soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza - including murder, indiscriminate shooting, aiming at children, torture and use of human shields - such accusations have generally been dismissed by the authorities as driven by anti-Israeli motives.



In a new controversy on Monday, Israeli troops allegedly shot at a diplomatic convoy at a military roadblock in Gaza Strip, twice hitting the windscreen of one of the cars but causing no injuries, diplomatic sources said.

Compelling Palestinians to participate in military operations and to act as "human shields"

The IDF systematically compelled Palestinians to take part in military operations. Several Palestinians interviewed by Amnesty International in relation to other subjects said that they had been compelled to take part in military operations and as "human shields". These practices violate international humanitarian law. Although the IDF announced through the State Attorney on 24 May 2002 that it would not use civilians in military operations, Amnesty International has continued to receive reports of cases in which Palestinians were used by members of the IDF during military operations, including as "human shields" (see, for example, the description of the case resulting in the killing of Fares al-Sa'adi above).

The large number of cases of Palestinians used as "human shields" in IDF military operations reveal a clear pattern. Typically the IDF would compel an adult male(6) in their military operation to search property in each area of the refugee camp. A Palestinian would be held by the IDF for a certain period, sometimes for days. These Palestinians were placed at serious risk, in some cases resulting in injury, as the following case illustrates.

ADLER: This use of Palestinians as human shields--how many times previously has the army done this?

GRADSTEIN: Well, it's been an army policy for quite a long time. And, in fact, Israel Television last night aired some footage of soldiers doing something very similar in the West Bank city of Jenin.

ADLER: There have been some reports in the past that Palestinians were used for mine detection. Is that true?

GRADSTEIN: There have been reports that Palestinians have been used to see whether houses were booby-trapped. And the soldiers say that they do that in order to stop Palestinians from booby-trapping their houses because if they know that it's one of their neighbors that may be coming and knocking on the door they won't booby-trap their houses.

"The soldiers hid behind our backs as they pushed us forward," said Mr Maswadeh. "Then they put their guns on our shoulders and began shooting. We felt our eardrums burning, but when we tried to put our hands over our ears, they beat our hands away. The noise was terrible because the gun was right next to my ear."

The soldiers fired dozens of plastic bullets, using the three Palestinian men as shields, before the crowd dispersed.

In May, as Israeli human rights groups sought a supreme court order barring soldiers from seeking protection behind human shields after their widespread use during the army's assaults on Jenin and other West Bank cities, the military admitted the policy was illegal and said it would stop.

But human rights groups will return to court on Sunday to argue that the army has only ended such abuses selectively, and is in breach of court orders.

The army calls this the neighbour procedure.

Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups say it is using civilians as human shields.

DAVID ZANGEN: I think there is nothing bad about it. We are just trying to prevent casualties.

MARK WILLACY: Dr. David Zangen is an army reservist who was the chief medical officer in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Israeli troops used Palestinian civilians as human shields and forced them to participate in dangerous military operations during the Israel sweep through a refugee camp in Jenin last month, according to a report released Friday by Human Rights Watch.

Israel Defense Forces said the Palestinians who used the camp as a "center for terror" in effect "used the civilians as human shields when taking cover from IDF soldiers."

"We're talking about a terrorist camp in the center of a refugee camp," said Col. Miri Eisen, an Israeli military intelligence officer. "Maybe we should address the fact that in the center of the refugee camp, a hundred or so terrorists built a booby-trapped minefield and not about the other issues."

At any rate the use of civilians as shields is not good thing, if they are doing it then I completely agree that they definitely should not be.