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HRW Lauds Israel’s Agreement To Prohibit Use of “Human Shields”: Report
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HRW states Israel has long way to go regarding law of war violations |
With
additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem, IOL Staff Writer
WASHINGTON
D.C., May 10 (IslamOnline) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) commended
Israel Friday on its decision to prohibit using Palestinian civilians
as “human shields” during Israeli military operations in the
besieged Occupied Territories, but asserted that Israel still had to
address law of war violations in the region.
Israel
has been widely condemned by the international community and human
rights organizations for its assaults on Palestinian civilians,
including using them as shields to hide behind so that the soldiers
would remain safe while civilians would be in the line of fire.
Human
Rights Watch stated that its researchers met with senior Israeli army
representatives on May 6, and presented them with detailed research on
the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields and the coerced use
of Palestinian civilians for military purposes.
HRW
stated that it “gained a commitment from the Israeli army to
investigate the practices and agreement that such practices would
violate Israel's international obligations.”
HRW
regarded the Israeli decision as “an important step forward toward
complying with the requirements of international humanitarian law.”
Human Rights Watch also urged Israeli forces to take further action to
stop the coerced use of Palestinian civilians during military
operations, an issue Israel said it would "examine," and
reiterated its call for a full investigation into allegations of
serious law of war violations committed by Israeli forces in Jenin,
HRW stated in a document released Friday.
"The
Israeli army has taken an important step towards respecting the laws
of war," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle
East and North Africa division of HRW said in a statement released
Friday by the group. "But there are many other Israeli army
practices that similarly violate international standards and require
the same unequivocal and immediate action."
Megally
last month stated concern for the Israeli army’s practices of
coercing Palestinian civilians into carrying out its brutal policies,
saying, "this is an extremely disturbing practice. By marching
civilians at gunpoint to do the work of its own soldiers, the IDF is
betraying legal principles that every army is obliged to uphold."
In
response to a High Court of Justice petition by seven Israeli and
Palestinian human rights groups, the Israeli army decided on May 9 to
"immediately issue an unequivocal order" to its soldiers,
stating that soldiers "are absolutely forbidden to use civilians
of any kind as a means of 'living shield' against gunfire or attacks
by the Palestinian side, or as 'hostages.'"
The
order states that the prohibition applies "in houses, streets,
and in every area and place in which Israeli forces are acting."
The Israeli army also committed itself to "examine" the use
of Palestinian civilians during military operations, HRW went on to
report.
Human
Rights Watch has reported extensively on the coerced use of
Palestinian civilians during military operations, and most recently
documented the use of Palestinian civilians as "human
shields" and for military purposes during the Israeli military
operations in Jenin. In April 2002, Human Rights Watch released a
report on the coerced use of Palestinian civilians by Israel, entitled
"In
a Dark Hour: The Use of Civilians during IDF Arrest Operations."
In
its May 2 report entitled "Jenin:
IDF Military Operations," Human Rights Watch documented
several cases of IDF use of "human shields," including one
case in which eight Palestinian men, including a fourteen-year-old
boy, were taken from their homes and placed on a balcony overlooking
Palestinian fighter positions while Israeli soldiers fired from behind
the men. In another case, Israeli soldiers put a sixty-five-year-old
Palestinian woman on the exposed roof of her home during a gun battle.
Prior
to the May 9 Israeli army decision, rather than investigating the
practice, Israeli army officials regularly issued blanket denials
about the army’s coerced use of civilians and the use of "human
shields." For example, in response to the April 2002 Human Rights
Watch report on the coerced use of civilians, Israeli army
spokesperson Isaac Greenburg told Agence France-Presse (AFP),
"Under no circumstances do we use, or will we ever use civilians
to help us. The very idea, the very allegations are
preposterous."
"We
hope that the Israeli army is finally moving beyond blanket denials
and is now taking seriously its duty to investigate and stop
abuses," said Megally. "It is the duty of any professional
army to investigate abuses, punish those responsible, and issue
unambiguous orders to the troops to stop."
"The
Israeli army has taken an important step towards respecting the laws
of war. But there are many other Israeli army practices that similarly
violate international standards and require the same unequivocal and
immediate action," Megally continued.
Peter
Bouckaert, a senior researcher at HRW and co author of the group’s
report on Jenin told IslamOnline that HRW was concerned about the
“Israeli army’s use of civilians for military purposes other than
as human shields.”
He
said that Israel must take steps to ensure that other practices that
put Palestinians in direct risk should also be halted.
He
stated that the Israeli statement of compliance does not apply to the
wide practice of forcing “Palestinians civilians to knock on their
neighbors’ homes in order to conduct searches and open suspicious
packages.”
“The
statement form the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] said they would issue
a clearer unequivocal order to [stop the use of] human shields and
will examine use of civilians in other military operations.
“We
think it is equally clear that the use of Palestinian civilians
violates international law and the law of war and should be banned,”
Bouckaert stated to IslamOnline.
He
also went on to voice concern over the Israeli army practice of using
live fire against civilians to impose curfews in closed military
areas.
“There
is evidence of the widely practices use of live fire against
Palestinian civilians found outside of home after curfew in closed
military areas. We found evidence of Palestinians in Jenin killed
under such practices,” he asserted.
“Curfews
should not be enforced with the use of live fire. This directly
violates the law of war and is used widely in West Bank by the Israeli
army.”
He
also went on to state that HRW is calling for an investigation into
the “very serious laws of war violations committed in Jenin by
Israeli forces.”
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