ranasrule Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Human rights group to Israel: Stop forcing Palestinian civilians to aid army operations By: AMY TEIBEL - Associated Press JERUSALEM -- A leading rights group accused Israeli troops on Friday of forcing Palestinian civilians to assist in military operations, and demanded that they stop the practice. International humanitarian law prohibits the use of civilians as shields in military operations. In a statement from Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said Israel violated this law by forcing at least three Palestinians -- two of them children -- to help search apartments for suspects during recent raids in the West Bank city of Nablus. The group based these charges in part on Associated Press Television News footage of a Palestinian man accompanying heavily armed soldiers as they conducted house-to-house arrest sweeps on Feb. 25. Other testimony came from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which says soldiers took a 15-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl with them as troops searched for militants and weapons, forcing them to enter the houses first. On Thursday, the military said it launched an official investigation into allegations that soldiers misused Palestinian civilians during its recent operations in Nablus. "Israel should put an immediate end to this wholly illegal practice which deliberately abuses the immunity to which civilians are guaranteed under international law," said Joe Saunders, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch. "It is particularly reprehensible that the Israeli army has forced children to act either as shields or as agents for them in recent military operations," Saunders said. In 2005, Israel's Supreme Court banned the use of Palestinian civilians in military operations, specifically on arrest raids. The practice is also prohibited by military orders. Practices of this sort became an issue in the spring of 2002, when the army carried out a major offensive in the West Bank following a series of Palestinian suicide bombings. During arrest raids, soldiers would sometimes force Palestinian civilians to approach the homes and hideouts of wanted men. In August 2002, a 19-year-old Palestinian student was killed after troops called him out of his home and forced him to knock at the door of a senior Hamas fugitive. Gunfire erupted and the student was killed. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/17...5_033_16_07.txt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeroday Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 This isn't "new" news. This stuff is been happening for ages now. They always "investigate" it, but it seems nothing ever happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Bourricot Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 At least it's outlawed now (only since 2005, interesting). Hopefully it will be phased out progressively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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