"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
Human Rights Watch. "But there are many other Israeli army practices
that similarly violate international standards and require the same
unequivocal and immediate action."
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 IDF forces are acting." The Israeli army also committed
itself to "examine" the use of Palestinian civilians during military
operations.
Human Rights Watch researchers met with senior IDF
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, gaining a
commitment from the IDF to investigate the practices and agreement
that such practices would violate Israel's international
obligations.
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 the IDF, 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 IDF soldiers fired from behind the men. In another
case, IDF 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 IDF'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, IDF
spokesperson Isaac Greenburg told Agence France-Presse: "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."
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