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Jellah · #87 (**permalink**) 01-21-2009, 08:48 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/op...gewanted=print

Quote:

I always felt queasy about using civilians to protect us. It didn't seem to me that we had the right to put someone else's life in danger to protect our own. I voiced my reservations on occasion, but nothing changed.

Sometime during the years that followed, the pointer and roadblock clearers evolved into something even more questionable: the human shield. Soldiers who had to raid a house or patrol a dangerous stretch of road would grab a nearby civilian and place him in front of them. Unlike the pointer, this civilian had no function other than to protect Israeli soldiers.

According to Btselem, the Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, the practice was not a grassroots initiative. It was an army policy, handed down to soldiers by their superior officers. The routine became much more widespread in April 2002, when Israel reoccupied the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and other acts of violence against Israeli civilians.

In August of that year, a Palestinian man, Nidal Abu Mohsen, was killed while serving as a human shield. Israeli human rights organizations filed suit to halt the practice, and last October, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling banning its use.

Many in the army were upset. They felt they had been robbed of a tool that made their jobs safer, and which helped the commanders protect the lives of their soldiers.

Using Palestinian civilians (including children) is not some isolated incident but has most certainly been POLICY.

A few more specific incidents and the details here...

http://www.btselem.org/english/Human...Beit_Hanun.asp

http://www.btselem.org/english/human..._in_nablus.asp

And Senior IDF officers complaining about the court outlawing the practice!

http://www.metimes.com/International...r_kosher/1713/

Quote:

Senior IDF officers, too, said that the ruling could not only endanger soldiers, but also put more Palestinian civilians at risk. In future incursions when the 'neighbor practice' will not be employed, they said, Palestinians risk increasing house demolitions and greater force during arrests, in order to ensure the protection of IDF soldiers.

There is, however, no available 'hard' evidence to suggest that the use of human shields has decreased either bloodshed or the excessive use of force in prior incursions.