Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

IDF Commander 'Censured' for Use of Human Shields

War Criminals MUST Be Punished | 28.10.2007 00:25 | Anti-racism | World

The government's mainly symbolic gesture, of course, is not the same thing as actual punishment. Until actual prosecutions are accorded to the practitioners of these illegal practices, the Government stands in tacit approval.

Israeli troops use Palestinians as shields - video
13 Apr 2007 12:32:43 GMT
Source: Reuters

NABLUS, West Bank, April 13 (Reuters) - The Israeli army said on Friday it had suspended one of its commanders after an amateur video showed his men using two Palestinians as shields against rock-throwing youths.

An army statement said the commander had been suspended "from all operational activity" and an investigation launched into the incident this week in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Israeli law bans the military from using human shields.

The video, taken by a foreign activist, showed Israeli soldiers apparently forcing two Palestinian civilians to stand in front of an armoured military jeep to shield them from stones.

Last month, Israeli soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian girl as a human shield during an operation against militants in Nablus, an Israeli human rights group said.

Palestinian officials and some human rights groups say the army's use of Palestinians as human shields has become common practics during the seven-year-old Palestinian uprising, endangering the lives of civilians.

"The Israeli government must stop such unethical practices immediately," said top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. (Reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem)

www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13170331.htm

This symbolic gesture, of course, is not the same thing as actual punishment. Until actual prosecutions are accorded to the practitioners of these illegal practices, the Government stands in tacit approval.

IDF commander rebuked over 'human shield procedure'

Brigadier General Yair Golan faces freeze in promotion following investigation on use of Palestinian civilians

Hanan Greenberg Published: 10.18.07, 21:32 / Israel News

IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi decided on Thursday evening to rebuke the commander of former West Bank Division, Brigadier General Yair Golan, and to freeze his promotion, due to the findings of a Military Police investigation launched following various reports of the use the 'human shield procedure' in the West Bank.

During the procedure, Palestinians are asked to try and convince neighboring suspected terrorists to give themselves up.

Golan was a leading candidate to soon receive the rank of major general, and he was linked with the role of the prime minister's military secretary. But his promotion was put on hold until the investigation ends.

The investigation is focused on operation 'Hot Winter' carried out by the IDF in Nablus in April 2007. Investigators are checking to see whether soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields. A video clip from the Associated Press shows soldiers leading a Palestinian to a home with their weapons pointed at him.

Military Police investigators attempted to see whether senior officers in the Central Command, and perhaps higher up, authorized the use of the procedure despite knowing that the IDF had forbidden it.

The IDF Military Advocate General, Brigadier General Avi Mandelblit, decided that there was no basis for submitting a charge against Golan, but materials collected during the investigation suggested that as commander of forces in the area, failures did occur under his watch, including the use of the 'human shield procedure'.

The procedure was outlawed by the High Court, a decision also adopted by the IDF.

Golan today serves in a temporary position as project manager in the IDF's operational branch.

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3461591,00.html

Top IDF officer censured over use of 'human shields' in Nablus

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Israel Defense Forces Brigadier-General Yair Golan was censured on Thursday for allowing soldiers to use Palestinian civilians as "human shields" during military operations in the West Bank.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi decided to reprimand Golan - who formerly served as commander of forces in the West Bank - following a probe by the IDF's criminal investigation division into the army's use of human shields during raids in the town of Nablus.

Golan was the most senior officer to be questioned in the probe, which the army launched last March after IDF soldiers were filmed forcing a young Palestinian man at gunpoint to lead them from house to house during an arrest sweep in Nablus.

The army said in a statement that Golan would be passed over for promotion for at least the next nine months.


In a landmark 2005 decision, Israel's Supreme Court banned the use of
Palestinian civilians as human shields in general, and specifically outlawed taking Palestinian civilians on searches. Before the decision, the army would often have Palestinian civilians knock on the doors of houses where militants were believed to be hiding and ask them to surrender.

The army said the practice - known as the neighbor procedure - prevented
violence by encouraging militants to give themselves up. But in August 2002, a 19-year-old Palestinian student was killed in a gunfight that erupted after he was forced to knock on the door of a building where a Hamas fugitive was hiding.

Since the Supreme Court decision, Palestinians have accused the army of
continuing the practice, but proof was elusive. Human rights groups say the use of civilians in military operations has dropped sharply since the Supreme Court ban, but has not disappeared.

The Israeli rights group B'tselem, which monitors human rights violations in the West Bank, on Thursday praised the army's decision to reprimand Golan.

"We welcome the fact that the army took this seriously and investigated the case and took action," B'tselem spokeswoman Sarit Michaeli said. "Golan was a senior officer who broke the law, and we hope that this will send a message to officers that they cannot give orders like this to soldiers."

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/914568.html

War Criminals MUST Be Punished

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech