Eyewitnesses: Israeli army used a young Palestinian as a human shield. Again.

Eyewitnesses: Israeli army used a young Palestinian as a human shield in Balata Refugee camp

author Monday April 23, 2007 09:01author by IMEMC - Newsauthor email news at imemc dot org Report this post to the editors


Palestinian Man being used as Human Shield in Bethlehm, (File - Photo by Maan)

Despite an Israeli high court ruling to ban on using Palestinians as human shields, the Israeli army continue to force Palestinian civilians to walk in front of their military vehicles as they invade several West Bank areas.

Eyewitnesses in Balata refugee camp near Nablus reported that Israeli troops used Mahmoud Ji'arim, from the camp as a human shield on Monday morning. J'iarim was forced to walk with the soldiers as they went around in the camp and kidnapped five Palestinians.

Eyewitnesses said that troops invaded the camp and Al-Dahiya neighborhood in Nablus and took prisoner Abdul Rahman Al-Qani, Mahmoud Al-Sahli, Mohammad Hamid, Ghassan Abu Hamada and Mohammad Abdul Ghani.

In March Israeli troops were video-taped using Palestinian civilians as human shields, despite objections by International HUman Rights Organizations and the ruling of the Israeli court of Justice, who illegalized the usage of civilians in military operations.

On Video: Palestinian As Human Shield

By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

(04-11) 15:49 PDT JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) --

Sameh Amira was fast asleep when he was jolted awake by pounding at the front door. Israeli troops were on a manhunt for wanted militants in the West Bank and decided to draft help.

The terror-stricken 24-year-old Palestinian soon found himself forced onto the front lines of Israel's shadowy war against militants, a human shield as he led heavily armed soldiers from house to house. "I was afraid I would die," he said in a recent interview.

For several years, Palestinians had complained about the army's use of human shields, but proof was difficult to come by. Then in late February, Associated Press Television News captured footage of the incident involving Amira.

The video has prompted the army to launch a rare criminal investigation into whether its soldiers violated a landmark Israeli Supreme Court 2005 ruling barring the use of human shields. Others, including an 11-year-old girl, have been emboldened to come forward with similar accounts of being compelled to walk ahead of soldiers looking for militants.

International law, including the Geneva Conventions and Hague regulations, prohibits placing civilians in harm's way during military operations.

The army promises a vigorous investigation. "Violations of the law or of rulings of the Israeli High Court of Justice are viewed with severity," said Capt. Noa Meir, a spokeswoman.

The case highlights one of the many human rights issues the army is dealing with as it enters its fifth decade of military occupation in the West Bank. The army says operations like the raid in Nablus are needed to protect Israelis and Israel's security. But after six years of fighting in the latest intifada, the army's tactics have become increasingly tough on Palestinians not part of the conflict.

The army moved into Nablus — a major West Bank city known as a militant stronghold — on Feb. 24 in a broad sweep targeting militants and weapons labs. The operation shut down large parts of the city for six days and confined thousands of people to their homes.

Residents have given harrowing accounts as troops moved house to house in search of wanted men. The soldiers reached Jihan Dadoush's home in the poor Jasmine quarter of Nablus' Old city on Feb. 28.

Dadoush, 11, said she was watching the news with her family at about 8:30 p.m. when there was a knock on the door. She said the troops questioned her father and older sister before turning to her.

"I was very afraid because the soldiers were screaming at me, so I told them about a house where young men sometimes go," the ponytailed girl said, hesitating and moving about restlessly as she spoke.

About 15 minutes later, she said the troops returned and called her name. They ordered her to come with them, threatening to arrest her and ignoring her father's pleas to leave her alone, she said.

"I was shouting, 'Where are you taking my daughter? Bring her back! Bring her back!'" her father, Nimr Dadoush, said in an interview, explaining the girl has a heart condition. "They didn't answer me." Dadoush, 38, who sells vegetables and works in construction, said he is not politically active.

Jihan said the troops ordered her to show them the hideout. "They made me walk in front of them. There were many soldiers behind me with their weapons and they frightened me," she said, breaking into tears.

Questions about army practices peaked in the spring of 2002 during an offensive in the West Bank in response to suicide bombings. During the operation, soldiers often forced Palestinian civilians to approach the homes and hideouts of wanted people.

The army at that time defended the practice, known as "the neighbor procedure," saying it took civilians out of harm's way and encouraged militants to surrender peacefully. The army says it never allowed troops to use civilians for cover during battles.

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.

In its 2005 ruling, the Supreme Court barred any use of civilians in military operations, including the neighbor procedure. Since then, human rights groups say the number of cases has dropped sharply. But Palestinians and Israeli critics say the practice continues.

"When you have to decide between risking your soldiers' lives or just a Palestinian bystander, the solution ... suddenly becomes much more logical than it sounds," said Avichay Sharon, 25, a former Israeli commando who served from 2000 to 2003.

Sharon belongs to "Breaking the Silence," a group of former soldiers who say army tactics in the West Bank are hurting Israel's moral character. Based on confidential interviews his group has conducted with some 400 former and active soldiers, Sharon says the "human shield" practice remains common.

"Everyone has done it, seen it, witnessed it," he said.

On the morning of Feb. 25, an AP cameraman followed a group of army jeeps rushing to a Nablus neighborhood. The cameraman noticed a young man dressed in shorts and a T-shirt who appeared out of place on the cold morning.

The cameraman zoomed in and filmed the man, later identified as Amira, leading soldiers through the front door of an apartment.

Gunshots were heard as several soldiers stood guard outside. Amira then left the home, walked down the stairs and escorted the soldiers around the side of the building. Later, he was led down some stairs with several suspects and put into a military vehicle.

Speaking to the AP, Amira said he led troops to three homes, including his own. He said soldiers fired into bedroom closets in his house — apparently thinking militants might be hiding inside.

"They made me go in front of them in every room they wanted to enter, and they fired behind my back," Amira said, pointing to bullet holes in the floor, closet doors and clothes.

Amira said he has no ties to any militant group, though a cousin is wanted by Israel. He said he was held for several hours before being released.

Over the coming weeks, the army gave several versions of the events.

Initially, it said soldiers had found Amira wandering in the streets and escorted him home. After being shown the video, the army said the images "do not appear to indicate any mistreatment" of civilians, but pledged "a thorough inquiry."

Then, on March 15, after the AP video had been aired worldwide and new human shield allegations emerged, the army announced a formal criminal probe in a one-sentence statement released shortly before midnight. A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military rules, said the probe was ordered because of the AP footage.

The army said it is looking into four such complaints, including one from a 15-year-old cousin of Amira and from the family of Jihan, the 11-year-old. Several other Palestinians, including a 47-year-old man and two more members of the Amira family, have approached the AP with similar stories.

Jessica Montell, executive director of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, said such complaints rarely lead to punishments.

For instance, less than 8 percent of military investigations into physical abuse by troops have led to convictions in the past six years, she said, citing army figures. But she said the video is "crucial" evidence that is rarely available.

Montell, whose group is assisting Amira and Dadoush, said the probe could lead to anything from disciplinary measures to criminal indictments. And while it is too early to say whether the use of human shields is pervasive, she said she hopes the probe will determine full responsibility.

"It's hard to imagine that the individual soldiers took the initiative here. At least at some level, some commander is instructing and training soldiers," Montell said.

In Israel, the video aired on evening newscasts for several days, but reaction was subdued.

After years of Palestinian suicide bombings, the public tends to support the army's tactics if they keep things quiet. "In order to save Israeli soldiers, I would do it," said Yitzhak Goren, a 78-year-old Holocaust survivor from the coastal town of Netanya. But, he added, "only when there is no other choice."

Asaf Abraham, a high school senior from a Jerusalem suburb, said he opposed such tactics. "When you practice immorality on the outside, it's going to affect the inside," he said.

Amira, meanwhile, has become something of a hero in Nablus, easily recognized by his boyish face and slick brown hair.

But the young man says the attention has been a curse. Amira said he worked for several years in a nearby Jewish settlement. Since the video aired, he said he has not been able to renew a work permit, and he fears he is being punished by the Israeli authorities.

"I don't do anything. I hang out, sleep, and walk around. I have nothing to do," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Ali Daraghmeh in Nablus, West Bank, and Ben Winograd in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Twilight Zone / After her!

Sick monsters
---
Sat., March 17, 2007 Adar 27, 5767 | Haaretz

By Gideon Levy

When it was all over, the soldiers gave her a cookie and some halva. And just to be on the safe side, they added a threat: "Don't you dare tell your parents; otherwise we'll kill you," they told her before letting her go, knowing they had done a terrible thing. But little Jihan did tell, and so did her parents: The IDF is using children as human shields.

Regarding this practice, known as "early warning" or the "neighbor procedure," then Supreme Court president Aharon Barak wrote in October 2005: "These considerations lead me to the conclusion that the 'Early Warning' procedure is at odds with international law. It comes too close to the normative 'nucleus' of the forbidden, and is found in the relatively grey area of the improper. The result is that we turn the order nisi into an order absolute, in the following way: we declare that the 'Early Warning' procedure contradicts international law." Thus the practice was declared illegal, banned by the Supreme Court. But so what? Instead of using men, how about a little girl? The "neighbor procedure" is prohibited? So we'll use the "neighbor's daughter procedure."

Jihan Dadush, 11, who lived in the Nablus casbah, was rewarded with halva and a cookie after soldiers had her leave her house early one evening and lead them to the hiding place of wanted suspects, enter a dark and abandoned apartment to check if anyone was hiding there or if there were any explosive devices inside. They did the same thing with Amid Amira, a 15-year-old boy from another part of Nablus. He, too, was sent into a dark apartment, at dawn, to scout out the place himself. Arfa Amira, 12, was sent in to investigate who was in his own apartment. Instead of the famous "After me!" ethos of the IDF heritage, now we have "After her!" - a young girl led off by armed soldiers who hide behind her.

We walk through the alley-ways of the Old City of Nablus - thousand-year-old buildings whose beauty rivals those in Jerusalem's Old City - with two excellent investigators from the B'Tselem organization, Salma Dab'i and Abdel Karim Sa'adi. Two weeks after the operation, the casbah is full of people. Now is the time of the 'aqub, a plant that grows in the mountains and has a very short season. Its price is already on the rise: This week it was selling in the casbah for NIS 25 per kilo - the truffles of Nablus.

Passing stands that sell grape leaves and lamb ribs, we enter a dim stone building. In its inner courtyard, where woolen blankets are now being aired out, 14 people were killed during Operation Defensive Shield. Five years later, in Operation Warm Winter, four times soldiers have raided this winding, mysterious compound, with its narrow staircases leading off in every direction. Only the locals really know these alleyways and the passages between them. The soldiers were searching for tunnels here, but in the Old City of Nablus, one can pass from building to building via the rooftops.

Steep stone steps lead us to the apartment of the Dadush family - Tahni, Nimr and their four children, who live in three small, neat rooms, with arched, damp ceilings. While we wait for Jihan to return from school, her mother, Tahni, recounts her own nightmares from Operation Warm Winter. On Sunday, February 25, when the operation began, soldiers took over two of the neighboring apartments. The Hawah and Jadallah families had to crowd into one small room. And here's the punch line: When one group of soldiers burst into the Hawah family's apartment, they found another group of soldiers already there. "They were in shock when they saw other soldiers in the apartment," laughs Tahni.

A few hours later, they arrived at her home. Nine people, including in-laws and a sister, were forced to gather in this tiny living room where we are now sitting. The father, Nimr, was arrested and sent to Hawara for interrogation. He returned 14 hours later. Soon, he, too, will join our conversation, when he finishes his shift at the restaurant in the casbah where he works. Around midday, the soldiers asked to go up to the roof. In the afternoon, they left. During the night, the family was too frightened to sleep. With the IDF around the whole casbah was tense.

The next evening, around 8 P.M., they returned to the apartment, the same soldiers from the day before, and were surprised to see that Nimr had been released. This time the soldiers were carrying a lot of equipment, which frightened Tahni very much. She asked to go into the kitchen to prepare for what might be a prolonged occupation of her home, and the soldiers consented. How did they treat her? "Some were nice and some weren't." The soldiers ordered the two daughters, 15-year-old Hanan and 11-year-old Jihan, to leave the apartment. Outside, they separated the girls and asked them if they knew where the wanted men were hiding.

A pale neon light illuminates the tiny living room during the day, too. A neighbor's rooster crows. The two girls returned from the brief interrogation, straight into the arms of their frightened mother. But a little while later, a soldier came in again, looking for Jihan. He instructed the child to go outside. Tahni cried out to the soldier, "She's little, she's a little girl and she's scared," but he ignored her. Her mother was also worried because Jihan has a congenital heart defect. The soldier prevented Tahni from leaving the apartment to see what was happening to her daughter. She says she was close to fainting. She tried to phone one of the assistance organizations, like Medical Relief, for help, but was told that they couldn't come into the casbah because of the curfew.

Nimr, 36, told the soldiers: "Take me to jail or to hell, but don't touch the girl." But they pushed him away, told him to be quiet and made him stay in the room. A little while later, Tahni decided to open the door, and saw that the soldiers and Jihan were no longer near the doorway. The family's nightmare had begun.

Jihan could not tell her parents what had happened until a few days later. The soldiers, apparently along with someone from the Shin Bet who was not in uniform, had taken her outside and said that her father had told them that she knew where the wanted men were hiding. They also told the girl that her father said she knew the location of the wanted men's tunnel. She told them she had no idea about any tunnel or any apartment. They said she was lying. Jihan said the soldiers tried to bind her hands, but that she resisted and they relented. "At that moment, out of fear," says her mother, "she pointed to one of the neighbors' apartments, an apartment that has stood empty for years, and told them that that's where the people were hiding."

Three soldiers took her to the abandoned apartment she had pointed out. They ordered her to enter the dark apartment and followed, their rifles aimed at her. One of the soldiers lighted the way. Jihan pleaded with them to let her go home.

Now Hanan arrives, wearing her striped school uniform. Then Nimr comes home from work. He speaks Hebrew. Finally, Jihan arrives, too, also in her school uniform. A sixth-grader, she looks mature for her age, a cheerful, energetic girl with a long ponytail. She surprises us with her readiness to tell her story:

"The soldiers told me to come with them. One of them asked me about the tunnels and the shabab. I told them that I didn't know anything. One of them said that I was a liar. He threatened that they'd arrest me. I was scared, so I told him that there was an empty apartment, maybe the wanted men used it to sleep in. The soldiers took me to the apartment, I pointed it out to them and then they brought me back. About a half hour later, two soldiers came back and asked me to come outside. They put me in the lead and walked behind me. The soldiers pointed their rifles at me from behind. When I got to the apartment, they asked me to go inside. They used a laser beam from their rifle to light the way for me. They told me to go into the kitchen and all the rooms and then they asked me how to get up to the roof."

Jihan knew her way around the apartment. Until a few years ago, it had been the home of the Sirasi family, whose mother was a friend of her mother's. Jihan says that the soldiers spoke Hebrew to each other inside the apartment, and she didn't understand. They left her in one of the rooms and went up to the roof. The whole thing lasted about an hour and a half.

After being led out by the soldiers, she returned home at about 10 P.M. and got straight into bed, pulled the covers up over her head and didn't say a word. Her mother says that she looked very frightened. Every so often, she called out to her mother from her bed: "Have the soldiers come back for me?" In her hand were the halva and cookie the soldiers had given her. Her mother says that Jihan has recently started wetting the bed at night.

The Al-Balat quarter of Nablus, a few minutes' drive from the casbah and Jihan's house. Amid Amira, 15, woke up along with the rest of his family to the sound of a loud boom. This was at about five in the morning on February 25, the day that Operation Warm Winter started. There were seven people at home; his father was in America. A stun grenade exploded right next to the front door; the soot marks are still visible. The holes in the door, in the walls and the ceiling attest to gunfire by soldiers inside the house.

Na'ima, the mother, opened the door and was startled to see soldiers standing there. They instructed her to get everyone in the house to come outside. The whole family, which includes two babies and an 80-year-old grandmother, had to move into the neighbors' apartment, with the Quseini family. Three families were crowded in there, one family to a room. The soldiers instructed Manal, Na'ima's 17-year-old daughter, to go into their apartment, turn on all the lights, open all the windows, closets and doors. Manal didn't understand the soldiers' broken Arabic and so they took Arfa, 12, and ordered him to open all the doors and turn on all the lights for them.

In his still childlike voice, Arfa relates that one of the soldiers butted his forehead with his helmet. "My head hurt a little," the boy says. The soldiers were searching for Amer, one of the sons, and Ala, the fiance of Manal, whose brother, Omar Aqub, is on the list of wanted men. They questioned a son, Ahmed, 28, and when he told them that he had no idea where those two were, they took Amid with them.

Amid: "They said: Tell us where your brother Amer is, or we'll shoot you. I told the soldier that I didn't know, and then he hit me from behind. Then they asked me who the apartment next door belonged to and I told them that it was my uncle's. They told me to go with them to the apartment. There, they told me to go into the house, open all the doors and all the closets and turn on all the lights. They threw a smoke grenade into the house and then they told me to go in and they followed me. They spread out in all the rooms and they put me in the last room. When they didn't find anything, they led me outside." He didn't get any halva or cookies.

The IDF spokesperson responded that the incidents are under investigation.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Palestinian, 11, says army used her as shield

Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Saturday March 10, 2007
The Guardian

The Israeli army is investigating whether its troops used two Palestinian children as human shields during a house search operation in the West Bank, after claims by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem.

The use of human shields to deter gunmen from opening fire on soldiers has been banned by the Israeli supreme court and forbidden by the army. However, the practice, in which soldiers force Palestinians to approach, enter and search buildings where they believe a gunman may be hiding, remains common.

Israeli soldiers were filmed using Sameh Amira, 24, as a human shield on February 25, during a week-long raid into the West Bank city of Nablus. Mr Amira was made to search homes in the old city during a hunt for wanted men and bomb-making laboratories. The old city was under curfew for two days and a man was shot dead when he went on to the roof of his home.

Mr Amira's cousin, 15-year-old Amid Amira, told B'Tselem that soldiers also forced him to search three houses, making him enter rooms, empty cupboards and open windows. And an 11-year-old girl, Jihan Dadush, told B'Tselem that soldiers took her from her home three days later, on February 28, forcing her to go into a neighbouring apartment ahead of them. The soldiers then took her home, she said. In her testimony to B'Tselem, Jihan said that after the soldiers left, "I was shaking with fear. I was afraid they would kill me or put me in jail."

B'Tselem said that it was clear from the testimonies that the soldiers believed the houses presented a risk, so they had knowingly put the Palestinians in danger.

Israel using Palestinian children as human shields: Guardian lead story

Related
Video: Interview with child used as human shield by Israeli Army
---



Sameh Amira is escorted by heavily armed Israeli soldiers on a door-to-door sweep in Nablus, providing some of the strongest evidence to date that the Israeli army is still using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA

Israel investigating whether its troops used two Palestinian children as human shields during a house search operation.

11.15am
Israel accused of using Palestinian children as human shields

Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Friday March 9, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The Israeli army is investigating whether its troops used two Palestinian children as human shields during a house search operation in the West Bank following claims by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem.

The use of human shields to deter gunmen from opening fire on soldiers was banned by Israel's supreme court and forbidden by the army. However the practice, in which soldiers force Palestinians to approach, enter and search buildings where they believe gunmen may be hiding, remains common.

Israelis soldiers were filmed using Sameh Amira, 24, as a human shield on February 25, during a week-long raid into the West Bank city of Nablus. Mr Amira was made to search homes in the city's casbah, or old city, during a search for wanted men and bomb-making laboratories. The casbah in the centre of the city was placed under curfew for two days and a Palestinian man was shot dead when he went onto the roof of his home.

Mr Amira's cousin, 15-year-old Amid Amira, told B'Tselem that soldiers also forced him to search three houses, making him enter rooms, empty cupboards and open windows.

An 11-year-old girl, Jihan Dadush, told B'Tselem that soldiers took her from her home three days later, on February 28, forcing her to open the door of a neighboring apartment and enter ahead of them. The soldiers then took her home, she said.

In her testimony to B'Tselem, Jihan said that after the soldiers left, "I was shaking with fear. I was afraid they would kill me or put me in jail. The only thing I wanted to do was sleep. I am afraid that the soldiers will come back and take me".

B'Tselem said that it was clear from the testimonies that the soldiers believed the houses presented a risk and that they were therefore knowingly placing the Palestinians in danger.

Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for B'Tselem said that the group had written to the judge advocate-general to demand a thorough investigation of the use of human shields. "The use of civilians especially a 11-year-old is very problematic and we want the army to investigate it properly using military police rather than an internal inquiry mechanism."

In August 2002, a 19-year-old Palestinian student, Nidal Daraghmeh, was killed when troops in the West Bank town of Tubas forced him to knock on the door of a neighbouring building where a Hamas fugitive was hiding. Gunfire erupted and Daraghmeh was killed.

Yesh Din, another Israeli human rights group, has reported that the Israeli army used peaceful Palestinian villages to carry out training exercises. The group said that the villagers were harassed and scared as two battalions of reservists acted out a battle in their midst for three hours. The exercises were carried out without warning in the early morning in the villages of Beit Lid and Safarin last month.

Video: Interview with child taken by Israeli Army as human shield

Video: Interview with child taken as human shield in Nablus
Video, Research Journalism Initiative and A-Films, 7 March 2007

On 28 February 2007, during the Israeli invasion of Nablus, the IOF kidnapped 11-year-old Jihan Tahdush from her home in the Old City of Nablus. She was used as a human shield while Israeli forces conducted door-to-door searches in the Old City. Jihan says of the incident: "They gave me biscuits to persuade me to talk to them, but I didn't tell them anything. When I brought them to the house they told me not to be afraid because they were with me. When I asked to go back to my mom, they said, 'We have to keep you a bit longer.'" This video-interview was produced by the Research Journalism Initiative and the Anarchist Film Collective "A-Films".

Related Links

BY TOPIC: Israel Attacks Nablus: "Operation Hot Winter" (25 February 200

---
This short interview was conducted in the aftermath of the Israeli Occupation Forces' operation "Hot Winter" in the West Bank city of Nablus.

The 11-years-old girl Jihan Tahdush was kidnapped by IOF troops and repeatedly forced to serve as a human shield for soldiers in their house-to-house searches in the Old City.

The full interview in better quality can be downloaded at:
https://video.indymedia.org/en/2007/03/7 67.shtml

This short clip is a co-production of a-films and RJI. The authors can be contacted at a-films@no-log.org and ripplescross@yahoo.com.

Israeli Army Accused Of Using Banned 'Human Shields'

Amira is being led by Israeli soldiers at gunpoint [AP]


Israel accused of rights abuses

An Israeli human rights group has accused the country's government of using Palestinians as human shields during its raids on Nablus.The Israeli supreme court banned the practice two years ago.

The claim from B'tselem, a human rights monitor, came after video footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers forcing a man to walk ahead at gunpoint.

Sameh Amira, a 24-year-old Nablus resident, said he thought he was going to die: "When I was walking ahead of them, I was expecting they would shoot bullets at any time.

"All the time I was scared, terrorised. I was expecting anything from them. That I would be injured and die in front of them.

"[The Israeli soldiers] said 'come here' and they put me ahead of them and took me up to the house. As soon as they were in, they started shooting at the wardrobe," Amira said.

'Illegal'

Jessica Montell, executive director of B'tselem - the Israeli information centre for human rights in the occupied territories - said: "It's a clear case - the Israeli supreme court has determined it is illegal and the Israeli military has committed to not using this 'neighbour' procedure or any other kind of human shield by using Palestinians for these dangerous operations."

In a faxed message, an Israeli spokesperson said the army had seen the footage and does not see any instance of the illegal use of civilians.

However, the statement pledged to pursue a thorough inquiry.

Fifty-thousand Nablus residents were placed under curfew last weekend when Israeli security forces sealed off the centre of the town and began a house-to-house search for fighters.

One Palestinian was killed during the operation. Israel says they found three explosives laboratories and detained a number of suspects.

New in Gaza: Priest, nun human shields

Priest, nun from Michigan join dozens of Palestinians gathered at Gaza houses in effort to prevent bombing, say ‘If Israel claims family member involved in violence, arrest them, don’t’ destroy home populated by entire family’

Ali Waked


For the past two months, the IDF has been called activists and their family members in Gaza to warn them of their intent on bombing their homes.

Palestinians have found away to prevent the bombings; dozens, even hundreds, gather at the homes of those wanted, thereby thwarting the destruction. In recent days, Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen of Michigan have joined them.

At the end of last week, the IDF informed the Brudi family in Jabalya of their intent to bomb and demolish their home in protest of their son’s activities with the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).

Since then, hundreds of neighbors and activists of all organizations congregated at the house in an effort to prevent the demolition. The same idea was adopted at the home of a prominent Hamas activist in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh even held a press conference there.

These homes have become pilgrimage sites in recent days not only for locals. Foreign peace activists have started to show interests in the phenomenon, and two Americans, a priest and a nun from Michigan, arrived at Jabalya from Michigan to take part in the human shield mission at the Brudi family home.

Sister Mary Ellen told Ynet, “We are here to find out the truth and to be with the family and these people, who are trying to prevent the demolition of a home where an entire family lives.”




The Sister continued, “We are against any type of violence, whether from the Palestinian side or the Israeli side, by we are here to be with a family that may have their house bombed and demolished because of the claim that one or two members are involved in violence.”

She explained, “We are against any type of collective punishment and feel this punishment is wrong, a complete mistake. If the Israelis claim a family member is involved in violence, then they can arrest them, but not destroy a home populated by an entire family.”

She also explained that she was well aware of the Qassam rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip towards Sderot, and said, “I adamantly oppose and condemn the firings like I condemn all violence.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3331460,00.html

Use Israelis as human shields to protect Palestinians

Bring the settlements back to the Gaza Strip

Last update - 09:32 19/11/2006

Bring back Kfar Darom

By Gideon Levy


The settlements must be returned to Gaza. Anyone who cares about the fate of those living in the Gaza Strip should wish for the re-establishment of Netzarim and Kfar Darom. If I were a Palestinian, I would dream of seeing Dugit and Nisanit resurrected. They could serve as the last human shield for a million and a half residents who now comprise one of the most helpless populations in the world. Incarcerated, without any assistance, they are liable to starve to death. Exposed, without any protection, they fall prey to the Israel Defense Forces' operations of vengeance.

Burying its 350 dead since the summer, Gaza threatens to become Chechnya. There are thousands of wounded, disabled and shell-shocked people in Gaza, unable to receive any treatment. Those on respirators are liable to die due to the frequent power outages since Israel bombed the power plant. Tens of thousands of children suffer from existential anxiety, while their parents are unable to provide help. They are witnesses to sights that even Gaza's old-timers have never seen before.

Anyone who does not believe this can travel to Beit Hanun, an hour from Tel Aviv. The trauma is only intensifying there, in a town that lost nearly 80 of its sons and daughters within a week. The shadows of human beings roam the ruins. Last week, I met people there who are terrified, depressed, injured, humiliated, bereaved and bewildered. What can one say to them? That they should stop firing Qassams? But the vast majority of them are not involved in this at all. That they should return Gilad Shalit? What do they have to do with him? They only know the IDF will return and they know what this will mean for them: more imprisonment in their homes for weeks, more death and destruction in monstrous proportions, without them being guilty of a thing. In Israel's dark southern backyard, a large-scale humanitarian tragedy is unfolding. Israel and the world, including the Arab states, are covering their eyes and the last resort, as absurd as it sounds, might be to long for the settlements. The situation is that desperate.

The return of the settlements could also put the lie of the disengagement to a final rest. Perhaps only this can stop us from continuing to successfully spread the fabrication that the Israeli occupation of Gaza is over. There has not been such a prevalent lie since the "no partner" lie. As legend has it, Israel left Gaza, the occupation came to an end, and a liberated and free Gaza is launching Qassams at us in exchange for our generosity. There is no greater lie, yet look at how Israelis, almost all of them, buy it with eyes closed. "Instead of building up their country," the Israelis cluck with their tongues, "the Palestinians fire at us." The truth is completely opposite: Gaza continues to live under an inhumane occupation, which has only relocated its base of operation. The Qassams are a bloody reminder of this.

Brutal and dizzy ideas compete against each other, the defense minister suggests liquidations and the agriculture minister proposes tougher action; one advocates "an eye for an eye," the second wants to "erase Beit Hanun" and the third "to pulverize Beit Lahiya." And no one pauses for a moment to think about what they are saying. What exactly does it mean to "erase Beit Hanun"? What does this chilling combination of words mean? A town of 30,000 people, most of them children, whose measure of grief and suffering has long reached breaking point, unemployed and hungry, without a present and without a future, with no protection against Israel's violent military responses, which have lost all human proportionality.

Proportionality is also needed when examining the extent of suffering in the neighboring town, Sderot. It should be stated honestly: Sderot's suffering, as heart-rending and difficult as it is, amounts to nothing when compared to the suffering of its neighbor. Sderot is now mourning one fatality, while Beit Hanun is mourning nearly 80 dead. Sderot has the IDF and Gaydamak. Beit Hanun has nothing. And this is before saying a word about freedom and the economic situation. Should this console the residents of Sderot? Of course not. But did the futile killing of the people in Beit Hanun contribute anything to the security of Sderot's residents? The events of the past days clearly demonstrate that the answer is no. Therefore, it is a shame that Sderot is not issuing a courageous call: Leave Beit Hanun alone, because as long as people are being killed in Beit Hanun, people will be killed here as well.

Soon Gaza will look like Darfur, but while the world is giving some sort of assistance to Darfur, it still dares to play tough with Gaza. Instead of boycotting the one who is abusing the residents of Gaza, the world is boycotting the victim, blocking assistance that it so desperately needs. Tens of thousands of workers who are not receiving their meager wages because of the boycott are the world's gift to Gaza, while Israel is not only killing them, but also stealing their money, locking them in from all sides and not allowing them any chance to extricate themselves.

What does Israel expect? How have we failed to learn the lesson from the Lebanon war - that the firing of rockets at Israel only stops by reaching an agreement? And why is the world waiting? Instead of mobilizing and immediately sending an international force to protect Gaza's residents and cancel the boycott, the world maintains its brutal grip. On second thought, perhaps the return of the settlements is not such a great idea. But without this, who exactly is going to save the residents of Gaza?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=789523