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Senior Israel Defense Forces officers yesterday defended the army's use of Palestinians to call wanted men out of hideouts or to tour homes suspected of containing booby traps, on the grounds that the method "saves lives, on our side and their side." According to IDF sources, the method was used in the capture of Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader now on trial on various counts of terrorism.
The issue has shot to the top of the public agenda with Wednesday's death of Nidal Muhsein, a 19-year-old from the village of Tubas, who was sent by the IDF to knock on the door of his neighbor's house where the IDF suspected a wanted man, Nasser Jerar, was hiding. After he knocked, and the door opened, the youth - who had been put in an army flak jacket for the purpose - was cut down by shots fired from inside the house.
IDF and police sources refused yesterday to give an official count of the extent to which the method, known as "neighbor practice," is used, but all confirmed it is very extensive. One senior police officer said that it has been used "hundreds of times to reach wanted men and to comb houses for fear of booby traps. In recent months it has been used very often during the fighting."
The officer's account contradicts an army promise given by the state to the High Court of Justice in early May - as a result of petitions by several human rights groups - that the army would cease using civilians "in homes, streets, or wherever the IDF is operating" as "living shields" for IDF troops. The petitioners suspended their case to the court after that promise, and the court did not issue a verdict on the matter at the time. As a result of the Muhsein incident, the petitions are expected to be revived.
The "neighbor practice" is mostly used when trying to get a wanted man out of a house. Under such circumstances the army uses what it refers to as "a pressure cooker." First the troops surround the house, using megaphones to call out the wanted man. Then one of the neighbors is sent to call on the suspect to come out. At that point, if they don't respond, the neighbor is pulled back and troops open fire with anti-tank missiles and light weapons at the house. If that doesn't work, a bulldozer is brought in to knock down the house on top of the suspects inside.
Despite the public criticism, and the ostensible army order presumably handed down after the court hearing in May, the practice is widely used in the army, in an attempt to save lives - both Israeli and Palestinian, said some sources, while others just said Israeli.
"The fact that nobody was killed until the day before yesterday," said one officer, "is proof of how effective it is to send a neighbor to the door rather than just opening fire or risking life." In most cases, said the officer, "the suspect comes out on his own, without turning the arrest into a firefight and without endangering the soldiers, police or neighbors."
In other cases, soldiers use Palestinians to comb houses being searched for weapons to make sure nothing is booby-trapped. The human rights group B'Tselem has collected testimony about this practice, and in May, as part of its petition to the court, the group presented testimony given by reserve officers who witnessed the practice.
One said that "it is very organized. First the house is surrounded, and then we knock on the door and announce it's the army. The men are asked to lift their shirts (lest they are wearing weapons or explosive belts) and the women and children are put in a separate room. Then the men are taken on a search of the house. We point at things and ask them to touch them. The rationale is the fear of booby traps. In effect, it makes the search much easier, and it doesn't end up with everything turned upside down in the house."
Another officer told B'Tselem that "before the search we go to a neighbor, take him out of his house and tell him to call the people we want out of the next door house. If it works, it works, and if not we blow up the door or knock it down with a hammer. The neighbor goes in first. If they're planning something, he gets it. The orders say to send him upstairs first, and to take everyone out ... we take their ID cards, and then make the neighbor go through the house. We find who we were looking for and arrest them ... The neighbor does not have the option to refuse to do it. He shouts, knocks on the door and says the army's here. If nobody answers, he comes back and we go to work."
Senior officers, defending the practice yesterday - though admitting it is controversial inside the army - said that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti was arrested using the method. "We sent one of his neighbors to knock on the door and tell him that the army was waiting outside," said a senior officer. "Because of the neighbor, Barghouti and his men didn't open fire at the neighbor and the soldiers, and his arrest was made without any resistance."
As for the orders issued by the army in May in the wake of the court hearing, a senior officer said that the IDF interpreted the orders to mean that the practice is forbidden "if the neighbor is put at risk." Another officer said that "this is a military method, an efficient and effective method, it's used by the police and by the army."
Last night, former justice minister Yossi Beilin called the practice "immoral and un-Jewish." He charged that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer "are responsible for the worst moral deterioration in the history of Israel. Not only is this practice illegal, not Jewish, and immoral, Israel is paying an enormous price for it. This government is teaching the army the worst practices, and is turning the concept of `purity of arms' into slander." |
