Israeli soldiers admit using human shields; Clinton urges peace gestures
Published: July 15, 2009
Updated 4 months ago
Twenty-six Israeli soldiers have risked retaliation from superiors and an angry public after coming forward to admit they used human shields and were given a “shoot first” policy during Israel’s three-week military incursion into Gaza at the start of the year.
The soldiers’ claims back up a recent Amnesty International report that made similar allegations.
Breaking the Silence, an Israeli human rights organization founded by former soldiers, spent the last several months recording testimony from 26 soldiers who agreed to speak about their experiences during Operation Cast Lead, which killed at least 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
On Tuesday, the organization released the soldiers’ testimony to the public.
From McClatchy Newspapers:
In filmed testimony and written statements released Wednesday, more than two dozen soldiers told an Israeli army veterans group that military commanders led the fighters into what one described as a “moral Twilight Zone” where almost every Palestinian was seen as a threat.
Soldiers described incidents in which Israeli forces killed an unarmed Palestinian carrying a white cloth, an elderly woman carrying a sack, a Gazan riding a motorcycle and an elderly man with a flashlight…
An article in Canada’s Globe and Mail describes scenarios recounted by the soldiers: “An Israeli sniper killed a Palestinian man in order to mark a ’score’ with his gun. Soldiers fired at houses out of boredom. A commander expressed satisfaction that Gaza hospitals were full.”
But perhaps the most incendiary allegation is that of Israeli soldiers using Palestinians as human shields. The UK’s Guardian describes “a ‘neighbor procedure’ in which Palestinian civilians were forced to enter suspect buildings ahead of troops. [The soldiers] cite cases of civilians advancing in front of a soldier resting his rifle on the civilian’s shoulder.
“They kept repeating to us that this is war and in war opening fire is not restricted,” the Guardian quoted one soldier as saying.
The latest revelations about Operation Cast Lead “will fuel international and Arab demands for war crime investigations,” the Guardian speculated.
Israeli officials have dismissed the claims as “hearsay,” the BBC reports.
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY CENSORS AL-JAZEERA
The Palestinian Authority has shut down satellite news network Al-Jazeera’s office in the West Bank after the station broadcast a Palestinian politician’s claim that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is implicated in the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders says.
“This decision is a violation of the freedom to inform the public on the West Bank. It is vital that all points of view, even if they are shocking, should be freely expressed within Palestinian society,” the group said.
Al-Jazeera’s 35 West Bank staffers were given layoff notices after three policemen showed up and ordered the workers to stop working.
In a statement, Al-Jazeera said it was “astonished” by the decision and added it “constitutes a violation of media freedom and a refusal to allow different views to be expressed.”
CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST SETTLER FOR ‘NATIONAL SECURITY’ REASONS
An Israeli West Bank settler who was filmed shooting at two unarmed Palestinians last December won’t be prosecuted in Israeli courts because doing so would harm Israel’s national security interests, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday.
Ze-ev Braude was filmed by Israeli peace group B’Tselem “opening fire at close range” on two Palestinians.
But the Israeli prosecution said pursuing charges against Braude would require revealing sensitive information about security forces’ activities in the West Bank.
CLINTON URGES ARAB WORLD TO MAKE PEACE GESTURES TO ISRAEL
In a softening of the Obama administration’s stance towards Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday urged Arab states to make immediate gestures toward normalizing ties with Israel in a bid to promote prospects for Arab-Israeli peace.
However, in a foreign policy speech, Clinton stopped short of reiterating previous calls for Israel to freeze all settlements, saying Washington wanted Israeli action on settlements but understood it faced political challenges.
The softer tone comes after a public clash between President Barack Obama’s administration and the right-leaning Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the calls for such a freeze.
“We have been working with the Israelis to deal with the issue of settlements, to ease the living conditions of Palestinians and create circumstances that can lead to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state,” Clinton said.
“For the last few decades American administrations have held consistent positions on the settlement issue, and while we expect action from Israel, we recognize those decisions are politically challenging,” she said.
The tone was in sharp contrast to remarks she gave in May in which she said Obama has made it clear to Israel he wants no “natural growth exceptions” to his call for a freeze in West Bank settlements.
– With AFP
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Israel is the only country that can us the same tactics as other middle eastern terrorist states without being called out on it. Unbelievable.
I wouldn’t call it a tactic, bat rather a rationalization for murder. Shooting anti-tank missiles into the most densly populated area on earth and claiming the targets are ‘using human shields’ is just an excuse. For whenever has this once stopped the Israelis from shooting anyway. What the Israelis were doing here was literally using people as human shields, not their proximity to others. What’s a middle Eastern terrorist state, BTW? This country kills more innocents than any terrorists in history.
If a terrorist grabs your kid and is holding a gun to their head and the police come along ang just blow the guy away, and your kid too and then say that he was a coward that deserved it, he was using a human shield, who’s the bad guy?
Because we’re at war, our adversaries must see our leaders as legitimate targets as we see their leaders as legitimate targets. That would mean that a large majority of Washington D.C.’s 600,000 residents by Israeli and American style rationales are in fact ‘human shields’, for if the president was not a coward he would be located far and away from civilian populations as to make himself a more legitimate military target.
When the Israelis mortared that school filled with hiding civilians because two terrorist launched a rocket from the large property the school was on, they targeted the school and claimed the terrorists were using human shields, it was a lie.
Every ounce of bullshit pumped out about warfare by the media is designed to rationalize and legitimize violence and murder, doesn’t matter which side you’re on, people who support war are scumbags and we’d be better off if they were somehow made to ‘go away’.
Israel is trying to eliminate the population of Gaza so they can steal the natural gas deposits off the coast of Gaza. Look it up. Israel is already in the process of trying to steal it. In full complicity with the Egyptians, by the way. Look it up, the story is there but not being discussed.
Israel gone by 2025.
I believe it, the’ve been caught read handed before, trying to horizontally drill under their neighboors borders to steal water as well.
Israel gone by 2025? I can believe that too, their rate of growth isn’t enough to sustain, that’s why they pay Peruvian Indians to convert and stick them on settlements.
Yeah, why aren’t we hearing more about these large gas reservoirs off the coast of Gaza? This isn’t about Israel “defending” itself; this is about Israel stealing what rightfully belongs to others and when the righful owners protest or fight back in defense of what’s theirs, Israel retaliates accusing the rightful owners of being terrorists to justify killing them under a false self-defense claim.
Everywhere I look in America, there is Israel. Our police are trained by whom–Israel. How about our NSA, FBI, CIA people? Is Israel training them as well. Israel spies on us, steals from us–and on and on. Yet they are not held accountable for ANYTHING they do. I’m sick of this shit!!
There is no statute of limitations for these kind of war crimes, and the well known lame defense of “I was just following orders” was rightly and thoroughly rejected at Nuremberg — Israeli genocide monkeys might do well to remember this fact — I’ll say it again:
NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON WAR CRIMES!!!!!
War Crimes are a relic of the 20th Century. Welcome to the New World Order! Where if the cameras are banned, it didn’t happen.
no cameras in Sri Lanka
no cameras in Galveston, TX for Hurricane Rita, you didn’t see the floating bodies like Katrina b/c FEMA closed the airspace to media helicopters. Nice huh?
CLINTON URGES ARAB WORLD TO MAKE PEACE GESTURES TO ISRAEL
——————————————
Ms Clinton urges the Arab world to make peace gestures to Israel?
First, it should be pointed out that this Bush-accomplice woman is a War Criminal, just like Bush-accomplice and savior Obama and most of the super-majority Bush-accomplice “Dem” congress.
Next, this war criminal Ms Clinton will be saying that the world should bow and scrap to Israel (the #2 Terrorist State in the world, the #1 Terrorist State being the U.S.)
Gestures??? I’ve got a gesture for Israel. Can you see it?
Israel, and Clinton are depraved war criminals with zombie goon squads afraid to face enemies in the light.
History will not forget this low point to which Israel has brought the west.
Let’s see, small middle eastern country gets invaded by a larger neighboring attacker. The attacking country thinks the land is theirs. There are horrible stories about how villainous and inhumane the invading forces.
That was Iraq/Kuwait 1990. The entire world responded immediately to teach Iraq a lesson. The rest is history.
And what of Israel?
Where’s the megaphone brigade? Hard to defend the indefensible I suppose. And I support Israel! I think a good question are the Israeli’s as racist and bloodthirsty as they appear or are they being FOX NEWSED into this shit? I mean their whole essence is obedience to God. And we all know what God said, “Don’t kill your fucking neighbors, especially the innocent women and children.”
But look at the bright side and one of the few Israeli arguments that has any merit. They could of banned the cameras and KILLED THEM ALL like the Sri Lankan regime. Scant words on that front. Just more dead brown people….
You support Israel? So if I came to your house, forced you out into a small corner of the backyard, ate all your food, watched all your porn, played all your video games, and then when you had the temerity to complain I called you a terrorist and got the local cops to come and back me up, would you support me?
Douche.
and not for nothing but Ehud Barak launches his mass murder spree during the election so everyone thinks he has a hard dick. Well, the real threat ((possibly?)) is Iranian nukes. So, Israel pissed away all of it’s good will by killing a bunch of rock throwers and bottle rocket enthusiasts. And now no one gives a fuck if they whole place is nuked. Look at the above comments! Good job Barak! Briton’s are fucking pissed. Their media is a little less BOUGHT AND CONTROLLED like ours so they got the news. And they have organized boycotts of Israeli imports, and organized a WEAPONS EMBARGO against Israel.
What moral twilight? The evil here is more than clear.
“CLINTON URGES ARAB WORLD TO MAKE PEACE GESTURES TO ISRAEL” - Yeah, make peace with Israel and then help us destroy Iran. America’s favorite war-ho was speaking at a CFR event today blathering about how the U.S. wouldn’t hesitate at all to attack Iran to protect you and me from the big bad Persian wolf and their nuclear weapons that don’t exist.
so where is the “testimony” from hamas fighters fretting over shooting rockets into civilian areas and using human shields to keep the idf from firing at their positions?
so the idf is criminal because they performed like all soldiers…shooting when feeingl threatened?
and why has raw story changed the fact that all of the 26 chose to remain anonymous?
The carrots, sticks, and coercive diplomacy puppet.
Wall Street
Art students
9/11 snow job
Chicken hawks
Moving company
Propaganda media
DNC stealth neocons
Anti-semitism accusers
The chosen the superior
2-3% of the US population
Extortion blackmail bribery
By deception ye shall wage war
AIPAC’s Israel-first dual-nationals
For profit NotFederal NoReserve scam
Words are plentiful deeds are precious!
Sing it with me now!
Israel gone by 2025…
I read recently (either BBC, Guardian or Israeli news) that jewish groups were meeting with obama to discuss their concerns over the obama administration’s hard stance with Israel. I think that meeting took place either late last week or early this week. I wondered if Obama would submit and do their bidding. Yep. It would seem that even the POTUS bows down to the will of jewish interests (representing what, less than 2% of the population) over the rest of us.
Talk about a flip-flop! What is coming out of the mouth of clinton now is completely opposite of what was said in the last month or two. Now we’re back to “it’s all the Arabs’ fault” bullshit–you know the if it weren’t for those Arabs, there would be peace crap that keeps spewing out these liars’ mouths.
Who controls the Fed, Goldman Sachs and just about every other economic aspect of our country? Who controls our foreign affairs? Who controls our elected officials and our govt in general? We better fucking wake up and take our country back before it’s too late–and the time is long past due.
Israel should just rollover Gaza again and take back what is theirs which they gave away. Ship the palestinians off to Egypt or Jordan or Saudi, oops, wait, nobody wants or will take them. Even their fellow muslims won’t give them a place to stay because when they previously had sanctuary they terrorized the very states which tried to help them. Palestinians are the losers of the world and bad neighbors too.
dedhed needs an attitude adjustment!!