Israeli army caught using Palestinian children as human shields: commander suspended
The Israel Defense Forces has suspended the commander of an operation in which troops ordered two Palestinian youths in the West Bank to stand in front of their vehicle to protect it from stones thrown by locals, the army spokesman’s office said Friday.
…Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti denounced the suspension as window-dressing. “They are treating it as an isolated incident,” he said. “The problem is systematic and … they (troops) continued the practice despite the court order,” he said.
In 2002 the Israeli supreme court barred the use of human shields by the Israeli army. It is also illegal under international law. However, in 2004, the boy in this photograph, 13 year old Mohammed Bedwan, was tied to a windshield and then beaten after he was detained during an anti wall demonstration in the village of Biddu in the West Bank. According to Donald Macintyre, writing for Common Dreams, Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for human rights protested the boy’s treatment and was tied to a jeep himself.
Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli army is not new. What is new is to see it covered by US media, especially broadcast media.
