The Israeli Supreme Court on July 1 ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to refile indictments on more serious charges against a soldier and an officer accused of shooting a blindfolded prisoner with a rubber bullet. Human rights groups B'Tselem [2], the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI [3]), the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI [4]) and Yesh Din [5] filed suit against the IDF, saying that a charge of conduct unbecoming a soldier, the least serious military criminal sanction, did not reflect the severity of the crime.
The charges stem from an August 2008 incident [video] in the Palestinian town of Ni'lin [6] in which an IDF soldier shot a handcuffed and blindfolded protester, Ashraf Abu Rahma, in the foot with a rubber bullet at an officer's direction. Although Rahma did not sustain serious injury, Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia said that the officer had committed a moral failure in ordering the shooting, and that the soldier should not have followed the officer's order because the act was illegal. The rights groups welcomed [7] the decision, but expressed dismay that the Supreme Court's intervention was necessary in the matter.
Rights groups have long been critical of IDF tactics in Palestine. Last month, PCATI issued a report [8] asserting that harsh shackling techniques used by the IDF and the Shin Bet Security Agency (GSS) constitute torture. Last year, PCATI alleged [9] that detainees are regularly beaten and abused by IDF soldiers after they no longer pose a security risk. In 2007, the IDF launched investigations into two incidents [10] of soldiers using Palestinians as human shields, in violation of Article 51(7) of the 1977 Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements. (Jurist [11], July 2)
See our last posts on Israel/Palestine [12] and the West Bank [13].
Please leave a tip [14] or answer the Exit Poll [15].
