Expressing Deep Concern Over the Use of Civilians as Human Shields

Floor Speech

EXPRESSING DEEP CONCERN OVER THE USE OF CIVILIANS AS HUMAN SHIELDS

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Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 125 and join with my colleagues in denouncing Hezbollah for employing the use and the tactic of placing weapons, defensive and offensive, in the midst of communities in which innocent civilians live.

I also associate myself with the previous speaker, though, in saying that we have to go beyond a narrow issue of a single enemy in the Middle East. The use of human shields in the Middle East is unfortunately widespread, not just by the cancer that grows, that is known as Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also throughout the region.

On this point, I would like to give credit where credit is due. These pictures were taken, this one was taken in 2004, where a 13-year-old Palestinian boy named Mohammed Badwan was tied to the hood of an Israeli police jeep in the West Bank. A group of Palestinian youths had been reportedly throwing rocks at Israeli police, so the boy was taken and tied to the jeep so that they would stop throwing their rocks.

On October 6, and I want to give credit where credit is due, because this has not been unanswered, on October 6, 2005, the Israel High Court of Justice, the equivalent of our Supreme Court, ruled that it was illegal for Israeli forces to use Palestinian civilians during military operations. This ruling effectively ended the officially sanctioned tactic known as neighborhood procedure, whereby Israeli soldiers would forcibly use Palestinian civilians for tasks, including entering buildings to check to see if they were booby-trapped, removing building occupants, and moving suspicious objects from roads used by the army.

One of the victims of this neighborhood procedure was a 19-year-old Palestinian student who in 2002 was killed in the West Bank after troops took the young man out of his house and forced him to knock on the door of a neighboring building, where a senior Hamas fugitive was hiding. Gunfire erupted, and the student was killed.

In addition to the Israeli Supreme Court, human rights group have also been recognized for their work, and I commend them. B'Tselem, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Adalah have worked extensively on these cases and brought them to the court. To the credit of the Israeli people and their court system, they have denounced it, and they have sought to stop it.

The Israeli Army itself, most recently, acted swiftly to suspend a commander caught on videotape using two Palestinian youths as human shields earlier this month. In the video that has been seen around the world and covered by the Associated Press, a peace activist is heard shouting to the Israeli soldiers who have positioned two youths standing in front of their vehicle, ``You can't use them as human shields. It's against the law.''

The Israeli soldier responds, ``We are not using them as a human shield.''

``They are standing in front of your jeep. How is that not a human shield? You are using them to protect you from stones,'' the activist retorts.

``We asked them to speak to their friends and ask them to stop throwing stones at us,'' the soldier says.

Shortly after this videotape was posted, the Israeli military announced the mission commander had been relieved of operational duty following this incident, in which IDF soldiers had apparently used these civilians, and the Israeli Government acted quickly.

I applaud their swift response and their efforts to make this use of human shields, once and for all, stop. This morning I circulated a Dear Colleague via e-mail with links to these videos and news stories.

I encourage my colleagues to take a look at these articles and efforts under way to stop the use of human shields. I have also issued statements that are on my Web site at www.issa.house.gov under the heading of ``Banning the use of Human Shields.''

Madam Speaker, I believe there are two sides to this. There is a difference. One side is continuing to be a cancer on the people of Lebanon. One side is continuing to use human shields with very little to stop them. The other side is taking those measures.

I came here today to commend the Israeli Government for taking those measures, to ask them to continue to use the strongest methods possible to make sure that is eliminated from one side of the equation. I will support this resolution denouncing the other side of the equation that continues to use human shields.

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