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Israeli court bans 'human shields'

JERUSALEM - Israel's Supreme Court banned the military's practice of using Palestinian civilians as "human shields" in arrest raids, saying Thursday it violates international law.

The ruling was a rare instance in which the court took a stand in Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. The Supreme Court has often deferred to security arguments despite international condemnation of some Israeli practices.

Human rights groups filed the petition in May 2002. In August 2002, the court issued a temporary injunction against the practice. Human rights groups have said the military has repeatedly violated the ban since then.

In Thursday's ruling, the court said the practice amounts to a "slide down the slope toward a severe violation of international law."

The army had argued that the practice should be permissible in some cases in order to prevent possible shootouts and bloodshed. Israeli hard-liners said the new restrictions would make it more difficult for the army to act against militants.

However, the three-judge panel said international law clearly prevents the army from using civilians in its military activities.

"No one among the civilian population should be "volunteered' to cooperate with the army," wrote Judge Aharon Barak. "The central tenet is that it is mandatory to distance innocent local residents from the area of the hostile actions."

The Justice Ministry said Israel would immediately act to comply. The army spokesman would not comment.

The human shield practice became an issue in the spring of 2002, when the Israeli military carried out a major offensive in the West Bank, in response to a series of suicide bombings by Palestinian militants. During arrest raids, soldiers would sometimes force Palestinian civilians to approach the homes and hideouts of wanted people.

In August 2002, a 19-year-old Palestinian student, Nidal Daraghmeh, was killed in such an incident in the West Bank town of Tubas.

Daraghmeh was the only "human shield" killed in an arrest raid. However, others have been injured in dozens of cases in which the army used Palestinians this way, said Marwan Dalal, an attorney for the Israeli human rights group Adallah, which led the petition.

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Thursday that when he meets with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his most important demand would be that Israel carry out the measures the two men agreed on in February.

In February at the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheik, Israel agreed to hand over security control to the Palestinians in five large West Bank towns.

But Abbas cast doubt on when they would meet, telling reporters in Gaza City that "the date has not yet been decided," despite remarks by King Abdullah II of Jordan, Israeli officials and even Palestinian officials that it would take place Tuesday, probably in Jerusalem.

Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 01:51:07]