The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #47287   Message #705136
Posted By: CarolC
06-May-02 - 07:28 AM
Thread Name: BS: PEACE in the Middle East (3)
Subject: RE: BS: PEACE in the Middle East (3)
I can't post a link to this for some reason. But I found it in the "Pick an Issue" drop down menu on this page. At the bottom of the page addressing the "open-fire regulations", there are also clickable links to the following subjects...

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Provisions of the Open-Fire Regulations

Rubber-coated steel bullets - "rubber bullets"

Gunfire by undercover units

Statistics on Death during the al-Aqsa Intifada

Testimonies on Firing at Palestinian Vehicles Transporting Women in Labor to the Hospital, 24-25 February, 2002

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So I guess I'll just post the contents of the open-fire regulations page and hope they don't get deleted...

The Open-Fire Regulations

Israeli Security forces in the Occupied Territories operate pursuant to Open-Fire Regulations, which limit the circumstances in which firing at persons is allowed. Despite these Regulations, from the beginning of the first intifada (9 December 1987) to the end of January 2002, Israeli security force killed 1,965 Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, the vast majority by gunfire. 409 of those killed were children under 17.

The principal reason for these deaths is the deliberate policy of allowing lethal gunfire in situations where soldiers are not in danger. Since gunfire can cause fatalities even governed by precise and detailed instructions, allowing Israeli security personnel to fire in non-life-threatening situations, makes it possible that innocent persons will be killed.

Several senior members of the defense establishment justified the high number of fatalities, primarily during the intifada, on the war that was being waged in the Occupied Territories, and claimed that the IDF acted appropriately. This argument is without substance. Israeli security secures who face Palestinian demonstrators and stone-throwers, and occasionally Palestinians hurling petrol bombs, serve a policing function. At those times, therefore, they are subject to international and Israeli rules of law enforcement.

Although the Open-Fire Regulations limit the cases in which security forces are allowed to fire their weapons, they have not prevented deaths and injuries to thousands of Palestinians. A major reason for this failure is that Israel did not develop or purchase non-lethal means to disperse demonstrations, even though the IDF has had to cope with Palestinian demonstrations for more than thirteen years. Countries from around the world have a wide variety of non-lethal means to disperse demonstrations, and tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated metal bullets (hereafter: rubber bullets) must not be the sole means used to disperse demonstrations.

The Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories do not have a policy to intentionally kill and the Open-Fire Regulations are not intended for that purpose. However, although hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as a result of the Regulations, the Regulations have still not been amended. The lack of intent to kill does not reduce the defense establishment's culpability. Many Palestinians were killed by Israeli security force gunfire in compliance with regulations whose intent is not to kill. These cases cannot, therefore, be considered "exceptional," but are clear proof of the danger inherent in the Regulations and the need to amend them.

The defense establishment is not properly vigilant in ensuring that security forces comply with the Open-Fire Regulations. Soldiers who violate the Regulations are almost never prosecuted. Furthermore, during the current intifada, the IDF ceased its routine practice of opening investigations by the Military Investigations Unit in cases in which security forces killed Palestinians. To B'Tselem's knowledge, only in rare cases have measures been taken against security forces who violated the Regulations, causing the death of Palestinians. It is illogical that in all the other cases the soldiers were in a real and immediate life-threatening situation - the sole circumstance in which the Regulations allow shooting to kill. Despite this, in hundreds of cases of fatalities resulting from gunfire, no action was taken against the violators. The almost total lack of concern about violations of the Regulations gives a clear message to soldiers that these violations, which cause fatalities in numerous cases, are not so grave.

Following the IDF's redeployment, in the context of the Oslo Accords, from parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Palestinian town centers, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security force fell sharply. The drop resulted from reduction in confrontations between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian civilian population, which was the primary cause of most fatalities and injuries to Palestinians. However, the quantitative improvement did not result from a qualitative change, and Israel did not amend its policy or the provisions of the Open-Fire Regulations. The results of the defense establishment's refusal to alter the policy are clearly apparent in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Media reports, statements of the IDF Spokesperson, testimonies given by soldiers to B'Tselem, and analysis of the manner in which security forces have dispersed demonstrations in the Occupied Territories indicate that several changes on the Open-Fire Regulations were made during the al-Aqsa intifada.

The Regulations now state, in part, that stone-throwing is "life threatening." This kind of expansion of the definition of "life threatening" is problematic. At a meeting that B'Tselem held with Col. Daniel Reisner, Reisner stated that the definition of "life threatening" is subjective. If so, it is unclear why soldiers must be instructed that stone throwing is life threatening. Since firing is always allowed in life-threatening situations, the change indicated that soldiers are allowed to fire in situations where the threat to life is not clear and immediate, or even where there is no threat to life at all. In effect, the directive allows the use of live fire where stones are being thrown, and not in a change of definition.