Two soldiers convicted of overstepping authority
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 10/03/2010 10:29
Givati infantrymen found guilty of overstepping authority by ordering Palestinian boy to open suspicious bag during Operation Cast Lead.
BORDER POLICE on patrol near Ni’ilin. Only the com Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post)
Two Givati Brigade infantrymen on
Sunday were convicted of overstepping authority to the point of
endangering human life and inappropriate behavior during Operation Cast
Lead in 2009.
The Southern Command Military Prosecutor’s Office
decided that the soldiers acted inappropriately when they ordered a
Palestinian boy to open bags suspected of containing bombs during the
Gaza operation last year.
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The conviction is the first of its kind for what is termed in the IDF "neighbor procedure" which deals with the use of human shields during searches and pursuits, which has been outlawed.
In
March the Military Prosecutor’s Office claimed that the two staff
sergeants ordered a child to open bags that were suspected of being
booby-trapped while searching a building in Tel al-Hawa, an affluent
neighborhood on the south side of Gaza City.
The two soldiers
came under investigation before the UN’s Goldstone Report was released
last September. The probe was opened based on information in a report
compiled by a special United Nations representative appointed to
investigate matters involving children and armed conflict, and following
a specific complaint filed by the Israeli branch of Defense for
Children International.
Yaakov Katz contributed to this report