Rights Group Accuses Israel on Use of Force

A human rights organization Wednesday issued a report accusing Israel of condoning excessive force against Palestinians, although the report’s editor said the army recently has begun to show more restraint.

Middle East Watch, the organization, said Israel’s military rules of engagement permit soldiers to shoot Palestinian demonstrators in situations where neither the life of a soldier nor that of a bystander is threatened. It added that soldiers are seldom prosecuted for killing Arabs, even when the army’s relaxed rules are violated.

Kenneth Roth, editor of the report, told a news conference that new Defense Minister Moshe Arens seems to have called for more restraint in the use of lethal force, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers. But he said Arens’ action was informal and the earlier regulations remain on the books.

Roth said the fact that only one Palestinian has been killed by Israeli forces this month underlines the report’s conclusion that there were no compelling reasons for Israel’s earlier policy, which has permitted troops to kill more than 670 Palestinians since the uprising began in December, 1987.

Middle East Watch, an affiliate of Human Rights Watch, previously issued reports condemning human rights violations in Algeria, Iran, Iraq and Morocco.

The report on Israel said the Israeli government claims its troops in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip operate under a policy of restraint. But it said the government’s practice falls far short of its announced ideals.

Middle East Watch said the Israeli army permits troops to shoot at fleeing Palestinians suspected of crimes that do not involve threats to life and at masked Palestinians who resist arrest. The report added that the rules authorize the use of plastic bullets--which are supposed to be non-lethal but which have caused more than 100 deaths--for crowd control.

Roth said the rules violate the Fourth Geneva Convention concerning the conduct of armies of occupation and U.N. law enforcement standards. Although Israel does not concede that the Geneva Convention applies, he said, the government maintains that it voluntarily adheres to the convention’s humanitarian provisions.