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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:58 pm
Time: 10:58 pm
Results for military police
1 results foundAuthor: B'Tselem Title: The Occupation's Fig Leaf: Israel's Military Law Enforcement System as a Whitewash Mechanism Summary: The military law enforcement system is supposed to handle complaints filed against soldiers for harm caused to Palestinians in the West Bank, including cases of violence and gunfire that resulted in injury or death. Such harm is endemic to the occupation, which has been in place for nearly fifty years. The role of the military law enforcement system has been narrowly defined to begin with: it investigates only specific incidents in which soldiers are suspected to have acted in breach of the orders or directives they were given. The system does not investigate the orders themselves nor the responsibility of those who issue them or determine the policy. As such, the system is oriented toward low ranking soldiers only, while senior military and government officials, including the Military Advocate General (MAG), are absolved in advance of any responsibility. In this state of affairs, even if the system had fulfilled its tasks, its contribution to law enforcement would still remain limited. However, an examination of the operation of the military law enforcement system indicates that it makes no attempt to fulfill even this limited mandate. Ever since B'Tselem was established more than 25 years ago, it has applied to the MAG Corps regarding hundreds of incidents in which Palestinians were harmed by soldiers, demanding the incidents be investigated. Some of B'Tselem's applications led to the launching of criminal investigations. In many cases, B'Tselem assisted investigators in making arrangements for them to collect statements from Palestinian victims and eyewitnesses, and by obtaining medical records and other relevant documents. Once the investigations were concluded, B'Tselem followed up with the MAG Corps to get information as to the case outcome. In some cases, B'Tselem appealed the MAG Corps' decision to close a case, and in a few instances, even petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) against a decision to close a case, or regarding unreasonable delays in the MAG Corps' processing of a case. Since the second intifada began in late 2000, B'Tselem has demanded an investigation in 739 cases in which soldiers killed, injured, or beat Palestinians,used them as human shields, or damaged Palestinian property. An analysis of the responses B'Tselem received as to how the military law enforcement system handled these 739 cases shows that in a quarter (182) no investigation was ever launched, in nearly half (343), the investigation was closed with no further action, and only in very rare instances (25), were charges brought against the implicated soldiers. Another thirteen cases were referred for disciplinary action. A total of 132 cases are still at various processing stages, and the MAG Corps was unable to locate 44 others Details: Jerusalem: B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 2016. 85p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 26, 2016 at: http://www.btselem.org/download/201605_occupations_fig_leaf_eng.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Israel URL: http://www.btselem.org/download/201605_occupations_fig_leaf_eng.pdf Shelf Number: 140041 Keywords: Human Rights AbuseLaw EnforcementMilitary PolicePolice Use of Force |