Democracy Now!, 29 May 2025
Excerpted Transcript:
Israel has repeatedly claimed without evidence that Hamas
endangers civilians by hiding behind human shields. It turns out, however, that
Israel has systematically used Palestinians as human shields in violation of
both international and Israeli law. A new investigation by the Associated Press
joins reports by +972 Magazine, Haaretz and the Red Cross in documenting how
Palestinians have been used as human shields to inspect buildings, tunnels and
other sites in Gaza and the West Bank. The investigation includes testimony and
evidence from both Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians, collected in
part by the anti-occupation Israeli veterans’ group Breaking the Silence. In
what is being called the “mosquito procedure,” Israeli soldiers are “ordered by
senior officers to grab Palestinians next to them and to use them as human
shields,” explains Breaking the Silence’s executive director, Nadav Weiman.
“Dehumanization of Palestinians in Israel [has] become something so common that
it also leads to these kind[s] of practices inside the IDF.”
In February, the news outlet +972 revealed how Israel used
an 80-year-old man as a human shield. Troops tied an explosive cord around his
neck, then forced him to search abandoned buildings. After he finished the
mission, he was ordered to flee, but then another Israeli unit fatally shot him
and his wife Haaretz and the Red Cross have also documented Israel’s use of
human shields.
The AP report is based in part on testimonies collected by Breaking the
Silence, a group made up of former Israeli soldiers opposed to the Israeli
occupation. The group has also released photos of Palestinians being used as
human shields in Gaza.
We’re joined now by the group’s executive director, Nadav Weiman. He’s a former
Israeli soldier, joining us from Tel Aviv.
Thanks so much for being with us. Tell us what information you collected, the
Israeli soldiers you talked to, and how exactly they’re using Palestinians as
human shields.
NADAV WEIMAN: So, Amy, I’ve got to say that from the beginning of this war, we
got testimonies from soldiers that told us that they were ordered by senior
officers to grab Palestinians next to them and to use them as human shields,
meaning that they were ordered to send Palestinians — some of them were dressed
up with IDF uniforms, had GoPro cameras on their head or on their chest, and
then they were sent into tunnels and houses to check that there isn’t any IEDs
or explosives over there, so the soldiers could enter safely or clear the area.
And we got testimonies from different units, different times, different places
in the Gaza Strip, which shows, as you said, that it’s widely spread, this
protocol.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Nadav, as far as you know, how long has this practice been
in place?
NADAV WEIMAN: Now, the first testimony that we have is from December 2023,
meaning immediately after the ground invasion started. And the last testimony
that we had is from the beginning of this year, beginning of 2025, just before
the ceasefire. And it’s something that the IDF is using more and more and more,
more units and more areas throughout the world.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And to what extent are you aware of soldiers resisting these
orders to use Palestinians as human shields?
NADAV WEIMAN: Yeah, so, it’s interesting. Now, every — almost every soldier in
the IDF learned about the fact that we used Palestinians as human shields
during the Second Intifada. Back then, we called it the “neighbor procedure,”
when you come to arrest a high-ranking Palestinian or you know that he’s armed,
so you grab the next-door neighbor, and you told the neighbor, “You knock on
the door. Not me.” And maybe he will get shot. And if nobody shot him, then we
told him, “Get inside the house. Open all of the doors, and open all of the
lights,” so we will be more safe. And that was banned by the Supreme Court in
Israel in the end of the Second Intifada. So, the reservists in the Israeli
army grew up on that history, that we did something, it was bad, but it was
banned, and that’s it.
Watch the full Democracy Now Interview or read the transcript from which the above excerpts come here: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/29/israeli_soldiers_using_palestinians_human_shields
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