Troops told to show restraint

Press, 25 February 1988, Page 8

Troops told to show restraint

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem Israel’s Army chief of staff, Dan Shomron, has ordered troops to handle Palestinian demonstrators in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with restraint and sensitivity along with firmness. In a letter made public yesterday he spelled out guidelines for the use of force against civilians. Israel has come under heavy criticism for its handling of an 11-week Palestinian uprising in

which at least 63 people have been killed and hundreds wounded. “Israeli soldiers must act with firmness and decisiveness along with selfcontrol, restraint and sensitivity, according to the high norms of behaviour compelling Israeli soldiers and commanders,” he said.

Mr Shomron said soldiers could use force to disperse demonstrators or to overcome a civilian resisting arrest, but must avoid hitting people on

their heads or other sensitive parts of the body. “One may not use towards the local population means of torture, humiliation, degradation or causing intentional damage to property,” he said.

The Police Minister, Haim Bar Lev, himself a former chief of staff, told Parliament the police had dismissed an officer who together with three other patrolmen last week entered the Tel Aviv apartment of nine Arab

labourers and beat them. A girl, aged 13, said to have been an innocent bystander, was shot dead during a demonstration on the West Bank and police arrested an Israeli civilian for interrogation, Army sources said. Elsewhere a young man was killed during a demonstration. The Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s rightist Likud bloc met yesterday to decide its position towards new United States peace plans to be presented in

Jerusalem by the Secretary of State, George Shultz, when he arrives tomorrow. Mr Shultz is expected to suggest that Israeli-Arab negotiations on the future of the occupied territories begin soon and lead to a land-for-peace exchange. The Minister of Housing, David Levy, said after the Likud’s meeting: “The whole negotiation is a preparation for Israel to give, up all. The Likud will by no means be able to agree to this.”