Balancing IDF Checkpoints and International Law: Teaching the IDF Code of Conduct (JCPA-JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS) JERUSALEM ISSUE BRIEF Vol. 3, No. 8 Lt. Col. Amos Guiora 11/20/03)
Source: http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief3-8.htm
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The IDF has decided to teach commanders about international law
in order to enable them to more effectively carry out their missions.
The IDF has developed a code of conduct that is a combination of
international law, Israeli law, and the IDF´s own traditional ethical
code - ruach tzahal, "the spirit of the IDF."
The IDF has developed simulated educational computer programming.
In one scenario, a 19-year-old soldier has been given intelligence
information on a terrorist bomber traveling in an ambulance. An
ambulance arrives at his checkpoint with a seemingly pregnant woman.
If he lets in the terrorist, innocent civilians will be hurt. But if
he delays the wrong ambulance, he endangers the woman and her child.
The IDF is teaching very complicated issues and presenting
complex dilemmas in a user-friendly fashion to help its soldiers
better understand the issues they must deal with on a daily basis.
The IDF School of Military Law
The IDF School of Military Law was established seven years ago by
then-Chief of Staff Ehud Barak and the former judge advocate-
generals. It was based on the American model of the U.S. Army School
of Military Law located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Over the past
year and a half, the school has changed its emphasis in order to
teach commanders about military law, criminal law, and international
law, using innovative computer software to teach thousands of IDF
commanders and soldiers out in the field. The school is also
responsible for teaching IDF attorneys and judge-advocates. From my
perspective and from the perspective of the IDF judge advocate-
general (JAG), Brigadier General Menahem Finkelstein, it serves as a
link between the legal corps, the JAG, and the commanders.
According to the Geneva Convention, the IDF must teach international
law. But in addition, the IDF has decided to teach commanders about
international law in order to enable them to more effectively carry
out their missions. The purpose is not to prepare them for a Ph.D. in
international law, but there are basic things that he or she must
understand. The initiative to do so came from commanders who believe
that hearing the legal perspective in a user-friendly fashion is
something that helps their soldiers and junior commanders.
The IDF Code of Conduct
The IDF has developed a code of conduct that is a combination of
international law, Israeli law, and the IDF´s own traditional ethical
code - ruach tzahal, "the spirit of the IDF." Reserve units and
regular units alike are taught the following eleven rules of conduct:
1. Military action can only be taken against military targets.
2. The use of force must be proportional.
3. Soldiers may only use weaponry they were is
sued by the
IDF.
4. Anyone who surrenders cannot be attacked.
5. Only those who are properly trained can interrogate prisoners.
6. Soldiers must accord dignity and respect to the Palestinian
population and those arrested.
7. Soldiers must give appropriate medical care, when conditions
allow, to oneself and one´s enemy.
8. Pillaging is absolutely and totally illegal.
9. Soldiers must show proper respect for religious and cultural sites
and artifacts.
11. Soldiers must protect international aid workers, including their
property and vehicles.
12. Soldiers must report all violations of this code.
Picture a 19-year-old soldier commanding a checkpoint. He has two or
three other soldiers with him and there is a long line of cars
waiting to get through. According to intelligence information he has
been given, an ambulance is expected to arrive with a wanted
terrorist in it carrying an explosive belt for a suicide attack
against innocent Israeli civilians. Suddenly an ambulance arrives,
and inside is a woman who is seemingly pregnant. It has happened at
checkpoints that not everybody who appears to be pregnant is truly
pregnant. The woman appears to be in pain and her husband is also
highly anxious. But the soldier has been warned of an ambulance
bearing a pregnant woman who is not really pregnant and that
underneath the stretcher in the ambulance is a terrorist. It is a hot
day and there is a long line of cars. His commanders are yelling at
him on the two-way radio, "Do not let ambulances go through because
there is a terrorist in an ambulance!" To complicate the picture, a
news video crew is present.
The soldier has to make an incredible number of decisions in a very
short time. First of all, he´s 19, he´s not a physician, and he is
probably not even a medic. He knows that if he lets the ambulance go
through and it contains a terrorist, then innocent people will die
and he will have failed in his mission. On the other hand, if there
is not a terrorist in this particular ambulance but rather a truly
pregnant woman and she is delayed, the fetus may die. This has also
happened.
Educational Computer Software Simulations
The software we have developed is oriented toward the junior
commanders and line soldiers who have to make these decisions in real
life. Practically every soldier can be reached through this software
as more and more units have their own laptop computers, enabling each
junior commander to view the six simulations. The dilemmas presented
are all based on real life events, such as the ambulance.
The software program begins with the 11 rules of conduct. Each rule
is matched with a relevant Hollywood movie clip, followed by an
animation. Then come the six simulations, followed by a series of
questions to be answered in a way that reflects the 11 rules of
conduct. It takes an hour and a half for a soldier to make his way
through the entire program. Some 95-97 percent of those who have used
the software asked for additional information and read it.
From an educational-instructional perspective, the response is
tremendous right from the beginning, with the audience hooked on the
opening 2-3 minute movie clip from the Hollywood movie Platoon. The
point of the movie is obviously what not to do and the need to treat
the Palestinian civilian population in a humane and dignified
fashion. We stress that if you don´t treat the Palestinian civilian
population according to these rules of conduct, they will go from
being innocent civilians to terrorists.
Another film clip shows Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously,
which takes place in Indonesia in 1965. Gibson, portraying a
reporter, gets hit over the head by Indonesian forces. We are showing
in this movie how not to behave toward the media. We teach that the
media has a job to do and we cannot interfere in their work.
There is a clip from The English Patient showing a makeshift field
hospital which was bombed, a violation of international law. Soldiers
are instructed to respect and protect all persons and property
bearing the emblems of the Red Cross, Red Crescent, UN, and all other
symbols of international relief organizations.
In the ambulance scenario, once the roadblock commander decides that
this ambulance is not the relevant ambulance, and that the woman is
truly pregnant and about to give birth, he lets the ambulance through
and we wish her well. If, on the other hand, there is a suicide
bomber with a belt in the ambulance, the commander is going to have
to very gingerly take the would-be suicide bomber off the ambulance
and somehow disengage him from his belt, without causing harm to his
soldiers. I cannot think of a more complicated and complex military
operation which is not only military in nature. It is a combination
of military and civilian, with international legal overtones.
Another simulation has a sniper inside a hospital shooting at an IDF
unit. This happens all the time. Is the commander allowed to go into
the hospital to get the sniper? There are sick, there are wounded,
there are people being operated on in the hospital while the sniper
is shooting. The answer is yes, he can go into the hospital, but he
must give advance warning.
The software was developed in close cooperation with IDF commanders
in the field to insure the development of a tool that will help the
commanders. As a result, the IDF is able to teach very complicated
issues and present complex dilemmas in a user-friendly fashion, to
help its soldiers better understand the issues they must deal with on
a daily basis. The writer Lt. Col. Amos Guiora Commander of the IDF
School of Military Law. (JCPA.ORG 11/20/03)
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