Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire

by Neve Gordon, Nicola Perugini

A chilling global history of the human shield phenomenon.

From Syrian civilians locked in iron cages to veterans joining peaceful indigenous water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, from Sri Lanka to Iraq and from Yemen to the United States, human beings have been used as shields for protection, coercion, or deterrence. Over the past decade, human shields have also appeared with increasing frequency in antinuclear struggles, civil and environmental protests, and even computer games. The phenomenon, however, is by no means a new one.
 
Describing the use of human shields in key historical and contemporary moments across the globe, Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini demonstrate how the increasing weaponization of human beings has made the position of civilians trapped in theaters of violence more precarious and their lives more expendable. They show how the law facilitates the use of lethal violence against vulnerable people while portraying it as humane, but they also reveal how people can and do use their own vulnerability to resist violence and denounce forms of dehumanization. Ultimately, Human Shields unsettles our common ethical assumptions about violence and the law and urges us to imagine entirely new forms of humane politics.

 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics

312 pages, Hardcover

Published August 25, 2020

About the author

Neve Gordon is Professor of Human Rights and the Politics of Humanitarian Law at Queen Mary University of London. He is the author of Israel’s Occupation and coauthor of The Human Right to Dominate.

Reviews

[Mostafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

أصبحت أهمية هذا الكتاب مضاعفة في ظل الحرب المستعرة في جبهات عدة في الشرق الأوسط، العالم العربي\الإسلامي بالضرورة، منذ 15 عامًا تقريبًا، يساعد كثيرًا في فهم مواقعنا في القانون الدولي كأفراد\أجساد\أرقام\دروع.. وقابلية ذلك المفهوم للتغيّر، ربما يسهل كثيرًا للعرب فهم التاريخ على ضوء التآمر والتواطؤ، ولكن هذا الكتاب يشرح تعقيد الوضع القانوني وتغيّره والانماط الراسخة والامتيازات البيضاء، يشرح الحرب كصراع سيميائي على تفسير الكلمات ودلالتها المتغيّرة منذ الحرب الأهلية الأمريكية إلى حرب غزة

[أنس سمحان · Rating 4 out of 5]

«وبهذا المعنى بالتحديد، تصبح غزة نبوءة مرعبة، تفضح بدورها كيف أن حرمان المدنيين من الحماية في مناطق الحرب يعزز الاعتداءات على المواطنين المشاركين في الاحتجاجات بدءًا من الأميركتين وصولًا إلى اوروبا والشرق الأوسط وانتهاءً بآخر الدنيا في آسيا وأستراليا. وما التآكل شبه الكامل في مفهوم المدني في غزة سوى نذير شؤم، ودلالة على الهشاشة المطّردة في بنيان المواطنة والحمايات التي ما برحت تَعدُ بها».

من كتاب «الدروع البشرية: تاريخ بشرٍ على خطِّ النار»، صفحة 335، من إصدارات المركز العربي.

تتوافق هذه النبوءة مع فحوى هذه المقالة من ترجمتي «كيف تقوِّض الحرب على غزة ثقافة الديمقراطية حول العالم» على الرابط هنا: https://bit.ly/4bnARaR

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this after auditing a Dr. Perugini's brilliant class on the intertwinement between law, violence and humanity in 'battlescapes,' civil society, the international community, among other spaces. The lectures provided a very rich genealogy of the emergence of the category of the polysemic and political concept of 'human/ity,' by referencing authors like Sylvia Wynter ('Man1 and Man2'), Fanon on colonial domination as a simultaneous humanising and dehumanising force, , Césaire's and Mbembe's postcolonial humanisms- in order to develop a critique of the concept of 'humane violence' that international humanitarian law constantly resorts to and is in fact constitutive of its existence. His lectures brought attention to the dual interpretation of the idea of humanity, which can both delimit violence AND provide legal and moral justifications for it.

I picked up his book as I was listening to the Israeli authorities' mobilisation of the image of 'human shields' to justify their right to wage military action against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Similarly to Dr. Perguni's classes, I was expecting a kind of genealogical exploration of the category of 'human' and 'human shields' in order to provide a unitary critique of the gendered and racialised regimes of 'humanity' that underwrite the international humanitarian order's simultaneous tolerance AND condemnation of the use of human shields as a military defence tactic.

Instead, I found a much more far-ranging analysis that uses cross-temporal case studies that pertain to human shielding. First, the authors seek to complicate the definition of 'human shields', by pointing to the different ways in which they manifest - voluntary, involuntary and proximate shields, some human, and other 'vital' infrastructures like schools and hospitals. They also discuss the various and often contesting ways in which human shields are conceptually mobilised in humanitarian law, but also (social) media - to dehumanise the enemy because their use of shielding is barbaric and does not conform to universal ethics of war, to assign guilt; to justify, by extension, counterinsurgent measures thus prolonging conflict and human loss (there are many more examples of the political uses of human shields... just listen to AJ's reporting on the IDF attacks on Gaza).

Gordon and Perugini highlight the systematic recourse to historically constructed, racialised notions of what constitutes 'humane' violence, and thus are able to complicate distinctions between civilians and combatants, 'military-aged-men' and 'womenandchildren', human and inhumane violence, armed conflict and civil protest, etc.. that underwrite humanitarian law.

Thinking about human shields is useful in the sense that it offers a really tangible as well as ideal scope through which to approach the intersections between the moral domain of humanitarian law, racial violence emanating from colonial domination, and the realities of armed conflict today.

My criticism would mostly be directed at the absence of a conclusion (it ends with a case study/ reflection on resistance and militarised police, including instances of human barricades in BLM protests and at Standing Rock). While it is symbolically significant to end with 'Protest', I thought that a conclusion would be useful to tie together case studies, and to perhaps summarise the various critiques of international humanitarian law and the agencies/actors enforcing it presented in the book; which would perhaps also make the book a bit more generative.

I was also surprised that the book started with the case of Rachel Corrie, a white American youngster who was crushed by a bulldozer in Palestine as she was standing before the home of a Palestinian family about to be evicted to make way for Israeli settlers. I wonder why they chose that event in particular.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

A super interesting book which dives into a very interesting topic, the issue of human shields in warfare. The book looks at where discussion of human shields emerged, and the first historical examples that used this language (Union prisoners held in Confederate cities during the US Civil War). Although the first human shields wee prisoners, later individual civilians (usually men) were used as human shields when tied to trains. Over time, entire populations under control of armed groups (such as civilians in Syria/Iraq in areas held by ISIS). Whereas in the beginning, blame for the death of human shields was placed on those who killed them, in the contemporary era, armed groups are accused of using human shields even if they are merely among a larger population. Counterinsurgents exonerate themselves for killing civilians living in their own cities while blaming the armed groups that control them for civilian deaths at the hands of the counterinsurgents (as in Iraq and Syria). Although I feel the book jumps around, between many various topics on the broader subject of human shields (it also looks at protest, environmentalism, etc.). However this is a fascinating book on a unique topic.

[Methi Satyanarayana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books that I have read this year. It was a comprehensive look at the practice of human shielding and it’s various manifestations (voluntary, involuntary, and proximate) with numerous historical and contemporary case studies from the US and globally. I particularly appreciated the historical and chronological approach that the book took to explain the development of military and international humanitarian law as well as the chapters on human shielding in video games and non-violent protest. It was enlightening to read about the gendered and racial used aspects of human shielding that I had not previously considered. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding how wars are construed and reported on and how social media and information shape conflict.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. A sweeping overview of human shielding with a general starting point at the US civil war. Of particular note is the demonstration of how colonial atrocities committed by imperial powers have been justified with claims of human shielding. It’s astounding to see how hasbarist lies about Palestinian “human shields” and justifications for bombing hospitals, schools, mosques, churches etc. find their origins in the rhetoric of prior colonial barbarism. It’s nearly identical.

Has important conclusions about the future that are deeply unsettling.

A bit too “legalese” perhaps.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely prescient and illuminates our current moment (Israel's prior attacks on Gaza are covered in multiple chapters) and far-reaching in its scope. The chapters are all a very manageable size. Endnotes are a very light read and not overwhelming. Required reading.

[Bettina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting account on the use of the idea of human shields. Chilling to realize that civilians vanish from the equation when the people killed by the attacking military are Military - aged - males or human shields (woman and children.....) put there by the barbarous "terrorists".