August 13, 2009
Civilian family fleeing from their home. The Human Rights Watch report which claims that IDF soldiers killed eleven Palestinian civilians holding "white flags" in the Gaza Strip is "based on unreliable witness reports," the IDF said in a statement released Thursday.
Yes, they are Gazans. Never trust the word of a goyim.The one thing they lie about perhaps is that 11 should be a higher number.
"Moreover," the statement continued, HRW "didn't bother to give the report to the IDF before releasing it to the public via the media, in order to allow for in-depth investigation."
So that it could be refuted from the get go? Because the IDF investigation in this case might take months, unlike the investigations directly after the war that were terminated after 10 days?
The army stressed that IDF soldiers were under orders to "honor the 'white flag' as a sign of surrender... and to avoid harming" anyone raising such a flag.
The soldiers had two sets of orders it seems. Those from the loving IDF and those from the rabid rabbis who circulated pamphlets and stirred up their hatred with passion.
HRW presented the report at a press conference on Thursday morning, alleging that most of the 11 were women and children and that they were killed in seven separate incidents during Operation Cast Lead.
There were many more than 11, but these are cases which can be proven.
The army statement also stressed that "the IDF did everything in its power to warn the civilian population... by distributing more than two million announcements, including 300,000 phone calls to residential houses and media in the Strip, in order to keep civilians away from battle zones."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how many homes were exploded from the inside? How many houses were just shot irregardless of inhabitants?
Returning to the scene of a Gaza war crime
HRW said it conducted extensive investigations into each of the incidents by visiting the sites of the attacks, examining ballistic evidence, collecting medical records and interviewing at least three witnesses, separately, for each attack. In one case, forensic pathologists examined a survivor.
Trigger happy young guns.Also responding to the HRW report, Gerald Steinberg, the director of NGO Monitor, said there was a fundamental problem with HRW's methodology.
HRW had no people in Gaza during the war, so therefore everything they have to say is by definition based on hearsay and speculation ~ it is all based on secondary and tertiary reports," he said.
Victims and remaining family membersare not valid witnesses?
"A Palestinian says he took a white flag out, and says Israelis shot him. We don't know if that was part of tactics Hamas used, like Hizbullah did in Lebanon. Remember, Hamas used ambulances to smuggle in and launch rockets. HRW doesn't know," Steinberg continued.
Hamas is no angel by a long shot. But blaming them for such things as this borders on the ridiculous. There are testimonies on film from ambulance drivers of things done to them, being prevented from attending the wounded, personally shot, humiliated, etc.
Steinberg noted that all the organization's reports on Gaza were based on what Palestinians said, or what other NGOs reported, or on what some journalists ~ who for the most part were also not in Gaza during the war ~ heard about afterward.
"This is a basic methodological problem," he said. "If you are looking for a target, you will find people who will tell you what you are looking for."
Poor Israel, blamed again by calculating lying goyim with an axe to grind.
Steinberg said that HRW made similar allegations about the IDF firing at people waving white flags after the Second Lebanon War, but that these turned out to be false.
He said that in one instance, HRW had claimed that there was no Hizbullah presence in the area when the IDF allegedly killed three people and wounded 14 others who were waving a white flag while fleeing in a van from the village of Kafra.
"Independent analysis showed that Hizbullah admitted flying white flags to prevent IDF attacks, 17 rockets were fired from within Kafra village houses, and Hizbullah regularly transported arms in vans," he said.
"The release of a third lengthy publication condemning Israel over Gaza within the space of a few months is reflective of HRW's Israel obsession," Steinberg said, adding that a critical report of Hamas issued last week for firing on civilians in the western Negev was a "fig leaf."
ANTISEMITISM! ANTISEMITISM! OH, WOE, ANTISEMITISM!
Steinberg said the "white flag" report was edited by Joe Stork, who according to Steinberg is anything but an impartial observer of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
When all else fails, resort to character defamation. This is done to anyone not completely infatuated with the Zionist/Israeli agenda.
Steinberg said that Stork, one of the founders of the Middle East Research Information Project (MERIP) had "a long history of anti-Israel incitement."
AH I knew antisemitism would rear its ugly head AGAIN at some point! Once is never enough. "Oh the burden we poor Ashkanazi, carry! You have no idea how much we SUFFER! Remember the Holca..." (Oooops will save that one for later.)
"MERIP's line was in many ways more radical than Yasser Arafat and the PLO's. He is not someone with any credentials in universal human rights, and this reflects the core disease eating away at Human Rights Watch, including its recent fund-raising activities in Saudi Arabia," he asserted.
Oh dear. They are really into the assassination of character again. OK... bring out the heavy guns. I can hear Steinberg now. "REMEMBER THE HOLOCAUST! You goyim all want us dead!" Tears negotiable.
The IDF said it was already investigating several similar allegations, including an incident that occurred on January 13 when four civilians were reportedly killed even though they were waving a white flag.
Another incident took place on January 4, when a tank crew allegedly fired a shell at a group of civilians that were carrying white flags.
The incidents were brought to the IDF's attention by HRW as well as other NGOs, and even by Palestinians themselves.
The IDF is conducting over 100 investigations of soldiers involved in Operation Cast Lead.
So far the IDF has been consistent in not holding the men guilty for the most base of crimes. Even the 4 killed in "friendly fire" were victims of faulty weapons, not accidental deaths due to their fellow soldiers.
Dan Izenberg and Herb Keinon contributed to this report
RELATED:
ISRAEL DOES NOT TARGET PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS
GAZA ~ WARRANTLESS DESTRUCTION OF HOMES
ISRAELI DEATH SQUADS, A SOLDIER'S STORY
WERE THESE HAMAS TERRORIST CHICKENS FIRING ROCKETS?
ISRAELI USE OF HUMAN SHIELDS IN GAZA DESPITE DENIALS
The Blame Game in Gaza ~ Erasing Israeli actions to fault only Hamas
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