Thursday, March 6, 2008
A Hamas explosives lab in the ground floor of a residential building in Jabalya
Both the Israeli MFA and the ICT have released reports on the extensive and systematic use of human shields by Hamas. The MFA page is here: Hamas exploitation of civilians as human shields: Photographic evidence and contains numerous photographic and video evidence of the practice. The ICT report in PDF is here: Human Shields In Gaza.pdf. Both pages include this must-see video report from Palestinian TV showing a man bragging that the Israelis had called to warn him that they would be bombing his building, so the neighborhood immediately mobilized and called the people out to stand on the roof as human shields.
From the MFA report:
...In order to avoid civilian casualties, Israel sends warning messages before attacking terrorist targets advising civilians to leave. Israel prefers to attack empty buildings used to manufacture rockets, even taking into consideration that the terrorists too will be warned and their lives spared.
Hamas, on the other hand, calls on civilians to come and to protect with their bodies the precise locations they expect Israel to attack. Since they know that Israel will usually strike from the air, they send the children to the roofs to prevent the air force from targeting that building.
During the course of the Israeli operation against terrorists in the Gaza Strip (March 2008), Hamas repeatedly called upon Palestinian civilians to gather near buildings where they feared that the IDF was about to launch air-strikes against Hamas targets hidden within. The purpose of the civilian presence was to have them serve as human shields, exploiting the fact that the IDF avoids harming Palestinian civilians, even if it means aborting attacks on crucial terrorist infrastructure targets.
The following are but a few of the documented examples of calls in the Hamas controlled Gaza media for Palestinians civilians to serve as human shields:...
Video evidence is included.
Update: Here is one of the videos in YouTube format:
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, p.44
This is an interesting riff on Mahatma Gandhi's use of peaceful protest to win India's independence from Britain. Gandhi confronted British firepower with crowds of civilians, using non-violent means to achieve non-violent——indeed, democratic——ends.
Hamas'riff: They confront Israeli firepower with crowds of civilians, using non-violent means to achieve violent——indeed, genocidal——ends.
Of course, Hamas mainly uses violent means, but their cynical resort sometimes to non-violent civilian protests (such as human shields) is a clever way to make their aggressive, racist, theocratic movement look like a human-rights protest movement.
How many Western news reports will report that the house was an arms factory? Or how many will simply say that the Israelis *claim* it was an arms factory, and then follow up with copious, heart-wrenching scenes of the destruction, complete with mother and children crying?
Notice that the Arab video (I saw the YouTube version) referred to the house as just a civilian's house, never mentioning that it was an arms factory. Wouldn't an Arab viewer wonder WHY that particular house was chosen? And the video refers to the prior phone call not as a warning meant to avoid civilian deaths, but as a threat.
It's amazing how this works. It's clever. They leave out some facts, and then take other facts and turn them on their heads.
Another interesting point: The video frequently refers to "the occupation" making the phone call, and "the occupation" being about to attack. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Israeli occupation of Gaza over? So what "occupation" is the video referring to? Maybe the "occupation" of all of Palestine?
One point that I think (I hope) must have been an outright lie: The video says that the residents of the house were given only a five-minute warning to get out of their home. Five minutes isn't a hell of a lot of time if you really want to save lives.
One reason why I think this must've been a lie——aside from wishful thinking——is that the man who owns the house spoke of getting on the phone to various people to set up the protest on his roof. But five minutes simply isn't enough time to call people...tell them what happened...have those people call other people to say what happened...and then have those other people tell even more people to get on the roof of that house. All that coordination in five minutes? In real time, the house would've been bombed before anyone had the chance to get there. Again, wouldn't the alert Arab viewer wonder about that? Will the alert European viewer wonder about that?
Threaten to spray them with pig entrails. That will get 'em off the roofs.
The US had lots of swine waste from pig farms in reservoirs that need to be gotten rid of.