The Truth, For A Change

Years of exaggerating their losses, and deliberately trying to get their own civilians killed (for propaganda purposes) has caught up with the Palestinians, who are now being accused of war crimes (for using those tactics. This was because Israel was able to provide enough video evidence of Palestinians in Gaza firing rockets from residential neighborhoods, as well as Arab language media stories discussing the use of this tactic to persuade Western media and war crimes researchers that they were being played by the Palestinians. This scam has been going on for more than a decade, but in the West it was not fashionable to question the Palestinian claims, even though details of the deception were openly discussed in Arab language media. But with the spread of the Internet, more and more photographic and video evidence of the deceptions was seen by more people. The anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda was particularly noxious, as some of it was almost identical to the stuff the Nazis used in the 1930s and World War II to justify genocide of the Jews. Many Arabs do not hide their admiration for the Nazis and Nazi goals.  Arab media is smart enough to realize that presenting any of this in the non-Arabic versions of the websites or other outlets is not prudent. But more and more of this nasty stuff is getting out to the non-Arab world.

The Palestinians were also forced to be more accurate in reporting their combat losses. In the eight day war last November between Hamas (in Gaza) and Israel it was eventually agreed by all that 170 Palestinians and eight Israelis were killed. In the past the Palestinians would claim many more dead confident that they could control the message. The Internet and the constant presence of Israeli UAVs overhead make this impossible. Moreover the Palestinians were accused of war crimes for firing rockets into Israel with the express purpose of killing civilians and the use of firing positions near homes, schools and hospitals in the hope that Israeli return fire would create something that could be claimed as an Israeli war crime. This time it didn’t work and the Hamas was labeled as war criminals for trying to get their own civilians killed by Israeli return fire.

Amazing: 'Human rights watch' actually realizes Gaza 'Palestinians' commit war crimes

Well, isn't this amazing? 'Human rights watch' has finally figured out that Hamas and other 'Palestinian' terror groups committed war crimes by shooting rockets from civilian areas in Gaza to civilian areas in Israelduring Operation Pillar of Defense. 

“Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim,” said HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. “There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas.”

The group also found that Gazan groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committee, justified targeting civilian centers as reprisal for Israeli strikes, an act also banned under international law.

Furthermore, such groups "repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel, unnecessarily placing civilians in the vicinity at grave risk from Israeli counter-fire," the report said.

The detailed report included examples of rockets being launched from densely populated areas in Gaza, and noted that groups fired from underground tunnels with hatches for the first time. HRW faulted Palestinian armed groups for failing to alert civilians or urge them to evacuate prior to launching rockets in their vicinity.

As the ruling power in the Strip, the human rights group said, Hamas was responsible for reining in the behavior of other groups.

“As the ruling authority in Gaza, Hamas has an obligation to stop unlawful attacks and punish those responsible,” Whitson said.

But lest you get your hopes up for a Goldstone or other style of inquiry into these human rights violations....

A week earlier, HRW reported that Israeli attacks on journalists and media facilities during the operation also violated laws of war, saying that Israel provided no specific information to justify claims that they were military targets.

“Just because Israel says a journalist was a fighter or a TV station was a command center does not make it so,” Whitson said. “Journalists who praise Hamas and TV stations that applaud attacks on Israel may be propagandists, but that does not make them legitimate targets under the laws of war.”

Well yeah, except that Israel did provide evidence, and Hamas' al-Aqsa television is a designated terror organization. 

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