What war crimes did Israel commit in Gaza?

Op-ed: While world powers are exempted from investigation and punishment, and tyrant regimes in Africa and in the Middle East are reprimanded from time to time but don’t give a damn, Israel is stuck in a bad place in the middle.




I beg the forgiveness of the distinguished members of the human rights community, but the talk about war crimes in regards to the fighting in Gaza is hollow talk at best, and false talk at worst. War crimes compared to who? Compared to what? Compared to what Russia is doing in Ukraine? Compared to what the United States did in Iraq? In Afghanistan? Compared to what China is doing in Tibet? I won't be revealing any exciting news to my readers if I say that the international community's investigation procedures are selective. World powers are exempted from investigation, exempted from punishment: Tyrant regimes, which destroy nations, in Africa and in the Middle East, are reprimanded from time to time, but don’t give a damn. Israel is stuck in a bad place in the middle.

 
In light of this reality, Judge McGowan Davis' report spares Israel. Yes, there was an excessive use of ammunition in many cases, disproportional damage to residential buildings, unnecessary killing of children and civilians, and in two cases a fire frenzy in order to prevent a soldier's abduction. But every decision maker in the international community knows that there is no practical way of waging military operations while keeping sterile, with zero flaws. Like in other Western countries, the public opinion's sensitivity towards fallen soldiers, and the government and army's fear of losing the public opinion's support, increase the number of civilian casualties on the other side.
 
On Monday, after the report was published, sources in the Israeli government complained bitterly that the report made an analogy between Israel and Hamas. I'm not sure I understand them. When reports issued by international commissions of inquiry directed all their criticism at Israel, claiming that Israel was a sovereign state which is committed to international law, unlike its enemies in Gaza, those same sources complained that Israel was being discriminated against. Now, when a commission of inquiry on behalf of the United Nations makes an effort to balance its criticism, those same sources are complaining again.
 
The prime minister, the defense minister and the IDF commanders during Operation Protective Edge wanted to kill as many Hamas fighters and fighters of other terror organizations as possible. They were not thirsty for the blood of civilians in Gaza. On the contrary: The fear of a legal or diplomatic entanglement over unnecessary fire made them insist on warning procedures such as "roof knocking," waste sophisticated and expensive ammunition and keep fighter jets in the air for hours, all so as not to make a mistake.
 
Ironically, what made Hamas accept a ceasefire in the end was not the casualties among its fighters but the extent of damage in the civilian neighborhoods. The problem with Operation Protective Edge was not the war crimes, but the fact that Israel found itself in a war. The Israeli government prevented the transfer of salaries to Hamas, prevented the transfer of goods and reinforced the siege on the Strip as much as it could. Had the government let into Gaza in 2014 everything it lets in today, there would have been no Protective Edge.
 
This is where the leaders' guilt lies. It also has to do with the management of the operation, the intellectual fixation, the slow movement, the fear of taking risks and the negligence in defending the soldiers and civilians near the border. A number of lessons have been learned in the year that has passed since the operation. The secret Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas and the ease of the siege point to that. In addition, operational lessons have been learned in the sea, in the air and on the land. But let us not delude ourselves: If and when another round is launched vis-à-vis Gaza, it won't be any different from the previous round, neither in the reports it generates nor in the feeling of pain, waste and missed opportunity it leaves behind.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4671841,00.html

Ynetnews is the English-language edition of Ynet, Israel's largest and most popular news and content website.

That amount of propaganda would make anyone else sick, but not Didge, he has an unending appitite for it.

risingsun wrote:Ynetnews is the English-language edition of Ynet, Israel's largest and most popular news and content website.

That amount of propaganda would make anyone else sick, but not Didge, he has an unending appitite for it.  

I do laugh how you never actually debate any points.
Ignore the fact you post from biased sources and say nothing in regards that you do.
Deabte the subject, because your views on me are just a poor deflection to the actual points.

I'm sure the Palestinian children moments before they died, were glad they weren't murdered as diligently as they would have at the hands of the Chinese or Russians.

Fuzzy Zack wrote:I'm sure the Palestinian children moments before they died, were glad they weren't murdered as diligently as they would have at the hands of the Chinese or Russians.

Murdered?
Yes I am sure it could be seen as murder that a group places its own peoples children in harms way, when they deliberately engage in war, already by the rocket attacks committing war crimes
So I agree Hamas murders its own people and ensures many are killed through their actions.

There certainly is one event I agree is a war crime by Israel, as I posted tonight, but its also a war crime that Hamas deliberately fires rockets from within their civilians ares. Denies them bomb shelters. Commands them to be human shields through Martyrdom and to ignore Israeli warnings of impending attacks to military targets. Yep, that is countless war crimes and even worse it is done only to use them as cannon fodder to gain public sympathy. That to me is the worst war crime ever. A group that loves its people, ensures they are safe from attacks, not deny them this. It builds them bomb shelters. It does not wasted millions in aid on building tunnels to attack a people it hates. It builds and places infrastructure over hate. Not place them in harms way. Not instruct them by their beliefs in their faith to stay when warned to leave.

Cuchulain wrote:

Fuzzy Zack wrote:I'm sure the Palestinian children moments before they died, were glad they weren't murdered as diligently as they would have at the hands of the Chinese or Russians.

Murdered?
Yes I am sure it could be seen as murder that a group places its own peoples children in harms way, when they deliberately engage in war, already by the rocket attacks committing war crimes
So I agree Hamas murders its own people and ensures many are killed through their actions.

There certainly is one event I agree is a war crime by Israel, as I posted tonight, but its also a war crime that Hamas deliberately fires rockets from within their civilians ares. Denies them bomb shelters. Commands them to be human shields through Martyrdom and to ignore Israeli warnings of impending attacks to military targets. Yep, that is countless war crimes and even worse it is done only to use them as cannon fodder to gain public sympathy. That to me is the worst war crime ever. A group that loves its people, ensures they are safe from attacks, not deny them this. It builds them bomb shelters. It does not wasted millions in aid on building tunnels to attack a people it hates. It builds and places infrastructure over hate. Not place them in harms way. Not instruct them by their beliefs in their faith to stay when warned to leave.

What you're doing above is called the classical Zionisist Buck Passing.

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20150622_btselem_response_to_un_report

Unacceptably, the only official Israeli response to the commission’s grave findings has been to deny the allegations and pass the buck. Israel’s investigations of the operation to date have served solely to whitewash suspected wrongdoings, and most governmental efforts have been devoted to deflecting accusations and disseminating propaganda. A healthy society should face the criticism and thoroughly investigate the allegations of serious human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.

Facebook logoTwitter logoPrint
Human shields
Background on Human Shields

Published: 1 Jan 2011
On 6 October 2005, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that it was illegal for the army to use Palestinian civilians during military actions. The court ruled on a petition submitted by Adalah in the name of B'Tselem and six other human rights organizations in 2002. The petition followed the army's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields since the beginning of the second intifada, primarily during operations carried out in densely populated Palestinian areas, as occurred in Operation Defensive Shield.

The method was the same each time: soldiers picked a civilian at random and forced him to protect them with his body, and do dangerous tasks for them. For example, soldiers have ordered Palestinians to:

enter buildings to check if they are booby-trapped, or to remove the occupants;
remove suspicious objects from roads;
stand inside houses where soldiers set up military positions, so that Palestinians would not fire at them;
and walk in front of soldiers to shield them from gunfire, while the soldiers point a gun to their backs and sometimes fire over their shoulders.
The soldiers in the field did not initiate this practice; rather, the order to use civilians as a means of protection was made by senior army officials.

In August 2002, Nidal Abu Mheisen, a 19-year-old Palestinian from Tubas, was killed by Palestinian gunfire when soldiers forced him to serve as a human shield.

Despite the High Court's decision and army orders given before and after it, security forces continued to use Palestinians as human shields, although the number of cases dropped. In 2007, for example, B'Tselem documented 14 such instances. The organization wrote to the Military Advocate General Corps, demanding an investigation into each of the cases. B'Tselem’s monitoring indicates that a Military Police investigation was opened in 13 of them: in two of the cases, the investigation is continuing; in seven cases, the file was closed; and four were transferred to a military advocate for a decision whether to file charges.

During the course of Operation Cast Lead, which took place in Gaza in January 2009, B'Tselem and other organizations were informed of cases in which soldiers used Palestinians as human shields. In one case, two soldiers were prosecuted for ordering a nine-year-old boy gunpoint to open a bag that they suspected was booby-trapped. The two were given a three-month conditional sentence and demoted from staff sergeant to private.

http://www.btselem.org/human_shields

This is why I laugh in the face of your Zionist propaganda. Peddle your bullshit somewhere else, please

Fuzzy Zack wrote:

Cuchulain wrote:

Murdered?
Yes I am sure it could be seen as murder that a group places its own peoples children in harms way, when they deliberately engage in war, already by the rocket attacks committing war crimes
So I agree Hamas murders its own people and ensures many are killed through their actions.

There certainly is one event I agree is a war crime by Israel, as I posted tonight, but its also a war crime that Hamas deliberately fires rockets from within their civilians ares. Denies them bomb shelters. Commands them to be human shields through Martyrdom and to ignore Israeli warnings of impending attacks to military targets. Yep, that is countless war crimes and even worse it is done only to use them as cannon fodder to gain public sympathy. That to me is the worst war crime ever. A group that loves its people, ensures they are safe from attacks, not deny them this. It builds them bomb shelters. It does not wasted millions in aid on building tunnels to attack a people it hates. It builds and places infrastructure over hate. Not place them in harms way. Not instruct them by their beliefs in their faith to stay when warned to leave.

What you're doing above is called the classical Zionisist Buck Passing.

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20150622_btselem_response_to_un_report

Unacceptably, the only official Israeli response to the commission’s grave findings has been to deny the allegations and pass the buck. Israel’s investigations of the operation to date have served solely to whitewash suspected wrongdoings, and most governmental efforts have been devoted to deflecting accusations and disseminating propaganda. A healthy society should face the criticism and thoroughly investigate the allegations of serious human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.

Incorrect.

Again I do not deny Israel could have committed war crimes.
In fact I even posted a thread on where I think they have.


http://www.newsfixboard.com/t10212-operation-hannibal


What I did was point out problems with how you and others Zack do as you did just now.
You ignored every point made and then made the most absurd claim about Zionism, which I do not support.

That is what is called a huge fail.

So you need to stop avoiding the points.

I do not deny Israel maybe and in one scenario is guilty of war crimes.
So why is it you avoid talking about Hamas and the points I raised?

You are a poor apologist and no nothing about combat in regards to both tactics and strategy.
I studied Military History.

So agin lets do this one point at a time.

Why does Hamas build tunnels and not allow many civilians to shelter their when in conflict with Israel?
Why is it they are know to fir weapons in civilian areas?

Lets start with these two points

Fuzzy Zack wrote:Facebook logoTwitter logoPrint
Human shields
Background on Human Shields

Published:  1 Jan 2011
On 6 October 2005, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled that it was illegal for the army to use Palestinian civilians during military actions. The court ruled on a petition submitted by Adalah in the name of B'Tselem and six other human rights organizations in 2002. The petition followed the army's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields since the beginning of the second intifada, primarily during operations carried out in densely populated Palestinian areas, as occurred in Operation Defensive Shield.

The method was the same each time: soldiers picked a civilian at random and forced him to protect them with his body, and do dangerous tasks for them. For example, soldiers have ordered Palestinians to:

enter buildings to check if they are booby-trapped, or to remove the occupants;
remove suspicious objects from roads;
stand inside houses where soldiers set up military positions, so that Palestinians would not fire at them;
and walk in front of soldiers to shield them from gunfire, while the soldiers point a gun to their backs and sometimes fire over their shoulders.
The soldiers in the field did not initiate this practice; rather, the order to use civilians as a means of protection was made by senior army officials.

In August 2002, Nidal Abu Mheisen, a 19-year-old Palestinian from Tubas, was killed by Palestinian gunfire when soldiers forced him to serve as a human shield.

Despite the High Court's decision and army orders given before and after it, security forces continued to use Palestinians as human shields, although the number of cases dropped. In 2007, for example, B'Tselem documented 14 such instances. The organization wrote to the Military Advocate General Corps, demanding an investigation into each of the cases. B'Tselem’s monitoring indicates that a Military Police investigation was opened in 13 of them: in two of the cases, the investigation is continuing; in seven cases, the file was closed; and four were transferred to a military advocate for a decision whether to file charges.

During the course of Operation Cast Lead, which took place in Gaza in January 2009, B'Tselem and other organizations were informed of cases in which soldiers used Palestinians as human shields. In one case, two soldiers were prosecuted for ordering a nine-year-old boy gunpoint to open a bag that they suspected was booby-trapped. The two were given a three-month conditional sentence and demoted from staff sergeant to private.

http://www.btselem.org/human_shields

This is why I laugh in the face of your Zionist propaganda. Peddle your bullshit somewhere else, please

This is why I laugh at people who just read something and not research it and just take it for granted


A poor deflection again, a claim to Zionism.


How paranoid are you Zack?

Okay do you want to see the evidence from the same UN report about human shields or go off your 2011 link?


Do you wanna see how Israel is also commended for saving lives by its military actions in this report?

Shall we start here and debate the points or are you going to be like most novices and just spam like sassy things you do not understand you post?