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Israel Uses Palestinians as Human Shields
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by con10t | January 26, 2009 at 05:06 am
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"It's standard practice for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up the family in a room on the ground floor and use the rest of the house as a military base, as a sniper's position. That is the absolute textbook case of human shields. ... It has been practised by the Israeli army for many years and they are doing it again in Gaza now."
- Donatella Rovera (Source: thefirstspotlight.co.uk, 13 January 2009).
Donatella Rovera is the principal Amnesty International researcher on Israel/Palestinian Occupied Territories.
An interview with one family used as hman shields by Israeli soldiers in Gaza reports:
"A large number of soldiers came into the house and put all of us in one room on the ground floor. They confiscated our mobile phones, and handcuffed and blindfolded the men and older boys. For two days we could not move; they only allowed us to get a bit of food to the children. We knew that another group of relatives had been killed by Israeli soldiers in the house across the road and we were screaming in fear. Eventually, at the end of the second day, they let us go but kept two of the men and threatened to kill them if the Qassam (Hamas’ armed wing) attacked them."
The houses used by the invading Israeli soldiers were trashed, holes blown through walls, threatening grafitti, including images of naked Palestinian women and messages scrawled in Hebrew, one reading: "Next time it will hurt more."
A military xpert, Chris Cobb-Smith, who served in the British army for two decades, backs up the home terror tactic of some Israeli soldiers, stating:
"Gazans have had their houses looted, vandalised and desecrated. As well, the Israeli soldiers have left behind not only mounds of litter and excrement but ammunition and other military equipment. It’s not the behaviour one would expect from a professional army,"
Although the Israeli Army's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields was well known in Israeli legal circles, prompting Israel's Supreme Court to ban the practice in 2005, there are several well-evidenced reports since of Israeli troops forcing Palestinians at gunpoint to enter buildings before them, buildings in which the Israeli soldiers feared militants were present.
Had Israel allowed media and human rights groups into Gaza during their most recent military operation perhaps there would be more video evidence, as was the case in previous incursions on Palestinian lands, where Israel is seen [Video from YouTube embedded] practising their use of Palestinian human shileds for Israeli soldiers.
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at 07:12 on January 26th, 2009
This is Chris Cobbs-Smith:
"But Cobb-Smith's background reveals that he is far from a neutral observer. He runs a business, Chiron Resources, guiding NGOs and the media through conflict zones and performing 'investigations.' One such investigation dismissed the 94-page IDF inquiry into the 2003 death of a British citizen in Rafah, blaming Israel for a 'calculated and cold-blooded murder,' while another helped Amnesty promote the myth of a 'massacre' in Jenin in 2002. A serious discussion of human rights issues in the Gaza conflict requires an unbiased analysis of reliable evidence. Amnesty and Cobb-Smith are incapable of providing this."
at 07:47 on January 26th, 2009
Chris Cobb is most definitely as neutral an observer as any pragmatic idealist can expect.
In fact Cobbs consulting firm Chiron Resources was set up to defend civilians and stop war crime in Kosovo NOT Gaza. His work continues there as well as fighting human rights violations in Nigeria, Macedonia and Israel. I am curious if you think mentioning a corporate name is enough to cast doubt and castigate an individual's character as you do? I would suggest researching Crion Resources, a model job-creating and independent agency for citizen human rights watching and protecting all who are subject to abuse and war crime.
It would seem that 'neutral' to you means full compliance with the propaganda and misinformation, denial and illegal war tactics of the IDF who recently approved white phosphorus and illegal wide dispersion shells on civilians in Gaza.
Massacres which Israel has been accused of are not 'myths' as you claim. Dead bodies are exactly that and Israel in Jenin murdered Palestinians ruthlessly.
In Jenin which you bring up, Israel shot an American peace activist in the face, fatally, and injured another Danish peace activist.
The conservative estimates of the Israel massacre of Palestinians in Jenin (check Wikipedia or BBC) numbers 150, far fewer than the Palestinian media report.
So, 150 Palestinian civilians verifiably massacred by Israel in the United Nations administered camp for displaced and refugee Palestinians at Jenin is a myth?
Your logic of crying 'myth' in the face of fact is exactly that used by some in Iran concerning 20th Century war history. How will you ever imagine being taken seriously, and how can you walk over the graves of all peoples of all nations and faiths and color and age who have been massacred in history?
I dare say you exploit and do not honor the millions of wonderful people put to death in similar actions by the Nazis, the Hutus, the Serbs.
It is time to simply see facts and quit with the 'factoids' and aim to peace and take responsibility or the atrocities Israel commits against Palestinians, civilians and children, with their overwhelming military murder machine.
Communication is the only way forward, and an honest, factual recognition of right from wrong certainly helps that process.
Human rights organizations don't just wander around the world accusing every nation, and they are certainly not able to be prejudged as anti-Semitic or biased. Israel has already the most human rights violations and infractions voted on at the United Nation, numbering 500, the world's top. This alone means that human rights watchers are not as you say non-neutral. There is clear evidence. Look at the child murder by Israel in Gaza. Or would you say those photos are doctored?