[News] Israel uses Palestinians as human shields but US lawmakers condemn Hamas

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel uses Palestinians as human shields but US lawmakers condemn Hamas

Submitted by Rania Khalek on Thu, 07/31/2014 - 09:01
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israel-uses-palestinians-human-shields-us-lawmakers-condemn-hamas*

Both houses of the US Congress are considering passing a resolution that 
condemns Hamas for using human shields despite not having any evidence 
to prove Hamas is employing this tactic.

Over the last 22 days, the Israeli army has deliberately bombed family 
homes, UN shelters, schools, places of worship, hospitals, water 
infrastructure and more, killing over 1,300 Palestinians, 80 percent of 
whom have been civilians, including nearly 300 children.

In propaganda echoed by the US State Department 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/us-state-department-blames-hamas-israels-murder-gaza-children>, 
the Israeli government has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using women 
and children as human shields to protect its weapons and rocket 
launchers, forcing Israel to massacre innocent Palestinians.

The only evidence Israel has provided for this unsubstantiated 
accusation is cartoon sketches 
<https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/494061305750228992>.

But even /The New York Times/ has conceded that "There is no evidence 
<http://http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/world/middleeast/israel-says-hamas-is-using-civilians-as-shields-in-gaza.html?_r=0> 
that Hamas and other militants force civilians to stay in areas that are 
under attack."

The BBC's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, similarly declared, "I saw 
no evidence 
<http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/07/jeremy-bowens-gaza-notebook-i-saw-no-evidence-hamas-using-palestinians-human> 
during my week in Gaza of Israel's accusation that Hamas uses 
Palestinians as human shields."

But Israel's pathetic drawings 
<https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/493588137294057473> are all 
the evidence US elected officials need to absolve Israel of 
responsiblity for war crimes.


    Double standards

In the House of Representatives, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, 
introduced Resolution 107 
<https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hconres107/text> on 16 July, 
"Denouncing the use of civilians as human shields by Hamas and other 
terrorist organizations in violation of international humanitarian law." 
With 76 co-sponsors --- 47 Republicans and 29 Democrats --- the bill is 
awaiting consideration in the House's foreign affairs committee.

On 24 July, an identical resolution was introduced in the Senate 
<https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/sconres41/text> by Ted Cruz, 
a Republican,  and co-sponsored by Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat.

Like the House bill, the Senate version slams Hamas for "placing its 
underground tunnel network and missile batteries in densely populated 
areas, and in and around schools, hospitals, and mosques" and "calls on 
the international community to recognize the grave breaches of 
international law committed by Hamas in using human shields."

Besides ignoring the fact that all of Gaza is densely populated, this 
accusation fails to address that Israel also places its military command 
centers among civilian populations, most notoriously HaKirya, the 
Israeli army headquarters, which is located in the heart of densely 
populated Tel Aviv 
<http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/does-the-presence-of-the-idf-s-hq-in-tel-aviv-endanger-the-city-s-population.premium-1.435042>, 
surrounded by malls, museums, hospitals, schools and so on.

Perhaps one day Israel will be held to the same standards as Hamas by US 
elected officials, but for now it appears the "most moral army in the 
world" can do as it pleases.

The bill goes on to condemn some 2,000 rockets fired by Hamas at Israel 
but makes no mention of the more than 3,000 tons of precision-guided 
explosives 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/25/us-mideast-gaza-reconstruction-idUSKBN0FU17O20140725> that 
Israel deliberately dropped on Gaza's civilian population and 
infrastructure in the first 15 days of this onslaught.


    Praising Israeli "warnings"

Next, the bill praises Israel for warning Palestinians in advance with 
leaflets and text messages before obliterating their neighborhoods, 
though it neglects to note that the people of Gaza have nowhere safe to 
evacuate to, given that they are prevented from leaving the tiny coastal 
enclave, where nothing, not even hospitals, is off limits for Israeli 
bombs.

Still, the bill declares that Israel "goes to extraordinary lengths to 
target only terrorist actors," which suggests that the bill's authors 
believe hospitals, playgrounds, family homes and UN schools sheltering 
the displaced (at least six have been shelled by Israel) qualify as 
"terrorist" targets.

Most outrageously, the bill equates Hamas with al-Qaeda and the Islamic 
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Hamas is the Palestinian political party that was democratically elected 
in 2006 to govern the occupied West Bank and Gaza. It also happens to 
have a military wing engaged in armed resistance against the State of 
Israel, a state that has been ethnically cleansing Palestinians from 
their indigenous lands for nearly seventy years, in what amounts to 
"incremental 
<http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12155> 
genocide 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-incremental-genocide-gaza-ghetto/13562>," 
according to the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe.

Likening Hamas' armed resistance to a rogue sectarian militia that is 
slaughtering civilians in Syria and Iraq is utterly absurd and 
irresponsible propaganda that only the most extreme of Israel's 
supporters are spreading 
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/21/opinion/oren-hamas-media-strategy/>.


    Israel should be condemned

Ironically, it is Israel that has a well-documented history of using 
Palestinian civilians, including children, as human shields. In what is 
referred to as "the neighbor procedure 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/b-tselem-idf-using-neighbor-procedure-despite-court-order-1.28411>", 
Israeli soldiers force Palestinian civilians to approach armed suspects 
and homes potentially rigged with explosives to protect the lives of 
soldiers.

Israel was condemned by the United Nations as recently as last year for 
its "continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/un-report-accuses-israeli-forces-of-using-palestinian-children-as-human-shields-abusing-children-in-custody/> 
and informants."

More recently, Palestinian civilians have accused Israeli forces of 
using them as human shields in the Khuzaa neighborhood 
<http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/survivors-massacre-palestinians.html> in 
Gaza, which has been the site of heavy shelling.

If anyone should be condemned for using human shields, it is clearly 
Israel.

Nevertheless, the US Senate has already unanimously passed two 
<http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/213746-senate-passes-resolution-supporting-israel> 
resolutions 
<http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/212617-senate-passes-resolution-in-support-of-israel> 
reaffirming America's unconditional support for Israel's right to carry 
out massacres in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the US was the only nation to vote against 
<http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/against-establishing-inquiry.html> a 
United Nations inquiry into possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

In other words, don't be suprised if the Senate resolution, currently 
making its way through the Senate's foreign relations committee, passes 
without a word of dissent.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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