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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-sinks-new-low-smearing-slain-children-terrorists">electronicintifada.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel sinks to new low by smearing slain children as "terrorists"</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span> - <span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">15 December 2022</span></span> </p>
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<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2022-12/121222_jenin_aib_00_28.jpg?itok=Fewn1dwT×tamp=1671057262" alt="" title="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261"></span><p><font size="1">Palestinian
mourners attend the funeral of Jana Assaf, 15, after she was shot and
killed in the West Bank city of Jenin, 12 December.</font></p>
<font size="1"><span>APA images</span></font><p>Leave it to innovative Israel to sink to ever-new lows.</p>
<p>It isn’t anything new for the state to smear Palestinians <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/50-hamas-members-claim-does-not-justify-gaza-massacre">killed</a> by its police and military <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-knew-slain-man-smeared-terrorist-was-innocent">as terrorists</a>.
But it seems to be a fresh twist for Israel to try to convince the UN
that most of the Palestinian children slain by its forces had “terror”
ties.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-set-to-show-un-envoy-proof-most-slain-palestinian-minors-had-terror-ties/">According to media reports</a>,
Israeli officials planned to tell Virginia Gamba, the UN special
reporter on children and armed conflict, that Palestinians are
exploiting children who are then killed by its forces.</p>
<p>Gamba was visiting Israel, the West Bank and Gaza ahead of her annual report on the conflict’s impact on children.</p>
<p>“Regarding the Palestinian casualties, Israel will present data
indicating that most teenagers were operatives of the Hamas and Islamic
Jihad terror groups, or engaged in military activity or military-linked
activity,” an unnamed diplomatic source told Israel’s Channel 13.</p>
<p>The gambit is part of Israel’s overall strategy of deflecting its responsibility for Palestinians slain by its forces.</p>
<p>More than 50 Palestinian children have been killed in 2022, according for Defense for Children International-Palestine.</p>
<p>Last year, Israeli forces and armed civilians killed 78 boys and
girls in the West Bank and Gaza, making it the deadliest year for
Palestinian children since 2014.</p>
<p>Israel’s most recent Palestinian child victim is Jana Majdi Issam
Assaf, 15, who was shot while on the roof of her family’s home in the
northern West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Defense for Children International-Palestine <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_shoot_kill_15_year_old_palestinian_girl_in_jenin">said</a> that the girl “sustained two gunshot wounds to her upper chest and one to the right side of her head.”</p>
<p>The rights group added that doctors who examined the child’s body
“alleged the bullet fragments and wounds were consistent with the use of
expanding bullets by the Israeli military.”</p>
<p>Jana was the second Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year.</p>
<p>Last month, Israeli soldiers <a href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_shoot_kill_14_year_old_palestinian_girl_near_ramallah">shot and killed</a>
Fulla Rasmi Abdulaziz Mallouh, 14, in the town of Beitunia near
Ramallah. The girl was in the passenger seat of a car that was fired
upon by soldiers, hitting Fulla in the head and chest.</p>
<h2>Chief salutes killers</h2>
<p>In the case of Jana, the girl killed in Jenin on Sunday, Amir Cohen, the chief of Israel’s Border Police, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/border-police-chief-troops-who-mistakenly-killed-teen-girl-in-jenin-acted-correctly/">saluted the officers who shot her</a>.</p>
<p>During a military ceremony on Wednesday, Cohen said “our fighters
acted morally, with values, with courage, with determination and saved
lives.”</p>
<p>The Israeli military has said that it was likely that one of its snipers “accidentally” shot the girl.</p>
<p>Israel has made the same claim that a soldier “unintentionally” killed Al Jazeera correspondent <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/shireen-abu-akleh">Shireen Abu Akleh</a> in Jenin during May, despite all evidence and witness testimony suggesting that she was <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-intended-kill-shireen-abu-akleh-probe">intentionally targeted</a>.</p>
<p>But for Israel, the facts surrounding the death of a Palestinian at
the hands of its forces do not matter. Ultimately, Palestinian civilians
killed by the Israeli military are “mistakes” to be dealt with as a
public relations problem and nothing more.</p>
<h2>Denied entry</h2>
<p>That is probably why Israel has allowed Virginia Gamba, the UN
special reporter, into the country while it denies visas to other human
rights investigators and researchers.</p>
<p>If Israel’s spin doctors didn’t see some opportunity in her visit, it is unlikely that the state would allow her access.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Israel <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-mandated-rights-inquiry-rebukes-israel-seeking-complete-control-2022-06-07/">denied entry</a>
to investigators with an independent commission of inquiry set up by
the UN Human Rights Council to examine Israel’s system of oppression as a
whole.</p>
<p>Michael Lynk, the former UN special reporter on the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza, was <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-19">denied entry</a> by Israel during his tenure.</p>
<p>Israel now appears to have <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-724023">banned</a> Lynk’s successor, Francesca Albanese, and a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/appalled-us-israel-jewish-groups-slam-un-official-for-past-antisemitic-rhetoric/">smear campaign</a> intended to destroy her reputation and credibility is currently underway.
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<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The unprecedented slanderous & malicious attack on <a href="https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FranceskAlbs</a>
based on old misrepresented statements only aim at silencing her now
& criticism of Israel’s apartheid regime & its international
crimes committed against the Palestinian people!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeWillNotBeSilenced?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeWillNotBeSilenced</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EndImpunity?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EndImpunity</a></p>— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) <a href="https://twitter.com/alhaq_org/status/1603331563240001544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Thank you to those
who have expressed their solidarity after yet another
politically-motivated attack against my mandate. The aim is to obscure
the oppressive reality I am mandated to report on. I will not let anyone
define who I am and what I stand for. <a href="https://t.co/8QVgiBXD46">pic.twitter.com/8QVgiBXD46</a></p>— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) <a href="https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1603394239236378630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
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And the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories says that Israeli
authorities have delayed issuing new visas for new staff.
<p>Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/12/middleeast/israel-un-staff-visas-mime-intl/index.html">said</a> that he recommended freezing the visa applications of new recruits to the monitoring group.</p>
<p>“They shouldn’t come in because there’s no reason that UN staffers
that lie and create a false picture of the Palestinian narrative at the
Security Council, there’s no reason they should be on such a stage from
within Israel,” Erdan said during an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.</p>
<p>Last year, Israel designated several prominent Palestinian civil society groups as “terrorist” organizations and recently <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-army-shuts-down-prominent-palestinian-rights-groups">raided</a> their offices.</p>
<p>And now Miki Zohar, a lawmaker with Likud – the party of incoming
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu – is seeking to outlaw the
recording of on-duty soldiers because it harms Israel’s image.
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<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Future coalition member <a href="https://twitter.com/zoharm7?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@zoharm7</a> supports passing a law outlawing photographing soldiers on duty because organizations like <a href="https://twitter.com/btselem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@btselem</a> is doing "bad PR" for Israel. MK Zohar: Documenting crimes isn't bad PR; the crimes themselves are. <a href="https://t.co/iMe6soLi5h">https://t.co/iMe6soLi5h</a></p>— Eitan Nechin (@Etanetan23) <a href="https://twitter.com/Etanetan23/status/1600905916743925760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote><div dir="ltr" lang="en"><p>MK Miki Zohar,
who wants to ban the filming of on-duty Israeli soldiers, says he would
have "preferred that the Elor Azaria incident was not filmed — it did
great harm to Israel. <a href="https://twitter.com/btselem?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@btselem</a>'s footage does harm to Israel."</p><p>ICYMI: Azaria shot an incapacitated Palestinian in the head <a href="https://t.co/stkVnnf2Ne">https://t.co/stkVnnf2Ne</a></p></div>— Edo Konrad (@edokonrad) <a href="https://twitter.com/edokonrad/status/1600894911976722432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
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For Israel, if there is no evidence for its crimes, then all of its PR
problems will simply go away – no matter how many Palestinian men, women
and children are killed. <h3>
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