Written February 1, 2009

The overarching themes among apologists for Israeli atrocities include: (i) Whatever the Israeli government claims it is correct despite the lack of independent and corroborated evidence, and (ii) Israel as a whole can do nothing wrong but individuals can make mistakes. Thus, when the entire world expresses disgust over the number of civilian casualties, it must have been Hamas's or Hezbollah's fault but this claim is not supported by the evidential record.

When it comes to the claim that Hamas uses human shields (thus, explaining away the majority of civilian casualties), the closest thing that can come to a condemnation of Hamas in the recent conflict is Amnesty International:

“Both Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen are continuing to fire at each other from areas close to civilian homes, endangering their inhabitants.”

While Amnesty blames Hamas and the Israeli army for firing at each other in close proximity to civilians, the bulk of the January 8/09 press release was aimed primarily at Israel.

“Israeli forces have bombed civilian homes and other buildings, arguing that they had been used as cover by gunmen firing at Israeli targets, although Palestinian fighters usually vacate the areas as soon as they have fired.”

This analysis has been corroborated by every mainstream human rights organization on the field in Gaza. The Amnesty International report then goes into a background of Israel’s long history of using Palestinian civilians as human shields in the conflict.

“The practice by Israeli soldiers of taking over Palestinian civilians’ homes and holding their inhabitants as human shields while using the house as a shooting position has been very common in the past eight years both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank.” [1]

The International Committee of the Red Cross put out a similar condemnation of Israel’s use of “Early Warning Procedures” that enables the IDF to use the assistance of civilian volunteers to gain access to homes. (Download the report here)

It is true that the continued firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel is a criminal act and politically stupid – we have the moral obligation to stop any ideological support for them as a result. Nevertheless, despite the insistence of apologists, these attacks did not come out of a vacuum. They are a response to the well-documented and long history of crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. You only need to look at the United Nations, the World Court, International Court of Justice and every single human rights/humanitarian organization out there to corroborate the crimes of illegal occupation. When it comes to the Israeli press, they are far more honest in their analysis. Even if Israel’s claim of Hamas using human shields is taken at face value, it is difficult to see where else the civilian population can go in the densely populated Gaza.

Israel knowingly puts its own civilians in danger all the time, knowing there will be reprisals, when it builds its illegal settlements on private Palestinian lands. On January 1/09, Ha’aretz got a hold of an internal Defense Ministry database detailing all the illegal construction in the occupied territories. This official database is the most comprehensive one that is currently in existence.

“An analysis of the data reveals that, in the vast majority of the settlements - about 75 percent - construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued. The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents … The data, it should be stressed, do not refer only to the illegal outposts (information about which was included in the well-known report authored by attorney Talia Sasson and published in March 2005), but to the very heart of the settlement enterprise.” [2]

Of course, this is just one small sample of the historical record.

In response to Hamas’s crimes, while we have the moral obligation to condemn them, no one has the moral ground to commit even worst terror which is what Israel is doing. The claim that Hamas uses human shields can be true or not but this still offers zeros justification for Israel’s actions when it bombs universities, hospitals, UN buildings and ambulances. All of these are well-documented, not by Hamas, but by highly credible independent organizations.

On March 15/07, Human Rights Watch demanded that:

“The Israeli army should immediately cease deliberately endangering Palestinian civilians by forcing them to assist military operations … During recent military operations in the Old City of Nablus, Israeli soldiers forced at least three Palestinians at gun point, two of them children, to assist in searching apartments for suspects.” [3]

The High Court of Justice in Israel ruled that it was illegal for IDF to use civilians to gain access to other homes (of “neighbors”) but HRW and other organizations have documented several cases in which the tactic was still continually used during the second half of the 2006 Gaza Strip incursion.

On September 5/07, Human Rights Watch put out a 249-page report blaming Israel’s indiscriminate bombings to be the main cause of “most of the approximately 900 deaths in Lebanon during the July-August 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah” in which 500 deaths were investigated. [4] It was indiscriminate bombings, not the claim that Hezbollah used human shields.

All of these have been corroborated with B’Tselem, the human rights organization based in Israel, and other organizations which are anything but “partisan” as they routinely dish out condemnations toward Hamas as well. Despite criticizing Hamas, all of them put the bulk of the blame on Israel as the atrocities they are committing are far worst and their occupation is recognized to be the root of the conflict.

Again, even when taken at face value, the claim of Hamas is using human shields offers no justification for Israeli terrorism. The recent attacks on Gaza (December 2008-January 2009) shows exactly that. To mention one example, Amnesty International reports on January 28/09 that Israel has been attacking ambulance workers in Gaza:

“Emergency medical rescue workers, including doctors, paramedics and ambulance drivers, have repeatedly come under fire from Israeli forces in the Gaza conflict while carrying out their duties. At least seven of them have been killed and more than 20 injured while transporting or attempting to collect the wounded and the dead.” [5]

The Red Cross put out similar condemnations when it lambasted Israel for “unacceptable” delays in letting in rescue workers to tend to injured civilians citing some horrific examples. [6]

According to Human Rights Watch in a January 16/09 press release:

“The World Health Organization (WHO) told Human Rights Watch that Israeli shells had struck the al-Quds hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, setting it on fire. The fire was extinguished, but about 100 patients had to be evacuated. Between 150 and 500 patients were in the hospital at the time, WHO said.” [7]

As can be clearly seen from the record (a small snippet of it), Israel uses human shields all the time. Even if we take Israeli propaganda at face value, what justification does it offer for its attacks? What justification do "human shields" have for subsidizing illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories and putting Israeli civilians in danger, knowing quite well that the settlements and refusal to withdraw is the root of the conflict? The answer to all of these is absolutely nothing.

There is a right to self-defense when there are no other choices, but the alternative is clear and it has been for a long time: accept the internationally recognized borders, peace treaty and the international consensus. In particular, the widely accepted interpretation of U.N. Resolution 242 (even by its founders): the dismantling of the settlements, withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, breaking down the apartheid wall and justly settling the “Right of Return” or compensation of Palestinian refugees.

The alternative is taking the convenient path of continuing the slaughter of innocent civilians in absolute delight and calling everyone anti-semitic for criticizing Israel.

In the spirit of resistance,
Critical Mood

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[1] Amnesty International, “Gaza Civilians Endangered by the Military Tactics of Both Sides”, January 8/09. Read here.

[2] Uri Blau, “Secret Israeli database reveals full extent of illegal settlement”, January 1/09. Read here.

[3] Human Rights Watch, “Israel: Stop Forcing Civilians to Assist Military Operations”, March 15/07. Read here.

[4] Human Rights Watch, “Why They Died”, September 5/07. Read here.

[5] Amnesty International, “Attacks On Ambulance Workers in Gaza”, January 28/09. Read here.

[6] Mark Tran, “Red Cross criticises Israel for blacking access to Gaza injured”, January 8/09. Read here.

[7] Human Rights Watch, “Israel: Stop Shelling Crowded Gaza City: Effect of 155mm Artillery Indiscriminate in Populated Areas”, January 16/09. Read here.