Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Gaza Platform

Showing posts with label Gaza Platform. Show all posts

Thursday, July 21, 2016

B'Tselem shows it is much more honest than HRW, but not quite honest enough

B'Tselem just released its own slick website to show detailed statistics behind every single death during Operation Protective Edge two years ago.

This mirrors Amnesty International's similar website which is filled with absolute lies, as I've documented exhaustively.

To its credit, and in contrast with Amnesty, B'Tselem actually made attempts to be accurate. There was serious research behind this initiative.

The research was still biased. For example, many or all of those who were killed in a beach cafe bombing were members of the Abu Rish Brigades of Fatah, but B'Tselem identifies them all as "did not participate in hostilities," which implies that they were civilian without B'Tselem saying so.

The bottom line is that B'Tselem identifies about one third of those killed as having participated in hostilities, with another 46 of those killed not having been determined if they were or not.

The Meir Amit Intelligence Center had identified (at last count) about 48% of those that they counted as being militants, but they had a lot more that had not been determined as of their last report.

The statistic I would like to see is the percentage of those killed who were either terrorists or who were killed during the targeting of legitimate military targets. That number would show how many were killed for no apparent reason which is really what the "human rights" NGOs are trying to imply was the case with the majority. But as we have seen, many of those killed were being used as human shields by Hamas or other groups.

B'Tselem's data should be enough to get a good idea of that number; unfortunately it isn't visible in database format so such a task would be arduous. (Anyone who wants to volunteer to work on that, please contact me!)

I looked at the death of a two-year old child, the first infant to be killed during the war:

Muhammad Khalaf 'Awad a-Nawasrah. 2 years old, resident of al-Maghazi R.C., Deir al-Balah district. Killed on 09 Jul 2014, in al-Maghazi R.C., Deir al-Balah district, by gunfire from an aircraft. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed at home with his family.

And who was his uncle?

Salah 'Awad Hussein a-Nawasrah. 22 years old, resident of al-Maghazi R.C., Deir al-Balah district. Killed on 09 Jul 2014, in al-Maghazi R.C., Deir al-Balah district, by gunfire from an aircraft. Participated in hostilities, member of the military wing of Hamas. Additional information: Killed at home with his wife and his two nephews.

So a woman and two children were killed because they were effectively used as human shields by a Hamas terrorist. Their deaths are regrettable - but fully justified under the Geneva Conventions assuming that he was an important enough target. That is a judgment call based on what a reasonable military commander would choose based on the best information he or she has at the time.

Even if B'Tselem's statistics were 100% correct, and I don't think they are, I believe that a little digging would show that the vast majority of civilians killed in Gaza died because they were in proximity to terrorist targets - the victim of Hamas' policy of using the civilians of Gaza as human shields.

That is not a statistic that B'Tselem would want to publicize because their goal is to demonize Israel, not to show that it wages war against terrorists in a way that is compliant with international law.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

.@Amnesty director incredulous that Arab "witnesses" might lie

A Twitter thread between Amnesty Middle East Director Philip Luther and an apparent EoZ fan:

Luther didn't answer about the amazing coincidence.

But in the end, Luther cannot spot Palestinian lies because he is part of an organization that lies all the time. I tweeted to him one provable lie showing that Amnesty's Gaza Platform inflated the number of dead Gaza civilians by 200 even if you accept UN figures:

.@philipluther @Amnesty lies, says at least 1665 civilians killed in Gaza 2014, UN(!) says 1462. (Truth is lower.) pic.twitter.com/LQVZTMUeeO
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) October 30, 2015

What is amazing is that the congenital anti-Israel UN showed far more intellectual honesty than Amnesty.

In August 2014, the UN claimed a virtually identical number of civilian victims as Amnesty does now, 1,666. In the months since then they actually discovered 200 "civilians" were really terrorists and they modified their statistics accordingly. The real numbers are far lower still, as we've seen from the Meir Amit Center, but at least the UN showed some amount of caring about the truth.

Amnesty, many months later, deliberately used the initial and provably wrong data to build an entire website dedicated to demonizing Israel.

They know very well that they were lying. They know very well that their "researchers" were using garbage data. They've read my many articles about it. And Amnesty has made the conscious decision to allow the lies to remain on their website rather than correct it as they said they would.

So it is very rich that Amnesty, an organization that deliberately chooses not to correct clear lies, is aghast that anyone can accuse Palestinian Arab "eyewitneses" to be lying.

After all, these "witnesses" are saying exactly what Amnesty wants them to say, so they must be reliable, right?

This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 11 years and over 22,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Amnesty has no idea why Israel might have bombed this house.

Amnesty is still posting about year-ago individual events that they claim shows Israeli war crimes, and I keep debunking them.

The latest:

Israeli air strike hit Joudeh family in their garden. 4 children & mother killed. http://t.co/gcEFrcDfMc #50days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/f6FM4eG1Eo
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 24, 2015

Their proof comes from PCHR and Al Mezan, the latter of which said (#3569 on Gaza Platform):

Israeli military drones fired at least one (1) missile at approximately 16:15 on Sunday evening 24/08/2014 at the home of Isam Mustafa Gouda Goud [Joudeh], located near the Shouri Mosque in Tal al-Zaatar in Jabalya in GNG, killing his wife Rawya Ibrahim Mohamed Mohamed Gouda (43) and his children: Tasneem (14), Raghd (12), Mohamed(8) and Usamama (6) injuring a child Thae’r (13) with serious injuries to different parts of his body causing the amputation of his right leg. ... The centers researcher, Isam Gouda reported that the family were targeted as they sat in their garden, while the father was inside the house when he heard a loud whistle and saw smoke and dust filling the garden... Issam cannot find a reason as to why he and his family were targeted by the planes.

No militants killed, only women and children. Sounds pretty bad for the IDF.

Until you Google the husband/father, Éssam Mustafa Jouda.(عصام مصطفى جودة) The man who said there was no possible reason to attack his home.

Al Watan Voice talks about the deaths of his wife and four sons.

It also says that Essam is a fighter for the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades of Fatah. His nom de guerre is Abu Mustafa.

A similar article is here, with this poster commemorating the event.

Can you believe that Essam lied to Al Mezan and told them that he was not a terrorist?

Can you believe that PCHR and Al Mezan didn't report this information even though it was available only two days after the attack?

Can you believe that Electronic Intifada had an extensive interview with the militant without mentioning this fact that was published the day before their sob story?

Can you believe that Amnesty once again refuses to blame Gaza militants for using their families as human shields?

Can you believe that Amnesty's record of highlighting what they consider Israeli war crimes is so poor that for nearly every example they've tweeted that claimed or implied unnecessary Israeli attacks, I have been able to find a valid military target?

The answers are of course all "yes." It is very believable that Amnesty and PCHR and Al Mezan (and Electronic Intifada) work overtime to hide evidence of any militant activity in Gaza in their single-minded goal of demonizing Israel. My series on the Gaza Platform proves this beyond any reasonable doubt.

Amnesty's own research in Gaza is just as bad as their sources

We are almost finished with the one-year anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, but amnesty International still has a few lies up its sleeve.

It tweeted:

#DeirAlBalah: family home bombed. 8 civilians killed. 2 children found on roof: http://t.co/A9ZPlxmS0E #50Days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/SYiBtu9dRl
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 20, 2015

Soon afterwards, Amnesty-USA-Israel/OPT tweeted this:

20 Aug: #DeirAlBalah Al Louh family HOME bombed. 8 civilians killed; 4 children http://t.co/6E0OsxuGzd #50Days4Justice...
— AIUSA Israel/OPT/PA (@IOTPA) August 20, 2015

When you check out this incident in Amnesty's Gaza Platform, you see that unlike most incidents, this is one that Amnesty investigated themselves, rather than copying from PCHR and Al Mezan.

Here's how they describe it:

On Wednesday 20 August 2014, at approximately 5am, an Israeli aircraft dropped a large aerial bomb on the al-Louh family’s two-storey home in the al-Hikr neighbourhood in southern Deir al-Balah. The home of Ra’fat Mustafa Mahmoud al-Louh and his family was completely destroyed and the adjacent home of his father, Mustafa Mahmoud al-Louh, was severely damaged. The two houses are separated by a narrow walkway only a couple of metres wide and share a zinc roof. Ra’fat al-Louh, his heavily pregnant wife, Nabeela Eid al-Louh, and their three children, Mustafa, Maysara and Farah, were all killed in the attack. Ra’fat’s younger brother, Ahmad, who worked with him selling vegetables and was staying in his home, was also killed in the attack. Another brother, Mohammad, was killed when the asbestos roof and walls collapsed on him as he was sleeping in his bedroom in the adjacent house of his father, Mustafa Mahmoud al-Louh, who, along with another son, Mu’min, and his daughter Wafa’ sustained serious injuries. Iman Yunis al-Louh, 18, a niece of Ra’fat’s, died the following day of the injuries she sustained in the attack.

...All witnesses who gave statements said that none of the family members was involved with armed groups.

Ra’fat’s brother Mu’min al-Louh said: “Earlier Ra’fat had gone out with a torch to investigate a rocket that he thought had gone up from the olive fields east of our house. He thought a rocket had fallen on the house. They probably thought that Ra’fat had shot the rocket from the field and thought he was from the resistance.”

... The names of the killed family members are mentioned as “civilians” in the news reporting on the websites of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades.

So Amnesty investigated - they sent out a field worker, they interviewed family members and they all said that there were no members of militant groups in the family, and Amnesty looked at the terror websites at some point and saw that the casualties were listed as "civilian."

It took me literally one minute to Google the name of Mohammed Mustafa al-Louh, and I saw this "martyr's poster" on a fan page that was put up for him.

The "fans" didn't put up his photo with the gun in August. They waited until October 3. Hamas themselves hid many of their members as "mujahideen" for several weeks after the fighting.

But his family members were all buried in Hamas flags, indicating a connection between the family and Hamas. Mohammed was buried wearing a Hamas headband..

And Amnesty documented elsewhere in that same report that sometimes family members lie. (The Al Bayoumi family swore that no one on their building jihadists, bur neighbors said that there were four terrorists who had a command center there.)

Now, how come I could find this in no time and Amnesty could not do something as simple as Googling the Arabic name of the dead who were of military age?

Because Amnesty's "research" is limited to confirming their existing biases, not honestly uncovering the truth.

It is an astonishing coincidence that for practically every example of family houses bombed that Amnesty tweeted, I found at least one militant among the dead. What are the odds that this could happen when Amnesty maintains that Israel's attacks were random and indiscriminate?

Proven liars at Amnesty say my research is not credible without pointing out a single error

An EoZ reader wrote to Amnesty International with a series of questions. An excerpt:

I can see that the information provided in the [Gaza] platform has been collected from Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and yourselves. Could you not at least have pretended to be in any way balanced by providing input from the most left-leaning Israeli groups such as B'tselem when putting this data together? If you really had wished to take an impartial look at these incidents, you could have also included data from the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre who have looked through various war crimes allegations in Gaza last year and provided a different version of events to what Al Mezan and the PCHR have claimed. I must also refer you to the Elder of Ziyon blog which has consistently highlighted claims of war crimes on “innocent civilians” (many included in the platform) where it is known that terrorists were present at that location and time. Here are some of these documented cases:

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/todays-amnesty-deceptions-and-lies.html
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/bashing-israel-amnesty-has-app-for-that.html
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/amnestys-true-colors-revealed-with-fake.html
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/amnestys-blood-libel-against-idf.html#.VaLdTNJVhBc
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/another-lie-by-amnesty-international.html

In short my questions are:
1) Why has Amnesty decided to spend so much time and resources focusing on the Jewish state, but are unable to pass a resolution focussing on combating antisemitism in the UK?
2) Why is Israel implicated by yourselves as having systematically committed violations without any conclusive evidence?
3) Why is Hamas not mentioned at all in your press release here?: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/07/launch-of-innovative-digital-tool-gaza/
4) Why have you based the platform only on information from Palestinian groups who cannot be trusted to reflect the full picture of what happened?

I think I already have the answer, but I would be only to happy to have a response from you with your answer.

Looking forward to your response.

Here was some of their response (sent a couple of weeks ago):

Our latest report that you have seen documents Israeli attacks last year that caused huge loss of civilian life and destruction of civilian infrastructure.

A further report is due to be issued tomorrow on intensive attacks on Rafah, in the South of the Gaza strip, from 1-4 August last year, in which 135 Palestinian civilians including 75 children were killed, during a massive bombardment of civilian areas following the capture of an Israeli soldier.

Amnesty's findings are in accordance with those of other human rights organisations, including B'Tselem, and I'm not sure why you would quote B'Tselem as if their findings were different from ours. B'Tselem's findings on Israeli violations are very much in line with our own, eg see here: http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/gaza_201407_operation

We would not deem elderofziyon a credible source.

Amnesty's response did not address the research done by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre which exhaustively documented hundreds of terrorists, many of which Amnesty's Gaza Platform called "civilian." The UNHRC quoted the Meir Amit Center a number of times in their report but apparently it is too unreliable for Amnesty.

B'Tselem also noticed militants that Amnesty pretended didn't exist. I documented one, Ahmad Sahmoud, here, Although the Gaza Platform did count him as a militant, Amnesty quoted family members as saying that there were no militants in the area without pointing out that they were lying - and Amnesty knew they were lying.

But there are other examples of B'Tselem being more honest than Amnesty:

Amnesty says Amjad Zaher Moussa Hamdan was a civilian. B'Tselem reported he was a militant. (GP event 1190)
Amnesty says that Mohammed Mahmoud al-Maqadma was a civilian. B'Tselem knew he was a militant. (GP event 2264.)
Amnesty said that Yazid al Batsh was a civilian. B'Tselem reported him as a militant. (GP event 1619.) Six other from that family were also terrorists, as I have shown.
Amnesty said Wissam 'Abdul Raziq al-Ghannam was a civilian,. B'Tselem knew he was a militant. (GP event 1405.)
Amnesty says Ashraf Mahmoud Al Astal was a civilian. B'Tselem knows he was a terrorist. (GP event 2584.)

(There were a couple of others that B'Tselem identified that I couldn't find immediately in Amnesty's Gaza Platform.)

So the letter writer was right - Amnesty ignored even B'Tselem's reports that shows some of their "civilians" were terrorists.

All of this information was published by B'Tselem over a year ago. Amnesty's researchers did not deem it important enough to incorporate into their Gaza Platform.

Now, Amnesty's dismissal of my research is interesting. In order for them to say I'm not credible, they must have read my research and pretended that my facts, all with supporting evidence in the form of links to source materials in militant websites or videos, are not true.

This proves that Amnesty is familiar with my articles and cannot argue with them. They cannot find any fault in my facts. So they try to discredit me without giving an iota of proof.

This letter proves that Amnesty is not interested in the truth, and that they will defend their lies even when they know that they are lying..

I've proven that Amnesty is not credible with transparent research that anyone can check. They call me non-credible without a single example..

Now a new clock is ticking. Will Amnesty correct the Gaza Platform for the five people I just documented that B'Tselem identified as terrorists? After all, Amnesty-USA claims that they would correct any errors. Sure it's been a week since I sent some to them, but maybe photos of terrorists with RPGs and uniforms isn't enough proof for Amnesty. But surely B'Tselem's research should be enough to force them to correct their platform, right?

We'll see.

The letter writer followed up pointing out how poor Amnesty's answer was and how my facts were backed up by easily verified facts. He never received a response.

(h/t RS)

Amnesty-USA tells a whopper

I just found out about a specific Amnesty-USA Twitter account dedicated to nothing besides Israel and the the "occupied Palestinian territories."

Amnesty International USA team on Israel/OPT/State of Palestine: Edith Garwood, Country Specialist, and Alicia Koutsoulieris, Case Coordinator.

When Amnesty came out with the Gaza Platform, this Twitter exchange occurred between Yitzchak Goodman and AI-USA:

This is as baldfaced a lie as is possible, since I documented many "civilians" in Amnesty's Gaza Platform who weren't civilian. Such as Zakariya Alaa Subhi al-Batsh and six of his relatives in the same house, all of whom were militants and all of whom Amnesty called civilian:

Or Ibrahim Jamal Nasser, reported by Amnesty to be a 13-year old boy:

But maybe AIUSA just wasn't aware of these people. So I tweeted them last night:

OK, @IOTPA, here's one. Let me know when you correct it. Clock starts now. @yitzgood @amnesty pic.twitter.com/zDd77FrrIc
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) August 12, 2015

And here are a couple more to add to their list of corrections that must be made that I took from the Meir Amit Center that I verified the Gaza Platform calls "civilian.":

Hey, Amnesty says that they correct errors. Let's see if they are telling the truth.

Even though I proved that they count fewer terrorists killed than even Hamas does.

Amnesty's Twitter obsession with Israel by the numbers

Yesterday I tweeted:

46 of @AmnestyOnline's last 100 tweets were about last year's Gaza war, overwhelming majority anti-Israel. Priorities.http://t.co/vmVOASrcLG
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) August 5, 2015

That is quite an obsession with a year-old war.

And Amnesty's comparative social media silence on Yemen, Syria and other areas is not only telling, but chilling.

Although a few of the tweets mentioned Hamas rockets and execution of "collaborators," the vast majority of Amnesty's Gaza anniversary tweets were against Israel. None of the tweets about Hamas linked to any relevant stories - on the contrary, they linked to the Gaza Platform that does not have a single episode of Hamas violence mentioned among several thousand anti-Israel items in its database.

I sent a series of tweets to an Amnesty-UK's Kristyan Benedict when he said he had nothing to apologize for by retweeting Hamas:

Hillel Neuer ‏@HillelNeuer 17 hours ago

.@KreaseChan If you believe you're justified in retweeting a terrorist org, say so. Otherwise, please apologize.

kristyan benedict @KreaseChan

I'll post you a dictionary @HillelNeuer - look up 'dictionary' in a dictionary if you don't know what one is.
kristyan benedict ‏@KreaseChan 17 hours ago

There is increasing evidence of Israel's war crimes & accountability is certainly needed. Nothing for me to apologize for x @HillelNeuer
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 15 hours ago

Actually, @KreaseChan, there is a lot for @AmnestyOnline to apologize for http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/search/label/Gaza%20Platform … But you won't address them @HillelNeuer ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago
So, @KreaseChan, why does the Gaza Platform ignore all research done by the Meir Amit Center? http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/07/even-more-bias-revealed-in-amnestys.html … @amnesty @HillelNeuer
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

So, @KreaseChan, why does @amnestyonline use a researcher who admires airplane hijackers? http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/07/amnesty-researcher-loves-terrorists.html … @HillelNeuer
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

So, @KreaseChan, why does @amnestyonline call terrorists "civilians" in Gaza Platform? http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/07/todays-amnesty-deceptions-and-lies.html … @HillelNeuer
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

You, @KreaseChan, have the audacity to say you have nothing to apologize for? How about answering my points?@amnestyonline @HillelNeuer

Of course, Amnesty has been studiously ignoring all of my findings about how false and deceptive their tweets and articles have been.

Because they know that they cannot argue with the truth. They'd rather bury it.

Amnesty's deception of the day

Amnesty International's daily anti-Israel tweet:

Israel bombed home in #AlShati without warning & killed 6, including 4-year-old: http://t.co/MhYwhZx2gG #50Days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/Eefaf3xoAW
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 4, 2015

The truth is that two of those killed were Islamic Jihad members, one a member of the Al Bakri family that lived there and the other a top commander.

Ramadan Ahmad al-Bakri:

Ibrahim Mohammad al-Mashharawi:

The tweet doesn't mention this. Neither does the Gaza Platform that Amnesty pretends is a "research tool."

But Amnesty's own report on the war does acknowledge that these terrorists were in the house, as well as the fact that the family initially denied this:

Although family members denied it, both Ramadan Kamal al-Bakri and Ibrahim alMashharawi were members of Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades, as was confirmed when, after some weeks, their names appeared on their list of “martyrs”.

Amnesty's Gaza Platform quotes this Amnesty report but did not choose to quote this relevant section. Because the point of the Gaza Platform is not to reveal the truth to researchers, it is meant to hide the truth in the quest to accuse Israel of war crimes.

Amnesty interviewed scores of people in Gaza. Many of them lied the same way this family did, denying any militants in their vicinity - and Amnesty believed them without question. Since then, as I've documented, many of these victims have been found to be terrorists and we now know that their relatives lied to Amnesty.

And Amnesty knows that they are often lied to, but when the lies take too much effort to find, they will always give the "witnesses" the benefit of the doubt - ignoring the fact that Hamas and other groups explicitly instructed Gazans to lie and claim everyone was a civilian. In other words, every single thing that "witnesses" tell Amnesty about IDF actions cannot be trusted when the interviewees are still living in Gaza and could suffer punishment for telling the truth.

Amnesty does not talk about that very relevant fact. They know that they are being lied to but they choose to believe it unless the evidence becomes overwhelming.

Ramadan al-Bakri used his family as human shields and used his family home to protect his commander, Ibrahim al-Mashharawi. Amnesty has nothing negative to say about that.

While Amnesty is attempting to paint Israel as guilty of war crimes, it is in fact adding every day more and more evidence that Amnesty in the Middle East is little more than an anti-Israel propaganda outlet masquerading as a human rights NGO.

UPDATE: The IDF's report described the truth:

According to the factual findings collated by the FFA Mechanism and presented to the MAG, the strike in question was aimed at Omar Al-Rahim, a senior commander, at a rank equivalent to that of a deputy brigade commander, in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization. Al-Rahim was staying in the house of Ramadan Al-Bakri, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant. During the target planning process, it was assessed that there might be a number of civilians present in the building, but that the extent of the harm expected to these civilians would not be excessive in relation to the significant military advantage anticipated to result from the strike. It was planned that the strike on the building would be carried out using a precise munition, and in a way in which would allow achieving the aim of the strike whilst minimizing harm to the surrounding buildings.

After the event, as a result of the strike, the target, Omar Al-Rahim, was severely injured, and Ibrahim Al-Masharawi, who was a senior commander at a rank equivalent to a battalion commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was killed, along with Ramadan Al-Bakri, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant, and four civilians.

After reviewing the factual findings and the material collated by the FFA Mechanism, the MAG found that the targeting process in question accorded with Israeli domestic law and international law requirements. The decision to strike was taken by the competent authorities and aimed at a lawful target - a senior commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The strike complied with the principle of proportionality, as at the time the decision was taken, it was considered that the collateral damage expected from the strike would not be excessive in relation to the military advantage anticipated from it. Moreover, the strike was carried out while undertaking precautionary measures which aimed to mitigate the risk of civilian harm, with an emphasis on those who were present in the surrounding buildings. Such measures included, inter alia, the choice of munition to be used, as well as the deployment of real-time visual coverage. Additionally, it was found that the provision of a specific warning prior to the attack, to the people present in the structure in which the target was located, or to those in adjacent buildings, was not required by law and was expected to result in the frustration of the strike's objective.

Amnesty and the Gaza Platform didn't report about Omar al-Rahim even though they have a broken link to the IDF report.

Amnesty lies again about Rafah school incident

Amnesty International, that respected human rights organization, continues its practice of daily anti-Israel lies.

Israeli missile hits UNRWA school in Rafah killing 9 inc women and children: http://t.co/0KBkAgvePy #50Days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/UA5p2cMsQ1
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 3, 2015

The missile didn't hit the school. It hit a motorcycle on the road outside the school.

The UN Secretary General created a board of inquiry into the various incidents involving UN facilities in Gaza. His report says "The Board found that the missile had been directed at a motorcycle carrying three individuals."

The report goes on to say

The Government of Israel stated to the Board that an examination of the incident was being undertaken at the request of the Military Advocate General. IDF had fired an aerial-launched missile at the motorcycle, which had been carrying three militants belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. By the time it became apparent that the strike would coincide with the moment the motorcycle would pass by the school gate, it was no longer possible to divert the missile.

Amnesty is lying in tweeting that Israel shot at and hit the school. Yes, in this case there was a tragic miscalculation, but that is because Islamic Jihad terrorists were traveling next to the school, not because of IDF war crimes, as Amnesty wants the world to believe.

By the way, this is the incident where Gazans were seen taking the dead body of a girl and posing it next to one of the dead jihadis who was dragged inside the school gates to make it look like the incident happened there. Afterwards one man took her body and ran for the cameras down the block as if he was seeking an ambulance.

Amnesty ignores Amnesty's own research in anti-Israel tweets

This morning, Amnesty tweeted:

#alNuseirat: Israeli warplane bombed house without warning, 14 civilians killed http://t.co/1CbnwsDVBO #50Days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/Q45OkqxOso
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) July 31, 2015

Looking at the episode in Amnesty's Gaza Platform, we see that Amnesty researched the incident itself, and while it reached a biased conclusion, the most relevant facts were purposely excluded from the tweet:

Alaa al-Assar told Amnesty International’s fieldworker that there was no fighting in the area on the day of the attack and that no one living in the al-Bayoumi building was involved in any military activities, nor affiliated politically with any faction.

However, two neighbours maintained that, following the attack, they found out that at least four members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, including a battalion commander and a communications officer, were apparently using the empty apartment in the building for some time prior to the attack. One of them was said to have been killed in the attack on the al-Bayoumi home, but his name is not known to Amnesty International and does not appear in the list of named individuals killed below. It was said that another was injured in the attack, while two others escaped and were killed in an attack on a nearby mosque. Amnesty International has been unable to verify this information.

However, even if the empty flat in the al-Bayoumi building was used by the al-Qassam Brigades, the loss of civilian life in this attack was clearly disproportionate. The survivors of the attack said that they received no warning and the Israeli army has made no statement concerning either the intended target or any warning given. The Israeli forces were under an obligation to take all feasible precautions, including – given the large number of civilians present – calling off the attack or issuing a warning to the building’s residents and those of neighbouring buildings to evacuate, before carrying out the attack.

This terrorist, Shadi Muhammad Jumaa Abu Zaher, seems to be one of the Hamas members killed in the attack. His name was not released in any list of fatalities, making him one of many Hamas militants whom Hamas hid from researchers like Amnesty to make attacks like this one appear to be purely against civilians. 100 such Hamas members have been identified so far by the Meir Amit ITIC. This research is available to everyone, including Amnesty International.

Notice how Amnesty puts in caveats around two independent testimonies saying that this was a Hamas command and control center, while most of its reporting in the same document quotes Gazans who accuse Israel of crimes without any questioning of their facts.

Amnesty here is knowingly lying about the laws of armed conflict. By saying that "the loss of civilian life in this attack was clearly disproportionate" in relation to the military value of the building, without knowing what the military value was, is simply libel.

As we have shown, under international law, an attack on a communications hub in Serbia that was only knocked out for a single day was not considered a violation of the laws of armed conflict even though the number of fatalities were higher than this instance. Amnesty's claim of "clearly disproportionate" is flatly wrong. The entire reason Israel did not give warning in this case - as opposed to hundreds of other cases - was obviously because this was a high-value military target.

There was a violation of international law here, though.

Hamas was using the Bayoumi family and others as human shields. Amnesty gathered the evidence proving that Hamas chose a residential building to build a command center and station at least four militants there. Yet instead of blaming Hamas for putting the families at risk- precisely because international law does not tie the hands of an army when the value of a valid military target is high - Amnesty makes up its own international law and accuses Israel of violating it.

Amnesty could have at least mentioned that two witnesses said that this was a Hamas military center. Instead, its tweet was designed to castigate Israel even though Amnesty knows the facts are being badly misrepresented by this tweet. And they assume, correctly, that few will research the actual incident.

Which proves, yet again, how little Amnesty shows regard for the truth when it comes to Israel.

Today's absurd Amnesty claim against Israel

Amnesty's Gaza Platform keeps revealing more and more bias. Here is their event #2668:

At approximately 08:00 [July 26, 2014], the body of Anwar ‘Abdul Qader Hassan Yousef, 2, was evacuated to the hospital. He died from a heart attack when Israeli forces shelled the vicinity of his family’s home in al-Nussairat refugee camp.

Now, there had been (according to the same tool) well over 50 airstrikes in the same area of the Nusseirat camp by that point. Yet PCHR, and Amnesty, knows for certain that one of the ones from that day caused the child to have a fatal heart attack.

Pediatric sudden cardiac arrest is a real problem that kills thousands of children a year, including - statistically speaking - between 5 and 30 in Gaza children every year.

But Amnesty has a rule that is sacrosanct: if Israel can be blamed, it must be blamed.

Amnesty, hell-bent on demonizing Israel, is planning to release another tool (together with the same haters at Forensics Architecture) this coming Wednesday that claims to document events in Rafah last year following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. (received via email)

Amnesty International, will host a press conference in Jerusalem to mark the launch of a new online report, ‘Black Friday’: Carnage in Rafah during the 2014 Israel/Gaza conflict, on Wednesday 29 July 2015. The online report, produced in cooperation with Forensic Architecture, will present cutting edge new analysis featuring photos, videos and satellite imagery to reconstruct the events in Rafah between 1 and 4 August 2014. The report sheds new light on violations of international law committed and the vast level of destruction and killing in the days following ‘Black Friday’ after the capture of Israeli soldier Lieutenant Hadar Goldin. Speakers at the press conference will include spokespeople from Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture.

Based on what we have seen so far from these two organizations, this "cutting edge new analysis " will be another slick interface on top of one-sided, unverifiable and outdated data.

Someone should really ask Amnesty how much money they are pouring into these anti-Israel campaigns, and how many actual lives could have been saved if they decided that, say, Africa is as much of a priority for their "human rights researchers."