As we have shown in the past, DCI-Palestine has zero credibility. They elicit "testimonies" from children and then go back and iron out any glaring inconsistencies.
Their mandate is explicitly biased - to "develop its programs and act according to Palestinian children's needs and Palestinian priorities." Yet they claim that their researchers, under a biased mandate, can be objective. Here is the methodology they published for this report:
This report is based on investigations conducted by DCIP’s fieldworkers in the Gaza Strip between July 8, 2014 and January 30, 2015. DCIP fieldworkers visited sites where children had been killed or maimed in attacks to collect sworn affidavits from victims, family members, neighbors, and eyewitnesses in accordance with established UN standards. Lawyers and human rights documentation professionals reviewed testimonies and other documentation for accuracy and assessed any gaps that required further research. Fieldworkers frequently returned to the site of an incident to verify details and collect further evidence.
To ensure reliable testimonies, DCIP’s fieldworkers ask a series of non-leading questions, exercise judgment about the credibility of witnesses, and examine possible influences that may shape a response. Fieldworkers have sought medical evidence to verify details such as the victim’s injuries and cause of death, and collected photographs documenting evidence of international law violations at particular sites. DCIP has also sought expert opinions on certain incidents from military and forensic
specialists.
Their claims of objectivity and non-leading questions are obviously not true. The reason we know this is because this report includes the story of Ahmad Abu Raida, the 16-year old who told DCIP, along with +972 Magazine and the New York Times, that IDF soldiers held him for five days and forced him to search for tunnels and to dig for them, beating him and threatening him sexually. They expect people to believe that IDF soldiers, in the middle of a war zone, would trust a 16 year old son of a Hamas member to enter houses alone and tell them whether he found tunnels or not. They would sit around and use a 16-year old to dig with his hands under the "afternoon sun" to find tunnels.The story is so obviously fake that only people who hate Israel to begin with can believe it.
The most obvious lie was published, unchallenged, by the NYT:
Ahmed’s father, Jamal Abu Raida, who held a senior position in Gaza’s Tourism Ministry under the Hamas-controlled government, said the family forgot to take photographs documenting any abuse in its happiness over the youth’s return, and disposed of the clothing he was given upon his release.Bruises last for weeks. DCIP interviewed Abu Raida within weeks of his supposed beatings. If they took photos of his bruises, as they claim they routinely do to corroborate stories, where are these photographs? Why wouldn't a Hamas employee do everything possible to support his accusations to incriminate Israel to NGOs and the media?
Because he knows that the media will believe the lies without any evidence!
Abu Raida's bogus story is featured from pages 55-57 of this new report. It proves that DCIP has no regard for accuracy or truth, as we've shown before when they claimed that children who were actively involved in attacks on IDF soldiers were innocent civilians or when they claimed that hundreds of people, including children, were killed in Jenin in 2002.
NGOs like DCIP manage to keep getting lots of money from European governments and NGOs, with obviously no oversight or accountability.
And so it goes.