NGOs insist that Israel help Hamas build tunnels

The Association of International Development Agencies is a consortium of dozens of NGOs, including CARE International , BBC Media Action, Oxfam GB, Diakonia, Save the Children and The Carter Center.

It just released a report urging the international community to step up efforts to rebuild Gaza. But, naturally, it slams Israel.

The report pretends to be even-handed. For example:

All parties should immediately resume negotiations for a long-term ceasefire that addresses the need for sustainable reconstruction, tackles the root causes of the conflict and can deliver long-lasting security for both Israelis and Palestinians. Negotiations should include all concerned parties, particularly women, in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Both the Government of Israel and Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, must abide by international humanitarian and human rights law in the conduct of hostilities.

The international community must demand an end to violations of international law, and push for greater accountability of all parties, including guarantees of non-repetition.³

Sounds like it includes Hamas, right?

But that tiny footnote 3 refers to:

Articles 30–37 of the International Law Commission Draft Article on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, 2001. http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/commentaries/9_6_2001.pdf, read with Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions, https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/treaties-customary-law/geneva-conventions Elaborated at p. 12 below, “Accountability For IHL Violations” 

A draft article, never ratified into law, that only applies to states - and not Hamas!

The draft document says that states that illegally attack others must pay restitution, so AIDA is saying that israel's defending itself from Hamas rockets is against international law.

This sort of bias pervades the document. But one more example will do.

AIDA's recommendations include Israel giving Hamas the unlimited ability to build bunkers in Gaza and terror tunnels into Israel.

The report says:

To date, the international community has failed to put forth a plan of action that effectively pressures Israel to lift the blockade; choosing instead to work around it.

The clearest example of "working around the blockade‟ is the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM). Introduced just before the Cairo conference, the GRM was presented as away to address Israel‟s security concerns while allowing the import of cement and other construction materials.

Israel has often stated that the enforcement of the blockade is necessary for controlling the import of cement and other items that they label as "dual use‟. It should be noted that, under the Wassenaar Arrangement,82 dual-use items are defined based on clearly agreed criteria, in particular, their inclusion in the globally accepted munitions list and "the ability to make a clear and objective specification of the item‟ for military purposes. Aggregate, steel bars and cement (ABCs), which are essential for largescale reconstruction, are not listed as prohibited materials, yet Israel continues to define these and many other essential goods as "dual-use‟ in order to restrict their entry into Gaza.83

Since the materials that Hamas uses to build tunnels meant to kidnap Israelis and hide weapons caches underneath civilian structures are the same materials used to build buildings, AIDA is recommending that there be no restrictions on those materials.

Not surprisingly, the entire report does not mention tunnels once - even though they were a major military objective of Operation Protective Edge. And even though the entire purpose of those tunnels is to commit war crimes.

Instead of embracing a mechanism that allows Israel to restrict materials to terror groups, or even attempting to improve that mechanism, AIDA says that all restrictions of materials to Hamas be lifted.

Israeli civilians are not worthy of protection, except maybe from rockets as long as Israel doesn't target rockets that are launched near civilian buildings, which is why Hamas does exactly that with impunity.

AIDA also includes spurious research in its demand that Israel open up all crossings to and from Gaza:

Even if the GRM is able to keep up with the demand for ABCs, it is not clear if Kerem Shalom, the sole crossing for goods between Israel and Gaza, has the capacity to meet supply. According to one senior UN source, „Even if GRM works perfectly, the Kerem Shalom is not enough, even if it operates 24/7‟.⁸⁷

The source?

AIDA interview with UN official conducted in Jerusalem, 26 March 2014

No statistics, no numbers, no name. Some UN official makes a statement and it is accepted as fact.

Of course, one reason Israel has created the huge Kerem Shalom complex was to ensure its security while making it large enough to supply all of Gaza's needs should it need to. But AIDA didn't ask Israeli officials to give them any statistics on its capacity and growth potential, instead relying on an anonymous UN official. Which they footnoted as if there was any credibility to his opinion.

This is what the entire report is like. It pretends to be fair but its bias is obvious if you scratch the surface.