Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Amnesty

Showing posts with label Amnesty. Show all posts

Sunday, November 01, 2015

.@Amnesty again believes Arab "witnesses" and ignores other evidence (update)

Amnesty International has issued another anti-Israel report, only days after their last one, this one claiming that Israeli "settlers" in Hebron are wantonly attacking Palestinians.

"In the space of less than a month, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in Hebron have escalated from what was already an unacceptably high level," the report says in a call-out.

The entire report gives exactly two examples of such attacks - in a month when there are daily attacks against Israelis in Hebron.

The one that takes up the bulk of the evidence is this one:

On the morning of 17 October, 18-year-old Hebron resident Fadel al-Qawasmeh was walking to work when he was shot and killed by an Israeli civilian. The Israeli military claim that he had a knife and intended to stab the Israeli civilian but have released no evidence to support these claims, despite the fact that al-Shuhada Street, where the incident took place, is heavily monitored by video cameras operated by Israeli forces.

Shortly before he was shot, Fadel al-Qawasmeh had passed through Checkpoint 56 on al-Shuhada Street, which separates the section of Hebron ostensibly under Palestinian control from the Old City where illegal Israeli settlements are located. Amnesty International researchers present at the checkpoint the day before and after the shooting observed Israeli soldiers ordering people to remove items from their pockets and pass through the metal detector multiple times. Young men were particularly thoroughly searched, making it highly unlikely that Fadel al-Qawasmeh would have been able to smuggle a knife through.

A resident of a house on al-Shuhada Street, a few metres away from the scene of the shooting, told Amnesty International that as he was coming down the stairs of his home, he saw a young man being stopped by Israeli soldiers and turned back towards the checkpoint. He then reported seeing an Israeli civilian dressed in white, who had been standing next to the soldiers, follow the man up the road before shooting him at least three times in the head and back. He told Amnesty International that Fadel al-Qawasmeh had nothing in his hands, and all the shots were fired from behind.

Interviewed separately, a resident of another house on al-Shuhada Street who was watching from a balcony said that she saw an Israeli civilian of the same description holding a firearm in the moments before the shooting, and that she had heard him cursing the Palestinian youth. She did not see or hear any indications that the Palestinian youth was threatening anyone.

There is a video in the aftermath of the incident, but I haven't found any beforehand to corroborate the stories.

Here is what Fadel looked like:

Commenter Bob Knot found a different photo of Fadel al-Qawasmeh: It is certainly the same person.

What an amazing coincidence that here is another person that Amnesty says was an innocent victim, accusing Israeli authorities of lying when they said he had a knife, and we end up finding photos showing that they both had an affinity for stabbing knives!

Yes, this isn't proof that Qawasmeh attacked the Jew. But unless every resident of Hebron is in the habit of photographing themselves with knives, it seems like a hell of a coincidence that the person shot by the Jew just happens to be one who poses for photos with a knife in a stabbing position.

More evidence that Qawasmeh was the attacker comes from this Fatah martyr poster posted by a family member of his on the day of the incident, before the "innocent victim" meme started:

The poster quotes a pro-Jihad Koranic message, and then says "It is with great pride and glory the Palestinian National Liberation Movement - Fatah, Central Hebron Area announces the (martyrdom) of the heroic shahid Fadhl Muhammad Qawasme."

The Facebook caption said "The morning is fragrant with the perfume of the martyrs of the revolution."

It is obvious that the family's (and others') initial reaction was that of course Fadel attacked the Israeli. Only when the propaganda value of re-casting him as an innocent victim became obvious did the narrative change.

Amnesty never bothers to find any evidence that contradicts what it wants to find.

(h/t Ibn Bouros)

UPDATE: According to this page, Fadel lived on Shuhada Street itself, where he would not be subject to as many checkpoints. Amnesty assumes that he must have passed through some but it is not true. (h/t Bob K)

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.@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?

.@Amnesty "researchers" proven again to be anti-Israel slanderers (update)

Yesterday, I quoted a new Amnesty International report that supposedly showed how Israeli forces routinely murder Arabs at checkpoints for no reason at all. All of the evidence given comes from Palestinian "eyewitnesses" who often say contradictory things and who even Amnesty researchers have concluded often lie.

Let's go into more detail on the first case Amnesty supposedly "researched," the case they they claimed was the worst of all:

In an especially egregious case, Israeli forces shot dead 19-year-old Sa’ad Muhammad Youssef al-Atrash in the Old City of Hebron as he attempted to retrieve an ID card at an Israeli soldier’s request on 26 October. The Israeli police labelled the incident an “attempted stabbing” but an eyewitness watching the events unfold from her balcony said he had posed no threat when he was shot. One of the soldiers had asked him for ID, and as he reached into his pocket to grab his card another soldier standing behind him shot him on his right side, she told Amnesty International. The eyewitness said he was shot six or seven times and bled profusely as he lay on the ground for about 40 minutes afterwards, while soldiers failed to provide medical treatment. She also reported seeing soldiers bring a knife and place it in the dying man’s hand.

After I originally posted this I was made aware of Sa'ad al-Atrash's Facebook page, which is still up. Here is the profile picture he used:

It is a promo for a music video called, literally, "The Lovers of Stabbing."

A relative of Sa'ad Al Atrash named Mohammed, possibly his brother, posted this short essay on his own Facebook page:

First of all, “in the name of Allah”. I’ll tell you the story of a Palestinian hero. A (regular) guy from among the youth of Palestine and Hebron. He had dignity and manhood. This guy congratulated the father of the (female) shahid Bint Rashid, and said “Congratulations (for her martyrdom), her blood will not go unavenged.” He went and burnt the container [not sure what this means]. The next day he went and said hello to all his friends and asked for their forgiveness. He then went home and ate. He performed the ritual ablution before the prayer and read the Quran. He left his phone and his ID card (at home). He then went, as usual, to the Study Center and our Lord granted him martyrdom on his way. This is what he yearned for all the time. This is the heroic young man, the Lion of Hebron, Sa’ad Muhammad Yousef Al-Atrash. May Allah have mercy on his soul and put him in Paradise."

Mohammed then posted this immediately afterwards as his own Facebook cover photo:

Sons of Zion

Feel your necks... Slaughter is coming at them

Death to Israel (Hebrew)

This is not a man who is mourning his relative. It is someone who is proud of him.

The man whom Amnesty used as their most "egregious case" of Israeli crimes is now shown to have planned his attempted murder.

The "witness" was lying. And Amnesty's "researchers" Jacob Burns and Sunjeev Bery ignored the advice from their own about the dangers of believing people with an agenda and chose to believe her - not in spite of her agenda, but because they share it!

Amnesty must apologize and amend their slanderous report. In addition, if Amnesty wanted to retain a shred of credibility, it should for once address the real issue of anti-Israel incitement that drives people to want to stab the closest Jew they can find - incitement that often comes from the PA government and ruling political party, as I have shown many times.

But Amnesty won't do any of that. Because their goal in the Middle East, proven over and over again, is not truth nor is it justice. It is to find or help manufacture evidence to slander Israel.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

UPDATE: Mohammed's page was taken down, but it is archived here. (h/t Bob Knot, Nathan)

Outrageous: Amnesty accuses Israel of planting knives on Arabs after they are shot(update)

Amnesty International issued another one-sided report that claims that Israeli forces are shooting Arabs who pose no danger to them.

Every example they give is based on "eyewitness" testimony which even Amnesty has admitted is often based on lies.

Here is one example based purely on a supposed "eyewitness:"

In an especially egregious case, Israeli forces shot dead 19-year-old Sa’ad Muhammad Youssef al-Atrash in the Old City of Hebron as he attempted to retrieve an ID card at an Israeli soldier’s request on 26 October. The Israeli police labelled the incident an “attempted stabbing” but an eyewitness watching the events unfold from her balcony said he had posed no threat when he was shot. One of the soldiers had asked him for ID, and as he reached into his pocket to grab his card another soldier standing behind him shot him on his right side, she told Amnesty International. The eyewitness said he was shot six or seven times and bled profusely as he lay on the ground for about 40 minutes afterwards, while soldiers failed to provide medical treatment. She also reported seeing soldiers bring a knife and place it in the dying man’s hand.

Amnesty believes that a woman on a balcony can hear the security forces asking al-Atrash for an ID,which is highly unlikely. Yet they accept this absurd "testimony" even when the woman claims that the soldiers planted the knife.

The claim of planting knives has been all over Palestinian Arab media, including cases where video has proven otherwise. But the meme is strong enough that "eyewitnesses" speaking to credulous NGOs know exactly what to say.

By the way, al-Atrash made it pretty clear on Facebook what his intentions were (h/t Bob Knot)

The scenario is repeated, this time with Amnesty asking the readers to connect the dots:

On 25 October, a short distance from where al-Atrash was killed, Israeli border police shot dead Dania Jihad Hussein Ershied, 17. Shortly before she was killed, she had passed through a checkpoint equipped with a metal detector and two revolving gates, between which Israeli forces frequently lock people they deem suspicious. At a second checkpoint in front of Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque she was called for a second inspection by more than five border police officers, who began searching her bag and yelling at her to show her knife.

Warning shots were fired at her feet, prompting her to step back and raise her hands in the air. She was shouting at the police that she did not have a knife and still had her arms raised when police again opened fire, shooting her six or seven times.

A photo of Ershied’s body shows a knife lying near the body, and the Israeli police spokesperson has stated that she attempted to stab a border policeman. However, even if Dania Jihad Hussein Ershied had a knife in her possession, eyewitness accounts indicate she was not posing a threat to Israeli forces when she was shot, and her killing is therefore absolutely unjustified.

Amnesty clearly doesn't believe that Ersheid had a knife, because otherwise why would they mention that she went through a metal detector beforehand? But then they hedge their bets by saying that even if she had a knife, she had both hands in the air - according to the eyewitnesses. So either the eyewitnesses are lying, which even Amnesty admits they often do, or the IDF is lying and planting evidence.

It is clear which one Amnesty believes.

Even though there have been dozens of stabbing attacks causing injuries and deaths, and even though Palestinian media is glorifying the youths who are stabbing Jews, Amnesty is assuming that the people who cheer the attacks are honest and the ones who are the intended victims are liars. Amnesty believes the "eyewitnesses" who are under tremendous social pressure not to say anything that goes against their narrative.

The Amnesty employee most responsible for this one-sided "research" is Jacob Burns, currently visiting the area just to write reports like this. Burns happens to be a "researcher" behind Amnesty's "Gaza Platform" which claims that hundreds of terrorists killed in Gaza were innocent civilians, and he has refused to answer anyone on Twitter who pointed out his provable lies in that farce. So we know that Amnesty's main researcher in the territories has no integrity whatsoever. (And he is the only Amnesty employee i've seen who occasionally tweets terror attacks against Israelis, too. So everyone else at Amnesty is even worse!)

And then there is this:

[H]eavily armed soldiers and police wearing body armour facing a possible knife attack have a duty to use proportionate and graduated force and attempt to arrest suspects before resorting to the use of lethal force,” said Philip Luther

This mirrors what Amnesty said in its last biased report two whole weeks ago:

While Palestinian demonstrators have thrown rocks and firebombs towards Israeli forces in many demonstrations, and there are reports that Palestinians have shot at Israeli forces in isolated cases, Israeli military and police forces are heavily protected and must ensure that all use of force is strictly necessary and proportionate, and that firearms must only be used to protect against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.

We've seen videos of attacks that happen suddenly, Necks and face aren't protected by body armor.

And why would Amnesty mention that soldiers are "heavily armed" if they say that the soldiers and police cannot use those arms?

It is all to paint a picture of unwarranted Israeli aggression and innocent Palestinian victims. It is part of Amnesty's war against Israel in the name of "human rights." Because it sure isn't in the name of truth.

Biased @Amnesty report says IDF soldiers aren't in real danger from firebombs and boulders

Amnesty International issued a report on the situation in Israel. 6 paragraphs mentioned attacks on Israelis - and 21 paragraphs attacked Israel for defending its citizens from those attacks.

This section of the report was particularly absurd:

While Palestinian demonstrators have thrown rocks and firebombs towards Israeli forces in many demonstrations, and there are reports that Palestinians have shot at Israeli forces in isolated cases, Israeli military and police forces are heavily protected and must ensure that all use of force is strictly necessary and proportionate, and that firearms must only be used to protect against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.

The rest of the report shows that Amnesty does not consider a single case of Israeli use of force to be justified. Because the Israeli forces have magic "protection" that stop firebombs and knives and stones and sometimes bullets from being dangerous.

For example:

The Israeli military said that there had been a violent demonstration in which rocks and firebombs were thrown at Israeli forces, and that troops had used riot dispersal means before opening fire at three Palestinians who were throwing firebombs, but did not release information to suggest that the lives of Israeli troops had been in danger.

Yes, Amnesty really said that even though the IDF explained in detail that the terrorists had not responded to the exact kind of non-lethal weapons that Amnesty insists the IDF use, and they were still throwing firebombs at them, that is not enough information for Amnesty to decide that the IDF acted properly.

One wonders what else the IDF could do to prove it acted properly, and one immediately knows the answer - nothing. Amnesty is looking for evidence of guilt, not fact-finding.

Besides this, the report shows the usual extreme anti-Israel bias. It makes numerous specific demands from Israeli authorities. Just a few of the many examples:

Israeli actions to apprehend and bring to justice those responsible for such attacks must comply with international law; there is no justification for arbitrary arrests, or for torture or other ill-treatment during arrest or detention.

Amnesty International calls on the Israeli authorities to publicly disclose the current openfire regulations for Israeli police and military forces, including those being applied in East Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities must urgently issue directives clarifying that Israeli army and police personnel can only use live fire, including .22 ammunition, when strictly unavoidable to protect against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, and that all use of force must be absolutely necessary, strictly proportionate to a legitimate aim, and in full compliance with international human rights standards.

As the occupying power, Israel is also bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention, and is prohibited from imposing measures in the name of security – including restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the OPT – that are arbitrary, discriminatory or amount to collective punishment.

Israeli forces must protect Palestinian civilians and their property from settler attacks, and end the impunity for such attacks by addressing the systematic failures in investigating them.

But the report does not ask Fatah or Hamas to do a single thing to stop terror or incitement. There are no demands. The word "must":, used liberally when insisting on what Israel must do, is completely absent in regard to the PA.

Even though Amnesty reported that a Fatah-linked group took responsibility for the murder of the Henkins, it doesn't ask Fatah's leader Mahmoud Abbas to lift a finger to stop terror.

It gives specific numbers of alleged attacks by Israel reported by biased sources, but it doesn't mention that far moreattacks on Israelis have been recorded - 440 as of Friday. No indication is given that Amnesty even tried to find such a statistic..

The real purpose of the report is to slam Israel yet again. Listing a few attacks on Jews is a fig-leaf to put on top of another hit-job.

Not putting any responsibility on the PA and Hamas shows that Amnesty really has no problem with how they encourage terrorism against Jews.

Celebrated "non-violent activist" supports murdering Jews and pushes blood libel

Manal Tamimi is a member of the family from Nabi Saleh who has been celebrated and romanticized by Amnesty International and media outlets as leaders of "non-violent resistance." Her husband Bilal videos every weekly demonstration there, and she is related to Bassam Tamimi whom Amnesty is sponsoring on a speaking tour through the US now.

Yesterday, Manal made it clear that while she personally might not murder Jews, she sure supports people who do:

There was more:

@IdoDaniel settlers r not civilians specilay the ones in jerusalem and Hebron so yes im proud of what this man did
— manal tamimi (@screamingtamimi) October 3, 2015

And finally:

Ah, "non-violent not peaceful." The perfect combination to fool peace-loving Westerners who cannot tell the difference.

And she says that Jews drink children's blood for good measure.

Manal's support for violence is exactly what her relative Bassem, Amnesty's darling, believes too:

In the already mentioned tribute to the Tamimis and their village Nabi Saleh that was featured as a New York Times Magazine cover in March 2013, Bassem Tamimi made clear that in his view, “[t]aking up arms wasn’t … a moral error so much as a strategic one.” Reportedly, Tamimi and everyone else in the village “insisted they had the right to armed resistance; they just don’t think it works” and “they resented being asked to forswear bloodshed.”
But it is apparently not necessary to forswear bloodshed and condemn terrorist attacks against civilians in order to win support from Amnesty International and praise from the European Union.
And quite obviously, neither Amnesty nor the EU or the media are much bothered by the fact that a “human rights defender” like Bassem Tamimi would send his young children in an almost weekly ritual, year after year, to provoke soldiers that he regularly denounces as brutal and trigger-happy.

These, ladies and gentlemen, are the Tamimis, whose ranks include some of the most notorious terrorists ever.

Yet Amnesty doesn't only support them - they support their propagandizing third graders in the US.

Amnesty says soldiers shouldn't shoot someone actively attacking them with a knife

A couple of days ago Israeli forces shot a woman at a checkpoint that they say was attacking them with a knife.

"The perpetrator approached the checkpoint and the metal detector was activated, alerting the troops' suspicion," an army spokesman said in an accompanying statement.

"Forces at the scene asked her to stop, at which point she approached the forces, disregarding the instructions and raising further suspicion.

"Forces called for her to halt, which she ignored, and she continued moving while also pulling out a knife. At this point, forces fired at the ground, then at her lower extremities in attempts to stop her advancement. The perpetrator continued and at this point, recognising a clear and present danger to their safety, the forces fired towards her."

Arabs are disputing the story, saying that she had no knife. Israeli police released a photo of the knife.

Amnesty researcher Jacob Burns tweeted this with a photo of the knife:

This pic claims to show knife Hadil Hashlamoun dropped after being shot. Unsourced but seems to match other pics. pic.twitter.com/FM9EM9oqHQ
— Jacob Burns (@JacobTBurns) September 23, 2015

But then he wrote this:

#PT source: http://t.co/2nMmGk78j3 Must stress that EVEN if she did have this knife, use of live fire is totally disproportionate+excessive
— Jacob Burns (@JacobTBurns) September 23, 2015

Really? People cannot defend themselves with a gun against someone coming at them with a knife?

Is this Amnesty's definition of proportionate - that only knives may be used against knives? Does every Israeli soldier and policeman need to be equipped with stones of various sizes, slingshots, knives, small caliber and large caliber weapons in order to assess everyone trying to kill them and respond with the "proportionate" weapon?

YKutner on Twitter asked Burns about this, and he pointed to the "Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials," a non-binding UN guideline for the use of firearms. But even that says:

9. Law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. In any event, intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.

Someone approaching you with a knife who does not stop even when warning shots are fired is an imminent danger to life by any definition. But according to this Amnesty researcher, it is not.

What Burns is saying is that Israel is obligated to deploy only non-lethal means available at checkpoints, which is absurd - because checkpoints are a popular place for suicide bombs and shooting incidents. Security staff must have the proper weapons to defend their and other's lives, and neither tasers nor teargas would make sense.

Again, I am not arguing the details of what actually happened. (Amnesty of course interviewed "eyewitnesses" and issued their own condemnation (even though one of the witnesses admitted that she had a knife, but claims that no one saw it until after she was already shot in the leg and then she dropped it from under her niqab, an amazing coincidence that Israeli soldiers shot her at random without knowing she had a knife according to the "eyewitnesses!")

I am showing that an Amnesty researcher was willing to make up his own interpretation of international law against Israel before he had any actual evidence one way or the other, saying that live fire is "totally disproportionate+excessive" in the face of a knife wielding attacker.

This is not international law. This is not what "proportionate" means. Amnesty is once again making up rules as it goes along.

At least when it comes to Israel.

Amnesty sponsoring speaking tour of "peace activist" who condones terror

Bassem Tamimi, father of "Shirley Temper" and the leader of the weekly rock-throwing protests at Nabi Saleh, is going on a speaking tour of the US - and Amnesty International is one of his sponsors, along with many other anti-Israel organizations who pretend to support "peace."

Tamimi's "peace" includes slinging rocks at high speed towards the heads of Israeli soldiers. And he supports his own family throwing rocks.

Not only that, but Tamimi - who is related to some of the most notorious terrorists in history - have said explicitly that he is only against more traditional terrorism for strategic reasons, not because it is wrong.

Taking up arms wasn’t, for Bassem, a moral error so much as a strategic one. He and everyone else I spoke with in the village insisted they had the right to armed resistance; they just don’t think it works. Bassem could reel off a list of Nabi Saleh’s accomplishments. Of some — Nabi Saleh, he said, had more advanced degrees than any village — he was simply proud. Others — one of the first military actions after Oslo, the first woman to participate in a suicide attack — involved more complicated emotions.

In 1993, Bassem told me, his cousin Said Tamimi killed a settler near Ramallah. Eight years later, another villager, Ahlam Tamimi escorted a bomber to a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. Fifteen people were killed, eight of them minors. Ahlam, who now lives in exile in Jordan, and Said, who is in prison in Israel, remain much-loved in Nabi Saleh.

Tamimi himself is proud of them as well, just that he believes that blowing up Jews was not a smart move while Israel is strong enough to defend itself.

This person who condones terror, and who actively supprts some forms of violence, is being celebrated by "peace groups" such as Amnesty.

Which speaks volumes.

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 shows its ignorance of international law again

This one-year anniversary tweet came from Amnesty-USA-Israel/OPT/PA as well as from Amnesty-USA-MENA:

21 Aug: Air strike on 3 militants kills/injures many civilians, including kids. Proportionate? http://t.co/zqdLq72LVC http://t.co/4DnCCSAaDN
— AIUSA Israel/OPT/PA (@IOTPA) August 21, 2015

It sounds like Israel killed and injured many people just to strike three ordinary run-of-the-mill militants,

But if you look up the incident, here are the targets, as described by Al Akhbar:

Hamas suffered a severe blow on Thursday when Israeli warplanes managed to assassinate three of its top commanders. They were: Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Mohammed Barhoum, and Raed al-Attar, who commanded Rafah's military brigade and had been one of the top figures on the occupation army's hit list for a quarter of a century.

According to Israeli intelligence reports, Attar – born in 1974 and a father of two – heads al-Qassam's commando unit and is in charge of smuggling weapons from the Sinai into Gaza. According to Yediot Ahronot, Attar was one of the most powerful Hamas leaders and was in charge of the Rafah region on the Egyptian border. The area is where Hamas built the tunnels, which provided them with the necessary equipment and supplies to build their military capacity.

Informed sources from al-Qassam's leadership told Al-Akhbar that Attar was one of the Brigades’ security masterminds. He was behind dozens of operations, in addition to Shalit's capture. The sources maintained that he supervised and ran the Rafah battle without fear, especially in al-Zanna area to the east, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.

The sources explained that targeting Attar and two other al-Qassam commanders in Rafah meant that Hamas suffered a serious blow in southern Gaza, due to the military status of the three leaders.

Israel succeeded in eliminating one of the most wanted people on its intelligence lists since 1991. He was 41-year-old martyr Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, aka Abu Khalil; a member of Hamas’s supreme military council, head of the al-Qassam Brigades in South Gaza and one of the founders of the Brigades in the city of Rafah.

...According to Israeli sources, Abu Shamaleh was the most important among those it murdered yesterday. He had been involved in several attacks against the occupation and supervised several operations in Barakin al-Ghadab, Mahfouza, Jardoun, Tarmid, and al-Wahm al-Mutabaddid in which Shalit was captured. He was also a prominent commander in al-Furqan, Hijarat al-Sijjil, and al-Asf al-Makoul battles.

...As soon as the martyrdom of 45-year-old Mohammed Barhoum, aka Abu Osama – one of the most influential al-Qassam Brigades founders in Rafah – was announced, al-Qassam Brigades issued a statement eulogizing him as one of the leaders of the first generation of Brigade members.

..He also planned and organized several suicide operations inside the 1948-occupied territories, until Israel announced its withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

The withdrawal allowed Barhoum to assist the Brigades leadership in southern Gaza to design and develop locally-made missiles. According to sources, the martyred commander had a profound impact on the development of the Brigades’ missiles system. This was in addition to his supervision of several tunnels in the far south of Rafah, on the borders with Sinai.

All three were top leaders. They are the very definition of valid targets. (Interestingly, Al Akhbar doesn't say a word about the civilians killed.)

Any military leader would agree that the unfortunate deaths of civilians is an unfortunate but necessary consequence of hitting such high value targets. International law does not intend to handcuff armies from doing their jobs. But the standard of what is appropriate both for the principle of distinction and the principle of proportion is what a reasonable military commander would do given all available information at the time.

Amnesty is suggesting jettisoning real international law. It has a skewed idea of what international law is, seemingly with the goal of making it literally impossible for Israel to defend itself.

One other piece of hypocrisy. Amnesty is pretending with this tweet to care so much about the lives of the civilians killed in this attack. But it has nothing negative to say about Hamas commanders - all of which had been previously targeted for assassination, and who therefore know that they were high-value targets - choosing to hide in a house filled with civilians and children.

Isn't that against international law also? Indeed it is. But amnesty will not say anything negative about them.

When a "human rights' organization sides with known, proven terrorists against a modern state with lots of checks and balances in its army, it has no right to call itself a "human rights" organization.

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)

The thing about Amnesty

As my readers know, I have spent a lot of time over the past month showing how Amnesty International is flatly lying about hundreds of people killed in last summer's Gaza war by claiming that they are civilian when they were not.

And I showed that Amnesty has refused to correct their claims even when I showed them in no uncertain terms.

Now, Amnesty's site says:

Before any statement, publication or report is issued, its text is closely reviewed to ensure it is factually accurate, politically impartial and consistent with Amnesty International's mission. When Amnesty International deals with allegations rather than undisputed facts, it makes this clear in its findings and may call for an investigation. If Amnesty International makes a mistake, it issues a correction.

Every single phrase here has been proven a lie, and you can follow the links to see the proof. It is indisputable. Amnesty's literature and its Gaza Platform tool is filled with lies and bias, they know it, and they have chosen to let the lies stand rather than correct them and apologize.

I think I have shown that Amnesty is aware of my research. Dozens of tweets and hundreds of retweets to different Amnesty accounts have not all been missed. They have been read, as all tweets to Amnesty are read.

And Amnesty chooses to sweep its lies under the rug.

This is an organization that claims it is dedicated to truth and accuracy. This is an organization that claims that it is dedicated to impartiality.

But not a single Amnesty employee has denounced these outrages that go against everything Amnesty claims to stand for.

Not one Amnesty employee has had the moral courage to stand up and say, "This is not what my organization is about. If we screwed up, we should own up to it. If our employees are found to be biased, they should be removed as soon as possible. If we know that we lied, it is our responsibility to correct ourselves and to apologize to our donors and those who rely on us for accuracy and fairness."

Not one "courageous" Amnesty researcher is willing to "speak truth to power" and denounce the clear hypocrisy of Amnesty.

One would hope that the leaders of such an organization would he horrified by what I have shown. But the impression that one gets is that they look upon me not as a whistle-blower who is pointing out where they have covered up lies, but as an irritant who must be ignored - and they hope to God that no major media outlet will pick up on my research. They don't want to improve their organization as one would hope any competent leader would; they only want to protect it from people like me.

Ironically, when the truth comes out - and it inevitably will - Amnesty will lose everything. But its leaders act like despots trying to protect their power base rather than as humanitarians dedicated to improving the world.

Clearly, Amnesty's leaders are part of the problem.

What does it say about a human rights organization when not one of its employees is willing to stand up for their own principles? What does it say when its leaders would rather cover up evidence of Amnesty's bias rather than root it out?

It shows that Amnesty has no principles at all.

Perhaps Amnesty does good work in other parts of the world. But by condoning and even highlighting the lies that I've shown, Amnesty has destroyed its credibility on every subject..

Their leaders' selfishness now will end up hurting them far worse later.

Amnesty director has links to Islamists

From Times of London (paywalled):

A senior employee of Amnesty International has undeclared private links to men alleged to be key players in a secretive network of global Islamists, The Times can reveal.

The charity was unaware that the husband of its director of faith and human rights featured in documents released after a criminal trial at which connections were revealed between British supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab Islamists accused of plotting to overthrow a Gulf state.

Yasmin Hussein was also linked to a Yorkshire-based aid agency that was banned by Israel for its alleged funding of Hamas terrorism; and criticised by colleagues for holding a private meeting with a Muslim Brotherhood government official during an Amnesty mission to Egypt, and staying overnight at his family’s home.

Ms Hussein, 51, was until recently the charity’s head of international advocacy and among its leading voices at the UN, where the organisation seeks to operate a strict policy of not siding with any government or political party.

Amnesty staff are asked to declare any links that may generate a real or perceived conflict of interest with its independence and impartiality.

The Brotherhood is banned as a terrorist organisation in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but not in Britain. An inquiry into its role and influence in this country was ordered by David Cameron last year. The findings have yet to be published.

Ms Hussein, who is understood to receive a salary of more than £90,000, told The Times that she had “never had any association whatsoever with . . . the Muslim Brotherhood”.

Her husband, Wael Musabbeh, was one of several alleged British Islamists, none of them defendants, named in documents released after a 2013 trial in the UAE that led to the jailing of more than 60 Emirati citizens who were tried for conspiracy and sedition.

Mr Musabbeh, 54, and a Bradford community trust of which both he and Ms Hussein were directors, were said by the authorities to be part of a complex financial and ideological network in which the UK and Ireland served as important hubs, linking the Brotherhood to its group in UAE.

Amnesty, which challenged the fairness of the trial, said it knew in 2013 of documents alleging links between the defendants and British individuals and organisations, including Mr Musabbeh and the Bradford trust, but did not realise there was any connection to Ms Hussein, to whom he has been married for 20 years, because it did not know until recently that he was her husband.

Mr Musabbeh said he had no connection to the Brotherhood, was not an Islamist and was unaware of having played any role in the UAE case.

In a separate incident in 2012, Amnesty staff alerted senior management after Ms Hussein held a private meeting in Egypt with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood government, shared an evening meal with his family and stayed overnight in their home.

Ms Hussein said she was not aware that any concerns were raised about her unofficial meeting with Adly al-Qazzaz, a ministerial education adviser who was blamed by a teachers’ union for instigating the “Brotherhoodisation” of Egypt’s education system.

The charity said it “examined and robustly interrogated concerns raised by colleagues”. Ms Hussein was subsequently told that her overnight stay with the al-Qazzaz family was inappropriate. She accepted that and promised that it would not happen again.

A long-serving employee said the charity had strict rules on overseas trips, adding: “For an Amnesty delegate to accept an invitation to stay at the residence of a government official is a serious breach of protocol.”

Mr al-Qazzaz’s son, Khaled al-Qazzaz, was the Brotherhood’s presidential secretary for foreign affairs. His daughter, Mona al-Qazzaz, was the official spokeswoman for the movement in the UK. Father and son were arrested in a crackdown that followed the toppling of the Islamist government in July 2013.

Ms Hussein said she had no knowledge of the senior Brotherhood positions held by members of the al-Qazzaz family. She was “a committed human rights activist”, was not an Islamist and was “vehemently opposed” to the raising of funds “by any organisation that supports terrorism”.

She said that her meeting with Mr al-Qazzaz had been a private one. She was studying for a doctorate and wanted to speak with a government education official “to encourage the synergies between human rights and educational planning”. Difficulties in booking a hotel led her to accept the room.

Amnesty said that, with the exception of the overnight stay, it “found no evidence to suggest any inappropriate links between Ms Hussein and the al-Qazzaz family”.

The charity said that Ms Hussein denied being a supporter of the Brotherhood and has told Amnesty that “any connections are purely circumstantial”. It said it did not believe that any of her alleged connections with Islamists represented a conflict of interest.

It added: “Amnesty International does, however, take very seriously any allegations that would call into question our impartiality and is therefore investigating the issues raised.”

That last part is hilarious. Amnesty's employees in the Middle East are hired because of their bias against Israel, not in spite of it.

For example, I reported that Amnesty campaigner Saleh Hijazi's Facebook profile picture was a photo of Leila Khaled, a PFLP terrorist and airline hijacker, while in 2012, his profile picture was a photo of Khader Adnan, a leader of the Islamic Jihad terror organization. In addition, NGO Monitor reports, while studying at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Hijazi wrote his thesis on "Yasser Arafat: A Palestinian Prophet in the Formation of Palestinian National Identity." Amnesty doesn't seem too concerned.

Deborah Hyams, another Amnesty researcher responsible for reports on Israel, has had her bias against Israel documented:

In 2001, Hyams volunteered as a “human shield” in Beit Jala (near Bethlehem), to deter Israeli military responses to recurrent gunfire and mortars targeting Jewish civilians in Jerusalem.

Hyams employs demonizing language regarding Israel: In 2008, she was signatory to a letterclaiming Israel is “a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land.” Hyams also statedin 2002 that “[some] of Israel’s actions, all the way back to 1948, could be called ‘ethnic cleansing’.”

In a 2002 Washington Jewish Week article, "Hyams said that while she does not condone suicide bombings, she personally believes they 'are in response to the occupation.'" In another instance she defended violence stating "occupation is violence...and the consequence of this action must result in violence [against Israelis]."

Hyams has worked for some of the most radical political advocacy NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Alternative Information Center (AIC),Jews for Justice in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), Rachel Corrie Foundation, and Ma’an Network. Any of these affiliations should have been a red flag for Amnesty.

The idea that Amnesty takes the appearance of bias seriously, at least in the Middle East region, is a joke.

And which is worse - having a spouse with links that indicate bias, or direct evidence of bias from the employees' own statements?

(h/t Margie)

Amnesty's Twitter account gets very chatty - but not about Gaza terrorists

As my readers know, I've spent a lot of time over the past 5 weeks tearing apart Amnesty's Gaza Platform, as especially their many tweets to commemorate the one year anniversary of various events that they claimed proved Israeli war crimes.

I answered virtually every one of their accusations with real facts about how the targets were legitimate under the laws of armed conflict, but I never saw their Twitter account respond to any of my facts.

But over the past couple of days, Amnesty started an entirely new Twitter initiative - to support Amnesty's position to decriminalize prostitution.

People are tweeting to Amnesty, and Amnesty is answering them by the score. I count about 40 replies to questions and comments.

So it is clear that Amnesty reads what is tweeted to them. It is clear that Amnesty chose to ignore my points about Gaza "civilians' who were terrorists, and about the many errors and biases in the Gaza Platform, and about the deceit behind their Gaza tweets.

Which means that the reason Amnesty didn't respond is because they know they are wrong, but their desire to demonize Israel is far more important to them than the truth.

Oh, and Amnesty USA has not responded to my challenge. They said that proof that civilians were really militants, in the form of photos of them in uniform, would result in corrections to the Gaza Platform, so I provided one.

Since then they tweeted other items but ignored me.

For the exact same reason mentioned above.

They know I'm right. They read my tweets, And they don't want the world to know that they are hypocrites.

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.

The "human rights" terrorist supporter that Amnesty missed

Yesterday, I noted that Amnesty International ended its three day streak of not writing an anti-Israel tweet. I assumed that the victim that they mentioned, a worker for the Al Mezan NGO, was targeted by accident.

#BeitHanoun Israeli drone fired at workers repairing pipeline, 1 bystander died: http://t.co/mx667hkltn #50Days4Gaza pic.twitter.com/a6NFtQLhmY
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) August 10, 2015

As Bob Knot researched, this is far from clear. Israel didn't target the workers, as Amnesty assumed. It apparently targeted the "human rights" worker, Anwar Za'anin.

This is him - a member of the PFLP terror group:

The PFLP was behind the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue massacre as well as the drive-by shooting of Israelis in a car in June 2015.

And Zaanin was a proud member of this group.

I don't know if he was an armed member of the PFLP, but chances are that Israeli intelligence identified him as a valid military target. The pipeline workers were not.

Later that same day, Ahmed Sami Ahmed Al Za'anin was targeted and wounded on the same street. PCHR admits that he was a militant. Chances are very good that Ahmed was this "human rights" worker's relative.

Another Ahmed Za'anin from Beit Hanoun who was also a member of the PFLP and had been killed by the IDF in January 2014 for shooting rockets.

Amnesty doesn't know the whole story by a long shot. Anwar was probably helping the PFLP's Mustafa Brigades, which bragged that it fought valiantly but did not admit any "martyrs" as far as I can tell. He certainly was a terrorist sympathizer, which would be considered strange for a "human rights" activist anywhere else in the world.

But there is no evidence that Israel targeted civilians for no reason, as Amnesty (and PCHR and Al Mezan) is saying.

Amnesty seems embarrassed by my exposé

On Friday, I reported that Amnesty International has been obsessed with Israel this month on their Twitter feed, and practically ignoring every real human rights issue worldwide in their singleminded pursuit of demonizing the Jewish state.

My graph went viral on Twitter.

Since then, as of this morning*, the @AmnestyOnline account has not tweeted a single thing about Israel. As of this morning there have been 18 consecutive non-Israel tweets, while for the previous month there had never been more than 4. And they have tweeted more about other topics than they had in weeks.

A first I thought it might be because of s cease fire in the Gaza war last year, but that cease fire ended on August 9.

Apparently, someone high up at Amnesty realized that this looks really bad and told the Twitter administrator to cool it, at least until they can get some of the blue bars above to go a bit higher.

Of course, no one at Amnesty has bothered to correct the many anti-Israel lies in their heralded Gaza Platform. They won't do that until the media notices and reports on their decision to build an expensive website based on provably wrong data.

*UPDATE: Amnesty did resume its Gaza tweets after I wrote this. From what I could tell it was really a civilian that was killed by accident - he was riding a motorcycle.

UPDATE 2: It gets much better than that.

Amnesty's Twitter obsession with Israel by the numbers, part 2

Yesterday I noted that 46 out of 100 Amnesty International's previous tweets as of Wednesday were about Israel.

Interestingly, since I mentioned that, there have been more tweets than usual, none about Israel or Gaza. Apparently Amnesty is starting to realize that their obsession with Israeli actions from a year ago using false data looks bad.

Well, it looks really bad when you see it graphically.

Here is the past month of tweets from @AmnestyOnline, the official Amnesty International Twitter account, and how many times various words/topics occurred:

About 10,000 Syrians were killed in the past two months- but Syria was only mentioned four times.

Saudi Arabia continues to bomb Yemen, killing civilians. Barely a blip.

If I would include only tweets from Amnesty itself, and not retweets from others, the numbers would be even more lopsided.

The only other one-year anniversary I saw them tweet was a retweet about the abduction of the Yazidi girls that caused a stir a year ago. But Amnesty's website didn't mark the anniversary. Instead, it launched two separate major anti-Israel projects - Gaza Platform and "Black Friday" accompanied with press events.

Remember that Amnesty recently excluded antisemitism as a topic of their concern because they simply didn't have the resources. But for bashing Israel they can find all the money they want.

The donors to Amnesty should be aware of how their charity dollars are being spent. If they think that Amnesty is working hard to eliminate injustice throughout the world, then they need to ask why Israeli actions from a year ago are so disproportionately targeted compared to every current crisis on the planet.

(UPDATE: I was double-counting some of the Gaza and Israel tweets, so I combined them and recounted in a more accurate manner.)