An angry Twitter thread to @Amnesty @AmnestyUSA, serial liars and Jew-haters.

I don't use the word "antisemitic" loosely, but in the case of Amnesty International, it really fits.

Amnesty USA has spent the past two days posting a huge number of tweets to justify the "apartheid" report, which did not get a wonderful reception in the US.

In one thread, AmnestyUSA claimed that the organization treats all countries equally:

Amnesty International is committed to researching and documenting human rights abuses wherever they occur. We have issued reports on crimes against humanity committed by authorities in countries around the world, from China to Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

In 2017, Amnesty International released conclusive evidence that authorities in Myanmar are committing apartheid against the Rohingya.

Our sole mandate is to document and expose human rights violations wherever we find them and to issue recommendations that will remedy and end them.

As someone who has followed Amnesty's antisemitism for years, I sort of lost it.

Here is my response, fixing typos because I was so angry:

Why you are full of crap:
1. Oh, great, you also accused Myanmar of apartheid. So you are comparing Israel with a country that engaged in mass rapes and genocide. AND NO ONE ELSE is given the title "apartheid.". Not even China with Uighurs. Not Darfuris in Sudan. You are comparing Jews with the worst abusers ever. Drop dead.

2. You have OBSESSED over Israel. You spent untold time and money just to attack travel companies who don't discriminate against Jews in Judea and Samaria. Your priorities are all screwed up,@amnesty, and it happens to be against Jews. There's a word for that. 

3. Remember your Gaza Platform? It's still there today. It was based on complete garbage input. I showed scores of photos of terrorists that you called "civilian" or even CHILDREN. I pointed it out. You never corrected it. Still online today. You KNOWINGLY lie about Israel. 

4. But that wasn't the only dedicated website you set up to demonize Israel. You also have "Black Friday," paying web designers who knows how much to meticulously demonize Israel. You NEVER do anything remotely similar against anyone else. Not Myanmar, not China. NO ONE. 

5. Do you spend so much time on Israel because you care about Palestinians? Of course not. Palestinians in Lebanon REALLY DO live under apartheid - special laws just against them, limits on where they can live. But your last report on them was in 2007! Why? NO JEWS. 

6. Amnesty-UK has hosted antisemites in its space. But it refused to host a Jewish group! Why? Because you support f-king antisemites. elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2018/01/amnest…

7. You accept as credible the most absurd Palestinian lies, and you suspect anything a Jew says. Only one example: elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/10/outrag…

8. Remember back in 2013 when you accused Israel of limiting fuel into Gaza? It was a lie. Hamas was limiting fuel. You never corrected it. Why? Because you have a problem with Jews, you antisemitic jerks.
elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/12/amnest…

9. You try REALLY HARD to find things to blame on Jews, but when Hamas is caught on film using ambulances and hospitals for fighting - you claim you "can't find evidence" of the charges. Yes, you excuse Hamas war crimes - and Gaza civilians lose because of your unrestrained hate of the Jewish state. elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2014/08/amnest…

10. You have articles where you are against incitement to violence. Yet when Israel arrests an Israeli Muslim who has a long history of direct incitement to kill Jews, you support the threats. Because - Jews. elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/11/amnest…

11. Saleh Hijazi, Deputy Director for MENA at International, SUPPORTS TERRORISTS. His Facebook page includes tributes to senior Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan (who openly advocates blowing up Jews) and to airplane hijacker Leila Khaled.
Human rights. Yeah, right. 

12. In 2015, Amnesty International rejected a motion to tackle the rise in antisemitic attacks in Britain at its annual conference.

You guys NEVER reject resolutions at your conferences - unless it is against antisemitism.

Now you claim to be against antisemitism. Sure. 

13. Besides Gaza and Black Friday, you have a THIRD dedicated subdomain/website against Israel, about the "Nakba." Name one other country that has 2. I think you have 1 about Syria.
Don't tell us that you treat all issues equally. You HATE the only Jewish state. 

I could do this all day. How you praise organizations that support terror and post antisemitism (YAS.) How you claim IDF soldiers can't be hurt by firebombs and boulders dropped on them. How you deny Hamas uses human shields - defending human rights violations.

ENOUGH. 

Feel free to look at my MANY articles proving 's lies, bias, duplicity and false interpretations of international law. elderofziyon.blogspot.com/search/label/A…

And then AmnestyUSA made me even angrier with this thread which has nothing to do with their report:

On 1 June 2018, 21-year-old paramedic Razan al-Najjar was killed by Israeli sniper fire while she was treating injured protesters during the Great March of Return.  Razan was wearing her white coat, clearly identifying her as a medic. According to an investigation by the New York Times, the sniper fired one round of live ammunition into the crowd.Moments earlier, Razan and three other Palestinian paramedics had moved closer to the fence to provide assistance to the injured protesters, holding up their hands to show they meant no harm. Razan was shot in the chest and died in hospital.Neither Razan nor her colleagues posed any threat to Israeli forces. Amnesty International believes that Razan Al-Najjar was wilfully killed - a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.

Up until the last sentence, Amnesty was relying on the New York Times reporting of the incident, using hundreds of photos and videos to track the path of the bullet, something that only ever happens in Israel. But al-Najjar was indeed killed by an Israeli bullet, that part is accurate.

However, the New York Times didn't say that the sniper targeted the nurse. On the contrary, the investigation showed that the bullet fragmented and ricocheted off the ground, breaking into three pieces that hit three different people.  

Amnesty takes the NYT investigation, and without adding any new information, decides that the NYT is wrong and the sniper aimed at the nurse. This is a figment of Amnesty's imagination and there is no evidence of it. One can claim the sniper was reckless or made a mistake, but one cannot say that it was a murder given the evidence. 

Clearly, Amnesty is more interested in crucifying Israel than telling the truth. And that is a consistent pattern, as I have shown scores of times over the years.

Why did Amnesty USA decide to bring up this story from three years ago now? Because they want to deflect from the clear evidence that their "apartheid" report is biased and has no basis in international law. So they do what Twitter trollers do - ignore the evidence against their position and try to go on the offensive on an unrelated topic.Calling them trolls is generous. Because their only obsession centers on Jews. 

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Now Qatar and the PA are insulting each other

Over the weekend, the the head of the Qatar National Committee for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Al-Emadi, criticized PA president Mahmoud Abbas over his collective punishment of Gazans to pressure Hamas, which includes withholding medicines, fuel and salaries.

Al Emadi told reporters, "I've said to President Abbas before: You are the president of the Palestinian people in full, give something to your children, leave the politics aside and do not give anything to Hamas or anything else; just give something to your people."

He warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is on the verge of "total collapse...where the citizens have no one to help them.. There is a government that does not fulfill its duty, ... and only the people pay the price."

"We told Israel that the situation in Gaza is intolerable. You have to find a solution to this. You have the key and you are the jailers. There is also blame for the Palestinian Authority and blame for Egypt, which does not open the Rafah crossing," he said.

The head of the Fatah media office Mounir Jagoub responded that "Qatar's statements themselves deny the human character, and reflect incomprehensible positions that are abusive to the Palestinian leadership."

Jagoub continued, "Al-Emadi's political statements before the news agencies against Brother Abu Mazen is an attempt to exploit the tragic situation in Gaza, disguising what we offer our people there under our duty of support as we share with them money and medicine. " He called on Al-Emadi to "retreat from his positions, which are consistent with the campaigns aimed at perpetuating division and spreading division among our people."

Qatar has been boycotted by other Gulf states for its refusal to cut ties with Iran, and the country has been on a charm offensive centered on right wing American Jewish leaders, who have surprisingly allowed themselves to be used in this cynical way to provide cover for the country.

Qatar has been trying for years to position itself as an honest broker in the Middle East, talking with anyone - including Israel - presumably to increase its own prestige as a power player. And it has done the same in Gaza, cooperating with Hamas in providing aid to Gazans.

And yet, the impression I've gotten from watching its actions in Gaza is that despite its political ambitions and its current setbacks, Qatar is the only Arab country that seems to care about actual Gazans and their welfare. Much of its help has been towards purely humanitarian projects - housing, medicine and the like. It is true that when Hamas had full control over Gaza, Qatar's funding made it easier for Hamas to abdicate its own responsibility as the de facto government there, and instead put its money into building a terror infrastructure. Still, Qatar's willingness to put hundreds of millions into Gaza has shows that the other Arab nations' pro-Palestinian rhetoric is hollow.

Hamas is willing to use Gazans as human shields. The PA is willing to hurt them in its attempt to retake Gaza. Egypt has nothing against Gazans themselves but it will not risk its own security just to help them out. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states consider Hamas to be the enemy both because of its Muslim Brotherhood origins and its friendliness with Iran, so they only  pay lip service to  Gaza.

Qatar is no paradigm of morality, but it seems to care more about Gaza than the rest of the Palestinians themselves do, let alone the rest of the Arab world and the many supposedly "pro-Palestinian" NGOs that will never say a word against anyone besides Israel.

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Latest "human shield" lie debunked (update)

Al Ahram (Egypt) reports:

Israeli forces used a 17-year-old Palestinian as a human shield while trying to disperse a protest in Abu Dis in the West Bank this Friday, the Electronic Intifada website reported.

Independent journalist Huthifa Jamous took pictures of the incident and shared a video shot by another observer, Kate A, a journalist, on his Facebook page.

The boy, called Muhammad R. by Electronic Intifada, is marched out of an armoured vehicle by Israeli forces. With his hands tied with a single plastic cord and raised above his head, and his shirt pulled up, he is led out to face out-of-frame protestors.

Three soldiers then raise their weapons, and shoot twice in the direction of the protesters. The youth is then forced back to the vehicle. One of the soldiers then flashes the V-for-victory sign.

According to the Jerusalem Media Center and Ma'an news agency, the incident occurred when at least 500 Palestinians in Abu Dis held a protest expressing solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. Israeli forces fired teargas and rubber bullets at them. The protestors responded by hurling stones and empty bottles.

They show this video as proof:


We have seen many times that an event might be photographed accurately, but the caption lies. This is the video equivalent.

Here is a classic case of an ambiguous event occurring where the framework is given by an anti-Israel source - and gullible journalists believe that the video supports the report, when in fact it is the opposite.

Think for a second. How effective is a "human shield" if it is used for only a couple of seconds and then put back in the police van?

Just a quick unbiased view of the video indicates that the soldiers are showing the rioter to his comrades. Before I researched this my guess was that the rioters started a rumor that the teenager (assuming he is a teen) had died and the soldiers were proving that he was not injured.

Which was what indeed happened, as the Jerusalem Post reported after the incident:

Border Police spokesman Idan Iluz said Saturday that the officers were not using the teen as a human shield, and instead had pulled him out of the jeep in order to show the protesters that the boy had not been harmed.

Iluz said that a rumor had made its way among the demonstrators that the boy had been injured, and as a result they began to react violently, throwing rocks at officers.

He said that not long after the boy was taken out of the car and shown to the protesters, the situation calmed down considerably.

A look at the fuller version of the video shows also that the "Jerusalem Media Center" - which is QudsMedia.com, a site that lies continuously, often about "Jews storming the Temple Mount" - is lying here as well as to the order of events. It is clear that the stone-throwing and rioting came first, and the tear gas later.



You can see that the IDF even temporarily withdrew from the dangerous stone rioting, as the rioters yelled "Allah Akbar". This supports the idea that the IDF only returned to show that the youth had been unharmed.

This incident also illustrates how Al Ahram believes the lies of Israel haters without the slightest critical thinking, or even a five second search through the Internet to see the Israeli statement about the incident, even though it published this two days later. Which means that this respected Egyptian paper acts exactly like Hamas in its reporting.

(h/t Israel Muse)

UPDATE: Now Electronic Intifada is walking back the "human shield" claim (even though they keep it in the headline) and restating the "crime" by saying that the IDF exposed the youth to danger by bringing him to a dangerous place. Which is funny, because I thought rock throwing was "non-violent resistance."

They also say, implausibly, that the beginning of the video happened after the part where the teen is shown. Sure, everyone edits things backwards.

I cannot answer why the IDF shot a couple of rounds in the latter part of the video, but clearly this is not a "human shield" situation and the initial lies by EI were picked up by media worldwide. Which is, of course, what they intended, truth be damned.

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Report: 14 "Naksa" mourners in Syria killed - by Palestinian terrorists! (UPDATED x3)

From Ma'an:

Fourteen Palestinian refugees were reported killed and another 43 injured on Monday, a report from the Palestinian government's WAFA news said.

The victims were part of a massive group in Al-Yarmok, an unofficial Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus, mourning the death of between 10-23 Palestinians by Israeli fire on the Golan Heights ceasefire line the day before.

Angered over the failure of camp leaders to organize demonstrations marking the Naksa, the anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights, an estimated 100,000 mourners were said to have attacked the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command.

Militants with the PFLP-GC reportedly opened fire on the group, who were taken to a local camp hospital for treatment. The report cited hospital staff saying 14 were pronounced dead.

During the clash, mourners reportedly set fire into the PFLP-GC headquarters, and condemned the group for its use of weapons against the crowd.

Palestine Press Agency adds that the PFLP-GC is a close partner with the Syrian leadership. Which would explain why a recognized terrorist group runs the Yarmouk camp.

Sources said that the demonstrators chanted against [PFLP-GC leader] Ahmad Jibril, Khaled Mashaal and other political leaders based in Damascus, accusing them of being agents of the Syrian regime.

This group was not "pro-Palestinian" enough to have some ceremonies to mark the 1967 war - like the Lebanese camps that had their solemn burning of tires at the entrances - so they attacked their terrorist leaders.

The terrorists did what one would expect them to do - shoot and kill their fellow Palestinian Arabs. (Note also that Syria has no problem allowing terror groups in these camps to be armed.)

The camp residents, naturally, then burn down the headquarters of their leaders.

And the upshot is - there are now 14 more martyrs of the "Naksa." And the Syrians have reason to be suspicious of their Palestinian Arab "guests," which could have some interesting repercussions, as the Palestinian Arabs in Syria have mostly been on the sidelines during the rioting against the regime.

Yes, I know you need a scorecard to keep all the factions straight. One thing is clear, though - everyone hates Israel, as this video of anti-government protesters in Homs stomping on Israeli - and Iranian! - flags shows:



UPDATE: YNet reports that a visit by Hamas' Khaled Meshal started the riots! YNet doesn't mention how many fatalities, though.
(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

UPDATE 2: Palestine Press Agency updated the story. Apparently the funeral attendees resented that the PFLP-GC head Jibril and Hamas leader Meshal attended the funeral.

They accused both terror leaders of sending Palestinian Arabs to the border to get killed - to serve the agenda of Syria to distract from their own bloody war against their people.

UPDATE 3: Graphic video of one of the protesters getting shot in the head by the PFLP-GC. Viewer discretion advised.


Amazing how there is no video of Naksa protesters getting supposedly fatally shot by the IDF, isn't it?
(h/t Yael)

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Goldstone Report website launches

A new website, set up by prominent bloggers and writers, goes into detail on the Goldstone Report's problems. The main organizer is Professor Richard Landes, historian and writer of the Augean Stables blog and Second Draft site. Many other people, including myself, contribute to the website. As the website says:

Those of us who have constructed Understanding the Goldstone Report, have been following the claims under contention since the events themselves almost a year ago, and have read the report in detail. We offer a wide range of analysis, from careful examination of specific incidents and controversies to broader legal and conceptual issues. In so doing, we have come to the following conclusions:

• The report violates international standards for inquries, including UN rules on fact-finding, replicating earlier UNHRC biased statements.
• The Commission systematically favored witnesses and evidence put forward by anti-Israel advocates, and dismissed evidence and testimony that would undermine its case.
• The commission relied extensively on mediating agencies, especially UN and NGOs, which have a documented hostility to Israel; the report reproduces earlier reports and claims from these agencies.
• At the same time, the Commission inexplicably downplayed or ignored substantial evidence of Hamas’ commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of terror, including specifically its victimization of the Palestinian population by its use of human shields, civilian dress for combatants, and combat use of protected objects like ambulances, hospitals and mosques.
• The Commission openly denies a presumption of innocence to the Israelis accused of crimes (while honoring Hamas’ presumed innocence) and acknowledges that it made accusations of crimes without proof that would stand up in court.
• The report contains numerous gratuitous digressions into issues beyond the purview of a fact-finding commission that are inaccurate and profoundly hostile to Israel and Jews.
• The Commission distorted legal standards, imposing on Israel standards that reverse their generally understood and applied meaning, while ignoring important rules of international law that put the onus of responsibility on an organization as base, by Goldstone’s own standards, as Hamas.

Check it out.

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HRW will believe anything (UPDATED)

HRW just came out with a report claiming multiple cases where IDF soldiers killed, in cold blood, innocent civilians holding white flags. I cannot speak to all the details of the report right now, but one part is clear: HRW fully believes the "eyewitness" accounts of liars. They interviewed the Abed Rabbo family, whose previous statements to reporters were found to be incredibly inconsistent. The fact that HRW is so credulous when many have noted the inconsistencies shows that their research is pretty shoddy. At the very least they should have addressed the issue, but of course that is not HRW's aim. One simple example: HRW says that

Seven neighborhood residents who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that major fighting in the area had stopped by the morning of January 7, although sporadic exchanges of fire may have continued after that.

Time magazine's report mentions a salient fact that HRW chose to ignore:

Most residents of Jebel al-Kashif claim there were no Hamas fighters in the area at the time of the alleged incident, but a middle-aged farmer in a battered army jacket took me aside and said, in a near whisper, that Hamas had been firing rockets from the vicinity of where the episode took place.

Now, who is more credible? The farmer has nothing to gain by lying, but the Abed Rabbo family - who are members of Fatah and who had earlier told a PA newspaper that Hamas was using them as human shields - just might not want to antagonize their tormenters. Why are none of these facts mentioned by HRW when it relates the story of the Abed Rabbo sisters told by a family with very shaky credibility? The reason is, of course, that HRW wants to find human rights abuses and "war crimes," and will ignore evidence to the contrary. NGO Monitor's critique of the report can be found here. UPDATE: Here's video of a terrorist trying to get away from the IDF by using a white flag, something HRW seems to not have known about during the past seven months. (h/t Richard Landes of Augean Stables via email)

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Knock, knock - another example of Free Gaza/Hamas propaganda

The Free Gaza Movement is trying hard to be the premier place to go to get unfettered pro-terrorist propaganda. Here is part of a recent email meant to stir up rage against Israel:

1. Israel has begun a new policy in Gaza in the past two days called the "roof knock". This is when a "small" rocket is fired from Israeli military aircraft that is strong enough to blast open the roof of a targeted building. It is sent as a "warning message" to the building's inhabitants giving them between 2 and 3 minutes to evacuate before the building is completely destroyed. A number of cases of this new technique have been reported recently.

And what is the truth? From the New York Times:

A new Israeli weapon, meanwhile, is tailored to the Hamas tactic of asking civilians to stand on the roofs of buildings so Israeli pilots will not bomb. The Israelis are countering with a missile designed, paradoxically, not to explode. They aim the missiles at empty areas of the roofs to frighten residents into leaving the buildings, a tactic called “a knock on the roof.”

The evil-sounding IDF method is, yet again, a way to save the lives of Gazans that Hamas is purposefully putting into danger. And the FGM just happens to leave out the part about Hamas using human shields. This shows yet again that Israel spends time, effort and thought into how to save Gazans' lives while going after terrorists, and Hamas spends time and effort on how to endanger Gazans' lives in order to save their own. Hamas' and Islamic Jihad's tactics of purposefully hiding behind civilians is the evil here, and no amount of pro-terrorist "human rights' spin can make it otherwise. Plus, we once again see that Free Gaza is simply a Hamas PR front organization who cares little about real Palestinian Arab lives and much about whitewashing Hamas' crimes against the people they pretend to care about. Just like many of the "pro-Palestinian" protesters.

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