Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: pchr

Showing posts with label pchr. Show all posts

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Palestinian "human rights" group accuses Israel of intending to prevent births in Gaza, because that is one definition of genocide

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights is looking hard for novel ways to accuse Jews of heinous crimes in order to keep its European funding. The NGO, with known ties to the PFLP terror group, issued a report accusing Israel of intentionally attempting to prevent births in the Gaza Strip.

Really.

The paper takes as a given that Israel specifically intends to wipe out Palestinians, in part by actively and deliberately preventing them from giving birth.

The entire reason for this report is to shoehorn Israel into Article 2(d) of the Genocide Convention, which says, "In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:....(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group."

Hence the title of the report.

It doesn't bother trying to prove intention, because it can't. It just asserts it, and then lists several examples of pregnant women caught in a war that their side started, doing some hand waving, and pretending that they somehow proved that Israel specifically and intentionally targeted those women and that they weren't just stuck in the middle of battles.

The anecdotes given are not researched and verified. At least one is almost certainly a lie:

After being exposed to white phosphorus fired by IOF on al-Wehdah Street in Gaza, I suffered from severe suffocation and was 8-month pregnant. I fled to al-Remal Preparatory School and after two weeks, it was my due date so I went to the Patient’s Friends Clinic to check on my baby. The doctor told me that the baby was not moving and died. I was totally shocked and did not want to believe at first because I was 9-month pregnant and could feel the baby’ moving every day. I did another checkup with another doctor on the same day, but he confirmed what the first doctor said, “you lost your baby.” He asked me if I was exposed to white phosphorus and I said yes. He told me it was the reason behind my miscarriage as many women like me lost their babies for the same reason. There was a woman beside me who lost her baby in the same circumstances. I was so sad and worn out mentally as the due date of my baby marked his death.

Israel would not use white phosphorus in the middle of Gaza City. The only report I'd seen was Amnesty and HRW saying that Israel used WP in the first week of the war in the port area of Gaza City based on photographs. I have not seen the accusation since then. There would be lots of photos because WP use has a distinctive look. But suddenly, this woman is an expert on what white phosphorus looks and smells like, as opposed to any other smoke.

Another woman claims that her baby died January 18 because the NICU in Kamal Odwan Hospital had no electricity - but I cannot find any reports of babies dying from lack of electricity in that hospital in January (there were such reports in November.) I cannot find any mention of electricity shortages in that hospital in January at all in the WHO or OCHA sites; Israel arrested dozens of terrorists from that hospital in December.

PCHR does not even make a pretense of checking the facts from these "testimonies." Or even fo having a professional methodology for the interviews to begin with.

One could use the same methodology to find all mothers who miscarried in 2023 and ask how many ate cornflakes for breakfast that week, then writing a report about how the cornflakes cause miscarriages.

What is clear is that the report's conclusions were written before the report itself was, and PCHR than looked for any evidence it could make up to confirm what it already determined.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The Palestinian Authority has its own law to severely restrict all NGOs - and no one reports about it

Cover of PCHR's "Annual Reprot" [sic]

Remember the huge amount of outrage last year when Israel shut down the offices of seven PFLP-linked NGOs? It was condemned by the UN, political leaders and human rights groups.

Well, buried in the Palestinian Center of Human Rights 2022 annual report we see something that didn't generate a single headline in the West.

This year witnessed further restrictions, including the amendment to the non-profit companies’ regulation upon a decision issued by the Palestinian Cabinet, which imposed excessive restrictions on the work and funding of non-profit companies, under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Issuance of the Non-Profit Companies Regulation No. (20) of 2022

The Palestinian Cabinet issued a new regulation on non-profit companies, which includes many restrictions on the work and funding of these companies, which is one of the forms of the right to freedom of association in Palestine. This regulation, which was published in the issue 194 of the Palestinian Gazette on 25 September 2022, included serious restrictions that threaten the existence of CSOs registered as non-profit companies.

The new regulation, which has replaced the old one in force since 2010 and the cabinet’s decision attached to it in 2016 concerning the funding of non-profit companies, came to add more restrictions on the right to form non-profit companies, as the old regulation included many restrictions. The regulation was issued under the pretext of fighting terrorism and money laundering.

More arbitrary measures were imposed by the authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on associations, threatening the associations’ right to exist, practice its activities freely, and obtain funding. Most of them fully violate the fundamental rights relevant to the freedom of association, including their right to existence, free performance of activities, receipt of funds and the right to privacy and independence. Also, increased restrictive measures are imposed on the associations in the Gaza Strip due to the double restrictions imposed by the two authorities in Gaza and the West Bank.

So the PA and Hamas are also restricting NGO activity. They are also claiming that they are doing this to fight "terrorism" which is as ironic as it gets.

The Palestinian law includes a provision that the NGOs must operate in line with the plan of action of the relevant Palestinian government ministries, meaning that the takes away all independence for the NGOs. There are many other onerous provisions.

But no one has a problem with this. I couldn't find any article in Western news media that discussed this topic exclusively.

Palestinian human rights violations are simply not reported. Because if they would be, then the entire lucrative industry of anti-Israel reporting would collapse.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

A dead family in Gaza: The other half of the story

Last year, during the May 2021 fighting in Gaza, an IAF missile destroyed an apartment in Gaza City, killing a mother and two of her children - Rima Telbani(31), Zeid(4) and Maryam(2).

Israel was blamed for targeting civilians. The New York Times published a photo of the children.

Today, another victim of that attack succumbed to his wounds. His name is Muhammad Ouda Yousef Al-Telbani.

He was a Hamas terrorist.

In fact, in the building at the same time were two other senior Hamas terrorists who were killed - who were not mentioned by PCHR.

Which means that the building was almost certainly a command and control center - and the cute Telbani kids were human shields for Hamas, including for their father.

That changes the story a bit, doesn't it?

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

"Human rights groups" bending over backwards to NOT blame Islamic Jihad for killing over a dozen children

The Fallujah cemetery in Jabalya, where 5 children were killed by an Islamic Jihad rocket.
Note the spray pattern of tiny holes from the shrapnel that PIJ uses to maximize death and damage.

The response of "human rights groups" to the fighting in Gaza last weekend proves, beyond any doubt, how they try to obscure the truth about Islamic Jihad's killing of over 20 civilians, including at least 12 children - even though they know the truth quite well.

No fewer than four human rights groups have investigated every death in Gaza last week. If you parse their statements carefully, every one of them know that Islamic Jihad rockets killed most of the kids.

And not one will say this explicitly, because that would water down their criticism of Israel.

Gaza's Health Ministry says that 48 were killed over the weekend (and from their wounds since) including 16 children. PCHR issued their summary in their weekly report yesterday, after they have had four days to investigate the deaths. They count 27 deaths in Gaza - and say "Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating other incidents that inflicted casualties and damage to property." They list only 3 children.

They completely ignore the deaths of (by their count) 21 civilians, including 12 children (the last one may have died after their report was prepared.)

What kind of a human rights group ignores the violent death of 12 children, not even mentioning them beyond a laconic mention of "other incidents that inflicted casualties"?

A typical one, it seems. Because we see the same lack of interest in mentioning Islamic Jihad rockets at the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 47 Palestinians were killed during the offensive, including 16 children and four women, and 360 others were injured, including 151 children and 58 women. Eighteen residential units were destroyed, while dozens of others were partially damaged.

Al Mezan’s fieldwork team works to document and investigate every single act of hostilities that occurred in the Gaza Strip and has so far verified the killing of 27 Palestinians and the complete destruction of 12 homes by Israeli forces. Al Mezan continues to conduct its own independent field investigations and collect information on all incidents of killing and damaging or destruction of houses, property, and other civilian objects in Gaza.

They know at least 20 civilians were killed by Islamic Jihad - and they refuse to even mention the possibility. 12 kids dead and the two major Palestinian human rights groups ignore them.

But it is not only Palestinian human rights NGOs. The Palestinian division of Defense for Children International has done the exact same thing. As I have reported, their headline is meant to give people the impression that Israel killed 16 children: "16 Palestinian children in Gaza dead after Israeli military offensive." But they can only document 3 children, and say, "DCIP is still investigating the source of four explosions across the Gaza Strip that killed another 13 Palestinian children. "

At least DCI-P mentions the possibility of the children being killed by rocket fire, unlike PCHR and Al Mezan. But even after listing the mysterious unknown explosions, they emphasize that they want to blame Israel alone, saying, "The Israeli military launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on August 5, killing at least 44 people and injuring at least 350, according to Al Jazeera." Their own investigations proves Al Jazeera is lying, but they want to blame Israel for the deaths of the children so they artfully write a report to give that impression.

And then there is the UN Human Rights Office of the Commissioner, which issued a press release that heavily implies that Israel is responsible for the deaths of all Gazans, but doesn't directly say it - because they know the truth as well.

UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet today expressed alarm at the high number of Palestinians, including children, killed and injured in the occupied Palestinian territory this year, including in intense hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza last weekend.

The civilian cost of the latest escalation in Gaza from 5-7 August was heavy. The UN Human Rights Office has verified that among the 48 Palestinians killed, there were at least 22 civilians, including 17 children and four women. The status of 22 fatalities remains undetermined.

...In violation of international humanitarian law, Palestinian armed groups also launched hundreds of rockets and mortars in indiscriminate attacks, causing civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects in Israel as well as in Gaza.

You really have to parse the press release carefully to realize that they are barely hinting that some 20 civilians were killed by Islamic Jihad - and they don't mention that the majority of those "undetermined" ones are children.

All four of these human rights NGOs clearly know the truth, and all of them bend over backwards to obfuscate it and direct their audience's anger at Israel only - even though their own investigations indicate that over 80% of the children were killed by Islamic Jihad.

By blaming Israel exclusively for the deaths of the children, they are engaging in a blood libel, saying that Jews either purposefully target children or show a wanton disregard for their lives. In fact, every single child that was killed by Israeli airstrikes had been either a human shield or an unfortunate casualty during an attack on a legitimate military target, and there is no evidence of the slightest bit of Israeli negligence or violation of international law.

But beyond that, they have not issued a single word of condemnation for Islamic Jihad, not even mentioning its name. By ignoring or downplaying the rocket attacks and only blaming Israel, they are exonerating Islamic Jihad's war crimes.

Even worse, these reports from four major human rights NGOs show that the lives of the children really do not matter to them unless they can blame Israel. Their careful language is meant to hide the facts. Unless dead kids can be blamed on Israel, they don't want to talk about them. They try not to technically lie but they sure as hell don't want to tell the truth.

Which means that these are not human rights organizations. They are anti-Israel organizations who use human rights as a weapon against the Jewish state.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Here's one way to tell that Palestinians were likely killed by Islamic Jihad rockets

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights puts out bulletins that are the most detailed available on airstrikes in Gaza.

It blames all incidents on Israel, of course. But a little reading between the lines shows that many of the supposed strikes are actually from Islamic Jihad rockets falling short in Gaza.

The IDF has documented well over a hundred of such failed rocket launches:

When PCHR writes about an IDF "shell" causing deaths or damage, it can safely be assumed that this was a rocket. IDF bombs are devastating in the damage they cause and IDF intelligence is quite good at targeting; as far as I can tell the IDF is not using any artillery yet in Gaza.

IDF strikes look like this:

If there is only a small hole in the roof, it isn't from the IDF.

When PCHR says random people are killed by "shells" that indicates a failed Gaza rocket launch.

Here are some:

8/5 16:20: an artillery shell fell on a house belonging to ‘Adnan ‘Atiyah al-‘Amour in al-Fokhari area, eastern Khan Younis. As a result, the owner’s 22-year-old daughter, Doniana, was killed after sustaining shrapnel wounds all over her body.

At approximately 23:20 on Friday, 05 August 2022, 5 Palestinians, including a mother and her 3 children, were injured after an artillery shell landed on Foad Ghazi ‘Abdullah Farajallah’s house in Jabalia refugee camp, causing material damage to it.

At around 00:15 on Saturday, 06 August 2022, an artillery shell fell on the roof of Al-Quds Open University building in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, causing a hole in its roof and damage to the study halls.

15:55: IOF fired a shell at a group of people gathering in front of Hussein ‘Ali al-Zuwaidi’s house, northeastern Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip. As a result, 2 civilians, including the house owner’s son, Nour Al-Deen (18), sustained shrapnel wounds all over their bodies. Due to their serious condition, they were referred to al-Shifa Hospital, where Nour al-Deen was pronounced dead at around 18:30.

We've documented PCHR lies many times. By default, they assume every death is from Israeli fire, and they never correct their information after it is shown that they are wrong.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Amnesty and other NGOs actually want Palestinians to die - as long as Israel will be blamed. (And they consider Palestinians to be too stupid to make their own decisions.)

A couple of weeks ago, a series of NGOs including the Amnesty, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, B'Tselem and even two Palestinian human rights organizations issued a press release demanding that Israel provide vaccines for Palestinians.

They use poor arguments, most of which I debunked in last night's webcast, but one of them deserves more attention - because it shows how bigoted these groups are against Palestinians.

We express grave concerns about media reports that the Russian-developed vaccine will be delivered to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA has not fully indicated which vaccines it aims to purchase and distribute, although it has made clear that it does not have sufficient funds and capabilities to purchase the necessary vaccinations. Israel cannot transfer a vaccine which is not approved for its own citizens. Such a step would violate the Paris Protocol on Economic Relations and the long-standing policy of the Israeli Ministry of Health to only allow the distribution of medicines in the OPT which have undergone the necessary scientific and regulatory procedures. Although the Paris Protocol has come under criticism in the past for, inter alia, obliging the PA to import medications that are beyond its financial reach, as long as it is binding, Israel cannot import a vaccine that it has not approved for its own population and send it to the occupied population. Israel must ensure that the vaccines delivered to Palestinians in the OPT, also meet the approvals of the Israeli health system, and that these vaccines be purchased and delivered as soon as possible.

What does the Paris Protocol say?

...Both sides will maintain the same import policy (various exceptions) and regulations including classification, valuation and other customs procedures, which are based on the principles governing international codes, and the same policies of import licensing and of standards for imported goods, all as applied by Israel with respect to its importation. Israel may from time to time introduce changes in any of the above, provided that changes in standard requirements will not constitute a non-tariff-barrier and will be based on considerations of health, safety and the protection of the environment in conformity with Article 2.2. of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to trade of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations.

So even if this paragraph applies to importing medicines (which is not at all obvious) Israel can change the policy for maintaining public health!

And what does the Agreement on Technical Barriers Article 2.2 say?

Members shall ensure that technical regulations are not prepared, adopted or applied with a view to or with the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade. For this purpose, technical regulations shall not be more trade-restrictive than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective, taking account of the risks non-fulfilment would create. Such legitimate objectives are, inter alia: national security requirements; the prevention of deceptive practices; protection of human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment. In assessing such risks, relevant elements of consideration are, inter alia: available scientific and technical information, related processing technology or intended end-uses of products.

These very regulations referred to in the Paris Protocols say that Israel should not place any barriers in place to stop Palestinians from getting the medicines they need!

Clearly, when the Palestinians don't have ultra-cold freezers needed to stockpile the Pfizer vaccine , the Russian Sputnik vaccine seems like a viable alternative to help millions of their citizens. The Palestinian Authority has scientists and doctors that can look at the literature and see whether it makes sense to accept the Russian vaccine. Other countries like India have decided that the Russian vaccine is safe enough to rely on. One can argue about the decision, but is hardly irresponsible for leaders to choose the Russian vaccine in the interests of protecting the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time.

But Amnesty and these other NGOs disagree with this. They want to take away Palestinian choice as to how to treat their own people!

If anyone else would say that Palestinians are too immature or too ignorant to decide on how their own health programs should work, they would be rightly considered to be bigots.

Beyond that, Amnesty and the other NGOs are saying that it is better for Palestinians to wait for Israel to build an entire infrastructure to distribute the Pfizer vaccine, or to wait to receive the Moderna vaccine, than to import the Sputnik vaccine today. Every day a couple of dozen Palestinians are dying of COVID-19 and Amnesty is saying that time is not of the essence to provide vaccines to them, even though the logistics of Israel providing the vaccines in Palestinian areas is enormously expensive and time consuming.

The NGOs even say it is Israel's responsibility to keep the medicines cold:

Ensuring smooth entry of vaccines and other medical equipment to the oPt, including preserving a 'cold chain’ to keep vaccines refrigerated during transit if necessary.

Ultra-cold freezers aren't exactly available at Best Buy. There are only a couple of manufacturers and they are swamped. It would take months to acquire an adequate supply of this equipment to bring into the territories, by which time there will be other vaccines available that do not require anything colder than a refrigerator.

This demand, by itself, shows how out of touch these NGOs are - and how willing they are to sacrifice Palestinians as long as they can blame Israel for their deaths.

There is only one conclusion that can be drawn: Amnesty and the other NGOs hate Israel more than they care about Palestinian lives. This demand, by itself, proves how hateful they are both towards Israel and towards Palestinians themselves.

To call these "human rights "organizations is a sick joke.

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

The fake "civilians" of Gaza, 2019 edition

PCHR, the Palestine Center for Human Rights - the organization that Amnesty International relied on to claim that there were far more civilians killed in Gaza in 2014 than there actually were - says:

At approximately 22:10 on Saturday evening, 04 May 2019, Israeli drone fired a missile at a group of civilians, who were in the vicinity of the American School former site, west of Beit Lahia, killing Khalid Mohammed Selmi Abu Qaliq (24), from the city, after he was hit with shrapnel throughout his body. Moreover, another civilan was seriously injured.

Khalid Mohammed Selmi Abu Qaliq was a terrorist for the PFLP.

PCHR goes on:

At approximately 17:35 on Sunday evening, the Israeli forces fired an artillery sheel at a house belonging to Abdul Rahim Mustafa al-Madhoun (60), south of the American School, west of Beit Lahia. As a result, the house was destroyed and 4 civilians were killed, including a woman, and 9 were injured. Those killed civilians, including Abdul Rahim, were identified as: Abdul Rahim’s son Abdullah Abdul Rahim Mustafa al-Madhooun (21), Fadi Ragheb Yusuf Badran (33), Amani ‘Etfat Sha;ban al-Madhoun (36), who was pregnant at her ninth month.

This was a legitimate target. Fadi Ragheb Yusuf Badran, who already served 6 years in Israeli prisons for terror activities, was a member of the Popular Resistance Movement. Abdullah Abdul Rahim Mustafa al-Madhooun was a leader of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades.

Abdullah Abdul Rahim Mustafa al-Madhooun

The father and pregnant woman were human shields.

PCHR goes on:

At approximately 17:45, the Israeli warplenes launched 2 missiles at the ground floor and first floor in Zu’rob’s Building near al-Shuhada’a Square (al-Nejmah), in the center of Rafah. As a result, 3 civlians were killed namely: ‘Ali Ahmed Abdul Jawad (51), who was in al-Awa’el Educational Center, Mousa Husein Lafi Mo’amer (35) and Hani Hamdan Abu Sha’ar (37), who were at al-Fakher Cofe.

Mo'amer and Sha'ar were at least associated with Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, based on the flags used as their shrouds and flags waved at their funeral.

PCHR goes on:

At approximately 19:50, the Israeli warplanes launched a missile at the fifth floor in Building no. (12) at Sheikh Zayed Buildings, north of the Gaza Strip. As a result, 6 civilians were killed namely: Ahmed Ramadan Rajab al-Ghazali (30), his wife Eman Abdullah Mousa al-Ghazali (29), their child Maria (5 months), Abdul Rahman Talal Abu al-Jedyan (12), his parents Tala ‘Atiyah Abu al-Jedyan (48) and Raghdah Mohammed Abu al-Jedyan (46), whose dead bodies were recovered todays morning from under the rubble.

This one I'm not quite as certain about, but apparently at least one of the dead- probably Ahmed - was associated with Hamas. At least two members of the family were wrapped in Hamas flags as a courtesy.

PCHR has a long history of immediately labeling terrorists as "civilian" going back to the 2009 war
when over 300 supposed "civilians" were found to be in fact members of terror groups.

PCHR says that 9 additional of Gaza's dead were indeed militants, but it only mentions the name of one from Hamas. Islamic Jihad admits 8 "martyrs" including Al Madhoun, above.

As we can see here, apparently 100% of the people killed in Gaza this weekend were either terrorists, human shields for terrorists or collateral damage as Israel targeted terrorists - legitimate targets under international law.

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

Irony alert: Terrorist groups upset at being the target of a suicide bomber

Times of Israel reports:

A suicide bomber killed a Hamas guard in southern Gaza early Thursday when forces tried to stop him from infiltrating into Egypt, members of the terror organization said, in what sources described as a rare attack against the Islamist group.
“Early this morning security forces stopped two people approaching the southern border (with Egypt),” an interior ministry spokesman in the Hamas-run territory said in a statement.
“One of them blew himself up,” it added.
Later a medical source confirmed a member of Hamas had died in the attack.
The source named the man as Nidal al-Jaafari, 28.

Here is the late Mr. Jaafari.

Notice that he is a member of the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' "militant wing." But he is also a guard - which means according to the Goldstone report and the PCHR, he is a civilian.

Hamas doesn't distinguish between civilians and their "militants." Yet the world keeps pretending that there is a distinction.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Rafah crossing is open now for the first time in four months, as Egypt is allowing Hajj pilgrims to leave. Practically no one has been reporting on the actual siege by Egypt on Gazans for four long months - months during which Israel allowed thousands to pass through its own Erez crossing.

More interesting is the reaction of other terror groups to this suicide bombing, apparently by a Salafist.

Islamic Jihad condemned the bombing in Rafah as "outside religion, culture and morality."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stressed that it is "against the use of weapons, abuse and assault" describing the suicide attack as a "dangerous violation."

Fatah called it a "terrorist act."

The Popular Struggle Front called this a "dark act that must be combatted"

Yes, the Islamists who innovated suicide bombings as suddenly aghast at the idea of becoming the victims of Islamist suicide bombings. It's so immoral!

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

Hamas' "military wing" beating up people who insult them

From PCHR:

‘Abed al-Rahman Ahmed Barakah (59), from Deir al-Balah, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that, at approximately 19:40 on Monday, 31 July 2017, while he along with his two sons, Shadi (36) and Mohammed 31, was training some young men in the Equestrian Club he owns in al-Bassa area, northwest of Deir al-Balah, around 30 masked armed men from Al-Qassam Brigades entered the Club. The armed men pointed their firearms at ‘Abed al-Rahman’s sons and then started beating him with batons and the riffels’ butts. Around 30 minutes later, the armed men pushed ‘Abed al-Rahman into their jeep, took him to al-Barouq neighborhood, southwest of the city, where he lives. They then threw him near his house, telling him, “This is what you get for cursing Al-Qassam Brigades.” ‘Abed al-Rahman’s relatives saw that and attempted to approach him, but al-Qassam Members opened fire in the air and withdrew from the area. ‘Abed al-Rahman was then taken via an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to al-Aqsa Hospital, and he underwent medical tests which showed that ‘Abed al-Rahman sustained bruises and fractures to his hands.

Of course, the "moderate" Palestinian Authority does the same with those it deems enemies.

But the "pro-Palestinian" groups somehow never manage to utter a word about these sorts of incidents. I wonder why?

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

Today's fake PCHR "civilian"

As I had noted already last November, Hamas drags its feet in publishing many of its "martyr" obituaries. This way, in the initial aftermath of an Israeli operation, the reports are filled with reports of "civilian" casualties, often by media relying on PCHR or the Hamas-controleld gaza Health Ministry to determine whether someone is a civilian or not.

Then, when Hamas finally admits quietly that some of these so-called "civilians" are really Hamas jihadists, no one notices.

Here are the latest examples.

From PCHR:

At approximately 15:30, Israeli warplanes fired 2 missiles at 2 cars that were traveling near the Future Club in al-Sabra neighborhood, in which 5 civilians, including a pair of twins, were traveling. As a result of this attack, 5 civilians were killed:
1- Subhi Nemer Mohammed Dughmosh, 29;
2- Salah Nember Mohammed Dughmosh, 29;
3- Ahmed Jameel Hamdan Dughmosh, 30;
4- Zaki Saeed Mohammed Qadada, 42; and
5- Mosab Mahmoud Rushdi Dughmosh, 25.

Hamas' obituary for Mosab Mahmoud Dughmosh says that he joined the al-Qassam Brigades terror group in early 2010. He participated in many "jihad missions" and that he participated in hostilities.

According to the Terrorism Info report from Israel, two of his brothers were members of the Army of Islam and two were in the PRC. Meaning that every single person in both cars targeted by Israel was a terrorist, and not one was civilian.

PCHR finds a poor person in Gaza, says it is Israel's fault to the UN

From PCHR:

On Monday, 4 February 2013, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) made a written submission, in the form of an Individual Complaint, to Ms. Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, which draws attention to the case of Ramadan Daoud Hussein Abdel Bari (51) from Gaza city, Gaza Strip (Palestine).

Ramadan Abdel Bari, who lives in Gaza together with his wife, their 8 children, and his sick mother, opened a clothing factory in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, in 1985. His business was forced to shut down in 2005 as a result of the Israeli-imposed movement restrictions inside the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000. After that Ramadan was unable to find or generate new employment, as the Israeli closure of the Gaza Strip has caused the near total collapse of Gaza’s economy, leaving many unemployed and impoverished without a chance of finding a job and generating an income for themselves and their families.

The ruining of Ramadan’s business and the subsequent impossibility to find new employment causes him and his family to live in poverty.

PCHR will be submitting either Memorandums or Individual Complaints on a regular basis to UN Working Groups and Special Rapporteurs, to draw attention to human rights issues facing the Palestinian people.

Yes, PCHR plans to send an individual complaint to the UN for every single poor person it finds in Gaza, blaming Israel for every one.

The International Poverty Line applies to people who are living on less than $1.25 a day (PPP). By that standard, the West Bank and Gaza have a rate of only 0.04% of people living below that line - one of the better ones recorded, and far better than every Arab country listed (Egypt is 1.69%, Syria 1.74%, Yemen 17.53%) while many countries have a rate of well over 50%! The number of truly poor people in Gaza is minuscule by nearly every measure.

Gaza has some 38% of people living below the national poverty line, but that number is different for every nation. For comparison, in Israel, some 23.6% of the population live below the national poverty line; in the West Bank it is 18.3%, in the US it is about 15%. In contrast, in poor sub-Saharan countries and central American nations the rates are often above 50%.

Moreover, in Gaza much of the population gets free food, free medical services and free education - because the UNRWA considers them, against all normal definitions of the term, to be "refugees."

PCHR, obviously, doesn't care about poor people in Gaza. The entire exercise, indeed their entire existence, is centered on how to use the concept of "human rights" in order not to improve the situation but to delegitimize Israel. Their legal briefing accompanying the complaint makes this crystal clear.

They even twist the fact that the UN gives free food and aid to Gazans far out of proportion to their need compared to the truly poor of the world, by saying "over 75% of the people are food aid dependent, 80% of the people receive humanitarian aid." Only about 30% of Haitians are food-aid dependent - but they are far poorer than Gazans by any yardstick with 61% below the international poverty line, compared to 0.04% of Gazans.

This is only one tiny example of how relentlessly anti-Israel NGOs are working, night and day, to demonize Israel.

PCHR receives funding for its faux "humanitarian" work from Norway, Denmark, the European Commission, the Ford Foundation and several other international NGOs. And this is where the money goes.

Today's fake PCHR "civilian"

Hamas continues to slowly release obituaries of terrorists killed during Pillar of Defense. (HRW used the absence of names on the Al Qassam website as evidence that the dead could not be terrorists!)

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights described a "civilian" death this way:

At approximately 19:50 on Saturday [November 17], an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a gathering of Palestinian civilians in Wadi al-Salqa village, killing Ali Hassan Bin Saeed, 25, and wounding 3 others.

But Hamas released Saeed's obituary today, referring to him as a "mujahid."

Saeed was born in Saudi Arabia, but went to UNRWA schools in central Gaza. He attended Palestine Technical College for management and office automation, and received his bachelors degree in business administration. He joined Hamas in 2005 and the Al Qassam Brigades in 2006. He was involved in working on several weapons smuggling tunnels and participated in Cast Lead as well as Pillar of Defense.

This is one of the people who are being identified in the media as a "civilian" killed by Israel, basing it on PCHR's bogus statistics.

(poster h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Today's fake PCHR "civilian"

From PCHR:

At approximately 21:00 [November 16], an Israeli warplane attacked a motorcycle on which Khaled Khalil Ali al-Shaer, 25, was traveling near Saladin Street. He was killed and 2 persons were wounded.

Once again, PCHR does not identify the casualty as a "militant" as they do with some of the others. Meaning that they counted him as one of the supposed "civilians" killed in Gaza.

And once again, they are lying.

The Al Qassam Brigades website notes that Shaer joined Hamas in high school and joined the Qassam Brigades in 2006, where he was a camp leader. He also attended the "Abu Bara Military Academy" of the Qassam Brigades, taking several military courses. He also fought during Cast Lead.

Other fake civilians can be seen on this tag.

Today's fake PCHR "civilians"

From PCHR:

At approximately 08:00 (November 17th) , Israeli warplanes attacked a number of 3 young men in al-Maghazi refugee camp, killing them: Ali Abdul Halim al-Manaama, 24; Ussama Mousa Abdul Jawad, 27; and Ashraf Hassan Darwish, 22.

PCHR does not identify them as "militants," but all three were terrorists.

The obituary for Darwish explains that he joined the Qassam Brigades in 2007, after attending UNRWA schools. Here he is:

The other two have not yet been memorialized at the Qassam site, but Qassam Brigades memorial posters for them have already been published:

Manaama

Jawad

And another:

At approximately 19:50, Israeli warplanes attacked a number of young men who were sitting near a house belonging to Ahmed Mohammed Jaddou Abu Jalal, 43, a member of an armed group, in al-Maghazi refugee camp. He was killed together with 3 civilians, including his brother: Amjad Mohammed Jaddou Abu Jalal, 33 .

Amjad was no civilian. His obituary at the Al Qassam site notes he joined the terror group in 2005, where is is praised for firing Qassam rockets and mortars at "settlements," as well as for working on weapons tunnels and for fighting during Cast Lead.

Today's fake PCHR "civilians"

From PCHR:

At approximately 17:45 on Sunday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a group of Palestinian civilians near al-Rahma Mosque in al-Nussairat refugee camp. As a result, 2 civilians were killed: Atiya Abdullah Mubarak, 56; and Hussam Hussein Abu Shawish, 37.

Hamas' Al Qassam website describes Atiya Mubarak as one of their mujahadeen, despite his age. He joined Hamas in 1998 and the Al Qassam Brigades in 2007. He participated in Cast Lead and worked on logistics behind sending terrorists to battle, "competing with the youth in jihad for the sake of Allah."

PCHR again:

At approximately 16:30, an Israeli drone fired a missile at a number of Palestinian civilians in al-Salatin Street in Beit Lahia, killing one of them, Fadi Mousa Sameer al-Qatanani, 29, and 6 others, including two children, were wounded.

The Al Qassam website says that "since Fadi was a child, he wished to carry a gun to fight the enemies of God, the Jews; constantly repeating slogans of jihad, his eyes yearning to jihad and martyrdom, and the castles of glory and honor and dignity."

He was a member of the Qassam Brigades for over ten years, working in smuggling tunnels as well as "repelling invasions" from Israel in northern Gaza.

Hamas says they are mujahadeen. PCHR says they are civilians.

Keep in mind that there are only several thousand Al Qassam Brigades members at the most, among a population of some 1.6 million in Gaza. If Israel was just randomly firing into "civilians" the odds of hitting a Qassam Brigades member is about one in 300.

Today's fake PCHR "civilian"

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights wrote:

At approximately 09:00, an Israeli drone fired a missile in the vicinity of Dabbour farmland in Jabalya. As a result, Mustafa Awadh Mustafa Abu Hmaidan, 23, was killed.

They did not identify him as a member of an "armed group," meaning they assumed he is a civilian and apparently counted him as such.

Here is a photo of Mr. Hmaidan:

And here is his obituary from Hamas, where his Jihadist life is displayed and he is revealed to have been killed while in an act of "jihad." Interestingly, he joined the Al Qassam brigades while attending a UNRWA school in Jabalia.

This is the first obituary on the Al Qassam website from Pillar of Defense. Hamas does not want the world to know how many of the "civilians" were terrorists, and (as with Cast Lead) they will only reveal them in a trickle over the next few months. Their assumption is that by the time the numbers are added up and we can prove that the majority of those killed were terrorists, the damage from the lies by PCHR, the Gaza health minister and others will have already been done.

Two more of the fake PCHR "civilians"

From PCHR:

At approximately 09:40, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a group of Palestinian civilians near Abdullah Bin Rawaha Mosque in Maan area in the east of Khan Yunis. 2 civilians were killed: Abdullah Harb Salem Abu Khater, 21; and Mahmoud Saeed Abu Khater, 34.

The PalDF Hamas forum refers to Mahmoud Saeed Abu Khater, whose day job was apparently as a teacher, as a "mujahid."

His brother, Abdullah, was a member of Hamas as well:

It looks like they were not innocent civilians just standing around, but specific targets because of their terror ties.

The first fake PCHR "civilian"

As EoZ readers know, after Cast Lead I led a team that identified hundreds of people who were called "civilians" by the Palestinian Center of Human Rights - but were in fact terrorists.

We scoured through official jihadist websites and forums to see which of these "civilians" were called "mujahadeen." We crosschecked obituaries published on Hamas and other terror group websites, often months later, against the PCHR list.

In short, we showed that PCHR was happy to lie in order to make it appear that the IDFwas targeting civilians.

Looks like we have our work cut out for us again:

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 17:45 on Tuesday, 20 November 2012, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at Hussam Mohammed Salama, 30, and Mahmoud Ali al-Koumi, 29, cameramen of the Gaza-based al-Aqsa Satellite Channel, while they were traveling in a civilian car clearly marked with ‘TV’.

Luckily, I just made a poster about Mr. Salama, along with a photo of the car where he had crudely spray-painted "TV."

As the IDF says:

A senior Hamas operative was targeted while driving a press vehicle. Muhammed Shamalah, commander of Hamas forces in the southern Strip and head of the Hamas militant training programs, was targeted by an Israeli air strike while driving a car clearly labelled “TV”, indicating it to be a press vehicle, abusing the protection afforded to journalists.

PCHR no doubt knows all of this, and they choose not to mention it. Even if they want to make the argument that Salama was not actively involved in combat - their normal argument when asked about the high number of terrorists that they call civilian - they show their dishonesty by not revealing the entire story, and instead saying as a fact:

These crimes are aimed to silence and the press and prevent journalists from reporting on crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians.

In other words, PCHR is not just withholding information - it is knowingly lying.

This is why so-called "human rights" organizations cannot be assumed to tell the entire story. They have an agenda just like everyone else does, and they will hide information that does not fit that agenda. PCHR is just one very sorry example of this.

A note about "civilian" deaths in Gaza

As with Cast Lead, the media is relying on PCHR (and, worse, on the Hamas health ministry) to determine how many of the dead in Gaza are civilian and how many are terrorists.

Remember: PCHR only counts a person as a "militant" if he is, in their opinion, actively engaging in military activities at the time of his death.

So while I don't know about this person either way, PCHR says:

At approximately 14:10 on Monday, 19 November 2012, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a civilian car that was traveling in al-Saftawi Street in Jabalya, in which Hussam Fayez Hamdan Abdul Jawad, 32, was traveling. The car was destroyed and Abdul Jawad was killed.

Jawad may very well have been a member of a terror group, but PCHR is not going to say - he was just driving, not preparing to fire a rocket.

Since the first couple of days of the fighting, Hamas has refused to admit any casualties among its members. (Islamic Jihad right now says seven of its members were killed.)

This is exactly what happened during Cast Lead. Hamas hushed up every single terrorist death during the war, and only in the months afterwards did they slowly document on their websites the "martyrs" and the dates they were killed. In the end, hundreds of people that the PCHR called "civilians" were found out to have been terrorists.

When Hamas controls the security forces and, to an extent, the movements of the media, they control the truth.

Also during Cast Lead, as soon as the ground war started, Hamas and other terror group members took off their fatigues and continued to fight in civilian clothes - another breach of the Geneva Conventions. This further made it difficult to find out who the civilians are.

One thing is certain: the vast majority of those killed in Gaza so far have been males of fighting age. This in an area where men between 16-40 take up perhaps only 18% of the population (men between 15-64 are about 27%.)

It will again take months to figure out the real truth about casualties. But don't trust the initial statistics - as we've seen, they are historically skewed.

Latest "shahid" shows that Israel didn't target civilians on Saturday

On Saturday evening, after Gaza militants shot an anti-tank weapon at an Israeli jeep well within Israeli territory, Israel responded by shelling the area that the attack came from, in the Sajaiya neighborhood.

Four civilians were killed, and it looked from the outside like the IDF might have made a mistake. The PCHR even says that two of the dead were children "playing football."

But now it looks like there was no mistake.

Hamas, which claimed credit for the attack (along with other groups,) announced today the death of "mujahid" Mohammed Ziad, a member of the Al Qassam Martyrs Brigades.

Ziad died of injuries from the same Israeli retaliatory strike Saturday night against those who shot the anti-tank weapon.

While it is still sad that innocents were killed, now it seems that the "football playground" that was hit was actually the true source of the attack, just as Israel claimed, and the children playing there were human shields for Hamas.