Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

This year's Pallywood? (update 3)

One of the more disturbing alleged stories from Operation Cast Lead concerns the Abed Rabbo family that was supposedly slaughtered in cold blood by Israeli soldiers.

There have been at least three accounts of this alleged massacre - the Sydney Morning Herald, the Independent and Time magazine. All of them are nonsensical.

Aussie Dave at Israellycool (4:05 PM update) noticed many inconsistencies between the SMH and Independent versions of the events. Read his entire account. Especially note that Khaled Abed Rabbo claims that the Israeli soldier had sidelocks/"ringlets"/payot, while The Independent notes that the only ultra-Orthodox army unit did not go into combat.

Richard at The Augean Stables takes apart the Time magazine account, showing how easily a reporter can be deceived by "eyewitnesses" based on his exacting research with other faked Palestinian Arab accounts of similar IDF 'crimes" that turned out to be fiction.

Read those two accounts. Also notice that there are inconsistencies between the Time version and the others - for example, in Time the soldier kills the two-year old (who was targeted first in all accounts!) with a single shot, in the SMH with three.

One more interesting part regards the Abed Rabbo family. As Israellycool observed a few days later, a family with the same name, who apparently control a district in Jabalya, accused Hamas of using them as human shields. Could the family have been shot by Hamas?

And, finally, Ruthie of America emailed me with another intriguing mention of Khaled Abed Rabbo:

Hamas Cell Uncovered
Israeli authorities announced on March 5 that they discovered a Hamas cell from Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah. The group, according to the Shabak, is responsible for the deaths of 22 Israelis and the injury of 345. The five-member group was planning to take hostages in an embassy in Israel in exchange for Hamas detainees in Israeli prisons on March 8. The military court in Lod sentenced two of the members, Khaled Abed Rabou and Majdi Bakhirat to 21 and 19 months respectively.

I don't know if it is the same person, but this is what reporters should be investigating, not taking clearly inconsistent "eyewitness" accounts of fake Israeli massacres at face value.

UPDATE: Here is how PCHR described the incident:

At 14:00 on Wednesday, IOF opened fire at houses in 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu area, east Jabalia, killing three sisters: Su'ad 'Abed Rabbu, 10; and her sisters Amal, 3; and Samar, 2.

There were many clashes in the 'Izbat 'Abed Rabbu area according to PCHR, so it seems clear that there were lots of terrorists around.

UPDATE 2: Here are some pictures from the neighborhood.

UPDATE 3: CAMERA finds many more inconsistencies, especially between early accounts (that the sisters were killed by either an airstrike or artillery) and the lurid later accounts of cold-blooded executions of children holding white flags.

It appears that the stories get more embellished in time. Like...lies.

Hamas still rules through fear

It is unfortunate to note that while Israel clearly weakened Hamas, the terrorist organization is still the only game in town. Its campaign of terror against Fatah - killing far more Palestinian Arabs than Israelis during the duration of the war - has kept it in its role as a thugocracy. And as this article shows, the residents of Gaza are back to their old fears:

On street corners, Hamas police are back in uniform, flaunting their AK-47s....

A recent declaration by Hamas’s prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, that the movement has won a great victory draws mirthless smiles.

But many faithfully stick to the official version. “The resistance did very well,” says Assad al-Hartani, a municipal worker as he shops for cigarettes in the market. “They stopped the invasion. Without them the Israelis would have destroyed all of Gaza.” The fact that Hamas has not been ousted from power is itself considered a fine achievement. “Israel’s war didn’t change anything,” Mr Hartani goes on. People in the crowd around him nod in agreement, albeit aware of two uniformed guards watching and listening.
In the streets you hear only support for Hamas. In more secluded conversations, views are more nuanced, with expressions of anger, fear and exhaustion. “People are furious with Hamas for bringing this on us,” says a taxi driver from Jabaliya, a big refugee camp in the north of the strip, after first making sure that the car windows were closed and no one was eavesdropping. “But they are too afraid to speak out. They know that if they say the truth about this war they may disappear.”

But he also describes how people’s feelings changed as the war went on. At first, some were delighted by the prospect of Hamas’s demise. But after days of bombs, sentiment shifted. “The Israelis made a mistake when they killed so many women and children. Everyone then supported Hamas. The Israelis made a big mistake.” He repeats that last phrase several times.

Vacuums in Arab societies tend to be filled by extremists, and in this case it was refilled by the old dictators.

Natan Sharansky famously said:

Can someone within that society walk into the town square and say what they want without fear of being punished for his or her views? If so, then that society is a free society. If not, it is a fear society.

Gaza is going to be a fear society for a long, long time.

(h/t Ruthie of America)

Zionist, infidel Rotary and Lions' Clubs

From AFP:

Indonesian Islamic hardliners have called for a ban on international organisations the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, saying they are part of a Zionist conspiracy, reports said Monday.
The (FUU) said the clubs were "infidel" fronts for Freemasonry and the world Zionist movement and threatened Islam in the world's most populous Muslim country.
"They gather funds and give them to America and the Israeli Zionists," FUU chairman Atian Ali Mohammad Da'i was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Globe daily.
"We urge all Muslims to renounce membership in the Rotary Club and the Lions Club. Otherwise they can consider themselves infidels."

And as always when people are accused of being Zionist, they have to defend themselves from the slur:

Leaders of the Lions and Rotary Clubs yesterday shrugged off claims by a hardline Islamic group in Indonesia that they are part of a "Zionist conspiracy".

They dismissed the claims made by the People's Ulema Forum (FUU) in Jakarta that the clubs were "infidel" fronts for freemasonry and the international Zionist movement.

Dr J.P. Kamalanathan, governor of Lions' Club International district 308 B1, which covers Peninsular Malaysia, said the organisation never took any religious, political or nationalistic stand.

He said with some 1.3 million members worldwide, it would be illogical to pin the club's affiliation to any one country or group. "We are not anti-anything," he said yesterday.

Hamas managed to come to the conclusion that Lions and Rotarians are Zionist infidels decades ago. From the Hamas charter:

For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.

South Africa minister "apologizes" for anti-semitism

JTA reported last week:

On Jan. 14, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatima Hajaig told a pro-Palestinian rally that Jews controlled America "no matter which government comes into power, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Barack Obama or George Bush."
"The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money," she said. "If the Jewish money controls their country, then you cannot expect anything else."

A local Muslim television station, Channel Islam International, aired Hajaig's comments as part of its rally coverage.

The rally, held during Israel's three-week operation in Gaza, was organized by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, a partner of the ruling African National Congress party. Other sponors included the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, the South Africa Communist Party -- also an ANC government partner -- and the South Africa Council of Churches.

"We haven't seen such brazen Jew-baiting from a senior government representative in South Africa for at least 50 years," David Saks, the associate director of the South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies, told JTA. "What was especially troubling about it was the raucously enthusiastic response from the large audience."

No kidding. Mail and Guardian blogger David Saks describes the rest of the rally:

In addition to such revolting conspiracy theorising, various other speakers at the Lenasia rally made threatening statements against the local Jewish community.This included calls that anyone with Zionist sympathies be expelled from the country, that “Israeli” businesses be boycotted (a list of Jewish-owned businesses is in fact now doing the rounds within the Muslim community and further afield) and that action be taken against South African Jews who served in the Israeli military.

One presenter said: “The common enemy is making inroads in South Africa … the Zionists in South Africa must be kicked out of the shores of South Africa”. Another speaker praised “our Jewish brothers and sisters” who had come out against the Israel Defence Force, assuring them “there is a place in the world we are building in South Africa for you”. Those who had not done so, he warned, had “better watch out because the winds of change are blowing”.

Regarding local Jews allegedly serving in the IDF, another presenter shouted (again to rapturous and sustained applause): “We are going to become impimpis [informants - EoZ], we are going to become impimpis … the business that we are going to carry out with the Jews, with these Zionist entities. We are going to talk to them, were going to find out if their sons have gone to fight our brothers and sisters in Palestine and then we’ll say to them come and fight us at home”.

Other speakers included ANC Provincial Secretary Nazeem Adams and Eddie Makue, general secretary for South African Council of Churches. Makue denied that the fight against Israel and Zionism was anti-Semitic, saying that he and his fellow activists only wanted to bring their “Jewish brothers and sisters onto the right path”.

“This is a global struggle. We are inviting you to join us in it, otherwise you will be mowed down in the annals of history as people who refuse to support justice and peace” he said, as the crowd bellowed its approval.

All in all, it must have been very much reminiscent of a Nuremburg rally.

So on January 14th, we had a televised rally with explicit anti-semitism, broadcast by a Muslim TV station that didn't condemn it (quite the opposite,) that was exposed in the media since at least January 19th...and now, three weeks later after much criticism, the deputy minister has finally issued a pseudo-apology:

Deputy foreign minister Fatima Hajaig today apologised for any pain caused by alleged anti-Semitic remarks she made at a rally a few weeks ago.

"To the extent that my statement may have caused hurt and pain, I offer an unequivocal apology for the pain it may have caused to the people of our country, and the Jewish community in particular," said Hajaig in a statement.

She said she regretted the "inference" made by some people that she was "anti-Jewish".

"I do not believe that the cause of the Palestinians is served by anti-Jewish racism."

Note that she is not apologizing for the statement - only for the fact that people might be offended. Needless to say, this is not an apology.

She then added:

"I conflated Zionist pressure with Jewish influence."

SA Jewish Board of Deputies national chairman Zev Krengel said today that Hajaig had given only a "veiled apology" in her statement.

"She is still not apologising for what she has said. She is apologising for the hurt."

Krengel said he believed she still needed to apologise for what was actually said and repudiate it.

He said she had used her apology to make another statement towards the Middle East and almost "justify" what she had done.

Since it took the netter part of a month for her to do even this, I think we can be sure that she really isn't too sorry about what she said.

2008, 2009 PalArab self-death updates

My self-death count has had a lot of guesswork since the beginning of Cast Lead, and I based a lot on a Jerusalem Post article that claimed 35 had been killed as of January 4th. Since then there have been a number of attempts to catalogue the dead, and I believe now that the JPost numbers were a bit high. I try to make sure my numbers are accurate. My rule had been, whenever possible, to only count deaths with names attached to them and I had been bothered that the 35 mentioned in the JPost never panned out.

The PCHR just published (in Arabic only so far) the most comprehensive list of those killed in infighting since Cast Lead began. According to its numbers some 16 were killed in 2008 and 16 more in 2009. I adjusted the 2008 numbers accordingly (adding 10) and I included the 16 in the 2009 numbers, plus two more in the West Bank.

As far as I can tell, all the ones I had specified were on the PCHR list, including the former B'Tselem worker; they also included some more recent ones I had missed, including a 7-year old girl killed by "misuse of weapons." And this list includes far more dead than earlier lists published by Fatah and another human rights org in Gaza.

For now, I am treating these numbers as accurate.

Must read - Khaled Abu Toameh

Michael Totten transcribed a long talk by Khaled Abu Toameh that is essential reading if you want to understand the Middle East. A small part:

Now you may ask yourself why Arafat was inciting against his peace partners in Israel, why was he inciting against the Americans and Europeans who were feeding him? It doesn't make sense.

Well, to us it does make sense. This is how our Arab dictators survive. They constantly blame the miseries of our people on the Jews and the West and the Crusaders and the infidels and the Zionist lobby and the imperialists. They use all these slogans. Arab leaders always need to make sure that their people are busy hating somebody else, preferably the Jews and the Americans. Otherwise their people might rebel, and God forbid they might demand reforms and democracy.

This is exactly what Arafat did, but he did it in Arabic. The international community – and even Israelis – did not want to listen to what Arafat was saying in Arabic. They only cared what he said in English. They said that what he said in English was good.

The question we should ask ourselves in the wake of this scenario is whether or not there is really a partner on the Palestinian side for any deal, let alone a peace agreement. Any kind of deal. Is there really a partner on the Palestinian side? And the answer is simple. No.

I don't know how to solve this problem. Talking about a Palestinian state today is a joke. Where would that state be established? Israel controls nearly half of the West Bank. These PLO people can't deliver. If Israel gives up the West Bank, you will have to go to Cairo or Amman to take a flight back to America because snipers will be sitting on the hilltops above Ben-Gurion airport.

If you keep up this policy of supporting one party against the other, Gaza will move to the West Bank and we will end up with more anarchy and lawlessness and God knows what else is going to happen. It's a very unpleasant picture. It's very gloomy, I know.

And while you are at it, also read his article here.

Because the two-state solution and the one-state solution are not going to work for all the above-mentioned reasons, the time has come to consider other options. One idea that has been floating around lately is to involve the Jordanians and the Egyptians in running the affairs of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians and Jordanians are already involved, to a certain degree, in helping the Palestinians in both entities. In recent years, the Egyptians have often found themselves involved in what's happening inside the Gaza Strip. The Jordanians have also lately increased their involvement in the affairs of their former citizens in the West Bank.

What is needed now is to exert pressure on Cairo and Amman to step up their involvement in what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Training Palestinian security forces is not enough. The two Arab countries should be more involved, even if that means deploying their own troops in these areas.

President Hosni Mubarak and King Hussein II do not like the idea. They prefer that the Palestinians remain Israel's problem alone. But the Palestinians really need the help of these two countries. As such, there is nothing wrong with trying a new solution - one that would place the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under the jurisdiction of Jordan and Egypt respectively until the Palestinians get their act together and start working toward establishing a good state. It is possible that, with the help of the Jordanians and the Egyptians, the Palestinians might move faster toward achieving their goal.

Today's PalArab media roundup

Egypt decided to close the Rafah crossings on Thursday, only to be opened for emergencies. The UN has yet to issue a statement accusing Egypt of imposing a "siege."

Egypt also blew up some 13 tunnels under Rafah yesterday.

The PRC, which has close ties with Hamas, threatened Israel to fully open the crossings or else the "truce is finished." They helpfully add that they will turn Israeli sites into hell. (These same people took responsibility for over a dozen mortars and rockets yesterday.)

A "Free Gaza" style boat has left Tripoli to go to Gaza via Cyprus.

Our UNRWA friends in the news

UNRWA tried to pull a stunt yesterday, revealing not only its disrespect but also its arrogance. From JPost:

On Monday, the Kerem Shalom crossing was opened for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, including some 50 trucks with supplies provided by UNRWA. The night before, UNRWA had asked the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration to permit the transfer of paper and plastic bags to Gaza, and had been told the request was under consideration.
Despite not having received approval, UNRWA, COGAT officials said, drove several trucks carrying the supplies from Jerusalem to the crossing and coordinated their arrival with several media outlets, which filmed the trucks being turned away.
COGAT Spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner called the incident a "regretful provocation" by the UNRWA spokesman's office and added that while Israel may eventually approve the transfer of office supplies to Gaza, it was currently focusing on humanitarian aid.
"UNRWA receives preferential treatment at the crossings, and today alone 50 of its trucks were allowed in," Lerner said.
"What was done was wrong and not in accordance with the working relationship that Israel has with UNRWA."

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the organization's schools in Gaza, which opened last week, only had 60 percent of the needed textbooks and that the paper was needed to fill the gap.
"We are running schools for 200,000 kids in Gaza and we have said for weeks that we would need to get it in, and it is entirely predictable since our school term starts at a certain time and therefore it is really strange that anybody should be surprised that we raised this issue," Gunness said.

UNRWA is now deciding that it alone decides the priority of goods entering Gaza. Apparently, paper and plastic bags for schools are more important than fuel and food for everyone, which we are hearing is still in short supply.

Instead of an apology for trying to smuggle in goods that have not been approved and staging a media stunt meant to embarrass Israel, our old friend Chris is saying to the Israelis that he really considers them beneath contempt and that he knows best, that Israel's security concerns are meaningless, that the continued rockets into Israel are less important than the sacred UNRWA school year where teachers can pass on their hatred of Israel to the next generation.

UN Humanitarian chief John Holmes, who is not a part of UNRWA, notably does not deny that some aid to Gaza may have been stolen by Hamas as Gunness has:

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said he was unaware of any instances in which international aid had been misappropriated. But he told reporters in Geneva at the launch of the UN's $613 million emergency appeal for the Palestinian territory that there have been stories about aid getting diverted to Hamas.
"There are concerns by Israel in particular about things like construction materials, cement, pipes [and] other kinds of equipment which they believe could be diverted to military uses," Holmes said, mentioning the construction of bunkers or rocket launchers.
Holmes said the improved audits would be part of the UN's effort to convince Israel to fully reopen its crossing points with Gaza, so that humanitarian aid and commercial goods could be brought in, along with cash so salaries could be paid.

Holmes is trying to work with Israel to allay concerns about misallocation of aid. However, UNRWA is telling Israel that it simply never happens, that the huge network of bunkers that Hamas built with cement that Israel had previously allowed in don't exist, that Qassam rockets built with pipes that Israel had previously allowed in don't exist, that the UNRWA is omnipotent and benevolent.

The divergence of rhetoric between UNRWA and John Holmes also indicates that perhaps the UN is not as fully behind UNRWA as one would think.

The all-knowing UNRWA did admit a mistake yesterday:

While correctly reported on 6 January that Israeli shells landed outside an UNRWA school in Jabalia, resulting in an initial estimate of 30 fatalities, the Situation Report of 7 January referred to 'the shelling of the UNRWA school in Jabalia.' The Humanitarian Coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school. According to UNRWA, the number of fatalities is over 40, many of them among the 1,368 people who had taken refuge in the school.

More on Israeli methods to minimize civilian casualties

The more I read, the more I am amazed. From the Jerusalem Report, in an excerpt from a much longer article:

A campaign very similar, in fact almost identical to the Gaza war in the urban military problems it posed was the U.S. Operation Phantom Fury in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in November and December 2004. About 5,000 insurgents under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were embedded in the city of 300,000. An estimated 200,000 civilians heeded American warnings and fled before the fighting began. On November 7, the Americans launched a major air strike, followed by nine days of fierce ground fighting and another 37 of mopping up. Of the 200 mosques in the city, 66 used to cache arms were destroyed; about 30,000 buildings were demolished or significantly damaged; the estimated civilian death toll was 6,000.
In Gaza, with a population of 1.5 million (5 times that of Fallujah) and about 20,000 armed militiamen, 20 mosques were destroyed, 25,000 buildings demolished or damaged, and the estimated civilian death toll was 894 by the Palestinian count or 500-600 according to the Israelis, although they had nowhere to flee to, and some were hit in what had been designated as safe havens.
Indeed, the IDF's efforts to keep civilian casualties to a minimum despite the risks and complexities of urban warfare have been hailed by some foreign experts as setting new standards for other armies. "I don't think there's ever been a time in the history of warfare when an army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza," Col. Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told the BBC while operation "Cast Lead" was in full flow.
Still, the IDF acknowledges that it used heavy fire to protect its soldiers moving forward and that it made mistakes. The fact that four of the nine Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza were hit by friendly fire attests to the difficulty of accurately distinguishing between fighters and civilians in a fast moving urban battle situation.
So what was the IDF's modus operandi? How did it manage to move through the narrow streets and alleyways, the booby-trapped houses and tunnels, with so few casualties of its own? Maj.-Gen. (Res) Doron Almog, a former commander of the southern front responsible for Gaza, puts it down to a combination of high-grade intelligence and a battle plan that took Hamas by surprise at every stage: strategic surprise at the ferocity and duration of the operation; tactical surprise at the timing of the initial air-strike and at the way the IDF found counters to all aspects of a Hamas defense strategy based on human shields, booby-trapped buildings and secret tunnels, and at the modus operandi of the forces on the ground.
"After one swift pincer movement, Hamas fighters suddenly found themselves surrounded everywhere," Almog, now chairman of Aleh Negev, a live-in facility in the south for the mentally disabled, tells The Report. "The IDF soldiers then moved forward behind camera-carrying unmanned aircraft, which located Hamas forces and directed accurate fire from the air and heavy artillery barrages at them. So that even before they engaged in close combat, the Hamas lost dozens of fighters. Many of the dead were company and battalion field commanders. They weren't at the head of their troops, but were deliberately picked out and hit. Through these tactical, targeted assassinations, the chain of command was severely disrupted. If the army hadn't operated in this way, we would have sustained dozens of casualties."
There were other tactical surprises, too - for example, the way the IDF was able to drop a mysterious electronic screen over Gaza. Israelis in the immediate vicinity found they were unable to open their cars by remote control; Hamas militiamen were unable to detonate booby-trapped buildings and other remotely controlled explosive devices.
Had the IDF used less firepower, Almog says, it would have cost it more casualties and greatly undermined the operation's deterrent impact. "Everyone in the region was watching us: Hizballah, Syria and Iran. I think the show of force was very important in creating deterrence, not only vis a vis Hamas, but in the region as a whole," he says.
As they went forward, Israeli troops with cameras fixed to their helmets recorded the web of booby-trapped buildings and tunnels, the way Hamas used civilians as human shields and weapons stored in and being fired from civilian locations. The data will obviously be used by the IDF in analyzing the operation; but it could also be made available if ever legal proceedings are instituted against Israeli soldiers.

(h/t EBoZ)

Hamas fashionistas' shopping spree in Cairo

Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas negotiators in Cairo went on a $25,000 shopping spree in a high-end mall:

Witnesses in Egypt saw the Hamas delegation, who left Gaza for talks with the Egyptian leadership to stabilize the calm, shuttled between the largest and most luxurious and the best clothing shops in the Cairo.

The witnesses said they saw Ayman Taha, Salah Bardawil and Jamal Abu Hashim, Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip, on Saturday on 1-24 in the largest and most famous mall in Cairo.

They said that Taha, Hamas and Abu Hashim loaded bags carried by four assistants went from store to store that sold famous brands and where the price of men's suit in the stores is over $500.

They purchased shoes, shirts and ties, perfumes and luxury items, where the total tally was more than 25 thousand U.S. dollars.

Perhaps they were contestants on Queer Eye for the Terrorist Guy.

Latest Zionist Crime!

Yesterday, the floor of a UNRWA girls' school in Jerusalem collapsed, injuring some students:

Several students were lightly injured and three suffered shock when a classroom floor crumbled beneath their feet in an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) girls' school in Jerusalem's Old City.
The pupils were on the first floor when it suddenly collapsed, causing them to fall into a hole 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep.

A commotion broke out in the area, with all of the school's workers and the students' family members standing outside the building and looking for someone to blame.

Guess who they found?

Neighbors nearby the school said the floor collapsed as a result of excavations that Israeli antiquities authorities have been carrying out under the Old City, particularly near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is located just 100 meters from the damaged school.

And now that idea is spreading:

he accidental collapse of an UNRWA school in Jerusalem on Sunday proves the extent of the un-researched, unprepared, and careless nature of the extensive digging and excavations Israel is conducting beneath Jerusalem, said the Palestinian democratic Union (FIDA) on Monday.

Even though Jerusalem's mayor observed:

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat arrived at the school immediately after hearing about the incident.
"This was caused by sloppy construction," he told Ynet. "It's clear that whoever built this place did not do it properly. This is a classic engineering problem.
"Under the floor was a space built on logs which rotted and could not stand the load. The floor was weak, and this caused its collapse. The whole building must be rebuilt so that such an incident does not repeat itself, God forbid."

Interestingly, no one is faulting the builders of the school nor UNRWA which, one would presume, would be maintaining it. My query to UNRWA received a predictable response:

Chris:

What do you believe caused the floor to collapse in the UNRWA girls' school in Jerusalem? Did UNRWA build or own the school? When was it built?

not sure why it collapsed. I am still waiting for news on the incident. c

This isn't Gaza and the Chris Gunness can stroll over to the school from his office to check it out himself, but the UNRWA will certainly not take any responsibility for the shoddy building. As usual it will take a low profile, refuse to answer questions and hope it all blows over.

And if the Arabs it serves wants to blame Israel, the UNRWA will certainly not disabuse them of that notion.

More on the sock-puppet

I mentioned yesterday that I had doubts that "Dr." Sam Hamod's credentials were accurate. Perusing the various biographies that he has written about himself on the Internet, he claims:

Sam Hamod is a former advisor to the U.S. State Dept; founder of 3rd World News (Wash, DC);Director of The Islamic Center (Wash, DC); Professor at Princeton, Michigan, Howard and Iowa (ret.).

From his website:

Sam Hamod has published 10 books of poems; has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; has a Ph.D. from The Writers Workshop of The University of Iowa, has taught at Iowa, Princeton, Michigan, Howard and elsewhere;founded and edited Third World News in Wash, DC; and was the Director of The Islamic Center in Washington, DC.

At Al Jazeerah he throws in that he is a former professor of mass communications at Northwestern University.

For now, I am most interested in his Ph.D.

Because, according to the Writers' Workshop Page of the University of Iowa, it only offers a Masters degree, not a Ph.D.

(For the record, he clearly is a poet, having published a couple of books and been quoted in many others. Also, he has testified before Congress a number of times as a representative of the American Arab community, mostly in the 50s and 60s.) And he commented again last night on my blog, pretending again to be the fictional Dr. Tova Bloom/Blum.)

Blowing apart "official" Gaza casualty figures

CAMERA has been taking apart the weekly PCHR casualty reports in Gaza and finding that - despite its seemingly comprehensive nature, with names and ages listed - it is woefully inaccurate.

This information is extremely important and needs to be disseminated. Here is their summary and some notable parts of their analysis:

• By cross-checking with other sources, CAMERA has identified a number of Hamas fighters and members of other Palestinian terrorist groups who were either misclassified by PCHR as civilians, not identified as combatants, or omitted entirely from their tabulations. This raises serious questions about the accuracy of PCHRs casualty statistics.

PCHR represents a partisan source that favors Hamas over Israel. This is evidenced by the terminology and tone it uses in its reports - for example, labelling the Israeli Defense Forces as the "Israeli Occupation Forces" and describing Israeli military operations as "war crimes." Despite PCHR's clear bias, its data is widely cited by the media.

• An analysis of the fatalities by age and gender shows that the majority of civilian fatalities recorded by PCHR are males between 15 and 40 years old, the same age profile as the combatants. This also should raise concern that significant numbers of combatants may have been misclassified as civilians.

• Out of 1285 fatalities, at least 950 were males aged 15 or higher. While males over age 15 make up approximately 25 percent of the Gaza population, they made up over 74 percent of the fatalities.

PCHR records 281 child fatalities to January 21. But it gives specific age and gender information for only 253. Of these 253, 57 (23 percent) are 15 -17 year old males. Considering that this age group accounts for less than 8 percent of the under-18 population, 15-17 year old males are overrepresented as fatalities. Since Palestinian terror groups are known to have used teenagers from this age category to carry out suicide bombings, it is not unreasonable to suspect that a number of these teenage fatalities resulted from them having participated in combat.

Another example of how "children" are misrepresented can be seen from a list of "child" casualties from Al Jazeera (h/t Henrik). In a January 15th report of child victims, listed by name and age, out of 217 listed, 22 were adults by any definition (18 years old) ;70 were males above 15.

Also, keep in mind that we have no idea whether those executed by Hamas are included in these counts. In addition, we do not know how many Gazans were killed by Hamas fire aimed at the IDF, nor how many were killed by secondary explosions of Hamas munitions when Israel targeted weapons stores or terrorists. CAMERA also points out that quite a few of the civilians were killed when Israel targeted specific terrorists at locations that Israel warned the residents to leave, including family members who were forced to stay with their terrorist relatives.

I would also like to point out that the "objective" PCHR has as of yet refused to issue a report on casualties from Hamas attacks on Fatah and syspected "collaborators," information that PCHR pretends to keep track of and that other Gaza human rights organizations have publicized and criticized. The PCHR is taking a decidedly pro-Hamas stand in its choice of how to present its statistics, and this needs to be exposed to the Western reporters who are happy to parrot their seemingly comprehensive figures.

More Hamas war crimes

Ma'an lists the names of 181 people who were either killed, shot in the legs or had their legs broken by Hamas in Gaza in the past month. Since the list was generated by Fatah, it might not be including everyone, and while they only list 11 people killed, I have seen Palestinian Arab sources that list the names of 16. Also, yesterday a group of PalArab human rights organizations counted 27 killed by Hamas, without listing the names.

Meanwhile, the Shin Bet is getting specific confirmations of Hamas war crimes in Gaza from prisoners captured by Israel:

Nuaf Atar spoke about the use of Gazan schools to shoot rockets at Israel. Zabhi Atar revealed that Hamas used food coupons to entice Palestinians to join its ranks and Hamad Zalah said Hamas took control of UNRWA food supplies transferred to Gaza and refused to distribute them to people affiliated with Fatah.

Just last night, Hamas reportedly took over a house belonging to a relative of YasirArafat in Gaza.

Staged photo (and actor) of the day

Reb Akiva of Mystical Paths picks up on a nice example of a staged photo from Gaza.

From AP last week:

Leading Palestinian Hamas lawmaker Mushir Al-Masri stands in the chamber of the Palestinian Legislative Council that was destroyed during Israel's offensive in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 26, 2009.

Let's look a bit closer at part of the photo:

Amongst the devastation, by Allah, five framed photos of Hamas members happen to all fall and drop in the same area, face up. And while the entire parliament building is covered with grey dust, these photos miraculously are clean.

Masri himself is in a prayerful position, looking heavenward at the very moment that the photographer happens to have clambered over to the balcony or perhaps set up the gear needed to take such a photo from such a high angle.

Masri is of course a deeply religious man, well known among Gaza journalists, always praying. Here we see him in a very similar pose as he leads prayers outside another ruined building, places that he seems to be magnetically drawn to along with Gaza photographers.

Another photo of him praying with the ruins in the background here. And another more recent example of him praying here.

Poor Masri, always getting caught by the intrusive photographers while he is just trying to have a couple of moments communicating privately with Allah.