NGO Monitor: See No Evil: NGOs Turn Terrorists into Civilians in 2021 Gaza Conflict
A major element of NGO propaganda consists of accusing Israel of targeting and killing civilians in Gaza. NGO Monitor has examined the use of this subterfuge during the May 2021 Gaza conflict, as well as in previous confrontations.
One method used by NGOs to inflate civilian casualty numbers, accompanied by allegations of “war crimes,” is to obscure or omit essential details about specific incidents – thereby erasing the role of terrorist groups. NGOs falsely classify Palestinian terrorists as civilians and ignore evidence that implicates terror groups in the deaths of Gazan civilians.
NGO Monitor research has identified 50 incidents in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives killed in Gaza were falsely labeled by NGOs as civilian casualties, or in which civilians killed by Hamas were implicitly attributed to Israel. (Approximately 15 percent of the 4,300 missiles fired towards Israel fell short and impacted in Gaza.)
In failing to report accurately, Palestinian NGOs amplify the demonization strategy, ignore the commission of war crimes by Palestinians, and distort the reality of Israeli efforts to limit civilian casualties during the fighting. These manipulated NGO accounts also serve as the basis of inflammatory media projects, such as the infamous New York Times front page story with pictures of children, and for international “investigations”, such as a forthcoming UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry.
Emily Schrader: Iran must be banned from Olympics - opinion
Iran’s alarming abuse of athletes is not new. It’s been occurring since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. For example, in 1981, wrestler Hooshang Montazeralzohoor was executed for his anti-government stance. In 1988, the regime executed volleyball player Fouzan Abdi and football player Mahshid Razaghi – both political dissidents. In 1984, they executed football player Habib Khabiri for the same reasons. In 2012, they executed kickboxer Majid Jamali-Fashi, accusing him of being an Israeli spy. In 2021, after the execution of Afkari, they executed a second champion wrestler, Mehdi Ali Hosseini as well as a champion boxer and prominent sports coach, Ali Mutairi.The international Olympics Committee's Jewish problem
How many athletes have to die under this regime for the IOC to take action? It’s not as if Iran conducts its business in a sportsmanlike fashion in any case – Iran has been throwing matches to avoid Israelis for years, repeatedly forcing athletes to resign rather than face Israeli athletes. In one of the most famous cases, Iranian wrestler Saeed Mollaei threw a match in judo to avoid facing an Israeli, only to defect later and compete for another country after fleeing to Berlin.
He is not alone. Dozens of Iranian athletes have fled the oppression of the regime which destroys their hard work and dreams. One Iranian ex-athlete who fled to the United States confessed to CNN that Iranian intelligence watches the teams 24/7 and they are punished if they do anything wrong while abroad. “I want to ask [the] IOC, are you aware of this? You talk about gender equality and race equality. Are you aware that one of your members is violating the charter all the time? You have been silent about this... This is sport, it has to be about peace and friendship, but they teach you to hate,” he said.
The IOC has no excuse. It is well known and documented – by both international human rights organizations as well as refugee athletes who have fled Iran for their lives – that the state of Iran violates every principle the Olympic Games represent. Iran has no place in the Olympics and the IOC cannot continue to allow these egregious violations of human rights to occur right in front of their faces. The IOC must ban Iran from the Olympic Games.
The Berlin Olympics reinforced Brundage’s admiration of Nazi Germany. During a speech at Madison Square Garden, he praised Nazi Germany as “60 million people believing in themselves and their country... we can learn so much from Germany.”
Two years later in 1938, Germany awarded his construction company the contract to build a new embassy in the United States.
Brundage probably never changed his anti-Jewish animosity. Just as he was dismissive of Jewish athletes' expulsions from German sports, his attitude of disdain towards Jewish athletes continued with “the games must go on,” following the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
His dismissal of Jewish sporting achievements was made hollow by swimmer Mark Spitz two days after the massacre, who won seven gold medals for America. This record was finally beaten by American swimmer Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The IOC still “does not get it,”- in July 2020 it used promotional material taken from Hitler’s 1936 Olympics using the slogan “stronger together,” which was deleted after protests.
Notwithstanding the persistence of Israeli athlete widows Ankie Spitzer and Ilana Romano to have the massacre commemorated with a minute’s silence, IOC presidents always turned a deaf ear until the current president, Thomas Bach agreed.
The IOC has awarded itself a behavioral medal 49 years later.
Finally the right thing, but certainly not gold.