Israel's War Against Hamas - Updates

[Sixties Fan]

Ken Roth, the former Human Rights Watch head, tweeted:

"International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment of...protected persons for acts committed by individuals during an armed conflict. The imposition of collective punishment is a war crime." -- Red Cross @ICRC

He gave the source from the ICRC - and it proves the opposite of his attempt to paint Israel as guilty.

The first paragraph, which he skips, defines collective punishment:

The term refers not only to criminal punishment, but also to other types of sanctions, harassment or administrative action taken against a group in retaliation for an act committed by an individual/s who are considered to form part of the group. Such punishment therefore targets persons who bear no responsibility for having committed the conduct in question.

The word "retaliation" makes it sound as if the action must be done deliberately as a punishment, not as a consequence of going after the actual guilty party.

For example, if a terrorist group gets its arms flown in on flights t a commercial airport, a nation can bomb that airport runway - even if it means that legitimate airplanes cannot land. It definitely affects innocent people but it is not collective punishment, because that is not the intent.

Similarly, other dual use targets - power stations, TV and radio broadcast stations - may be attacked if they are also used by the combatant. (All of these are subject to proportionality analysis, as with any military action.)

Looking at specific legal rulings listed the ICRC, we see that collective punishment was defined quite clearly by the Special Court for Sierra Leone:

224. The Appeals Chamber finds that the correct definition of collective punishments is:
i) the indiscriminate punishment imposed collectively on persons for omissions or acts for which some or none of them may or may not have been responsible;
ii) the specific intent of the perpetrator to punish collectively.

Although sometimes individual politicians have said stupid things in the heat of argument, but Israel has made it clear in its policy and actions that it has no intention of hurting the Gaza population for anything Hamas has done.

This brings up a bigger question. In many points of international law, such as the principle of distinction, proportionality and even genocide, the intent of the parties is paramount in determining guilt. No one is a mind reader so the only evidence we have on intent is the actions - if they can be explained without resorting to malicious intent, then such intent should not be assumed. On the other hand, if there are other examples where the malice is clear, due to what parties said or because their other actions leave no other explanation, then one can assume the intent is malicious.

With Israel, NGOs and people like Ken Roth always assume malicious intent - which they have never done for Hamas.

This is how people can quote international law to damn Israel. Even when they quote everything accurately, they are assuming Israel is breaking the rules and therefore they interpret intent in that way.

And if you automatically assume that only the Jewish state has malicious intent against civilians in war, especially when there are thousands of counterexamples that prove otherwise, that pretty much make you an antisemite.

No, Israel isn't engaging in "collective punishment" under international law

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

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[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

While the Palestinian refugee issue has been promoted for decades, the recent Hamas massacres in the Israeli south have created a new Israeli forced exodus. Israeli civilian refugees from the war are displaced from their homes, places of work, schools, communities, and social support systems.

Short-term support issues are being addressed by a wide citizen-based volunteer network providing needed material and meals for the refugees. The Israeli government is also providing emergency support, including funding emergency housing around the country.

Many of the refugees are survivors of the deadly attacks on their communities and were under direct threat of death for hours. Many have family members who have been killed or kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. All of the refugees have experienced many years of aggression from Gaza, including thousands of missile attacks which had a significant psychological effect on the population.

No international body is providing humanitarian assistance to Israel or to the refugees created by the Hamas massacre and threatened Hizbullah action. Unlike Hamas in Gaza, which refuses to shelter or evacuate Gazan civilians, Israel has actively moved populations in the north and south away from areas of conflict and danger.

While some of the Israeli refugees may return and rehabilitate their communities after hostilities end, some have no homes or communities to return to due to the widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure.

Israeli civilian communities were directly and intentionally targeted and experienced planned atrocities and kidnapping. The IDF, on the other hand, has provided advance warning for Gaza civilians to leave areas of potential conflict and has a stated policy to minimize civilian casualties.

Hamas failed to use its extensive tunnel network in Gaza for bomb shelters for Gazans. The terrorist organization has impeded the movement of Gazans from areas of conflict in order to preserve their presence as human shields. They cynically and intentionally exploit civilian casualties to create a humanitarian crisis as a psychological warfare tactic against Israel.

A Developing Humanitarian Issue: Israeli Refugees from Hamas Terror

Thousands of Israelis have been displaced, many without any possessions - A Developing Humanitarian Issue: Israeli Refugees from Hamas Terror

jcpa.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ Not seeing Hamas, or anyone else giving shelter to their own people in the South. Why?]

Like him, many in the Israeli hospitality industry have been operating for the past week in an impossible cloud of uncertainty, sadness, and a burning motivation to contribute—to soldiers, grieving families, overworked doctors, and displaced civilians alike. In a matter of days, stand-alone initiatives, such as food trucks offering free refreshments for soldiers, and more ambitious, organized efforts have sprung up all over the country. They aim to feed, comfort, and shelter people who’ve been experiencing the worst days of their lives.

“There’s an incredible civil mobilization,” said Yotam Doktor, who, together with his brother Asaf, owns the popular shipudim (skewers) restaurant Ha-Achim (meaning “the brothers” in Hebrew) in central Tel Aviv. “It’s the understanding that there’s no one to trust but ourselves and the army.”

Since last Sunday morning, Doktor’s restaurant has been packed with suppliers donating ingredients, well-known chefs preparing them, volunteers on a packaging mission, and drivers ready to bring the food to hospitals and army bases. Nearly 25,000 portions leave the kitchen daily, a staggering number for a project that’s been around for just a week. “We texted a few people on Saturday, we posted a post on Instagram, and were fully operational within hours,” Doktor said.



(full article online)

More Than a Hot Meal

Israeli restaurants and hotels offer free food and shelter for displaced civilians—as well as grieving families and soldiers preparing for battle

www.tabletmag.com

 

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Images of recent vandalism of two Jewish primary schools in the Stamford Hill section of London. Photo: Shomrim Stamford Hill/Twitter

‘Hate and Intimidation’: Two Jewish Schools in London Vandalized, Doused in Red Paint - Algemeiner.com

Law enforcement and Jewish security groups in the UK are seeking those responsible for dousing two Jewish primary schools in the Stamford Hill section of London with red paint. The first instance of vandalism took place on Thursday. The neighborhood watch group Shomrim Stamford Hill shared what...

www.algemeiner.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

One week after the Palestinian terror group Hamas invaded Israel and massacred over 1,400 Israelis, University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill expressed regret for not promptly condemning an anti-Zionist festival hosted by the university that featured several activists who have promoted conspiracies about Jewish power and called for violence against the Jewish state.

“Many have voiced their anger and frustration about this event. Please know that I hear you,” Magill said in a statement on Sunday. “I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn’s campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a university deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The university did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views. While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community.”

The “Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which was held last month, was sponsored by the school’s Wolf Humanities Center, as well as its Department of Cinema and Media Studies. Middle East experts and nonprofit leaders previously described the event to The Algemeiner as an “Israel hate fest.”

Among the speakers was City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center professor Marc Lamont Hill, a former associate of Louis Farrakhan who has accused Israeli police of training American officers to kill Black people.

Another speaker listed on the festival’s itinerary, Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, previously said during an interview that “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.”


(full article online)

Amid Israel-Hamas War, UPenn President Apologizes for Not Condemning Anti-Zionist Festival - Algemeiner.com

One week after the Palestinian terror group Hamas invaded Israel and massacred over 1,400 Israelis, University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill expressed regret for not promptly condemning an anti-Zionist festival hosted by the university that featured several activists who have...

www.algemeiner.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Suffering in Gaza is real, though the false victimhood narrative gives Hamas benefits and deflects attention from saving the hostages and defeating the terrorists.​

(full article online)

Hamas weaponizes sympathy for civilians they help kill - JNS.org

Suffering in Gaza is real, though the false victimhood narrative gives Hamas benefits and deflects attention from saving the hostages and defeating the terrorists.

www.jns.org

 

[P F Tinmore]

One week after the Palestinian terror group Hamas invaded Israel and massacred over 1,400 Israelis, University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill expressed regret for not promptly condemning an anti-Zionist festival hosted by the university that featured several activists who have promoted conspiracies about Jewish power and called for violence against the Jewish state.

“Many have voiced their anger and frustration about this event. Please know that I hear you,” Magill said in a statement on Sunday. “I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn’s campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a university deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The university did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views. While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community.”

The “Palestine Writes Literature Festival,” which was held last month, was sponsored by the school’s Wolf Humanities Center, as well as its Department of Cinema and Media Studies. Middle East experts and nonprofit leaders previously described the event to The Algemeiner as an “Israel hate fest.”

Among the speakers was City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center professor Marc Lamont Hill, a former associate of Louis Farrakhan who has accused Israeli police of training American officers to kill Black people.

Another speaker listed on the festival’s itinerary, Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta, previously said during an interview that “Jews were hated in Europe because they played a role in the destruction of the economy in some of the countries, so they would hate them.”


(full article online)

Amid Israel-Hamas War, UPenn President Apologizes for Not Condemning Anti-Zionist Festival - Algemeiner.com

One week after the Palestinian terror group Hamas invaded Israel and massacred over 1,400 Israelis, University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill expressed regret for not promptly condemning an anti-Zionist festival hosted by the university that featured several activists who have...

www.algemeiner.com

Palestine Writes Literature Festival | Welcome & Opening Remarks​

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Twitter-Banned Palestinian Writer Organizes Literature Festival​

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[Sixties Fan]

Following the horror and carnage perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians on the morning of October 7, and amidst the huge number of victims being identified and named, news media outlets have begun publishing articles, connecting some of the victims to their extended families around the world.

On October 11, CBC News Ottawa writers Avanthika Anand and Nicole Williams, as well as producer Falice Chin, published an article sharing the news that Adi Vital-Kaploun, a 33-year-old dual Canadian-Israeli citizen with a large extended family in Ottawa, was dead.

But in the initial report, it was far come clear how exactly Vital-Kaploun had died, and who the perpetrators were.

The article initially read that Vital-Kaploun had died “as a result of the conflict in Israel.” In reality, she was a young mother of two children, and a resident of Kibbutz Holit, who was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists during their unprovoked attack on towns and villages in southern Israel.

HonestReporting Canada soon engaged the three CBC journalists informing them that Vital-Kaploun had not simply died, but was murdered by Hamas terrorists who had invaded her village. According to the Globe and Mail:



“Adi Vital-Kaploun’s last moments would have been pure horror. Not only were Hamas gunmen in her house, intent on killing her, they had her two young sons as well.

Ms. Vital-Kaploun, a 33-year-old Canadian citizen with ties to Ottawa, was shot in front of her two sons, four-year-old Negev and 4½-month-old Eshel, according to Dina Zaslacski, a family friend.

The family was told by the Israeli military that her body was then shoved under Negev’s bed and booby-trapped so it would explode whenever someone tried to pull her out, Ms. Zaslacski said.”



Shortly after HonestReporting Canada contacted the CBC News team, the leading paragraph of the article was amended. It soon read that “The Jewish Federation of Ottawa has confirmed Adi Vital-Kaploun, who has family ties to Ottawa, was killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel.”

This change, while covering only a few words, fundamentally changes the entire character of the article. It informs readers that the war between Hamas and Israel isn’t a conflict of two sides with equal moral standing, but one where an innocent young mother was mercilessly murdered in front of her children by Hamas. Such details are absolutely critical in helping the Canadian public to understand the chasm of difference between Hamas and Israel.

The CBC News post sharing the article to X (formerly Twitter) was deleted, and the story was re-posted with the revised version.


(full article online)

https://honestreporting.ca/after-claiming-that-israeli-canadian-woman-died-as-a-result-of-conflict-and-not-at-the-hands-of-hamas-terrorists-an-hrc-intervention-prompted-cbc-to-acknowledge-the-truth/?utm_source=Honest+Reporting+Canada&utm_campaign=2696f71683-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_01_01_06_22_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-c2395b4f14-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

 

[Sixties Fan]

Almost 500,000 Israelis have been displaced by the war, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“There are about half a million internally displaced Israelis at the time,” Lt.-Col. (res.) Jonathan Conricus said during a briefing for reporters.

More than 20 communities near the Gaza Strip have been evacuated as the army gears up for a ground offensive.

Another 28 communities within two km. of the Lebanese border have also been evacuated. In recent days, Hezbollah has fired anti-tank rockets into Israel.

The evacuations come on the heels of an Oct. 7 assault by Hamas on Israeli communities near the Gaza border that caught Israelis off-guard. Fighting raged for days as the IDF initially struggled to clear out the terrorists. Terrorists have killed more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded over 4,100 others. At least 199 hostages were taken to Gaza.

Meanwhile, the IDF killed four people trying to infiltrate Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. And in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, an anti-tank rocket fired from Lebanon wounded three people. IDF tanks fired in response towards the source of the fire.

The army declared Metula a closed military zone and ordered the remaining residents there and in the city of Kiryat Shmona to enter bomb shelters until further notice.

Half a million Israelis displaced by war - JNS.org

Around 50 communities near the Gaza and Lebanon borders have been evacuated.

www.jns.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

PA to immediately reward families of Oct. 7 terrorists with nearly $3 million - JNS.org

The "pay-for-slay" stipends will continue for the rest of their relatives' lives.

www.jns.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

Russia rejected at UNSC for failing to call out Hamas - JNS.org

Moscow's defeated draft resolution was intended to embarrass Washington by forcing it to veto a ceasefire, a diplomatic source tells JNS.

www.jns.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

Israel Police arrest 63 on suspicion of terror incitement - JNS.org

Police in Jerusalem have been "operating in an increased format... to monitor and address publications on social media networks that incite terrorism and violence."

www.jns.org

 

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Hating Jews brings opposites together​

There was a meeting in Beirut Mondaybetween Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine discussing "the historical and distinguished relationship between the Jihad and the Front, the ways of cooperation and coordination, and the emphasis on bilateral relations and joint work."

Hating Jews makes the oddest couples, bringing people together who would hate each other in any other context. Islamic Jihad is an extremist Islamist group and the PFLP is a socialist hard Left organization - but they routinely cooperate with each other and with Hamas. And they happily pose together.

Egypt-based Fath News, a Salafi newspaper, hates the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which is an offshoot. But Dr. Yasser Borhami, Vice President of the Salafist Call, said, "We disagree with them on major methodological issues, but when it comes to defending the most marginalized and oppressed of the people of Palestine, we do not disagree with them, but rather agree....Therefore, we will pray for them, 'May God grant you success. O God, grant them victory with a mighty and sustaining victory. O God, the sender of the Book, the one who moves the clouds, and the destroyer of parties, quick to reckon. Defeat the Jews and those who support them, and shake them, and give us victory over them.”

The Salafists don't even try to pretend that they are against "Zionist," with articles saying thing like "Jews are people of treachery, lying, betrayal, procrastination, and breaking promises."

Hating Jews brings opposites together

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

elderofziyon.blogspot.com

 

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