Reminds me of a quote from a Macedon foot soldier during Alexander's campaigns...
"There is no glory in war. War is evil. It strips away the elements which make us human."
Israeli - Palestinian Conflict
- Thread starter Raoul
- Start date
Reminds me of a quote from a Macedon foot soldier during Alexander's campaigns...
"There is no glory in war. War is evil. It strips away the elements which make us human."
Why is downplaying the holocaust anti-Semitic? There are many arguments that say they have been over exaggerated as the Jews controlled the media (not saying I believe this etc. ) but is it anti-Semitic exploring these arguments? Or is it properganda by the Jews to say it is anti-Semitic to question any part of that history.
Also another reason it is downplayed is because Israel are repeating history in their treatment of the Palestinians. How can you sympathise with their past when currently they are doing terrible things (not Jews but Israel).
I hope I don't sound anti-Semitic with this post.
you do.
My bad. However it won't keep me up at night but the deaths of Palestinian children will. Think there are bigger problems in the world than downplaying the holocaust.
Israeli Professor: Rape Hamas Militants' Mothers and Sisters to Deter Terrorist Attacks
Mordechai KedarYoutube
An Israeli academic has claimed that raping wives and mothers of Palestinian Hamas militants is the only thing that could deter further terrorist attacks.
The remarks by renowned Middle East scholar Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University were made three weeks ago after the grim discovery of the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, but the recording was published online (in Hebrew) on Monday.
"The only thing that could deter a suicide bomber is knowing that if caught, his sister or his mother would be raped," said Kedar on Israel Radio Bet
"It sounds very bad, but that's the Middle East," he continued. "You have to understand the culture in which we live. The only thing that deters [Hamas leaders] is a threat to the connection between their heads and their shoulders."
To the shocked radio presenter who said that "we cannot take such steps, of course", Kedar replied:
"I'm not talking about what we should or shouldn't do. I'm talking about the facts. The only thing that deters a suicide bomber is the knowledge that if he pulls the trigger or blows himself up, his sister will be raped. That's all. That's the only thing that will bring him back home, in order to preserve his sister's honor."
Kedar served for 25 years in the military intelligence, where he specialised in Islamic groups. He is currently a researcher at the right-wing Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies of Bar Ilan but previously worked for a shadowy organisation, the Israel Academia Monitor, which fights left-leaning academic professors.
Kedar's words triggered an angered reaction among feminist activists in Israel, who sent a letter to the University president Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz in which they condemn Kedar's "words of incitement that grant legitimacy to Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Israeli civilians to commit rape, and endanger both Israeli and Palestinian women.
"Kedar's words echo expressions that treat rape as a remedial practice, although it is a war crime."
-
By Gianluca Mezzofiore
July 22, 2014 17:14 BST - 15,370 553
Mordechai KedarYoutube
An Israeli academic has claimed that raping wives and mothers of Palestinian Hamas militants is the only thing that could deter further terrorist attacks.
The remarks by renowned Middle East scholar Mordechai Kedar of Bar-Ilan University were made three weeks ago after the grim discovery of the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, but the recording was published online (in Hebrew) on Monday.
"The only thing that could deter a suicide bomber is knowing that if caught, his sister or his mother would be raped," said Kedar on Israel Radio Bet
"It sounds very bad, but that's the Middle East," he continued. "You have to understand the culture in which we live. The only thing that deters [Hamas leaders] is a threat to the connection between their heads and their shoulders."
To the shocked radio presenter who said that "we cannot take such steps, of course", Kedar replied:
"I'm not talking about what we should or shouldn't do. I'm talking about the facts. The only thing that deters a suicide bomber is the knowledge that if he pulls the trigger or blows himself up, his sister will be raped. That's all. That's the only thing that will bring him back home, in order to preserve his sister's honor."
Kedar served for 25 years in the military intelligence, where he specialised in Islamic groups. He is currently a researcher at the right-wing Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies of Bar Ilan but previously worked for a shadowy organisation, the Israel Academia Monitor, which fights left-leaning academic professors.
Kedar's words triggered an angered reaction among feminist activists in Israel, who sent a letter to the University president Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz in which they condemn Kedar's "words of incitement that grant legitimacy to Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Israeli civilians to commit rape, and endanger both Israeli and Palestinian women.
"Kedar's words echo expressions that treat rape as a remedial practice, although it is a war crime."
Try being Muslim or Arab looking in America. Or rural England. Or Eastern Europe. Or Australia. Or an airport. These last 13 years have been a bit tough for those people as well, if you want a comparison of stereotypes and society turning on a people, especially with the media's help.
The article was from a German newspaper, analysing the rise of anti-Semitic behaviour in Germany. Downplaying and/or belittling the holocaust is a criminal offence. Why do you think is this such a touchy subject and why is the German home office monitoring this type of offensive behaviour in particular?
Again, the article is written from the German viewpoint. Should be pretty much clear why they are taking anti-Semitic crimes very seriously.
Apart from that, in Germany there is also prejudice against Turks, Arabs, gypsies, eastern Europeans, etc.
Oh and btw, there is nothing wrong with doing holocaust research, obviously, so don't worry, you wouldn't be arrested. You would be slapped at the head with the 'Jews control the media' type of non-sense. But you don't believe this either so you're safe.
Your second point- if I have understood it correctly- is idiotic. From a historical perspective, at least.
Would you kindly show us photos of Israeli concentration and dead camps?
Old vid from the last attack on Gaza in 2012
Think Andy_Cole is on the WUM. Not very funny either.
Surely if Israel is committing "genocide" as many of it's critics say then wouldn't the whole Gaza be dust and ashes now?
Israel is treating wounded Palestinians during this conflict, risking Israeli lives in surgical strikes to destroy weapons-smuggling tunnels created with building materials Israel allowed into Gaza for infrastructure projects to benefit Palestinian society. Israel has allowed over 10 tons of goods into Gaza. During the past weeks, Israel has agreed to two humanitarian cease-fires. In the first hours of those ceasefires, Hamas rained down over 70 missiles onto Israel civilians.
Has Owen Jones actually been to Gaza out of curiosity? A leftie speaking out against Israel, there's a shock
Surely if Israel is committing "genocide" as many of it's critics say then wouldn't the whole Gaza be dust and ashes now?
Israel is treating wounded Palestinians during this conflict, risking Israeli lives in surgical strikes to destroy weapons-smuggling tunnels created with building materials Israel allowed into Gaza for infrastructure projects to benefit Palestinian society. Israel has allowed over 10 tons of goods into Gaza. During the past weeks, Israel has agreed to two humanitarian cease-fires. In the first hours of those ceasefires, Hamas rained down over 70 missiles onto Israel civilians.
Has Owen Jones actually been to Gaza out of curiosity? A leftie speaking out against Israel, there's a shock
You sound ignorant to me, but that's probably down to my bias against people who admit their knowledge is based on what they see on Facebook.
Agreed. Downplaying Hillsborough or Heysel, for example. These are banning offences here.
Think Andy_Cole is on the WUM. Not very funny either.
Surely if Israel is committing "genocide" as many of it's critics say then wouldn't the whole Gaza be dust and ashes now?
Israel is treating wounded Palestinians during this conflict, risking Israeli lives in surgical strikes to destroy weapons-smuggling tunnels created with building materials Israel allowed into Gaza for infrastructure projects to benefit Palestinian society. Israel has allowed over 10 tons of goods into Gaza. During the past weeks, Israel has agreed to two humanitarian cease-fires. In the first hours of those ceasefires, Hamas rained down over 70 missiles onto Israel civilians.
Has Owen Jones actually been to Gaza out of curiosity? A leftie speaking out against Israel, there's a shock
He's not trying to downplay the Gaza genocide though. It's the one he loses sleep over.
Adam Jaber
“This is David.”
And in my stupor of sonic booms and glass shattering symphonies
still smashing around in my head
I think "Do I know any Davids in Gaza?"
They call us now to say
Run.
You have 58 seconds from the end of this message.
Your house is next.
They think of it as some kind of
war time courtesy.
It doesn’t matter that
there is nowhere to run to.
It means nothing that the borders are closed
and your papers are worthless
and mark you only for a life sentence
in this prison by the sea
and the alleyways are narrow
and there are more human lives
packed one against the other
more than any other place on earth
Just run.
We aren’t trying to kill you.
It doesn’t matter that
you can’t call us back to tell us
the people we claim to want aren’t in your house
that there’s no one here
except you and your children
who were cheering for Argentina
sharing the last loaf of bread for this week
counting candles left in case the power goes out.
It doesn’t matter that you have children.
You live in the wrong place
and now is your chance to run
to nowhere.
It doesn’t matter
that 58 seconds isn’t long enough
to find your wedding album
or your son’s favorite blanket
or your daughter’s almost completed college application
or your shoes
or to gather everyone in the house.
It doesn’t matter what you had planned.
It doesn’t matter who you are
Prove you’re human.
Prove you stand on two legs.
Run."
- Running Orders, by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Think Andy_Cole is on the WUM. Not very funny either.
Surely if Israel is committing "genocide" as many of it's critics say then wouldn't the whole Gaza be dust and ashes now?
Israel is treating wounded Palestinians during this conflict, risking Israeli lives in surgical strikes to destroy weapons-smuggling tunnels created with building materials Israel allowed into Gaza for infrastructure projects to benefit Palestinian society. Israel has allowed over 10 tons of goods into Gaza. During the past weeks, Israel has agreed to two humanitarian cease-fires. In the first hours of those ceasefires, Hamas rained down over 70 missiles onto Israel civilians.
Has Owen Jones actually been to Gaza out of curiosity? A leftie speaking out against Israel, there's a shock
Surgical airstrikes which include hospitals, dense family neighbourhoods and shelling beaches? If that's 'surgical' I dread to think what would happen if they take the shackles off.
Owen Jones has got it spot on, regardless of whether he's been to Gaza or not. Have you been to Gaza incidentally?
This has been going on for 15 years now.
Seems like I opened a can of worms that has made me look pretty bad. I apologise if i have offended anyone. What I was trying to do was think like the so called 'secondary anti-Semitics' as I didn't believe they should be labeled as anti-Semitic.
I hope we can carry on discussing the conflict as I find it very interesting discussing with actual Israelis as I don't know any personally. Admittedly I do have one sided views but I am open minded which is the reason I keep coming back to the thread as I want to hear what posters like @holyland red have to say about this.
I hope we can carry on discussing the conflict as I find it very interesting discussing with actual Israelis as I don't know any personally. Admittedly I do have one sided views but I am open minded which is the reason I keep coming back to the thread as I want to hear what posters like @holyland red have to say about this.
Just to clarify, I didn't say I would not lose sleep from the holocaust. It was the worst thing that has happened in history. I said I wouldn't lose sleep from people who downplay the holocaust (secondry anti-Semitics).
Nine Things the Israeli Ambassador Conveniently Didn't Say About Gaza
The suffering in Gaza continues unabated. The strip is blockaded from land, sea and air and bombed from land, sea and air. The death toll has climbed past 550, including at least 100 Palestinian children.
Yet, still, silver-tongued Israeli officials continue to take to the airwaves to defend the indefensible. On Tuesday I appeared alongside Israel's ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, on BBC Radio 2's The Jeremy Vine Show, to discuss the Gaza crisis. I wasn't able to debate the ambassador directly: I answered Vine's questions first while Taub sat silently next to me; then he answered Vine's questions while I (with great difficulty and much self-restraint) sat silently next to him. You can listen to the full interviews below, including my points about Israel's brutal 'Dahiya doctrine' and the horrific effects of the siege on Gaza's 1.7m-strong populace.
Given I wasn't able to respond to Taub's points on the show, however, and given the ambassador was able to have the last word, I thought I'd deal with some of the myths he pushed, live on air, in this particular blogpost.
Here are nine things that the Israeli ambassador to the UK conveniently didn't mention - or got flat wrong - during his radio interview yesterday, based on nine of his quotes from that interview:
1) "We pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005... we pulled out of every inch."
Israel likes to pretend that the occupation of Gaza ended with Ariel Sharon's 'unilateral disengagement' from the strip in August 2005. It didn't. Israel is still, legally, the occupying power and continues to control Gaza's territorial borders, coastal waters and airspace. In fact, as Harvard University Middle East expert Sara Roy noted in the Boston Globe in 2012: "Israeli-imposed buffer zones -- areas of restricted access -- now absorb nearly 14 percent of Gaza's total land and at least 48 percent of total arable land. Similarly, the sea buffer zone covers 85 percent of the maritime area promised to Palestinians in the Oslo Accords, reducing 20 nautical miles to three..." Israel also continues to control the Palestinian Population Registry, which has the power to define who is a "Palestinian" and who is a legal resident of Gaza. Does Gaza sound sovereign, independent or un-occupied to you?
2) "Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force."
Yes it did, in June 2007, after being elected to office in January 2006. But what Taub omitted to mention is that it did so in order to pre-empt a coup planned by the Bush administration and egged on by the Israelis. As investigative journalist David Rose pointed out in his acclaimed Vanity Fair piece on the coup, based on leaked documents from the US State Department, it was "President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams [who] backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever."
3) "At the end of the day democracy is... some sort of commitment to basic democratic values."
Put to one side the fact that Israel rules over millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while denying them the right to vote in Israeli elections, let's take a look for a moment at the 'democratic' fate of Palestinians who live legally inside of Israel as citizens of the Jewish State. There are, according to Ha'aretz, "695 communities, located in regional councils that control about 80 percent of the state's land" which have vetting committees, protected by law, that prevent Palestinian citizens of Israel from buying or renting property in those communities. Israel also operates discriminatory citizenship laws - chief among them, the 1950 Law of Return and the 1952 Citizenship Law - which privilege Jewish citizens over Palestinian citizens. What happened to "basic democratic values"?
4) "Hamas has brutalised the people of Gaza."
Yes it has. Hams is undoubtedly guilty of massive human rights abuses inside Gaza. But does that excuse Israel's 47-year brutalisation of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories? Consider this Reuters report from June 2013: "A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields. Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said." Is this not brutalisation? Is this not a massive abuse of Palestinian human rights? How about bombing a cafe in which Gazans were watching the World Cup? Or bombing a shelter for Gaza's disabled residents?
5) "Israel has been trying to show restraint."
If "restraint" results in 500-plus dead in a matter of days, the vast majority of them civilians, including kids on beaches and disabled people in shelters, then I wouldn't want to see what Taub defines as a lack of restraint. Also, as I mentioned in my remarks to Vine, Israel is using the Dahiya doctrine which, as the 2009 United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict noted, is an Israeli security concept coined by former IDF general Gadi Eizenkot that involves "the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations". Targeting civilian populations and properties isn't evidence of "restraint", it's evidence of war crimes.
The suffering in Gaza continues unabated. The strip is blockaded from land, sea and air and bombed from land, sea and air. The death toll has climbed past 550, including at least 100 Palestinian children.
Yet, still, silver-tongued Israeli officials continue to take to the airwaves to defend the indefensible. On Tuesday I appeared alongside Israel's ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub, on BBC Radio 2's The Jeremy Vine Show, to discuss the Gaza crisis. I wasn't able to debate the ambassador directly: I answered Vine's questions first while Taub sat silently next to me; then he answered Vine's questions while I (with great difficulty and much self-restraint) sat silently next to him. You can listen to the full interviews below, including my points about Israel's brutal 'Dahiya doctrine' and the horrific effects of the siege on Gaza's 1.7m-strong populace.
Given I wasn't able to respond to Taub's points on the show, however, and given the ambassador was able to have the last word, I thought I'd deal with some of the myths he pushed, live on air, in this particular blogpost.
Here are nine things that the Israeli ambassador to the UK conveniently didn't mention - or got flat wrong - during his radio interview yesterday, based on nine of his quotes from that interview:
1) "We pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005... we pulled out of every inch."
Israel likes to pretend that the occupation of Gaza ended with Ariel Sharon's 'unilateral disengagement' from the strip in August 2005. It didn't. Israel is still, legally, the occupying power and continues to control Gaza's territorial borders, coastal waters and airspace. In fact, as Harvard University Middle East expert Sara Roy noted in the Boston Globe in 2012: "Israeli-imposed buffer zones -- areas of restricted access -- now absorb nearly 14 percent of Gaza's total land and at least 48 percent of total arable land. Similarly, the sea buffer zone covers 85 percent of the maritime area promised to Palestinians in the Oslo Accords, reducing 20 nautical miles to three..." Israel also continues to control the Palestinian Population Registry, which has the power to define who is a "Palestinian" and who is a legal resident of Gaza. Does Gaza sound sovereign, independent or un-occupied to you?
2) "Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force."
Yes it did, in June 2007, after being elected to office in January 2006. But what Taub omitted to mention is that it did so in order to pre-empt a coup planned by the Bush administration and egged on by the Israelis. As investigative journalist David Rose pointed out in his acclaimed Vanity Fair piece on the coup, based on leaked documents from the US State Department, it was "President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams [who] backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever."
3) "At the end of the day democracy is... some sort of commitment to basic democratic values."
Put to one side the fact that Israel rules over millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while denying them the right to vote in Israeli elections, let's take a look for a moment at the 'democratic' fate of Palestinians who live legally inside of Israel as citizens of the Jewish State. There are, according to Ha'aretz, "695 communities, located in regional councils that control about 80 percent of the state's land" which have vetting committees, protected by law, that prevent Palestinian citizens of Israel from buying or renting property in those communities. Israel also operates discriminatory citizenship laws - chief among them, the 1950 Law of Return and the 1952 Citizenship Law - which privilege Jewish citizens over Palestinian citizens. What happened to "basic democratic values"?
4) "Hamas has brutalised the people of Gaza."
Yes it has. Hams is undoubtedly guilty of massive human rights abuses inside Gaza. But does that excuse Israel's 47-year brutalisation of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories? Consider this Reuters report from June 2013: "A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields. Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said." Is this not brutalisation? Is this not a massive abuse of Palestinian human rights? How about bombing a cafe in which Gazans were watching the World Cup? Or bombing a shelter for Gaza's disabled residents?
5) "Israel has been trying to show restraint."
If "restraint" results in 500-plus dead in a matter of days, the vast majority of them civilians, including kids on beaches and disabled people in shelters, then I wouldn't want to see what Taub defines as a lack of restraint. Also, as I mentioned in my remarks to Vine, Israel is using the Dahiya doctrine which, as the 2009 United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict noted, is an Israeli security concept coined by former IDF general Gadi Eizenkot that involves "the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations". Targeting civilian populations and properties isn't evidence of "restraint", it's evidence of war crimes.
Listen, I have no issues with your sleep disorders. I just can't understand the urge to get involved in a debate on a topic one has absolutely zero knowledge about.
6) "This was a [ceasefire] proposal that was presented to both Israel and Hamas."
This isn't true and Taub knows it. The proposed ceasefire deal last week was struck between Egyptian president al-Sisi and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, with the help of 'peace envoy' Tony Blair - but without any Hamas involvement. Hamas official, Mushir al-Massri, told Al Jazeera, "that the group was never involved in the formulation of the ceasefire and only learned about it from media reports. He said his group rejected the proposal 'in style because no body consulted with us in formatting it, [and] in content because its articles are a free service to the [Israeli] occupation'." To quote Sharif Nashashibi: "It is extraordinary that a supposed mediator between two warring parties would exclude one of them from the process."
7) "Hamas has been obstructing people from getting the food and the medicines that they need."
Maybe, but are we expected to believe that the Israelis care about the health and well-being of the people of Gaza? According to a 'secret' US State Department cable, based on conversations between US diplomats and senior Israeli officials, revealed by Wikileaks in 2011: "Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.. As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed ... on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge." Also, official Israeli documents, released to the Gisha human rights organisation under Freedom of Information legislation, showed that "the Israeli military made precise calculations of Gaza's daily calorie needs to avoid malnutrition during a blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and mid-2010" and then refused to allow in enough trucks of food to meet those "daily calorie needs".
8) "I have absolutely no idea what reports [about flechette shells] you're referring to."
Perhaps Taub, who stuttered as he responded to Vine's very simple question on flechette use, should read the Guardian: "The Israeli military is using flechette shells, which spray out thousands of tiny and potentially lethal metal darts, in its military operation in Gaza. Six flechette shells were fired towards the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis, on 17 July, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Nahla Khalil Najjar, 37, suffered injuries to her chest, it said. PCHR provided a picture of flechettes taken by a fieldworker last week. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) did not deny using the shells in the conflict... The munitions are not prohibited under international humanitarian law, but according to B'Tselem, 'other rules of humanitarian law render their use in the Gaza Strip illegal.'"
9) "The tragedy is that Hamas... are stopping civilians leaving from the areas of fighting."
Whether or not Hamas is indeed "stopping civilians" from leaving "the areas of fighting", where are those Palestinian civilians in Gaza supposed to go? Which part of their "prison camp", to quote David Cameron in 2010, can they legitimately and safely take shelter in, given Israel is bombing houses, schools and mosques on the grounds that they're all allegedly being used by Hamas to hide their rockets? To quote the inimitable Jon Stewart, of the Daily Show: "Evacuate to where? Have you f**king seen Gaza? Israel blocked this border, Egypt blocked this border. What, are they supposed to swim for it?"
This isn't true and Taub knows it. The proposed ceasefire deal last week was struck between Egyptian president al-Sisi and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, with the help of 'peace envoy' Tony Blair - but without any Hamas involvement. Hamas official, Mushir al-Massri, told Al Jazeera, "that the group was never involved in the formulation of the ceasefire and only learned about it from media reports. He said his group rejected the proposal 'in style because no body consulted with us in formatting it, [and] in content because its articles are a free service to the [Israeli] occupation'." To quote Sharif Nashashibi: "It is extraordinary that a supposed mediator between two warring parties would exclude one of them from the process."
7) "Hamas has been obstructing people from getting the food and the medicines that they need."
Maybe, but are we expected to believe that the Israelis care about the health and well-being of the people of Gaza? According to a 'secret' US State Department cable, based on conversations between US diplomats and senior Israeli officials, revealed by Wikileaks in 2011: "Israeli officials have confirmed to Embassy officials on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.. As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed ... on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge." Also, official Israeli documents, released to the Gisha human rights organisation under Freedom of Information legislation, showed that "the Israeli military made precise calculations of Gaza's daily calorie needs to avoid malnutrition during a blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and mid-2010" and then refused to allow in enough trucks of food to meet those "daily calorie needs".
8) "I have absolutely no idea what reports [about flechette shells] you're referring to."
Perhaps Taub, who stuttered as he responded to Vine's very simple question on flechette use, should read the Guardian: "The Israeli military is using flechette shells, which spray out thousands of tiny and potentially lethal metal darts, in its military operation in Gaza. Six flechette shells were fired towards the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis, on 17 July, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Nahla Khalil Najjar, 37, suffered injuries to her chest, it said. PCHR provided a picture of flechettes taken by a fieldworker last week. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) did not deny using the shells in the conflict... The munitions are not prohibited under international humanitarian law, but according to B'Tselem, 'other rules of humanitarian law render their use in the Gaza Strip illegal.'"
9) "The tragedy is that Hamas... are stopping civilians leaving from the areas of fighting."
Whether or not Hamas is indeed "stopping civilians" from leaving "the areas of fighting", where are those Palestinian civilians in Gaza supposed to go? Which part of their "prison camp", to quote David Cameron in 2010, can they legitimately and safely take shelter in, given Israel is bombing houses, schools and mosques on the grounds that they're all allegedly being used by Hamas to hide their rockets? To quote the inimitable Jon Stewart, of the Daily Show: "Evacuate to where? Have you f**king seen Gaza? Israel blocked this border, Egypt blocked this border. What, are they supposed to swim for it?"
I know that the actual matter is not one to laugh about, but this video plays like a really bad horror movie trailer
Has this actually been going on for 15 years though? In brief spells I presume?
http://news.sky.com/story/1306015/gaza-israel-could-be-guilty-of-war-crimes
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights says there is a "strong possibility" Israel is violating international law in Gaza.
Opening an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Navanethem Pillay said Israel's punitive house demolitions and killing of Palestinians raised serious concerns of excessive use of force by the Jewish state.
Ms Pillay also condemned the indiscriminate firing of rockets and mortars by Hamas into Israel.
"Once again, the principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being observed during such indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups," she said.
The UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights says there is a "strong possibility" Israel is violating international law in Gaza.
Opening an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Navanethem Pillay said Israel's punitive house demolitions and killing of Palestinians raised serious concerns of excessive use of force by the Jewish state.
Ms Pillay also condemned the indiscriminate firing of rockets and mortars by Hamas into Israel.
"Once again, the principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being observed during such indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups," she said.
Who cares about what they say ? They were once a proud nation, now they're just Israel's floorcloth. Still giving millions for what happened in the last century. Even some Germans lads that I met at Uni are petrified when you talk about Israel when they don't have anything to do with what happened in 33-45, they were not even born.
I know that the actual matter is not one to laugh about, but this video plays like a really bad horror movie trailer
Has this actually been going on for 15 years though? In brief spells I presume?
Fifteen years, no brief spells, because occasionally Hamas doesn't take responsibility amid claims rockets and mortars are fired by "extremists" Hamas has no control of.
I know that the actual matter is not one to laugh about, but this video plays like a really bad horror movie trailer
Has this actually been going on for 15 years though? In brief spells I presume?
So do a large majority of Palestinian propaganda videos.
I'm sure a lot of them do. This one especially though because of the young girl counting with her eyes closed in the middle of a forest whilst a creepy tune plays in the background.
Hundreds of Jewish anti-Semites in Tel Aviv
Well I know one thing. That Israel has targeted children, hospitals and the disabled. Sending leaflets doesn't make this okay. Israel has broken law after law. They have a tit for tat attitude and don't consider Palestinian life precious at all. The ruthlessness of Israel makes me sick.
Ah, the poor Germans, just imagine what they have to endure and the nightmares they are going through on daily basis because of what happened in the past!
Btw, Germany have been paying millions in aid to UNRWA since 1965. They are also paying hundreds of millions to the PA. Check your statistics.
Hamas have targeted children, hospitals and the disabled. Their attacks have been unsuccessful. Either way, both parties have broken law after law in this round of conflict.
So Hamas doing it justifies Israel's indiscriminate attacks?
Exactly that. Israel cannot justify just because it's happening to them. I don't support Hamas at all. But they're not the victims. The victims are the Palestinian people.
That's justification is awful.
Israel hasn't.
They're not indiscriminate. Rockets fired from/stored in a hospital make it a legitimate military target.