You can make an extremely compelling argument about the horrors that the govt of Israel and the IDF are doing without resorting to obvious falsehoods made in defence of Hamas.
I’m not saying we need to adopt some “all sides bad” enlightened centrism bullshit. If you want to focus only on the atrocities of the govt of Israel because that’s your passion: go for it. Call them out for what they are.
But please don’t defend Hamas or pretend they aren’t also committing atrocities. They do use human shields, constantly. And the atrocities done by Hamas do not take away from the absolute horrors of what the government of Israel is actively committing.
When these falsehoods emerge, it makes the argument against Israel appear delusional and undercuts your implied objective. And it’s not necessary! There is so much widespread harm that we can point to, we don’t need spread falsehoods for that.
Speaking of obvious falsehoods, I’m going to ask you to provide a single verifiable report of Hamas using human shields from anyone not directly tied to the Israeli state.
Not the distortion of humanitarian law which assumes that the mere presence of unarmed people suspected of being affiliated with Hamas means any civilians around them are “shields”, because unarmed people regardless of affiliation are not lawful combatants.
Not the absurd claim that suspected tunnels underneath civilians justify the massacre of those civilians in order to target military infrastructure.
Not the unverified testimonies of people with a history of fabricating lies on behalf of the Israeli government.
Just any single instance of someone in Hamas forcing a nearby civilian to endanger their life on their behalf, from a source that is not ultimately the Israeli government or military itself.
Quoting from the UN report “Anatomy of a genocide”, I have edited out the annotations but there are sources for every single one of the claims listed if you would like to verify yourself:
IHL strictly prohibits the use of human shields. Their use constitutes a war crime, as it violates the duty to protect the civilian population from dangers arising from military operations. When human shields are used, the attacking party must take into account the risk to civilians. Indiscriminate or disproportionate harm to civilians remains unlawful and the civilian population can never be targeted.
Israel has accused Palestinian armed groups of deliberately using civilians as human shields in previous aggressions on Gaza (including in 2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022). It also used it to justify high civilian casualties and attacks against paramedics, journalists and others during the 2018–2019 ‘Great March of Return’. UN independent fact-finding missions and reputable human rights organizations have consistently challenged these allegations, sometimes concluding that evidence of human shields had been fabricated. Nevertheless, Israel has used these accusations – sometimes then retracted – to justify widespread and systematic killing of Palestinian civilians in its ongoing assault.
After 7 October, this macro-characterization of Gaza’s civilians as a population of human shields has reached unprecedented levels, with Israel’s top-ranking political and military leaders consistently framing civilians as either Hamas operatives, “accomplices”, or human shields among whom Hamas is “embedded”. In November, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs defined “the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields” and accused Hamas of using “the civilian population as human shields”. The Ministry defines armed groups fighting from urban areas as deliberately “embedded” in the population to such an extent that it “cannot be concluded from the mere fact that seeming ‘civilians’ or ‘civilian objects’ have been targeted, that an attack was unlawful”. Two rhetorical elements of this key legal policy document indicate the intention to transform the entire Gaza population and its infrastructures of life into a ‘legitimate’ targetable shield: the use of the all-encompassing the combined with the quotation marks to qualify civilians and civilian objects. Israel has thus sought to camouflage genocidal intent with humanitarian law jargon.
International law does not permit the blanket claim that an opposing force is using the entire population as human shields en bloc. Any such usage must be assessed and established on a case-by-case basis before each individual attack. The crime of using human shields occurs when the use of civilians or civilian objects to impede attacks on lawful targets is the result of a deliberate tactical choice, not merely arising from the nature of the battlefield, such as hostilities in densely populated urban terrain.
Nevertheless, Israeli authorities have characterized churches, mosques, schools, UN facilities, universities, hospitals and ambulances as connected with Hamas to reinforce the perception of a population characterized as broadly ‘complicit’ and therefore killable. Significant numbers of Palestinian civilians are defined as human shields simply by being in “proximity to” potential Israeli targets. Israel has thus transformed Gaza into a “world without civilians” in which “everything from taking shelter in hospitals to fleeing for safety is declared a form of human shielding”. The accusation of using human shields has thus become a pretext, justifying the killing of civilians under a cloak of purported legality, whose all-enveloping pervasiveness admits only of genocidal intent.
Speaking of obvious falsehoods, I’m going to ask you to provide a single verifiable report of Hamas using human shields from anyone not directly tied to the Israeli state.
The part of your question that I bolder here shows that you’re well aware that as I stated, Hamas uses human shields frequently. You just think that’s it’s justifiable, and you’re free to do that.
But don’t say it doesn’t happen. It happens every day.
No, I am well aware that the Israeli state has a long and well documented history of lying and fabricating evidence to support its genocidal goals. Just because Israel defines the entire civilian population as human shields does not make it so.
As I suspected, you will be unable to provide any independent sources or imagery of Hamas militants engaging in anything that would be recognized as human shielding under international law.
Conversely, I can provide several different examples from several different sources, which paint a clear and ongoingpicture of flagrant war crimes being perpetrated by Israel. This is just the stuff that more closely aligns with “human shields”, using civilians, as well as civilian structures, uniforms, and vehicles, for protection. Israel has been openly violating international law for decades, their disregard for Palestinian life and basic human rights is excruciatingly well documented.
You’ll note that most of these articles do parrot all the lines from Israeli officials as their editorial boards force them to, some even repeat the claims of Hamas using human shields, but you will find none of those are tied to anything but Israeli testimonials. It’s reported matter-of-factly without a shred of evidence. The Israeli crimes however, usually include video or photographic evidence of them being perpetrated.
Surely if the practice of human shielding was common for Hamas, it should be easy enough for you to provide at least one photo or video of this happening, right? All I ask is that you provide one such example, anything that shows this actually happening that isn’t just an Israeli official, civilian, or militant saying it’s happening. If it’s common, it should not be hard to do.
Bruh it’s happened so much there’s an Israeli High Court case that specifically forbids the practice. Hasn’t prevented the practice, there are multiple documented instances, from different conflicts, that the Jewish group B’Tslem has a white paper on just the subject of IDF using human shields:
…soldiers have ordered Palestinians to:
-enter buildings to check if they are booby-trapped, or to remove the occupants
-remove suspicious objects from roads used by the army
-stand inside houses where soldiers have set up military positions, so that Palestinians will not fire at the soldiers
-walk in front of soldiers to shield them from gunfire, while the soldiers hold a gun behind their backs and sometimes fire over their shoulders.
The soldiers in the field did not initiate this practice; rather, the use of human shields is an integral part of the orders they receive.
I am not saying that Israel and the IDF have not used human shields. They absolutely do and you’re 100% correct to condemn this. And I join you in this condemnation.
What am also saying is that people should stop lying in order to defend Hamas. Because you can condemn the govt of Israel without doing that. And the condemnation is more compelling when it’s not accompanied with lies of convenience.
Your comment here being a good example of how that’s done properly. Everything you said is true and it paints a damning picture that is impossible to argue against.
Listen idiot, Gaza is the size of Manhattan with the same density. Israel can blow your entire neighborhood simply because they suspect a hamas goon will be there. They’re using “human shield” simply by being alive and not standing on a hill so they can conveniently be killed.
What atrocities? You would think if it was actually bad Israel would allow freedom of press in Palestine. How many reporters have been injured or killed, and by whom?
This is unquestionably false.
You can make an extremely compelling argument about the horrors that the govt of Israel and the IDF are doing without resorting to obvious falsehoods made in defence of Hamas.
I’m not saying we need to adopt some “all sides bad” enlightened centrism bullshit. If you want to focus only on the atrocities of the govt of Israel because that’s your passion: go for it. Call them out for what they are.
But please don’t defend Hamas or pretend they aren’t also committing atrocities. They do use human shields, constantly. And the atrocities done by Hamas do not take away from the absolute horrors of what the government of Israel is actively committing.
When these falsehoods emerge, it makes the argument against Israel appear delusional and undercuts your implied objective. And it’s not necessary! There is so much widespread harm that we can point to, we don’t need spread falsehoods for that.
Speaking of obvious falsehoods, I’m going to ask you to provide a single verifiable report of Hamas using human shields from anyone not directly tied to the Israeli state.
Not the distortion of humanitarian law which assumes that the mere presence of unarmed people suspected of being affiliated with Hamas means any civilians around them are “shields”, because unarmed people regardless of affiliation are not lawful combatants.
Not the absurd claim that suspected tunnels underneath civilians justify the massacre of those civilians in order to target military infrastructure.
Not the unverified testimonies of people with a history of fabricating lies on behalf of the Israeli government.
Just any single instance of someone in Hamas forcing a nearby civilian to endanger their life on their behalf, from a source that is not ultimately the Israeli government or military itself.
Quoting from the UN report “Anatomy of a genocide”, I have edited out the annotations but there are sources for every single one of the claims listed if you would like to verify yourself:
The part of your question that I bolder here shows that you’re well aware that as I stated, Hamas uses human shields frequently. You just think that’s it’s justifiable, and you’re free to do that.
But don’t say it doesn’t happen. It happens every day.
No, I am well aware that the Israeli state has a long and well documented history of lying and fabricating evidence to support its genocidal goals. Just because Israel defines the entire civilian population as human shields does not make it so.
As I suspected, you will be unable to provide any independent sources or imagery of Hamas militants engaging in anything that would be recognized as human shielding under international law.
Conversely, I can provide several different examples from several different sources, which paint a clear and ongoing picture of flagrant war crimes being perpetrated by Israel. This is just the stuff that more closely aligns with “human shields”, using civilians, as well as civilian structures, uniforms, and vehicles, for protection. Israel has been openly violating international law for decades, their disregard for Palestinian life and basic human rights is excruciatingly well documented.
You’ll note that most of these articles do parrot all the lines from Israeli officials as their editorial boards force them to, some even repeat the claims of Hamas using human shields, but you will find none of those are tied to anything but Israeli testimonials. It’s reported matter-of-factly without a shred of evidence. The Israeli crimes however, usually include video or photographic evidence of them being perpetrated.
Surely if the practice of human shielding was common for Hamas, it should be easy enough for you to provide at least one photo or video of this happening, right? All I ask is that you provide one such example, anything that shows this actually happening that isn’t just an Israeli official, civilian, or militant saying it’s happening. If it’s common, it should not be hard to do.
Bruh it’s happened so much there’s an Israeli High Court case that specifically forbids the practice. Hasn’t prevented the practice, there are multiple documented instances, from different conflicts, that the Jewish group B’Tslem has a white paper on just the subject of IDF using human shields:
I am not saying that Israel and the IDF have not used human shields. They absolutely do and you’re 100% correct to condemn this. And I join you in this condemnation.
What am also saying is that people should stop lying in order to defend Hamas. Because you can condemn the govt of Israel without doing that. And the condemnation is more compelling when it’s not accompanied with lies of convenience.
Your comment here being a good example of how that’s done properly. Everything you said is true and it paints a damning picture that is impossible to argue against.
Except that they provided actual evidence of Israel using human shields, while all you’ve done is go “trust me bro, Israel would never lie to you”
Listen idiot, Gaza is the size of Manhattan with the same density. Israel can blow your entire neighborhood simply because they suspect a hamas goon will be there. They’re using “human shield” simply by being alive and not standing on a hill so they can conveniently be killed.
Citation needed.
That’s a recent article. You may not have seen it.
Summary: every IDF group has a prisoner assigned to it.
It’s a bit of hard read but it’s out there.
What atrocities? You would think if it was actually bad Israel would allow freedom of press in Palestine. How many reporters have been injured or killed, and by whom?