New York Times rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide”
New York Times rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide”
After receiving the text for the ad quoted above, a representative from the advertising team suggested AFSC use the word “war” instead of “genocide” – a word with an entirely different meaning both colloquially and under international law. When AFSC rejected this approach, the New York Times Ad Acceptability Team sent an email that read in part: “Various international bodies, human rights organizations, and governments have differing views on the situation. In line with our commitment to factual accuracy and adherence to legal standards, we must ensure that all advertising content complies with these widely applied definitions.”
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The IDF commit war crimes daily. You are completely delusional to blame the people being bombed and starved instead of the ones doing the bombing and starvation.
De-development via the Gaza Occupation
Between July 1971 and February 1972, Sharon enjoyed considerable success. During this time, the entire Strip (apart from the Rafah area) was sealed off by a ring of security fences 53 miles in length, with few entrypoints. Today, their effects live on: there are only three points of entry to Gaza—Erez, Nahal Oz, and Rafah.
Perhaps the most dramatic and painful aspect of Sharon’s campaign was the widening of roads in the refugee camps to facilitate military access. Israel built nearly 200 miles of security roads and destroyed thousands of refugee dwellings as part of the widening process.' In August 1971, for example, the Israeli army destroyed 7,729 rooms (approximately 2,000 houses) in three vola- tile camps, displacing 15,855 refugees: 7,217 from Jabalya, 4,836 from Shati, and 3,802 from Rafah.
- Page 105
Through 1993 Israel imposed a one-way system of tariffs and duties on the importation of goods through its borders; leaving Israel for Gaza, however, no tariffs or other regulations applied. Thus, for Israeli exports to Gaza, the Strip was treated as part of Israel; but for Gazan exports to Israel, the Strip was treated as a foreign entity subject to various “non-tariff barriers.” This placed Israel at a distinct advantage for trading and limited Gaza’s access to Israeli and foreign markets. Gazans had no recourse against such policies, being totally unable to protect themselves with tariffs or exchange rate controls. Thus, they had to pay more for highly protected Israeli products than they would if they had some control over their own economy. Such policies deprived the occupied territories of significant customs revenue, estimated at $118-$176 million in 1986.
- page 240
In a report released in May 2015, the World Bank revealed that as a result of Israel’s blockade and OPE, Gaza’s manufacturing sector shrank by as much as 60% over eight years while real per capita income is 31 percent lower than it was 20 years ago. The report also stated that the blockade alone is responsible for a 50% decrease in Gaza’s GDP since 2007. Furthermore, OPE (combined with the tunnel closure) exacerbated an already grave situation by reducing Gaza’s economy by an additional $460 million.
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Page 402
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The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy
Blockade, including Aid
Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.
After the 'disengagement' in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of 'dual-use' Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted.
The blockade and Israel’s repeated military offensives have had a heavy toll on Gaza’s essential infrastructure and further debilitated its health system and economy, leaving the area in a state of perpetual humanitarian crisis. Indeed, Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, the majority of whom are children, has created conditions inimical to human life due to shortages of housing, potable water and electricity, and lack of access to essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials.
- Amnesty International Report pg 26-27
Peace Process and Solution
Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place.
Both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a Two-State solution based on the 1967 borders for decades. Oslo and Camp David were used by Israel to continue settlements in the West Bank and maintain an Apartheid, while preventing any actual Two-State solution
How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution
‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe
Human Shields
Hamas:
Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects.
Israel:
Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields:
Deliberate Attacks on Civilians
Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:
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The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force
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‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.
Look I know this stuff is very hard and emotional. Not everything is a war crime. Using AI to track enemy combatants is not a war crime.
An airstrike that intentionally kills civilians, incidental to a legit military target, maybe very sad, but it is not a war crime. The assessment of strategic value is weighed against the overall conflict, not the specific attack, It's weighed against the decades of rocket attacks and suicide bombings by people hiding underground in population centers with impunity.
Yes, there's about 10 or 20 documented cases of Israeli soldiers using human Shields in horrific ways. Strapping them to the front of their car, literally holding them between them and gunfire. That's a war crime. It's also a crime under Israeli law. People get arrested for it and go to jail for it. It does not happen daily. In Gaza, being a human shield is a way of life. It is always a war crime too, whilst claiming the protections of international law, to willfully violate international law by failing to distinguish troops from civilians, by hiding amongst them and not wearing uniforms. That is the way of life in Gaza, points of pride even, legacy. That's infinitely more of a crime against humanity in the most literal terms.
Could I ask. Especially that I'm just now learning about all of this... how are Gazans considered a human shield all together? Are they meant to protect the tunnels from attacks or?
Gaza put Hamas in charge a s Gaza keeps Hamas in charge. Despite that, Hamas members do things such as:
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telling Gazan's that airstrike warnings people receive via SMS and phone calls are hoaxes, and that they should stay where they are;
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physically blocking escape routes;
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shooting people trying to flee;
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brainwashing or indoctrinating their close family and friends, and most loyal supporters, to huddle up in rooms with them in hopes that it will stop the Hamas member(s) from being killed in an airstrike by making the incidental casualties too great;
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building hundreds of miles of tunnels in an area only 25 miles wide--used exclusively for organizing and commanding Hamas activities, smuggling rockets, rocket launchers, other munitions and weapons, fighters, including suicide bombers, mass shooters, hostage takers, along with hostsges, so, in other words, building legitimate military targets where regular people are most concentrated--with shafts leading under and often into major population centers such as schools, hospitals, large apartment buildings, and markets;
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by traveling with large groups of civilians into areas designated for civilians, and then using those places for command and control purposes, such as Hamas members who have been killed in and near humanitarian corridors and camps;
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refusing to wear uniforms or distinguish themselves from the innocent people they hide behind/under;
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encouraging through promotion and literally cash rewards for a culture of "martyrdom," in which the only civil obligation more revered than adding to the civilian death toll is to actually kill someone from Israel;
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using the same neighborhoods, week after week, to launch rockets indiscriminately at civilians in Israel, making those neighborhood a legit military target (see above about encouraging people to ignore air strike warnings).
This is Hamas's only real strategy at this point: to get as many civilians killed as possible. That's why the death toll is so high. This strategy often works but ofter October 7, when the tunnels were literally used to launch a mass shooting of over 1,000 innocent people, with hundreds more taken hostage, the tunnels are obviously fair targets when combined with a reasonable attempt to warn innocent people, such as the initial and subsequent repeated orders to evacuate Gaza City, and the millions and millions of phone calls and SMS messages sent warning people of incoming strikes.
Here's a story that has stuck with me, and note the bit about how he was up against Hamas posts on Facebook that told his neighbors not to leave their homes:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67327079
This culture has robbed generations of ever knowing hope, and has killed countless people. The seemingly high number of civilian casualties is a feature of Hamas's strategy, so that they can then cry foul, and trick well meaning westerners into joining Hamas in their opposition to Israel and subsidize their terror through charity to the innocent public. If the people of Gaza actually had to bear the consequences of Hamas's leadership (starvation, dehydration, and abject poverty), they wouldn't stand for it, let alone support it. It's a miracle Hamas has failed to get killed more than 1 out of every 100 citizens, and it's because of Israeli restraint that that number holds, and it's why the IDF says it's the most ethical army in the world; any other army would have flattened such an opponent decades ago. That's how I see it.
Thanks for the thorough explanation! I would like to see some links for some things you mentioned (like the warnings being a hoax and blocking escape routes)... but most of the other stuff I was able to find online easily with google.
But so... does Israel value the destruction of Hamas more than the civilian lives of Palestinians in Gaza? I feel like the cost is too high. 🤔 don't get me wrong, I am not a general but I don't feel like I'd be okay with firing into a crowd of children and women in a residential area to kill X number of combatants, even if they snuck into these areas designated for civilians only 😅😅
I'm not in a position to say what I would do, like, if I was asked to press the button to drop the bomb. I don't feel like I'd be okay with it either. By the time the person who does press it gets there, they probably have their mind made up as to what they're going to do, through their training and customs.
There's a story that I remember from, I want to say at least 10 years ago, about an Israeli pilot who was ordered to bomb a building from which rockets were being launched at Israel, and the standard warnings were given ("roof knocking," where they essentially fire percussive blanks at the building first, if memory serves), and as the plane flew by the pilot could see dozens of people on the roof of the building, waving at him, and I believe he did not drop the bomb. JFK famously said, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." My neighbor is Canada. They want their people to pay taxes, vote, serve on juries, occasionally to join the military, and be decent to each other. The government in Gaza wants it's people to go stand on the roof, and would give your family a pension not for a career of service, but for being a suicide attacker. What if Gaza was your neighbor?
It's been decades of Hamas leadership and even before Hamas, decades more of extremist violence was also accepted and encouraged by its predecessors, the PA and the PLO, the latter being more of a criminal gang than anything resembling a government. Today, Hamas rules by assassinating any local opposition, such as a prominent fellow in North Gaza who, for the crime of calling for elections, got beaten to death in front of his family and neighbors.
For how many years of suicide bombings and daily rocket attacks would you turn the other cheek, before saying okay ladies and gentleman, gtfo the way, because we're going to now bomb all the tunnels and every Hamas member we can find. I'd imagine not very many, unlikely 70+ years. Palestine, and especially the nationalists in Gaza, who again, are in charge, have rejected every opportunity for peace. They've turned every institution and public utility into instruments of international crime and terror.
The rest of the world would not care one iota how Gazans want to worship and pray, even live like it's the 14th century, if they stayed inside their borders and exported something other than illegal terrorism, but they won't. Every public dollar in Gaza gets squandered, stolen from the general population, and turned over to what is at this time and unwinnable war against Israel.
Israel has to intercept thousands of rockets per month launched at its civilians at a cost of $40,000 to $50,000 per rocket. And that's been going on since 2007, prior to witch the rockets often hit rheir targets. For how many years would your country spend billions of dollars strictly on defending itself from rocket attacks before blowing up the tunnels from which the rocket attacks are carried out?
And, by the way, this is all in the context of Iranian aggression. The rockets and rocket launchers are mostly made in Iran, featuring some supplies from North Korea, each of whom are the first and second largest funders of the tunnels in Gaza. And this is in the context of the fact that Israel is a burgeoning democracy, the only such government in the region, and I believe democracy is the only form of government even capable of granting lasting human rights; certainly not a monarchy or religious dictatorship, where any such rights are basically imaginary, capable of being taken away on the whim of someone claiming to hear the voice of Dog.
I think that at this point there is a general consensus in Israel and in the halls of concerned intelligence and diplomatic circles around the world that Hamas will not be a part of the remainder of this century, and it's in this context that the incidental casualties are weighed against achieving that objective.
October 7 scared the Israeli people. It wasn't in any way a military operation. It was purely a terrorist attack. Hamas members were driving in on motorbikes, just firing AK-47s at cars full of families on their way out to dinner, or whatever. I think the Israeli people overwhelmingly feel that enough is enough, and if the people of Gaza aren't going to get rid of Hamas, then that must mean a good chunk of the people support Hamas. I mean, where are the cooperators? Where are the Gazans openly calling for Hamas to surrender? I see the Gazan efforts in social and regular media to blame every civilian death on Israel, and to say that no terrorists are ever killed in the bombings, only women and kids. Where are the Gazan efforts on social and regular media to identify, locate, and arrest Hamas members?
I think the Isrealis and others I mentioned feel that 1 in 100 is prettu acceptable, in context, although there are certainly many people in Israel who still want to seek other solutions and who find the number of civilian casualties unacceptable. And because Israel is a democracy, those people may freely speak out, we can see their social and regular media campaigns, and there's a very good chance that the current government in Israel gets voted out at the next election.
Personally, I find the civilian casualties horrific, but feel that the mission of destroying Hamas and their ability to carry out further attacks on Israel and on their own people, including by mental and social subjugation, to be far more important than 1 in 100 lives.
I just don't see any merit to the argument that this is an intentional genocide, though with twisted facts and unattributed reports pedaled by Hamas themselves, it certainly has an appearance of one. In a genocide though, the Killing apparatus gets more efficient with time. In a genocide, there are no warnings before a bomb drops. The aggressornin a genocide doesn't let flow food, water and medicine into the hands of the people they're trying to kill. It seems to me that Israel is taking every reasonable precaution to limit civilian casualties, and sending in food, water, and medicine, and that it is the cultural exemplar set by Hamas that readily explains the excess deaths; Hamas could surrender tomorrow, turn the place over to an interim government, and join a meaningful ceasefire, and not one more bomb would fall.
When I consider the strength and tactics of Hamas, they have absolutely zero chance of accomplishing any mission of theirs through military means. They are simply outnumbered and outgunned. Their only possible effective strategy is through international law, and for that to succeed the number of civilians killed must be unacceptable to the west. It is only that context that October 7 makes any strategic sense; what was the purpose of the attack if not to provoke Israel to start bombing tunnels and bombing Hamas? Similarly, only in this context do Hamas's movements and tactics make any sense; why surround themselves with family and friends, hide under schools and hospitals, and block evacuations if not to ensure excess civilians are killed?
The article I linked above contained a paragraph describing some hoax calls by Hamas and posted on Facebook after an IDF bombing warning was issued. Here's some other links with video and audio recordings:
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/378465
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjqk4hpft
https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/10/14/hamas-blocks-gazans-from-evacuating-to-safe-zones/
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Jesus you are so patronizing and delusional.
Nah you just got tricked by wildly biased and incredible media reports tearing at your heart strings.
I haven't said anything false or u supported by years of evidence.
Enjoy explaining to your grandchildren which side you were on 👋
My grandchildren? Lol. This is a short footnote in history.
Not for the people of Palestine you sociopathic fuck. You’re a monster dude. I’m done you’re not worth it.
Look, I know it's hard for you to read any of these sources, but they completely prove you wrong.
The bombing of family homes where Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives supposedly live likely became a more concerted IDF policy during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Back then, 606 Palestinians — about a quarter of the civilian deaths during the 51 days of fighting — were members of families whose homes were bombed. A UN report defined it in 2015 as both a potential war crime and “a new pattern” of action that “led to the death of entire families.”
However, in many cases, and especially during the current attacks on Gaza, the Israeli army has carried out attacks that struck private residences even when there is no known or clear military target. For example, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, by Nov. 29, Israel had killed 50 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, some of them in their homes with their families.
According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”
Formally, the Lavender system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential bombing targets. The sources told +972 and Local Call that, during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.
Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?” also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.
However, soldiers continue to occasionally use Palestinians as human shields even after the court ruling, especially during military operations. Despite the fact this violates an HCJ ruling, the security establishment, including the military law enforcement system, has responded feebly – if at all.
For example, over the course of Operation Cast Lead, which took place in Gaza from December 2008 to January 2009, B'Tselem and other organizations were informed of incidents in which soldiers used Palestinians as human shields. The vast majority of these reports were never investigated, and those that did resulted in no further action. Soldiers were prosecuted in one case only. The two soldiers in question had ordered a nine-year-old boy, at gunpoint, to open a bag they suspected was booby-trapped. Despite the gravity of their conduct – putting a young child at risk – the two were given a three-month conditional sentence and demoted from staff sergeant to private, some two years after the incident took place. None of their commanding officers were tried.
During Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, in 2014, B’Tselem again received testimonies regarding soldiers’ use of Palestinians as human shields. This time, no one was prosecuted.
In 2024, Israeli forces systematically used Palestinian children as human shields, a grave violation of international law. DCIP captured testimony from children like 12-year-old Moayad and 16-year-old Hazem, who were stripped, tied, and placed in front of Israeli tanks during aid distributions, enduring physical abuse and deprivation.