Human rights groups including Amnesty International admit that they ignore some war crimes.
If we believe in anything as a group it is that we know equal when we see it. We always try and see if the playing field is level. If Microsoft gets too big and is acting like a bully, we investigate and if proved to be true we do something about it. However if we thought anyone )Google?) was acting that way, it would only be fair to investigate them as well. It would be wrong to ignore some bullying. In court we bend over backwards to be fair to accused. You might even say that the basis for our society is equality or fairness.
So very often we use numbers to prove our point. We use links to human rights groups to show where our anger comes from. It would seem to me to be one sided if you only investigated what one side was doing, and almost ignored the actions of the other side.
It might obvious to some but if the war crime is “blatant”, then it does not need to be investigated. It is just a war crime... No press release, no investigation.
Of course if it isn't investigated then a good part of the population never gets to know about it.
If you see 300 news releases condemning one side, and only a handful condemning the other side, you would naturally assume that the first group were committing more 'crimes'. Acting much worse than the other.
Human rights groups argued Wednesday that a detailed probe into Hamas’s firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli communities is not necessary, because it constitutes such a “blatant” war crime.
Link here.
In 2008 alone (...) NGOs issued over 300 statements in condemnation of Israel's policy regarding Hamas-controlled Gaza. This contrasts with a handful of statements condemning over 6,500 rockets fired on Israel from Gaza since disengagement in 2005.
How can anyone blame the Israelis if they think the human rights groups are biased? Could you blame them if they would feel the world is (once again) ignoring their plight?
By contrast, Israel’s actions are more complex, and therefore do require such investigation, they said... said Sarit Micha’eli of B’tselem... “It is quite clear that [Hamas is] attacking and targeting civilians... With Israel things are more complicated because Israel states it does not deliberately target civilians and that it safeguards them. With Israel, you have to investigate each specific incident because even if a civilian is killed in an attack...” “The Israeli authorities deny everything, so one has to prove what happened in a way that you don’t need to do with the Palestinian rockets,” said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.
Same link as above.
We really need the UN to be fair and treat both side as equals. For balance I must admit I never thought I would see the day they would report this sort of thing:
A U.N. spokesman says Hamas police in Gaza have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.
Spokesman Christopher Gunness says Hamas police raided a U.N. warehouse in Gaza City on Tuesday evening. He says police snatched 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels.
The aid is vital now because Gazans are facing hardship after Israel’s three-week military offensive against Hamas.
Link here.
And although it was talked about in another diary, the UN has finally put out a release that clarified what happened at the UN school..
The United Nations has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza city of Jabaliya last month hit a school run by a UN agency.
“The humanitarian coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school,” the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest weekly update on the situation in Gaza.
Link here.