More evidence of the patent bias of the Goldstone Report. “Palestinian witnesses: Hamas used civilians as human shields in Gaza war,” by Itamar Marcus, Barbara Crook and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, September 16:
The following is a review of PMW special reports released during the Gaza War on Hamas’s use of human shields and Hamas’s killing of Palestinian civilians
“The [UN] Mission is unable to form an opinion on the exact nature or the intensity of their [Hamas’s] combat activities in urban residential areas that would have placed the civilian population and civilian objects at risk of attack. While reports reviewed by the Mission credibly indicate that members of Palestinian armed groups were not always dressed in a way that distinguished them from civilians, the Mission found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack.”
[Goldstone Commission Report on the Gaza War, Sept. 15, 2009]The UN’s Goldstone Commission Report claimed it could find “no evidence” that Hamas intentionally used civilians as human shields during the Gaza War. But PMW’s special reports during the war documented this practice, and revealed testimony from children describing how they were being used by Hamas in combat support roles
Hamas had already announced publicly before the war that using “women, children and the elderly” as “human shields” was indeed Hamas policy — and that Hamas was proud of it. Hamas Member of Parliament, Fathi Hamad, pronounced with enthusiasm on Hamas TV that Hamas had made “death an industry,” and that its message to Israel (“the Zionist enemy”) about its use of civilians as shields was, “We desire death as you desire life.”
There was also Palestinian testimony about Hamas murdering Palestinian civilians during the war.
PMW is re-releasing some of the PMW Special News Reports published during the Gaza War, documenting Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields, its murder of Palestinian civilians, and Mahmoud Abbas’s blaming the war on Hamas.
To see all PMW Special News Reports that were released during the Gaza War, click here.
Following is the collection of PMW Special News Reports relating specifically to human shields, Hamas murdering Palestinians and Abbas blaming Hamas for the war:
Palestinian victims describe being used as shields by Hamas
Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a “fortress” by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. They described how for years Hamas has used their property and homes as shields for military installations from which to launch rockets into Israel, dig tunnels and store arms. According to the victims, those who tried to object were shot in the legs by Hamas.
The following is the description in the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
“The Abd Rabbo family kept quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza strip into a fortress. Right now they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after Israel bombed the farm and turned it into ruins…
The hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks the Israeli town of Sderot which turned it into an ideal military position for the Palestinian fighters, from which they have launched hundreds of rockets into southern Israel during the last few years. Several of the Abd Rabbo family members described how the fighters dug tunnels under their houses, stored arms in the fields and launched rockets from the yard of their farm during the nights.
The Abd Rabbo family members emphasize that they are not [Hamas] activists and that they are still loyal to the Fatah movement, but that they were unable to prevent the armed squads from entering their neighborhood at night. One family member, Hadi (age 22) said: ‘You can’t say anything to the resistance [Hamas], or they will accuse you of collaborating [with Israel] and shoot you in the legs.'”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 27, 2009]
There is much more. Read it all.