Israel Fact Book: Israel Created Hamas, Uses Children as Human Shields, and Uses Snipers to Kill Teens in Cold Blood

Hamas Was Created by the Israeli Government

Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli Army. (Screen capture
from YouTube video)

By Ronald David Jackson
We all watch as Israel bombards Gaza with 'precision' weapons that kill mostly women, children, and those unfortunate enough to be found near mosques, clinics, or in coffee shops.  Big media* tells us that the air, land and see bombardment is Israel's "response" to rockets fired by "that big bad terrorist organization" called Hamas. But big media doesn't bother to remind us that Hamas was created by the Israeli government. Even the Wall Street Journal is willing to publish that fact in an article in which one of the conspirators called Israel's creation of Hamas "an enormous, stupid mistake." 

Once every several years a big media outlet might remind us about the role of Israel in creating Hamas. That's brainwashing via lying by omission. The lie is based on the cover up of the fact that Israel created and supported Hamas in the first place — to weaken Yasser Arafat. Israel wanted a more militant, fundamentalist, and younger movement which could draw members away from  Arafat's older, more established organization and sabotage the peace process. The Israeli plotters got what they wanted. But, as usual, the "Frankenstein Monster" got out of control. Or did it?  Hamas is now a "convenient" organization that Israel can bully and blame for its own failings, use as an excuse to bomb, blockade and starve off Gaza, use to garner sympathy, and use to unify its people behind a cabal of racist, right-wing leaders (by giving Hamas no other choice but to fire rockets). And it all works very well.  As long as you don't remind everyone that Israel created Hamas in the first place.

Israel Cynically Used the Kidnapping of Israeli Teens To Trigger a Dispute With Hamas

Big media's narrative on how the rocket firing by Hama got started in the first place is more lying by omission.  Big media won't remind us that before Hamas started firing rockets, Israel had arrested hundreds of Palestinians, killed and brutalized adults and children, and blew up the homes of Palestinian "suspects" without providing a shred of evidence proving a connection between any of those killed and arrested and the kidnapping of Jewish settlers. Big media forgets to remind us that Israeli snipers murdered two Palestinian teenagers—for no reason whatsoever—weeks before the kidnapping of the Israel settlers.

Israeli snipers kill two Palestinian
teens in cold blood
(May 15th, 2014)

Warning, Graphic: Viewer discretion advised.

Big media "forgets" to remind us that the Israeli government knew the kidnapped settlers were dead almost as soon as they were kidnapped, but that the Israeli government hid that fact and pretended to conduct operations geared toward finding the kidnapped teens "alive." By extension, big media fails to tell us that therefore the Israeli government used the kidnapping as an excuse to turn the lives of ordinary Palestinians upside down, all in an effort to break the recent rapprochement of Hamas with the Palestinian Authority. 

Big media offers us virtually no commentary on the murder of a Hamas leader and his entire immediate family.  Big media won't ask the question, "Suppose Hamas dropped a bomb in Tel Aviv in an attack on an Israeli military commander and killed the commander and his entire family?"  Big media won't pose such questions for us, rendering their entire "Israel as victim, Hamas as villain" scenario just one more lie passed off as "balanced" news coverage. Lying by omission.


Big Media's "Coverage" of the "Iran Atomic Bomb Threat" is Another Lie by Omission

Big media publishes phony estimates of "how many more months before Iran will be capable of producing an atomic weapon" without reminding us that Israel already has hundreds of atomic weapons. The West has demanded—and achieved—inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, and negotiations to limit Iran's ability to produce atomic weapons.  Meanwhile, Israel hasn't had a single inspection, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Iran is), and hasn't agreed to negotiate a damn thing with anybody regarding its nuclear arsenal.  In fact, Iran has signed treaties forsaking the possession of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.  Israel has not. Underlying this particular super lie is the "special treatment" big media doesn't want to admit Israel gets from big media. A big media which constantly reminds us of the "big threat" of Iran's atomic bomb potential while saying nothing about the reality of Israel's hundreds of A-bombs. Thus the scenario of big media's "Iran is the nuclear threat and Israel is under nuclear threat" is yet another big lie by omission.

How Was Gaza Created in the First Place? Big Media Doesn't Like to Talk About it

An unidentified inspector from the International Atomic Energy
Agency examines equipment at the Natanz facility in Iran in
January, 2014. (Screen shot from YouTube video)

Another lie by omission is the (lack of) coverage of how Gaza was created in the first place.  Big media will seldom say. But here and there we can find a few brave and honest souls, like Robert Fisk, who will remind us:

"[N]ow the Palestinians are getting their comeuppance. Sure. But wait, how come all those Palestinians – all 1.5 million – are crammed into Gaza in the first place? Well, their families once lived, didn’t they, in what is now called Israel? And got chucked out – or fled for their lives – when the Israeli state was created.

(click image to see full-sized image)

"And – a drawing in of breath is now perhaps required – the people who lived in Sederot in early 1948 were not Israelis, but Palestinian Arabs. Their village was called Huj. Nor were they enemies of Israel. Two years earlier, these same Arabs had actually hidden Jewish Haganah fighters from the British Army. But when the Israeli army turned up at Huj on 31 May 1948, they expelled all the Arab villagers – to the Gaza Strip! Refugees, they became. David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister) called it an “unjust and unjustified action”. Too bad. The Palestinians of Huj were never allowed back."

Israel Uses Human Shields Too

When Israeli aerial and naval bombardment, tank assaults, ground attacks, and drone assassinations result in the death of civilians big media is more than willing to explain how Hamas embeds its military facilities near civilians and runs military ("terrorist") operations in civilian areas. The Israeli government and Western leaders are constantly accusing Hamas of using human shields. As if it was possible for Hamas to run its military facilities and operations anywhere else, given the fact Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants are stuffed into a thin strip of land that totals a mere 139 square miles and is considered "one of most densely populated parts of the world."

At times, Palestinian civilians have acted as human shields to protect their homes and other buildings and volunteers from around the world have agreed to act as human shields to protect vital facilities in Gaza, like hospitals. Keep in mind these are volunteers, not people who are forced to act as human shields.

Video released by Israel's government show civilians acting as
human shields to protect buildings

While big media is quick to mention Hamas' alleged use of human shields, it doesn't tell us that there is actual footage of Israeli soldiers and police using Palestinians as human shields. In this case these are not volunteers but people—even children—who were forced to put their lives on the line to protect Israeli soldiers and police.

Israeli Army using Palestinian children as Human Shields

________________________

Israeli soldiers using Palestinians as Human Shields

________________________

Israeli police use cuffed teen as a Human Shield

The managers of big media know that if they were to show you Israel's use of human shields every time Israel accuses Hamas of using human shields - it would put an entirely different spin on the entire human shields debate. That's why big media doesn't show you the footage or mention Israel's proven use of human shields. And that's lying by omission.

_________________
*Big Media: Corporate media - the alphabet soup of American TV and radio (NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News) and major corporate websites, and newspapers.

Cops Just Wanna Fire Their Guns: Fire 600 Bullets at Car Known To Contain a Hostage -- 10 Bullets Hit and Kill the Hostage

The hostage was hit with ten police bullets as her kidnapper used her as a human shield.

Misty Holt-Singh (KCRA)

By Travis Gettys
The family of a California bank teller who was killed after three robbers took her hostage has questioned whether police used unreasonable force during a pursuit through city streets.

Misty Holt-Singh, a 41-year-old mother of two, was kidnapped with two other people during the July 16 robbery of a Bank of the West branch in Stockton.

The robbery suspects led police on a high-speed chase for 55 miles around the city, which was hit hard by the financial crisis, and exchanged gunfire with officers.

[...]

An attorney for Holt-Singh’s family said police protocols call for discriminate gunfire during hostage situations – but he said that’s not how police responded, reported KCRA-TV.

“Chief Jones confirmed 33 officers fired 600 bullets with full knowledge of a hostage inside the vehicle,” said attorney Greg Bentley. “That is excessive and unreasonable force.”

Two suspects were killed during the furious gun battle, but a third suspect, 19-year-old Jaime Ramos, was not wounded and has been charged with murder and kidnapping.

Investigators said Ramos apparently used Holt-Singh as a human shield, and ballistics tests later found she had been shot 10 times by police bullets.

Read More

Killers and Liars: Israel Faked Evidence To Justify Murdering Civilians at Gaza Hospitals - Forged Hama's 'Human Shield' Document

Israel's Video Justifying Destruction of a Hospital Was From 2009

French President Sarkozy told US President Obama, "I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a
liar." (Illustration by Ronald David Jackson)

By Gareth Porter,
A video distributed by the Israeli military in July suggesting that Palestinian fighters had fired from the Al Wafa Rehabilitation and Geriatric Hospital in Gaza City was not shot during the recent Israeli attack on Gaza, and both audio and video clips were manipulated to cover up the fact that they were from entirely different incidents, a Truthout investigation has revealed.

The video clip showing apparent firing from an annex to the hospital was actually shot during Israel's 2008-09 "Operation
Cast Lead," and the audio clip accompanying it was from an incident unrelated to Al Wafa. (Screen grab: The Times of Israel)

The video, released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on July 23, the same day Israeli airstrikes destroyed Al Wafa, was widely reported by pro-Israeli publications and websites as proving that the hospital was destroyed because Hamas had turned the hospital into a military facility. But the video clip showing apparent firing from an annex to the hospital was actually shot during Israel's 2008-09 "Operation Cast Lead," and the audio clip accompanying it was from an incident unrelated to Al Wafa.

The 'Hamas Human Shield Manual' is a Sloppy Forgery
Produced by the Israel' Defense Force

The misleading video was only the last in a series of IDF dissimulations about Al Wafa hospital that included false claims that Hamas rockets had been launched from the hospital grounds, or very near it, and that the hospital had been damaged by an attack on the launching site.

The IDF began to prepare the ground for the destruction of Al Wafa hospital well before Israeli ground troops entered Gaza on July 17. On July 11, the IDF fired four warning rockets on the fourth floor of Al Wafa, making a large hole in the ceiling - the standard IDF signal that a building was going to be destroyed by an airstrike.

Read More

Israeli Soldiers Used Gazans as Human Shields: Testimony Mounts As Bombs Go Silent

Abdul Rahman tells journalist Max Blumenthal that Israeli
troopsforced the Wahadans to stay home before bombing
their house.(Photo tweeted by Max Blumenthal from his
Twitter account on Aug. 27)

By Joey Ayoub
One of Israel's most repeated official claim during the latest war in Gaza was that Hamas was using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Now, several independent journalists, human rights organizations and the United Nations are accusing Israel of using Palestinian civilians as human shields.

On August 26, Israel and the Palestinian factions agreed to halt fighting indefinitely, putting an end to seven weeks of catastrophic destruction and loss of life in Gaza.

At least 2,137 Palestinians were killed, including 577 children, and 10,870 wounded, since Israel launched a massive offensive called Protective Edge against the 40-kilometer-long coastal strip on July 8.

This was Israel's third military operation in Gaza in the last six years. Excessive restrictions from Israel in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank aggravate conditions in areas that most of the world and the United Nations considers occupied by Israel.

Seventy-two percent of Palestinians killed in this offensive were civilians, according to the UN. About a third of the wounded children, will be forced to live with permanent disabilities. One-third of Gaza's total population, over 520,000 people, have been displaced of whom 279,389 were taking shelter in 83 UN-run schools.

RELATED STORY: Human Shields, A-Bombs and the Origins of Gaza, Hamas and the Current Conflict — Big Media is Lying by Omission

When American journalist Max Blumenthal went back to Gaza following the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, he interviewed several of Gaza's residents. Here's his report for AlterNet.

Mahmoud Abu Said said Israeli soldiers used him as a human shield as they hunted his neighbors http://t.co/jxuayILtYE pic.twitter.com/hbogrETZ2k
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 27, 2014

One particular incident is worth quoting:

Mahmoud said the Israeli troops dragged him back into his house, blindfolded him and wrapped him in a blanket on the floor as they began to blow holes in the walls to use as makeshift sniper slits — what US troops in Afghanistan called “murder holes.” Then the soldiers stripped Mahmoud to his underwear, handcuffed him, slammed him against a wall and began to beat him. With an M-16 at his back, they forced him to stand in front of open windows as they hunted his fleeing neighbors, sniping directly beside him at virtually anything that moved. When they were not using him as a human shield, Mahmoud said, the soldiers left him alone in the room with an unleashed army dog who was periodically ordered to attack him.

Defence for Children International – Palestine reports the story of 17-year-old Ahmad Abu Raida from Khuza'a, who claims to have been used as a human shield. But the use of human shields during the Khuza'a Massacre were not limited to Abu Raida. His story echoes two testimonies of a 32 year-old and a 56 year-old man from Khuza'a collected by the American-Jewish news site Mondoweiss.

Israel's Use of Palestinian Civilians (Even Children) as Human
Shields Has Been Documented (On Video)
For a Long Time

The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights also gathered testimonies from Gazans claiming to have been used as human shields. The man featured below explains how his father was killed:

“My father made a step forward, came closer and spoke to them in Hebrew. And said: we are a peaceful people, we love peace. He kept repeating it in Arabic several times. We love peace. My father was an elderly man and holds a Spanish traveling document. My dad made one step forward, hardly a step on the stairs. As he put his foot on the step, he was shot twice in the heart.”

Before himself and three children were taken to be used as human shields:

“They ordered us to take off our clothes and tied our hands up. They took us to one of the rooms and used us as shields, making us stand at the windows as if we were looking outside. I was at one window and three children from my family at another. The soldiers then began firing around us.”

It is important to note that using Palestinians as human shields is not a new Israeli practice. As early as 2002, both international and Israel NGOs reported of Israel's use of Palestinians as human shields. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported of its use during the Battle of Jenin as part of Israel's Operation Defensive Shield during the Second Intifada. Israeli Human Rights NGO B'TSelem reported in 2006 of a particular incident in which six civilians, including two minors, were used as human shields in Beit Hanun:

After seizing control of the buildings, the soldiers held six residents, two of them minors, on the staircases of the two buildings, at the entrance to rooms in which the soldiers positioned themselves, for some twelve hours.

The IDF admitted to using Palestinians as human shields at least 1,200 times during the Second Intifada (2000-2005). Despite the fact that the practice was banned by the Israeli High Court in 2005, it continued during the 2008-2009 war in Gaza (Operation Cast Lead). Following the war, the UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel's use of Palestinians as human shields.

Breaking the Silence, the Israeli NGO composed of IDF soldiers and veterans collecting stories of their experiences in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as Amnesty International, accused Israel of continuing to use Palestinians as human shields by forcing them to stay in their homes. After invading Palestinians’ homes, Israeli soldiers forced civilians, including children, to stay in one room of the house while they used the remaining rooms as military positions.

In 2013, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child accused Israel of “continuous use of Palestinian children as human shields and informants”

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.

Human Shields, A-Bombs and the Origins of Gaza, Hamas and the Current Conflict: Big Media is Lying by Omission

Hamas Was Created by the Israeli Government

Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli Army. (Screen capture
from YouTube video)

By Ronald David Jackson
We all watch as Israel bombards Gaza with 'precision' weapons that kill mostly women, children, and those unfortunate enough to be found near mosques, clinics, or in coffee shops.  Big media* tells us that the air, land and see bombardment is Israel's "response" to rockets fired by "that big bad terrorist organization" called Hamas. But big media doesn't bother to remind us that Hamas was created by the Israeli government. Even the Wall Street Journal is willing to publish that fact in an article in which one of the conspirators called Israel's creation of Hamas "an enormous, stupid mistake." 

Once every several years a big media outlet might remind us about the role of Israel in creating Hamas. That's brainwashing via lying by omission. The lie is based on the cover up of the fact that Israel created and supported Hamas in the first place — to weaken Yasser Arafat. Israel wanted a more militant, fundamentalist, and younger movement which could draw members away from  Arafat's older, more established organization and sabotage the peace process. The Israeli plotters got what they wanted. But, as usual, the "Frankenstein Monster" got out of control. Or did it?  Hamas is now a "convenient" organization that Israel can bully and blame for its own failings, use as an excuse to bomb, blockade and starve off Gaza, use to garner sympathy, and use to unify its people behind a cabal of racist, right-wing leaders (by giving Hamas no other choice but to fire rockets). And it all works very well.  As long as you don't remind everyone that Israel created Hamas in the first place.

Israel Cynically Used the Kidnapping of Israeli Teens To Trigger a Dispute With Hamas

Big media's narrative on how the rocket firing by Hama got started in the first place is more lying by omission.  Big media won't remind us that before Hamas started firing rockets, Israel had arrested hundreds of Palestinians, killed and brutalized adults and children, and blew up the homes of Palestinian "suspects" without providing a shred of evidence proving a connection between any of those killed and arrested and the kidnapping of Jewish settlers. Big media forgets to remind us that Israeli snipers murdered two Palestinian teenagers—for no reason whatsoever—weeks before the kidnapping of the Israel settlers.

Israeli snipers kill two Palestinian
teens in cold blood
(May 15th, 2014)

Warning, Graphic: Viewer discretion advised.

Big media "forgets" to remind us that the Israeli government knew the kidnapped settlers were dead almost as soon as they were kidnapped, but that the Israeli government hid that fact and pretended to conduct operations geared toward finding the kidnapped teens "alive." By extension, big media fails to tell us that therefore the Israeli government used the kidnapping as an excuse to turn the lives of ordinary Palestinians upside down, all in an effort to break the recent rapprochement of Hamas with the Palestinian Authority. 

Big media offers us virtually no commentary on the murder of a Hamas leader and his entire immediate family.  Big media won't ask the question, "Suppose Hamas dropped a bomb in Tel Aviv in an attack on an Israeli military commander and killed the commander and his entire family?"  Big media won't pose such questions for us, rendering their entire "Israel as victim, Hamas as villain" scenario just one more lie passed off as "balanced" news coverage. Lying by omission.


Big Media's "Coverage" of the "Iran Atomic Bomb Threat" is Another Lie by Omission

Big media publishes phony estimates of "how many more months before Iran will be capable of producing an atomic weapon" without reminding us that Israel already has hundreds of atomic weapons. The West has demanded—and achieved—inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, and negotiations to limit Iran's ability to produce atomic weapons.  Meanwhile, Israel hasn't had a single inspection, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Iran is), and hasn't agreed to negotiate a damn thing with anybody regarding its nuclear arsenal.  In fact, Iran has signed treaties forsaking the possession of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.  Israel has not. Underlying this particular super lie is the "special treatment" big media doesn't want to admit Israel gets from big media. A big media which constantly reminds us of the "big threat" of Iran's atomic bomb potential while saying nothing about the reality of Israel's hundreds of A-bombs. Thus the scenario of big media's "Iran is the nuclear threat and Israel is under nuclear threat" is yet another big lie by omission.

How Was Gaza Created in the First Place? Big Media Doesn't Like to Talk About it

An unidentified inspector from the International Atomic Energy
Agency examines equipment at the Natanz facility in Iran in
January, 2014. (Screen shot from YouTube video)

Another lie by omission is the (lack of) coverage of how Gaza was created in the first place.  Big media will seldom say. But here and there we can find a few brave and honest souls, like Robert Fisk, who will remind us:

"[N]ow the Palestinians are getting their comeuppance. Sure. But wait, how come all those Palestinians – all 1.5 million – are crammed into Gaza in the first place? Well, their families once lived, didn’t they, in what is now called Israel? And got chucked out – or fled for their lives – when the Israeli state was created.

(click image to see full-sized image)

"And – a drawing in of breath is now perhaps required – the people who lived in Sederot in early 1948 were not Israelis, but Palestinian Arabs. Their village was called Huj. Nor were they enemies of Israel. Two years earlier, these same Arabs had actually hidden Jewish Haganah fighters from the British Army. But when the Israeli army turned up at Huj on 31 May 1948, they expelled all the Arab villagers – to the Gaza Strip! Refugees, they became. David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister) called it an “unjust and unjustified action”. Too bad. The Palestinians of Huj were never allowed back."

Israel Uses Human Shields Too

When Israeli aerial and naval bombardment, tank assaults, ground attacks, and drone assassinations result in the death of civilians big media is more than willing to explain how Hamas embeds its military facilities near civilians and runs military ("terrorist") operations in civilian areas. The Israeli government and Western leaders are constantly accusing Hamas of using human shields. As if it was possible for Hamas to run its military facilities and operations anywhere else, given the fact Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants are stuffed into a thin strip of land that totals a mere 139 square miles and is considered "one of most densely populated parts of the world."

At times, Palestinian civilians have acted as human shields to protect their homes and other buildings and volunteers from around the world have agreed to act as human shields to protect vital facilities in Gaza, like hospitals. Keep in mind these are volunteers, not people who are forced to act as human shields.

Video released by Israel's government show civilians acting as
human shields to protect buildings

While big media is quick to mention Hamas' alleged use of human shields, it doesn't tell us that there is actual footage of Israeli soldiers and police using Palestinians as human shields. In this case these are not volunteers but people—even children—who were forced to put their lives on the line to protect Israeli soldiers and police.

Israeli Army using Palestinian children as Human Shields

________________________

Israeli soldiers using Palestinians as Human Shields

________________________

Israeli police use cuffed teen as a Human Shield

The managers of big media know that if they were to show you Israel's use of human shields every time Israel accuses Hamas of using human shields - it would put an entirely different spin on the entire human shields debate. That's why big media doesn't show you the footage or mention Israel's proven use of human shields. And that's lying by omission.

_________________
*Big Media: Corporate media - the alphabet soup of American TV and radio (NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News) and major corporate websites, and newspapers.