Human Rights Watch Earns Their Saudi Pay, Publishes Another Thinly-Sourced Report Demonizing Israel (UPDATE: Video Of Hamas Soldiers Hiding Behind White Flags)
There's a certain asymmetry in the international demonization of Israel. Organizations like Human Rights Watch get to make things up out of whole cloth but Israel has to spend precious resources and months of time disproving the charges. By the time the nonsense is debunked the news cycle is long gone. Plus nobody publishes "turns out, Israel didn't commit war crimes after all" articles. Plus anti-Israel academics just repeat the myths anyway since they can just footnote the original report.
Example: in 2006 HRW put out a report saying that Israel took potshots at Lebanese civilians waving white flags. It was dutifully picked up by the usual anti-Israel outlets. Of course the report was crap - Israel produced documents and videotapes showing that the "civilians" waving white flags were Hezbollah soldiers launching missiles. But as of 2008 the report is still being cited in academic dissertations under headings like "8.1.1 Possible war crimes committed by Israel."
Last week HRW put out a report pointing out that, yes, Hamas did in fact try to kill Israeli civilians. Rather than let that simmer for a while - or not, as Google News might indicate - they quickly published a brand new "Israel shot at civilians waving white flags" report. Because this way they can say "we release reports on both sides" - which is what they did in their Lebanon "white flags" report - without bringing up how their anti-Israel reports are (a) more numerous, (b) mostly false, and (c) timed to starve any anti-Hezbollah or anti-Hamas reports of coverage.
Money line from the summary of the new report, helpfully bolded on their website so media outlets know exactly what repetitious anti-Israel trope to quote and amplify:
In the 11 killings documented in this report, Human Rights Watch found no evidence that the civilian victims were used by Palestinian fighters as human shields or were shot in the crossfire between opposing forces. The civilian victims were in plain view and posed no apparent security threat.
This is the same organization that also stated - flat out - that there was no evidence that civilians were used by Hezbollah fighters as human shields. Of course there was the photographic evidence and the video evidence and how Nasrallah explicitly bragged about using human shields - but whatever. And in Gaza there's the photographic evidence and the video evidence and how Hamas explicitly bragged about using human shields...
... but whatever.
Which is not to say that they're outright making the whole thing up. It could be that their vaunted Palestinian witnesses are the ones making it up. Of course HRW reps - last seen shrieking defensively about the credibility of their anti-Israel canards - wrote into the report that they used "ballistic evidence found at the scene, medical records of victims, and lengthy interviews with multiple witnesses."
Except ballistic evidence and medical records can't establish anything about white flags and by "multiple" they mean "three" and by "witnesses" they mean "embittered friends and relatives who hate Israel." But other than that: solid.
This is the 3rd anti-Israel report that HRW has published on Cast Lead. As of right now - a few hours after it went live - it's already been picked up by roughly as many outlets as picked up the anti-Hamas report total. At least HRW's Saudi funders are getting their money's worth.
UPDATE: And the coup de grace, via Noah Pollak's unforgiving roundup of the anti-Israel personalities who hide behind HRW's institutional shield:
References:
* Separating the Political Myths From the Facts in Israel Studies [Campus Watch]
* Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians [Common Dreams]
* Amnesty and HRW Claims Discredited in Detailed Report [NGO Monitor]
* THE LEBANON WAR 2006: A country between terror and resistance [Karin Rammerstorfer]
* Gaza/Israel: Hamas Rocket Attacks on Civilians Unlawful [HRW]
* Israelis shot Gaza civilians waving white flags: HRW [AFP]
* Israel: Investigate 'White Flag' Shootings of Gaza Civilians [HRW]
* Human Rights Watch Shill Has Meltdown - Rants About "Sharanskys Of The World," Dares Critics To Find "One Incident" Of HRW Bias (UPDATED: Nasrallah Bragged About Using Human Shields) [MR]
* Video: Hamas Brags About Using Women And Children As Human Shields [MR]
* Human Rights Watch Holds Saudi Fundraiser, Promises To Demonize Israel [MR]
Previously:
* Compare And Contrast - Israeli Vs. Hamas Cell Phone Messages To Civilians
* Human Rights Organizations Untroubled By Dozens Of Israeli Secret Arrests, Planned Executions Of Terrorists
* Human Rights NGOs: We Don't Talk About Hamas's War Crimes Because They're Too Blatant And Savage
