Three eyes and ink on my fingers

Israel’s Consulate in New York made a “Citizen press conference” on Twitter last Tuesday (30th December) to answer the questions people might have about the situation in Gaza. David Saranga, Consul of Media and Public Affairs in New York, said the Consulate decided to put an official voice in Twitter about the issue, since they had seen some unreliable information on the network.

I decided to read the questions and answers since I was really interested in the explanations the Consulate would give to what’s happening in Gaza. I’ve selected some of the Q&As, you can find the rest here.

theresaway: International law criminalizes targeting civilians. Are Israeli leaders scared they will be charged with war crimes for killing so many civilians?

israelconsulate: Hamas is the real violator of international law according to Human Rights Watch: http://tinyurl.com/9osg3g

Now I’ll ask you to follow the link the Israel Consulate gave. The title says “Hamas: end military groups attacks against civilians”. Note the date: March 23, 2007. If you visit Human Rights Watch’s website you’ll find this article highlighted: “Israel/Hamas: Civilians must not be targeted”. Check the date now: December 30th, 2008. The Consulate was talking about “unreliable” information on Twitter and this is what the “official voice” had to say.

eastmad: If everyone in Gaza holds a bit of a Qassam, will you try to kill them all?
israelconsulate: As you can see on CNN a Hamas rocket brigade is pretty easy to spot. Unfortunately, they use civilians as human shields.

I suppose that by “human shields” they also mean the fact that Gaza is one of the most densely populated tracts of land in the world, with a separation of few centimeters between buildings. Those accidentally near to their targets might be included on the Consulate’s idea of “human shields”.

rafaelprince: Isn’t such a harsh, intense and merciless strike on Gaza a form of collective punishment? (4Geneva Conv, Art. 33)

israelconsulate: Israel targets Hamas installations, which are, unfortunately, located within civilian areas. Our war is with Hamas, not with Gaza civilians.

“Unfortunately”, I guess the dead civilians are “collateral damage”.

anotherpundit: What is your definition of “terrorism”?

israelconsulate: We have the same definition as the rest of the international community: targeting civilians.

didgeman: Will Israel finally do what needs to be done to end the terrorism once and for all or bow to world pressure?

israelconsulate: Our main goal is to protect citizens from missiles. We hope the international community will pressure Hamas, not Israel.

I think it’s quite obvious by now that the “we are not targeting civilians” justification doesn’t stand anymore. Quite a great example of what I’m defending comes from the last piece of news: a senior member of Hamas was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home today with members of his family.

“Eye for an eye makes the world go blind.” (Mahatma Gandhi) I can’t think of a better quotation to end this post.