Amnesty says some Israeli West Bank killings may be war crimes

[Capt. Obvious]

Source: Reuters

Israeli forces are using excessive, reckless violence in the occupied West Bank, killing dozens of Palestinians over the past three years in what might constitute a war crime, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

In a report entitled "Trigger Happy", the human rights group accused Israel of allowing its soldiers to act with virtual impunity and urged an independent review of the deaths.

The Israeli army dismissed the allegations, saying security forces had seen a "substantial increase" in Palestinian violence and that Amnesty had revealed a "complete lack of understanding" about the difficulties soldiers faced.

....

An Israeli army statement responding to the report did not refer to any specific incidents, but said 2013 had seen a sharp increase in rock hurling incidents, which had injured 132 Israeli civilians and military personnel.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/27/us-palestinians-israel-amnesty-idUSBREA1Q00G20140227

[DeSwiss]

1. K&R

''Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he doesn't become a monster. And when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.'' ~Friedrich Nietzsche

[El_Johns]

2. Amnesty said that in none of the cases it reviewed did the Palestinians appear to be posing any immi

threat to life. "In some, there is evidence that they were victims of wilful killings, which would amount to war crimes," the group said.

[Mosby]

6. AI is hopelessly biased against Israel, I wouldn't take their conclusions seriously

Just look at these two reports:

This report on Israel killing (by Amnesty's count) 22 civilians in 2013 is 87 pages long and they aver that:

Israeli soldiers have repeatedly committed serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, including unlawful killings, in response to Palestinian opposition and protests in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The cases documented in this report represent only a minority of the cases that have occurred over recent years and which follow a general pattern, in which Israeli forces use excessive, often lethal, force against Palestinians who pose no threat to their lives or the lives of others. Soldiers are permitted to do so effectively with impunity – inasmuch as the official system established to investigate alleged human rights violations or other abuses by Israeli soldiers is neither independent nor impartial. This creates a situation of absolute absence of justice and the growing environment of impunity which the Israeli army and police enjoy

They seem pretty confident in their assertions and plainly state that they think the Israeli government engaged in war crimes.

Now take a look at a report about Egypt from six months ago where they discuss the killing of 1400 protesters and other crimes like rape:

Amnesty International is concerned that the Egyptian authorities are utilizing all branches of the state apparatus to trample on human rights and quash dissent. Armed with repressive legislation, including the latest assembly law; unaccountable security forces ready to implement it against political opponents; and a complacent judicial system that punishes critics while allowing perpetrators of human rights violations to walk free – the Egyptian authorities have the necessary tools to take the country further on the path of repression. Unless, the authorities change course and comply with commitments to respect human rights and the rule of law, the future of Egypt looks bleak and the hopes of the “25 January Revolution” have little chance of becoming a reality.

They are "concerned".

AI is a joke.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Oh, poor Israel. Those mean human rights groups are picking on it again.

[Mosby]

9. Where is the AI report on Turkey's ongoing occupation of Cyprus?

Half the country was ethnically cleansed of Cypriots and perhaps thousands murdered. Now there are around 150,000 Turkish settlers, and Turkey has annexed half the island despite UNSC resolutions.

Where is the AI report?

Doesn't exist.

[The Stranger]

12. Go start your own thread.

This one isn't about Turkey, thank you very much.

[Ash_F]

13. Those evil human rights groups!!!

Yeah, you are not very effective.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Neither Israel nor the US recognise the ICC

.

[truth2power]

4. that's convenient. n/t

[L0oniX]

5. Some of us still remember Rachel Corrie too.

[Mosby]

8. Amnesty International Report Reflects Lack of Expertise and Methodology

Jerusalem – A report scheduled to be released by Amnesty International tomorrow, Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank, falsely and maliciously accuses Israel of “callous disregard for human life,” according to analysis by NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research organization. The report also repeats Amnesty’s calls for political warfare against Israel, in the form of an arms embargo.

“Amnesty International accusations are reckless, blatantly biased, and reflect the lack of a credible research fact-finding methodology,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “Amnesty lacks the expertise and credibility to analyze or assign blame for deaths in the context of violent confrontations in the West Bank. As in the past, the allegations in this report repeat unverifiable Palestinian ‘testimony.’”

Indeed, in a February 10 interview with Al Jazeera, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty acknowledged that “we are not an expert (sic) on military matters. So we don’t want to, kind of, pontificate on issues we don’t really understand.”

In its report, Amnesty makes numerous non-specific claims without any supporting evidence, such as “Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers did not appear to be posing a direct and immediate threat to life” and the use of “arbitrary” force. In contrast, other monitoring groups such as B’Tselem acknowledge that the majority of Palestinian casualties occurred during combat or violent clashes and confrontations with Israeli security personnel. Amnesty’s removal of this essential context and abuse of the term “civilian” further highlights the lack of credibility. Similarly, in 2009, Amnesty played a central role in the discredited Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict, as well as in a number of other allegations targeting Israel.

Likewise, NGO Monitor has shown that Amnesty’s “research” team on Israel comprises two individuals with backgrounds in anti-Israel political activism, not military and legal expertise.

http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/amnesty_international_report_reflects_lack_of_expertise_and_methodology

[Capt. Obvious]

10. Excellent source you brought to the table

NGO Monitor (Non-governmental Organization Monitor) is a non-governmental organization based in the western part of Jerusalem, whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations, and the general public.[1] NGO Monitor says in its mission statement that it was founded to "to promote accountability, and advance a vigorous discussion on the reports and activities of humanitarian NGOs in the framework of the Arab–Israeli conflict". The organization was founded in 2001 by Gerald M. Steinberg under the auspices of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (with funding from the Wechsler Family Foundation) as part of "an array of cutting-edge programs to present Israel's case to the world".[4][5] NGO Monitor became a legally and financially independent organization in 2007 when it registered with the Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations in Israel.[6][7][8] NGO Monitor has been characterized as being pro-Israel[9][10] and is often described as right-wing.[11]

Editing Wikipedia
The on-line communications editor of NGO Monitor, Arnie Draiman, was indefinitely banned from editing articles about the Israeli-Arab conflict for biased editing, concealing his place of work and using a second account in a way that is forbidden by Wikipedia policy.[17] Draiman was a major contributor to the articles of his employers NGO Monitor and Gerald Steinberg, and performed hundreds of edits of human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem, the New Israel Fund, Human Rights Watch and many others, to which NGO Monitor's president, Professor Gerald Steinberg, is opposed.[44]

Just two of the sections on Wiki

[Purveyor]

11. kick. Thanks for posting. +1 eom

[Capt. Obvious]

15. You're most welcome

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. You're funny, but thanks for exposing another Zionist propaganda entity.