Amnesty International: Hamas harmed Palestinians

[inthebrain]

Amnesty International: Hamas harmed Palestinians

February 11, 2009

LONDON (JTA) -- Amnesty International issued a report detailing Hamas violence against Palestinians during Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip.

In its report, the human rights organization states that at least two dozen men were shot dead by Hamas gunmen, and many more were kneecapped or otherwise tortured during and after Israel’s military operation. It also confirms media reports that some victims had been executed in hospitals where they were being treated for wounds.

Amnesty International sent a fact-finding team to the Gaza Strip once the cease-fire was in force.

Responding to the report, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, “Maybe some of them were killed because they were acting against the population, against the resistance."

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/02/11/1002926/amnesty-hamas-harmed-palestinians

[Hoopla Phil]

1. I'm not surprised by the report. What I will be surprised about

is if anyone apologizes for saying that it was only Israeli propaganda that claimed it was going on before this report came out. I seriously doubt it though. We will only here denials of this truth.

[Alamuti Lotus]

2. So those AI reports are occasionally useful?

That's odd, a few days ago they were officially a prolific agent in the anti-semetic conspiracy against Israel.... so hard to keep up with these things.

As for the report itself, I am shocked that Hamas and Fatah don't get along. Simply astounded.

[bemildred]

3. "Useful idiots" is the technical term, like HRW and the UN and various others.

They are arbiters of truth when one agrees with them, and hateful backbiters when one does not.

[inthebrain]

4. This just seems like the lastest line on the subject

as most people dealing with this revelation have a tough time processing it.

Nobody here is fighting the conflict physically so I don't get the ideological stuboorness.

[azurnoir]

8. The problem is that its hardly a "revelation" n/t

[azurnoir]

7. AI must have "redeemed" it self they're the heros of the week

and this has got to be the favorite story as there are 4 concurrently running threads on this, not to mention I never knew that Fatah members were just innocent Palestinian civilians

[Vegasaurus]

5. But, we are supposed to blame all this bad Hamas behavior

on the Israelis, or the US, or the West, or imperialism, or something.

The Palestinians are never responsible for anything they do.

It is always someone else's fault.

[inthebrain]

6. Hamas is not "The Palestinians"

Hamas is out of egypt. They are a political party/band of thugs looking to exploit the political void in Palestine. For the most part they are propped up by the Middle Eastern elites in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Gaza.

They are Palestinian just as much as the Isreali Government represents the working classes in Isreal.

[Shaktimaan]

9. I love your posts.

They are a breath of fresh air in a place where the same freaking issues keep getting rehashed over and over again. It is interesting to get a new perspective on some of this stuff. I have a question or two though.

You refer to the Middle Eastern elites in Gaza. Who do you mean? Who in Gaza is propping up Hamas?

They are Palestinian just as much as the Isreali Government represents the working classes in Isreal.

What exactly do you mean by this? Are you saying that Hamas is not a Palestinian organization or just that they don't have the Palestinian's best interests at heart?

[Vegasaurus]

11. Hamas is the government of half the Palestinian people

but they have made these people's lives a living hell.

[LeftishBrit]

10. Very few people think that 'it's all the fault of the West', etc.

The point is that it's not 'The Palestinians' committing bad actions. It is one Palestinian political party attacking not only Israeli civilians, but also other Palestinians, who belong to the 'wrong' party.

I haven't noticed much of what you claim - that people think that 'the Palestinians are never responsible for anything that they do'. What some people *do* think is that Palestinian resistance groups are *justified* in what they do. Even when Hamas are doing these things to other Palestinians, the assumption of a few is that the victims must have been spies or traitors or otherwise deserve it.

Equating 'Hamas' with 'Palestinians' has two bad effects. On one side, it can lead to assuming that because Palestinians have a bad government, they are on the whole bad people, who deserve whatever they get from Israel and other countries. On the other side, it can lead to assuming that anyone - even anyone Palestinian - who is attacked by Hamas must be anti-Palestinian and deserve what they get from Hamas.