This is the NGO that all of the world’s media love salivating over.
B’Tselem: PM culpable for Gaza war Palestinian civilian deaths; NGO Monitor demurs
NGO Monitor: False chorus against IDF; Discrepancies between report, Amnesty’s account
A member of Palestinian security forces stands guard atop the ruins of a house in Beit Hanoun as people watch PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah (not seen) visiting houses that witnesses said were destroyed during the recent conflict in Gaza. . (photo credit:REUTERS)
A Bt’Selem report to be published early Wednesday blasts the country’s civilian leadership, and specifically Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his cabinet, as culpable for hundreds of Palestinian civilians being killed in their residences during last summer’s Gaza war.
Neither the IDF, nor the Foreign Ministry nor the Prime Minister’s Office responded, but NGO Monitor called the document part of a “chorus of false Gaza war allegations.”
B’Tselem – The Israel Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories said the report was partially distinguished by a broader focus on war policy set by the highest levels of the IDF and Netanyahu’s security cabinet, in particular on their alleged approval of bombing a large number of civilian residences as part of fighting Hamas.
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NGO Monitor disputed both the report’s factual and interpretive allegations.
The report ignored IDF statements and a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center regarding properly identifying who was a civilian and who a fighter, NGO Monitor said.
It complimented B’Tselem on the “honest admission” that it “has no way of knowing” where the IDF attacked because of fighters being present or for another reason, such as concealed weapons, but then objected to B’Tselem’s interpreting the IDF’s actions as unlawful without having that information.
NGO Monitor said that B’Tselem was inventing new, aspirational, rules of law that are not obligatory, that the IDF’s warnings are “more extensive than that of any other army” and questioned what practical suggestions B’Tselem had for better fighting Hamas.
B’Tselem consistently says it is not its job to provide the IDF improved tactical suggestions.
The IDF is expected to announce additional criminal investigations and updates soon.
