It is no secret the “international community” has always been fast on the trigger to criticize Israel. During Israel’s operation “Defensive Wall” in 2002, the Jewish state and the Israeli Defence Forces came under harsh
criticism from the United Nations and various “human rights groups”, who later offered no apologies when they were proven wrong. The best example – that might as well be closely tied to the past Gaza operation – are the allegations of Israel committing a massacre in Jenin refugee camp, in which Palestinians claimed hundreds of civilians were killed and most of the camp destroyed – which later proved to be a lie, with a little over 50 in personnel (both civilian and hostile) were killed. As mentioned above, apologies from the United Nations, the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and many others never followed.
After the operation “Defensive Wall”, first attempts were made to use the Israeli and international court systems to indict IDF officers in “war crimes”. One of the widest known cases is the dodged arrest by General (reserve) Doron Almog, the former Commander of IDF’s Southern Command, responsible – among others – for Gaza Strip area. London police had allowed Almog to leave back for Israel without leaving the aircraft, fearing shoot-out between Almog and armed El Al guards.
One setback is nothing for European Arabs and “human rights groups” – and they keep on pressing forward. Latest decision by a Madrid court to grand motion by Palestinian Center for Human Rights (apparently – only
Palestinians’ human rights) is probably the first among many upcoming others such motions against Israeli officials and IDF officers. The PCHR wishes Madrid’s legal system to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity during the assassination of a Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh. Shehadeh – to remind you – was responsible, among others, for planning and executing the attack against IDF’s “Africa” outpost, resulting in murder of four IDF soldiers, and an attack on high-school students in Atzmona settlement, resulting in murder of another five students. By all standards, Shehadeh was no angel.
Not so for Europeans, however, and politically correct media. The Reuters news agency, for example, doesn’t even use the word “terrorist”, explaining that Reuters does not “use emotive words when labelling someone”, according to David A. Schlesinger, Reuters’ global managing editor. The Associated Press, for example, labels Al Qaeda as a “terror network”, while Hamas is a mere “militant group”. While the IDF is being labelled as committing crimes against humanity by most in the media and in Europe, Hamas’ tactics and attack are being mostly disregarded. Yes, that’s right: according to the UN, 25% of those killed in Gaza were civilians – which makes it fine to criticize Israel for crimes against humanity and breach of international law. Hamas, however, whose casualties – according to statistics for years 2001 to 2003 – were specifically targeting civilian population – are just fine and are simply a “militant group”. Yes, fighting for freedom. Yes, killing civilians. Yes, their own too.
We are soon to see if the European court system would allow itself to be used by terrorists and their supporters to create yet another battlefield against Israel. Yet, after you pour over USD 7 bln. into the Palestinian cause, it probably won’t be easy to halt the support.
This is a guest post by Jonathan Boyko.
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