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MYTH:
MYTH
IDF Alleged Negligent Killings:
https://news.sky.com/story/im-so-scared-please-come-heartbreaking-final-moments-of-girl-5-killed-in-gaza-13229813. (Tuesday October 8, 2024)
CORRECTION:
There may have been a tragic accident. It isn’t negligence since the IDF routinely publicizes advance warnings. Also there are strict rules of engagement which have been tightened up 65 times in the past year. When there is due process, there isn’t negligence, there may be accidents. The classic accident is “secondary explosions” where munitions are stored, there’s no way of knowing where they will extend to….
MYTH:
Israel has been occupying Gaza for 75 years.
CORRECTION:
Israel signed up to the Oslo peace agreement in the 1990s and pulled out of Gaza in 2005, hoping for peace…..
UNWRA FAKE NEWS: See this article in the Jerusalem Post – real role of UNWRA
MYTHS / CORRECTIONS – SOUTH AFRICA AT THE HAGUE: Click here for: Fake claims by South Africa at the ICJ (International Court of Justice) in the Hague Jan 11, 2024.
ISRAEL’S COUNTERCLAIMS AT THE HAGUE ICJ:
Jan 11, 2024: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) continued its proceedings in the case in which South Africa alleges genocide by Israel. Israel outlined its case and sought to refute all the South African allegations – some as presenting an incomplete picture, some as wrong, using many facts and pictures. These include warnings, delaying the ground campaign 3 weeks, humanitarian efforts and commands issued by the Israeli chain of command. Angry remarks of a few politicians straight after October 7 were not commands. Requests to civilians to evacuate combat areas are not displacement, they are necessary precautionary measures. Bakeries have re-opened in Gaza producing 2 million loaves per day, more supplies are trucked and parachuted in and this is increasing. Hamas theft of humanitarian supplies was noted. Israel’s cooperation with international aid organizations were detailed. The IDF is shifting to less intense activity involving less troops and aircraft. A UN resolution calling for release of hostages has not been implemented but the appointment of a UN Senior Coordinator has been implemented, contrary to what South Africa alleged. Also, South Africa has no dispute with Israel as it refused to discuss anything with Israel before lodging the application for “provisional measures” at the ICJ alleging genocide. Article 41 of the Genocide Convention and past case law in similar cases require the rights of the respondent (Israel here) to also be considered. The procedures for giving legal advice and redress on an ongoing basis within Israel to the government and the IDF was spelt out. Israel is a country where the rule of law prevails as does an independent judiciary.
Comments: Extremely detailed Israeli testimony from a range of angles in a tight time schedule. Numbers of military and civilian casualties were apparently not discussed, it was more about principles. Most telling was the look of astonishment on the faces of South Africa’s legal team watching the Israeli legal team giving testimony. Different league.
Next: The present stage of the hearing closed around 13.10 pm Dutch Time. The Court will pronounce at a later stage.
MYTH – UN:
The preamble of UN Security Council resolution 2720 (Dec22, 2023), calling for more humanitarian aid to Gaza, says: “Stressing that the Gaza Strip constitutes an integral part of the territory occupied in 1967, and reiterating the vision of the two-State solution, with the Gaza Strip as part of the Palestinian State.”
CORRECTION:
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, and the Oslo Accords of the 1990s failed to stem terror incidents.
MYTH – Cameron:
“Israel will not win this war if its operations destroy the prospect of peaceful coexistence with Palestinians. They have a right to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. But too many civilians have been killed. The Israeli government should do more to discriminate sufficiently between terrorists and civilians, ensuring its campaign targets Hamas leaders and operatives.” (David Cameron & Annalena Baerbock, UK & German Foreign Ministers, The (London) Times, 16.12.23).
CORRECTION:
Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Nearly every building and home contains weapons in combat areas, civilians hold white flags and open fire. Children open fire (Israeli journalists embedded in Gaza and IDF soldiers phoning from Gaza). N.B: Around 2 million Arabs peacefully live and work peacefully with Jews throughout Israel.
MYTH – UNWRA:
“UNRWA’s presence has been pivotal in preventing Gaza, and the region, from descending into chaos. The high standard of UNWRA’s educational system has been widely admired globally.” (X/Twitter). Correction: This overlooks the incitement in the syllabus, the weapons stored and the UNWRA teachers who held some of the recently released hostages.
MYTH:
“The meager supplies that Israel has been allowing into Gaza have littke effect in the face of the overwhelming needs of an entire population” (UNWRA X/Twitter).
CORRECTION:
“Has there been food, water, or medical supplies you have asked for us to facilitate, and we have refused? The answer is no. Blaming us won’t change the fact that the UN just needs to do better. Whatever you can bring (and distribute), we can clear” (IDF X/Twitter)
MYTH – Kate Burley Sky TV:
Burley asked whether the hostage deal, which would trade 150 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for just 50 hostages held by Hamas – or three Palestinians for every captive – meant that Israel valued Palestinian lives less than Israeli ones, at one-third the value.
CORRECTION:
Asked to comment on the above, Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy answered, with arched eyebrows in a look of shock, that the comment was “an astonishing accusation.”
“If we could release one prisoner for every hostage, we would do that. We are operating in horrific circumstances,” he said (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-775915).
MYTH:
Innocent Gaza Palestinians are suffering
CORRECTION:
They brought up the terrorists and elected Hamas. Click here for a few more points: https://www.facebook.com/100001580769133/posts/7077097112352911/?mibextid=K8Wfd2
MYTH:
“The reality is that there is no part of the West Bank that is not touched & controlled by Israel” said Adam Bouloukos, Director of UNWRA Affairs, West Bank. “settler violence & Israeli military incursions have increased enormously over the last month & there has been a near total lockdown in the West Bank” (UNWRA X/Twitter).
CORRECTION:
No mention of Arab terror incidents on the West Bank that caused the tension, no mention of the Oslo Accords that set up the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s and by agreement split the West Bank into different areas including Ramallah, the PA capital, where it is forbidden for Israelis to visit. The Trump “Deal of the Century” proposed to give the PA more land. but the PA turned down the deal.
MYTH:
From The Electronic Intifada, 17 November 2023: “Israel has never explained how Palestinian fighters who crossed from Gaza on 7 October could have caused mass destruction to Israeli homes…with their light weapons”.
CORRECTION:
Hamas terrorists themselves filmed it. This author has seen victims of the October 7 massacre at the IDF base struggling to identify badly burned corpses.
MYTH:
French President Emanuel Macron told the BBC in English on November 11, 2023: “De facto – today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”
CORRECTION:
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded quickly on November 11, 2023, to Mr Macron’s comments, saying nations should condemn Hamas, not Israel.
MYTH:
“All of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people.” Ex-President Barak Obama speaking to the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum November 2, 2023 (Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-calls-end-occupation-security-israel-state-palestinians)
CORRECTION:
Israel signed up to the Oslo peace agreement in the 1990s and pulled out of Gaza in 2005, hoping for peace…..
MYTH:
A video shows a soldier being thrown to the ground as an airstrike hits an Israeli tank.
CORRECTION:
The imagery is computer generated and was taken from the trailer for a video game called Squad. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/israel-hamas-war-misinformation-facts-104589031)
MYTH:
A video, which is circulating on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, appears to show a soldier walking among military vehicles. As an armored vehicle comes up on his left, he waves his hand and says, “Let him through,” before an airstrike hits the vehicle and the soldier is thrown to the ground.
CORRECTION:
The clip is identical to the initial scenes of the trailer released for an update to the first-person shooter game Squad in December 2022. Offworld Industries, the game developer that makes Squad, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/israel-hamas-war-misinformation-facts-104589031)
WATER MYTHS:
Various reports blame Israel for supplying insufficient water to Gaza.
CORRECTION:
The piping installed by the Israelis was all removed and re-engineered into rockets to be fired at Israel. Because the pipes were removed, the (now) open sewers leaked into the aquifer where Gaza City is sited.
STATEMENT BY UN GENERAL SECRETARY ANTONIO GUTERRES TO UN SECURITY COUNCIL OCT 24, 2023
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
CORRECTION:
There is no occupation, Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, hoping for peace. Israel is not collectively punishing innocent civilians, it has asked them to move out of the way to South Gaza where food, water and medical supplies are now arriving from Egypt.
MYTH
Reuters reported UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres on Nov 8, 2023 as saying: “There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong.”
According to Reuters, Palestinian officials said 10,569 people have now been killed, 40% of them children.
“It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said. “That doesn’t help Israel in relation to the global public opinion.”
CORRECTION:
These are total figures – including many terrorists, over 18 and under 18, ad civilians used as human shields. No mention of of the October 7 murders, mutilations, rapes or hostage taking by Hamas, with intent to keep doing so until Israel is eliminated (see Hamas Charter). The mood across Israel is that Guterres is wrong to future Hamas intentions.
MYTHS & CORRECTIONS:
A message from Dr. Phil on Israel, Hamas, and our own moral compass: (15) A message from Dr. Phil on Israel, Hamas, and our own moral compass – YouTube
BBC CORRECTION NOVEMBER 15, 2023
“As BBC News covered initial reports that Israeli forces had entered Gaza’s main hospital, we said that “medical teams and Arab speakers” were being targeted. This was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report. We should have said IDF forces included medical teams and Arabic speakers for this operation. We apologise for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of events was broadcast minutes later and we apologised for the mistake on air later in the morning.15/11/2023.”(https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications)
PARTIAL CORRECTION BY BBC, OCTOBER 19, 2023:
“We have reviewed our coverage of the immediate aftermath of an explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday night. During this our correspondent was giving instant analysis on the ground from Jerusalem in what was a confusing and difficult story. The programme repeatedly made it clear that it had yet to verify who was behind the blast, including in the questioning by the presenter. The correspondent said that the Israelis had been contacted and were investigating, adding “It’s hard to see what else this could be really given the size of the explosion other than an Israeli air strike or several air strikes” He then explained that in his experience as a reporter in Gaza that he had never seen explosions of this scale caused by rockets being fired out of the territory. He again stressed that the pictures had yet to be verified. We accept that even in this fast-moving situation it was wrong to speculate in this way, although he did not at any point report that it was an Israeli strike. This doesn’t represent the entirety of the BBC’s output and anyone watching, listening to or reading our coverage can see we have set out both sides’ competing claims about the explosion, clearly showing who is saying them, and what we do or don’t know. 19/10/2023.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications
MORE ON THE BBC – CAN IT COUNT?
See: https://www.uklfi.com/bbc-overestimates-number-of-civilians-killed-by-israel
MYTH:
“Uprisings against colonial rule are violent because violence is an inherent part of imperialism and colonialism. That’s why the resistance by Palestinians against the racist Israeli terror state is wholly justified. All the deaths, horrors and destruction – all of them – are rooted in Israeli occupation and dispossession.” (Socialist Worker October 14, 2023 Free Palestine: Why we say by any means necessary)
CORRECTION:
Israeli pulled out of Gaza in 2005 hoping for Peace. It signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 hoping for peace.
MYTH:
Israel is breaching Article 33 of the Geneva Convention against collective punishment.
CORRECTION:
Article 33 of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949 actually says: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. (https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-33?activeTab=undefined)”.
Israel is not punishing innocent civilians, it has asked them to move out of the way to South Gaza where food, water and medical supplies are now arriving from Egypt.
The Hamas massacre of over 1400 Israeli innocent civilians and hostage taking of October 7, 2023 was clearly “intimidation or terrorism” banned by the above Article 33.
MYTH:
“Israel launched its genocidal bombing of civilians in the Gaza Strip on a false narrative backed by the US and its other Western allies. This narrative claimed that Palestinians killed innocent Israelis, decapitated children and raped women when Hamas broke out of the besieged enclave and attacked military positions and settlements near the nominal border. The lies have been repeated by Israel’s friends and in some cases, notably by the White House, withdrawn.
The latter withdrew US President Joe Biden’s remarks about raping women and decapitating children because there was no evidence to support them.”
(Middle East Monitor: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231025-the-truth-damages-the-israeli-narrative-built-on-lies/)
CORRECTION:
This author has personally visited the IDF base where be-headed and be-legged corpses are with difficulty being identified so they can then be properly buried with a name. And some were burnt to their death. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office published photographs on its X/Twitter account.
MYTH:
Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miki Zohar told Israeli Radio today Oct 26, 2023 that the Swords of Iron war is because of the division in Israeli society over the issue of judicial reform.
CORRECTION:
Comment: the war was because of Hamas savagery on October 7.
TUNNEL TALK:
There is much talk about the extensive Hamas tunnel system under Gaza.
This may or may not be problematic for Israel which can now detect tunnels.
This is certainly problematic for Gaza residents – as the resources used since the Israeli pullout in 2005 might have been better used on peaceful civilian economic development.
And Hamas complaints about an economic blockade look hollow – as it is common knowledge the tunnels are extensively used to import many things.
MYTH:
Israel cannot invoke self-defense because it is an occupying power (Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories Sky TV 28.10.23)
CORRECTION:
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 hoping for peace, it does not occupy Gaza.
MYTH:
Israel advised Gaza residents to head south after only cutting off internet and other communications.
CORRECTION:
Israel advised Gaza to head south in leaflets as well as in electronic media, starting over 2 weeks before the communication restrictions began and continued dropping leaflets. Various news media continue to report from Gaza…..
MYTH:
Actress Angelina Jolie, ex-UNHRC special envoy, reportedly posted on Instagram: “This is a deliberate bombing of a trapped population who have nowhere to flee…Israel has been an open-air prison for nearly two decades”
CORRECTION:
Israel has repeatedly requested the North Gaza population move to the South but Hamas is trying to prevent that. Egypt and other countries don’t want Gaza residents on their soil. A few hundred sick people and dual citizens have been allowed to enter Egypt. Thousands of Gaza residents have work permits to work in Israel and an increase in the number was being negotiated when the October 7 massacre occurred.
MYTH:
An ad for British department store Marks & Spencer shows a Palestinian flag burning in a fireplace.
CORRECTION:
The image shows red, green and silver paper hats — traditionally worn at British Christmas dinners — burning in a fireplace. It’s an outtake from a Christmas commercial filmed in August (pre-October 7) that was meant to “playfully” illustrate how people don’t enjoy some Christmas traditions, including donning the hats. (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/israel-hamas-war-misinformation-facts-104589031)
THE ISRAELI LEFT:
Was criticizing an alleged Israeli occupation, has come to realize post October 7 that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005 and merely tried to keep weapons out of Gaza – unsuccessfully given the October 7 massacre.
I DON’T CARE – BLOG:
This Blog was posted in Times of Israel: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-world-i-dont-care/
BBC ANCHOR WASN”T EXPECTING THIS RESPONSE:
