Israeli officials use fake graphic to justify bombing Gaza hospitals

Ali Abunimah 17 November 2012

As Israel steps up its targeting of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip on the fourth day of an assault that began when it violated a truce on 14 November, and calls up reservists in advance of a possible ground invasion, Israeli officials are distributing a graphic that appears intended to justify in advance the bombing of Gaza hospitals and health facilities.

The graphic published by the Israeli army is a fake hospital sign that purports to show that Hamas leaders hide under hospitals and stockpile weapons there.

Ofir Gendelman, an official spokesman for the Israeli prime minister tweeted the same image in Arabic.

Israeli attacks on hospitals during “Cast Lead”

During “Operation Cast Lead,” its savage 2008-2009 assault on Gaza, Israel carried out widespread attacks on hospitals and health facilities. As a 2009 report by European develoment and rights organizations noted:

A World Health Organization (WHO) assessment of 122 health facilities in Gaza revealed that 48% were damaged or destroyed during the offensive: 15 hospitals and 41 primary health care centres were partially damaged; two primary health care centres were destroyed; and 29 ambulances were partially damaged or destroyed.

And during the 2008-2009 invasion, as The Electronic Intifada reported, Israeli forces killed 16 medical rescuers, four in one day alone. Another 57 were injured.

UN investigators find no evidence to back Israeli claims

The UN-commissioned Goldstone report examined the Israeli claims. On page 142, the report says that Israel alleged that:

Hamas systematically used medical facilities, vehicles and uniforms as cover for terrorist operations, in clear violation of the Law of Armed Conflict. This included the extensive use of ambulances bearing the protective emblems of the Red Cross and Crescent … and the use of hospitals and medical infrastructure as headquarters, situation rooms, command centres and hiding places.”

The commission of inquiry investigated the Israeli claims with regard to several hospitals that Israel had bombed, for example the al-Quds hospital in Tal el-Hawa, which had been hit by Israeli white phosphorus shells and high explosives.

It also looked at the flimsy nature of the “evidence” cited by Israel. In the case of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, this was “an interview with a ‘Hamas activist’ captured by Israel and an Italian newspaper article which in turn bases this assertion on a single anonymous source.”

“On the basis of the investigations it has conducted,” the Goldstone report said, “the Mission did not find any evidence to support the allegations made by the Israeli Government.”

Similarly, the report found no evidence to support frequent Israeli claims that ambulances were misused, and much evidence to contradict that claim. Israel’s Magen David Adom, its affiliate with the ICRC, even told the UN investigators that “there was no use of PRCS [Palestinian Red Crescent Society] ambulances for the transport of weapons or ammunition … [and] there was no misuse of the emblem by PRCS” (page 144).

In short, Israel has never presented any credible evidence to back up its claims, and yet it continues to produce propaganda like the “hospital sign” above to justify its very real crimes against Gaza’s already fragile health system.

Just how low can you go?

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Comments

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Anthony Shaker replied on

Electronic Intifada is doing a fine job recording evidence on ongoing Zionist war crimes.

For all those still sitting uncomfortably on the fence, we must all understand one thing: Israel means to finish the Palestinian genocide, once and for all.

This tall order not only preoccupies the minds of the ringleaders of Zionism and its settler "government"; it is what the lynch mobs mushrooming on the streets of Israel's major Jewish-only cities are howling for in chorus with their American Zionist fundamentalist Christian brethren.

But then, what is their alternative do, given the extent to which the shining palaces of mythical ancient Israelites and the very notion of a continuous Jewish presence in Palestine have been debunked as Hollywood fantasies? There is neither archaelogical nor historical evidence for a Jewish "Exile" or Israelite slaves exiled in Egypt, and so on ad nauseam.

And most interestingly, there is simply no local collective memory of a significant, much less continuous, Jewish presence in Palestine or powerful Israelite "kingdoms" in ancient times. Did the ancient chroniclers ignore Israelites and Jews? How can one ignore what isn't there?

Hollywood should be named as a prime accomplice to the unprecedented crime of Israel's creation. It ought to be tried, executed, and given proper burial in the Dead Sea, along with the rest of the shattered myths and scrolls of the Chosen Race.

Given these debunked myths and world incredulity, the only way forward for Zionist Project is to finish the Palestinian genocide.

As we watch the unfolding catastrophe in the Middle East, I can't help reflecting about how easily humanity has sleepwalked into this strange world, where everything has turned on its head!

1948 should be noted as a turning point in modern history, a unique moment that demonstrates Western supremacy, barbarism, moral degeneracy, and finally imperial decline all rolled in one.

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Gail Coleman replied on

Israel has proven it will stoop to any low to justify its murderous behavior. With 1,400 killed in Operation Casty Lead, nearly 400 of them children, they proved to the world they will stop at nothing. What the world, especially Americans, needs to understand is that Israel has brought this situation upon themselves and they are truly the only ones who can change it. They are the occupying power and the occupation is the problem. Now, the courts in Israel can say all they want to, that there is no occupation. But you can put lipstick on a pig and you still have a pig. If there really is no occupation, then they should take down every military checkpoint and lift the blockade of Gaza. Right now, Gaza is fighting for life. While I am no fan of violence and I have reservations about the militant groups there, I can understand that a people can only take so much. There comes a point when they figure they have nothing more to lose, so they might as well fight as big as they can. It was much the same with America's Founding Fathers against the British. Now, we laude those men as heroes and so many here call the militias in Gaza terrorists. The double standard is amazing. My thoughts and prayers are with all victims of violence, but a special place is held in my heart for the people of Gaza, as they face another night of this carnage.

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Brendan replied on

Are you sure this isn't just a propaganda image for furthering the IDF's talking points about Hamas' positions? It's obviously a horribly twisted form of an infographic and not something purporting to be any kind of documentation.

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Ali Abunimah replied on

Yes, that’s precisely what it is. It is obviously some sort of “joke” but the underlying propaganda is serious and needed to be debunked.

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Leah replied on

Ashamed to be from Israel, they can get lower though, that is the sad thing. And most people do not know the real truth, thank you for publishing.
And the social movement for economic justice is gone now due to the war crimes and fascist fervor, at the cost of Palestinian lives, and all the regular working class struggling people in the region for a few heads of state and their cronies

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.