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‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

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Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was it like for you living Germany in that period?

>>What was it like for you living Germany in that period? Auschwitz isn't in Germany, it's in Poland. Unless I'm misunderstanding your question?

I think there are a large number of people from the United States who would be looking for Auschwitz on a map in Germany rather than in Poland. For some reason it ticks me off when Germans persist in using the German names for Polish cities while at the same time I'm not upset at the Dutch for saying Berlijn or Parijs instead of Berlin or Paris. It's inconsistent.

Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#262
post #233

I see an increasing number of politicians taking the position: "I supported Israel's government's actions when they first attacked, given the goals of destroying Hamas' leadership and freeing hostages, but now that it has turned into a brutal siege with mass civilian casualties on a horrific scale, I'm strongly against their actions." E.g. Macron, Angus King, and many people I know personally. And I think we need to…

Pretty much my take. I thought Israel's actions were reasonable at first but out of hand now.

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Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#263
post #156

The UN definition is quoted here: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: - Killing members of the group; - Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; - Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction…

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Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#264

As someone who went to US high school in the 90s, a good 1/3 of our curriculum seemed to be "never again" studies of the holocaust and other genocides throughout history. Which makes it completely incomprehensible to me that suddenly "don't talk about genocide" has become the basically law. What's worse is I actually feel openly saying "I don't support this genocide and I'm critical of the state committing it" is a r…

Yes, never again is right now and I am afraid to even say that under my real name because it would put my job at risk. Watching a redux of the Warsaw Ghetto being livestreamed, watching children starving to death because of state military decisions, watching 500 pounder bombs being dropped on seaside cafes and ambulance medics being murdered. Never again is right now and I'm doing this, bitching pseudonymously. It is…

And there's some reason to believe there isn't a state influence campaign in favor of Hamas?

Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#265
Something to keep in mind when listening to "first hand accounts" like this is that even if they're honest statements, everybody is subject to the fog of war and skewed statistics.

An example that came up a few months ago was a surgeon in a Gaza hospital making the honest statement to BBC journalists that he had seen dozens of children coming into the hospital near death with a "single shot" to a vital organ. He claimed they were purposefully "sniped" by IDF soldiers because in his mind it was "impossible" that they were all so accurately shot precisely once.

What he didn't see coming into his O/R were the children with multiple gunshot wounds... because they died. Conversely, a grazing wound from shrapnel is too minor to go to his well equipped hospital, because the hospital is overloaded and taking only the severely wounded. So he saw just the filtered subset of injuries that were very severe but just barely survivable, giving him the false impression that the IDF was going out of its way to snipe children with a single well-placed shot. (This isn't some random anecdote either, there were long articles circulating around the international media!)

From the surgeon's point of view, he saw only a subset of what's going on, and he drew a conclusion that wasn't actually supported by the evidence. The problem is that his point of view supported a popular narrative, was amplified, and nobody bothered to verify statistics because.. sss... that's hard in a war zone.

I'm not advocating for either side and support neither. I'm just recommending reading all articles related to the war with a critical eye.

Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#266
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Yes, Israel is the one currently banning international journalists from entering Gaza. Hamas has no reason to.

Yeah, really no reason.

Because they really love unbiased coverage.

> The journalist told RSF that the threat came from Hamas members who were unhappy with his social media posts. A few days earlier, the reporter — who wishes to remain anonymous — had published a post criticising Hamas, which was facing strong backlash from local protestors exhausted from being subjected to the massacres committed by Israeli forces.

> Due to these threats the journalist deleted his posts, fearing for his safety. At least two other journalists have faced threats and physical attacks for covering the protests against Hamas, which lasted several days. “Detention centres and administrative offices in Gaza have been destroyed,” one journalist told RSF. “So now Hamas’ intimidation tactics consist of direct confrontations with journalists, and the journalists have nowhere to go.”

https://rsf.org/en/gaza-rsf-condemns-hamas-threats-against-j...

Re: ‘I witnessed war crimes’ in Gaza – former worker at GHF aid site [video]

#269
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Yes, Israel is the one currently banning international journalists from entering Gaza. Hamas has no reason to.

Why doesn’t Egypt allow journalists through the Raffah crossing? Or refugees..?
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