Israel - Palestine Discussion | Post Respectfully | Discuss more, tweet less

4bars

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It feels like we're getting one of those every few hours now.
The more it goes, the more I hate Biden. He was a demented old man and I know he is from the establishment and is aligned with the geopolitics theatre. If he would just shut up, at least is what he would look like. But this tweets and the media saying that is very mad at netanyahu for the situation in gaza and blah blah....While approving military aid, blocking UN resolutions, etc its beyonf disgusting. Is a piece of shit
 

4bars

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Yeah and the hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis that will live in fear of Hamas terrorists bursting into their homes in the night to rape and burn them alive.
You mean like...Nakba? or modern life west bank?

Shame on you talking about displacement, killing and rape when e see what is happening to 2 million people
 

4bars

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30,000 deaths later this was their turning point?

Because is not a turning point. Is the same Biden whitewash narrative that US is very mad at Israel while fully supporting them
 

Idxomer

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Just to take issue with the tweet you posted.

Tweet says: "She has no investigative powers or abilities"

Report says [pg7 (24)]:​

Seems like they have investigative abilities.

Tweet implies that because the team had no investigative mandate it doesn't have the power to verify. This is untrue, and the difference is explained in the report:

[Pg8 (25)]: "​

The account you quoted wants to imply that Pramila Patten is somehow corrupt or underhand; she is described as attempting to "bury", she "finally admits", the report itself merits "scare quotes". The reality is that the report is very upfront about the difficulties it faced, the scope of its remit and the limitations of its conclusions.

It doesn't strike me as particularly useful only to laud those UN investigations and conclusions that point to Israeli culpability. We know that what happened on October 7th was monstrous in its own right and the report does a good job of explaining why it finds reasonable grounds to believe sexual violence took place. It makes no claims, nor presents any conclusions beyond its self stated, limited remit.
It doesn't imply, it's stated in the report "The mission wasn't investigative". They can also have all the abilities but what's their use when Israel puts huge obstacles for them to work and they are mostly dependent on what is presented to them? They don't have much if any power inside Israel, as the report indicates.

I think the report itself isn't a problem and it debunks several fabrications used and made by the likes of the NYT. However IMO, they should have cast more doubt over their inclusions.



The bigger problem is it's used -despite her having to state she's against that- as a justification to continue the violence and how the media mostly ignore the findings about sexual violence toward Palestinians which has now been mentioned in two different UN reports.
 

Idxomer

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Hamas, has consistently said the truth with their dead numbers in other occasions. Verified by Israel and UN. Why lie now?

In the other hand, the IDF had been lying consistently.

Is a matter of trust and as much one is a terrorist group, didn't lie in the past on numbers (I am not saying anything else) and the other, as much as is a supposedly democratic organization, had been lying through its teeth

Sure you might understand that
Small correction, Hamas in the way Western media understand doesn't have much to do with the death numbers. It's the Health Ministry that announces the numbers, these are doctors. It is exactly why it's an underestimate and probably why someone like Austin announced a higher number. I believe they need to see a body to consider that person dead. As said before, all those people missing under the rubble -some of them for months now which means they're dead- aren't counted. They are more meticulous in their counting than people think.
 

Badunk

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Only an absolute gobshite would look at what's been done to Gaza and think that they're having a whale of a time in markets full of wonderful goodies and that they're exaggerating the number of people killed.
 

Iker Quesadillas

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In this poll, only 14% of Biden voters say he should NOT stop arm shipments to Israel.
 

Denis79

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This is the problem with this thread and social media in general. Israel is treated to a completely different standard.

- Israeli woman says she has been raped. You're a liar! Prove it!
- IDF finds Hamas tunnels. You're a liar! Prove it!
- "Flour Massacre" caused by stampede. You're a liar! Prove it!
- Hamas rocket hit the Al Ahli hospital. You're a liar! Prove it!
- UN says Israeli woman likely raped on 10/7. Lies! ISRAELI PROPAGANDA!

Hamas Ministry of Health...

- 30,000 dead. No need for verification this is obvious entirely accurate.
- "Pallywood" movie scenes. No need for verification this is obvious entirely accurate.


I am not trying to defend Israel here. I am just saying that there is a blatant double standard where everything from the Palestinian/Hamas side is treated as "the gospel", while anything from Israel is immediately thrown out as lies and Israeli propaganda.

Is there not just the smallest possibility that Hamas would "bake" their numbers to ensure maximum condemnation of Israel and to further their own cause and interests? Is it not a bit curious that they are so sure 30,000 people have been killed, but not so sure about how many Israeli hostages are alive?
I don't trust a word either says. Thing is I held Israel to a different standard because they were supposed to be democracy that believed and abided by international rules. Hamas were murderous terrorists with no regard to rules or human life. But guess what? Israel are exactly like Hamas, murderous terrorists with zero decency and regard to life, which they have clearly shown.

The big difference is that they have weapons that can kill tens of thousands and completely level cities (as we have seen). I in no way stand or defend Hamas, they are murderous scum but Israel is no better and should be frowned upon and shunned exactly like other terrorist states have been in the past.
 

africanspur

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People post Twitter links all day in here about what is happening in Gaza and their motives for posting them aren't questioned.
Mostly because their motives are obvious. Their viewpoint is obvious. People may disagree with them for that but they do not hide their perspective and viewpoint.

So yeah, what was your motive for posting that tweet? Do you believe that Gazans are flourishing in bustling markets right now?
 

Murder on Zidane's Floor

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This is the problem with this thread and social media in general. Israel is treated to a completely different standard.

- Israeli woman says she has been raped. You're a liar! Prove it!
- IDF finds Hamas tunnels. You're a liar! Prove it!
- "Flour Massacre" caused by stampede. You're a liar! Prove it!
- Hamas rocket hit the Al Ahli hospital. You're a liar! Prove it!
- UN says Israeli woman likely raped on 10/7. Lies! ISRAELI PROPAGANDA!

Hamas Ministry of Health...

- 30,000 dead. No need for verification this is obvious entirely accurate.
- "Pallywood" movie scenes. No need for verification this is obvious entirely accurate.


I am not trying to defend Israel here. I am just saying that there is a blatant double standard where everything from the Palestinian/Hamas side is treated as "the gospel", while anything from Israel is immediately thrown out as lies and Israeli propaganda.

Is there not just the smallest possibility that Hamas would "bake" their numbers to ensure maximum condemnation of Israel and to further their own cause and interests? Is it not a bit curious that they are so sure 30,000 people have been killed, but not so sure about how many Israeli hostages are alive?
Because the IDF and the Israeli government are known, habitual liars.

It's not a different standard, it's just cynicism at the constant dishonesty. 40 beheaded babies, keepy uppies with a severed breast etc etc.

Also the IDF agree with the 30k figures so yeah, not sure what that is about.

IDF shoot their own hostages, claims they didn't, footage is released, it's clear they did, they keep lying.
 

Murder on Zidane's Floor

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I don't trust a word either says. Thing is I held Israel to a different standard because they were supposed to be democracy that believed and abided by international rules. Hamas were murderous terrorists with no regard to rules or human life. But guess what? Israel are exactly like Hamas, murderous terrorists with zero decency and regard to life, which they have clearly shown.

The big difference is that they have weapons that can kill tens of thousands and completely level cities (as we have seen). I in no way stand or defend Hamas, they are murderous scum but Israel is no better and should be frowned upon and shunned exactly like other terrorist states have been in the past.

Totally normal
 

Ekkie Thump

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It doesn't imply, it's stated in the report "The mission wasn't investigative". They can also have all the abilities but what's their use when Israel puts huge obstacles for them to work and they are mostly dependent on what is presented to them? They don't have much if any power inside Israel, as the report indicates.

I think the report itself isn't a problem and it debunks several fabrications used and made by the likes of the NYT. However IMO, they should have cast more doubt over their inclusions.



The bigger problem is it's used -despite her having to state she's against that- as a justification to continue the violence and how the media mostly ignore the findings about sexual violence toward Palestinians which has now been mentioned in two different UN reports.
It said "the mission was not investigative" but I don't think that means what you or the twitter account you quoted think it means. What it means in the context of this report is that the enquiry was too narrow to deserve the moniker "investigation" and didn't extend to apportioning blame. This does not mean that it did not investigate the evidence within its remit or use investigative techniques in its analysis. It did - hence employing the people it employed; describing the methods they used, the evidence they evaluated and the conclusions they reached. They visited the sites; interviewed witnesses; reviewed video, photographic and audio sources; evaluated their veracity and caveated their conclusions. They were also candid as to where the preponderance of the evidence came from and noted as follows:

Report said:
[Pg10(35)]
"Though the material provided by national agencies appeared to be authentic and unmanipulated, it could not always be independently verified by the mission team. Efforts were made to verify the most important pieces of digital evidence gathered by the mission team. For the purpose of this report, only items found to be reliable and related to the 7 October attacks were considered."​

Then again, later on:

[Pg10(55)]
"...it must be noted that the information gathered by the mission team was in a large part sourced from Israeli national institutions. This is due to the absence of United Nations entities operating in Israel, as well as the lack of cooperation by the State of Israel with relevant United Nations bodies with an investigative mandate. Nevertheless, the mission team took every step, in line with UN methodology, to mitigate issues of source reliability before drawing conclusions within the scope of this report."​
As well as the specific caveats listed above the opening summary goes to great lengths to describe the limitations of the evidence (paragraphs 7 through 11). A further 11 paragraphs, in its own titled subsection, are devoted to these limitations in greater details (Pages 12-15). In what way should they have cast more doubt over their conclusions? It was they who recognised the limitations, they who evaluated the available evidence and they who analysed it as experts. If you're happy with their skills and tools when they use them to exclude evidence (e.g. your quoted para 64), but unhappy when they use those self same tools to include it then I feel like the problem is not so much with the evidence or their ability but with your partiality.

On a different note I believe the report mentions that although beyond its remit information gathered by the unit regarding Palestinian accusations of sexual violence perpetrated by Israelis will be pooled alongside information gathered via other UN institutions and make its way into a separate report. I'm hopeful the UN will shine a light on that too once it is published. I get that this report might be used as propaganda, but if the team thinks that sexual violence and rape happened it is duty bound to report that and the best way of combatting that propaganda is to disseminate the report itself and advertise its actual findings.
 
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4bars

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Small correction, Hamas in the way Western media understand doesn't have much to do with the death numbers. It's the Health Ministry that announces the numbers, these are doctors. It is exactly why it's an underestimate and probably why someone like Austin announced a higher number. I believe they need to see a body to consider that person dead. As said before, all those people missing under the rubble -some of them for months now which means they're dead- aren't counted. They are more meticulous in their counting than people think.
Thanks for the correction and further explanation
 

Ish

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I don't trust a word either says. Thing is I held Israel to a different standard because they were supposed to be democracy that believed and abided by international rules. Hamas were murderous terrorists with no regard to rules or human life. But guess what? Israel are exactly like Hamas, murderous terrorists with zero decency and regard to life, which they have clearly shown.

The big difference is that they have weapons that can kill tens of thousands and completely level cities (as we have seen). I in no way stand or defend Hamas, they are murderous scum but Israel is no better and should be frowned upon and shunned exactly like other terrorist states have been in the past.
Amen
 

VorZakone

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“You’ve got to finish the problem. You had a horrible invasion. It took place. It would have never happened if I was president, by the way,” Trump said.

“This would have never happened. And for another reason — they wouldn’t have done it to me. I guarantee you that. They did this because they have no respect for Biden and, frankly, they got soft,” Trump added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campai...ting-in-gaza-youve-got-to-finish-the-problem/

 

Idxomer

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@Ekkie Thump Debunking isn't as difficult as proving something. That bit from the report isn't just about excluding evidence but also the credibility of the witnesses. And again I'm not saying these things haven't happened. I believe all those allegations including the ones toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza need to be fully investigated without any restriction on the teams. Something the Israelis will never agree to in my view. That report being used for propaganda isn't a possibility, it's a fact.
 

berbatrick

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I haven't read the UN thing but there's no real reason to doubt that Israeli women were raped on Oct 7. We have a statement from Hamas themselves, basically saying "shit happened":

Hamas released a document claiming "faults" were made on oct 7 due to the "speed of the collapse" of the border army

e - subsequent tweets seem to suggest they are open to a "fair and independent" investigation, possibly from the ICC
not sure how that will go for them!
The NYT story claimed it was basically a systematic thing, which is less believable for a few reasons:
Hamas' main goal was eliminating security forces and gaining hostages. Adding mass rape to the schedule, knowing that kind of firepower that's going to arrive in a few minutes/hours, would not make sense.
And, the lack of widespread forensic or eyewitness evidence of systematic/mass rapes. The more lurid stories (some of which the NYT relied on) don't seem to be true.

e - It seems there was a lot of variation in how the civilians they encountered were treated - murdered in front of their kids, or had a random political discussion, and this might be happening with the hostages too - testimonies from many of those who came out in November didn't point to cruel treatment, but they heard worse from those still inside. I'm guessing there's a lot of factors - different factions (it's not just Hamas that's fighting or keeping hostages), breakdown of discipline (which might have happened a little as Oct 7 dragged on, and is probably happening now), and the role of Gazan civilians (who broke through the fence later on Oct 7, without the same discipline or objectives as the militants.)
 
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Eyepopper

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I don't trust a word either says. Thing is I held Israel to a different standard because they were supposed to be democracy that believed and abided by international rules. Hamas were murderous terrorists with no regard to rules or human life. But guess what? Israel are exactly like Hamas, murderous terrorists with zero decency and regard to life, which they have clearly shown.

The big difference is that they have weapons that can kill tens of thousands and completely level cities (as we have seen). I in no way stand or defend Hamas, they are murderous scum but Israel is no better and should be frowned upon and shunned exactly like other terrorist states have been in the past.
100% this.

It's a race to the bottom of humanity by both.

A race Israel is winning.
 

Giggsy PO

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So, lets be clear. UN expert has no idea, what is going on in the north. Amazing.

Maybe she "hasn't seen" this:

 

gfactor86

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So, lets be clear. UN expert has no idea, what is going on in the north. Amazing.

Maybe she "hasn't seen" this:

Imagine if Israel hadn't spent so much of its budget on defensive technology like the Iron Dome? Israel would be a pile of rubble after years of bombardment from Hezbollah and Hamas. Hamas didn't see the need to invest any of it's aid money into bomb shelters to protect civilians.
 

VorZakone

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Imagine if Israel hadn't spent so much of its budget on defensive technology like the Iron Dome? Israel would be a pile of rubble after years of bombardment from Hezbollah and Hamas. Hamas didn't see the need to invest any of it's aid money into bomb shelters to protect civilians.
But...now Gaza is a pile of rubble.
 

Giggsyking

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Imagine if Israel hadn't spent so much of its budget on defensive technology like the Iron Dome? Israel would be a pile of rubble after years of bombardment from Hezbollah and Hamas. Hamas didn't see the need to invest any of it's aid money into bomb shelters to protect civilians.
Wow, turn palestine to a pile of ruble because......

Fill the blanks.
 

Dumbstar

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Imagine if Israel hadn't spent so much of its budget on defensive technology like the Iron Dome? Israel would be a pile of rubble after years of bombardment from Hezbollah and Hamas. Hamas didn't see the need to invest any of it's aid money into bomb shelters to protect civilians.
To me.
 

Ekkie Thump

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@Ekkie Thump Debunking isn't as difficult as proving something. That bit from the report isn't just about excluding evidence but also the credibility of the witnesses. And again I'm not saying these things haven't happened. I believe all those allegations including the ones toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza need to be fully investigated without any restriction on the teams. Something the Israelis will never agree to in my view. That report being used for propaganda isn't a possibility, it's a fact.
Sure, but that's precisely why the team was careful to attribute different levels of certainty to different incidents - in line with universally agreed upon UN guidance on the subject. The report generally and explicitly chose an operating standard of "reasonable grounds to believe." When an incident didn't meet this standard the report was careful to say so and at no point did the team find something to be "proven" or "beyond reasonable doubt". The furthest support they were willing to give to a single incident was "clear and convincing". It's all there in the methodology:
methodology said:
pg 8 (26)
The applicable standard of proof adopted by the mission team is one of “reasonable grounds to believe,” consistent with the practice of investigative bodies, including those established by the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council. The conclusions of the mission team on how to meet the applicable standard of proof were based, in line with the practices of these mechanisms, on “its own assessment of the credibility and reliability of the witnesses it met, verifying the sources and the methodology used in the reports and documents produced by others, cross-referencing the relevant material and information, and assessing whether, in all the circumstances, there was sufficient credible and reliable information […] to make a finding in fact” as to an incident, pattern, or trend of conflict-related sexual violence.​

pg 8 (27)
Although the primary standard of proof in this report is one of “reasonable grounds to believe,” there have been occasions where more information has supported a finding of fact, and the overall finding has therefore been stated to be established at the level of “clear and convincing” information. United Nations reporting has used a “clear and convincing” standard, and although there is no single definition of the term, it is generally agreed that “clear and convincing” information or evidence rises above “reasonable grounds to believe” yet falls below “beyond a reasonable doubt”. When the present report uses the term “circumstantial” information it uses the ordinary definition of that term, which is that such information is “indirect” and “does not, on its face, prove [the] fact in issue but gives rise to a logical inference that the fact exists”, yet ultimately “requires drawing additional reasonable inferences in order to support” the allegation before making a final conclusion.​
As far as I can see the team was genuinely transparent in its methods, careful in its approach and always tentative in its conclusions. It was a serious professional effort that deserves to be taken seriously - not dismissed as a "report" that "buried" and "finally admitted".

Speaking of Palestinian accusations needing to be investigated, this article was in The Guardian yesterday. It's only an internal report, but I think it relates to one of a number of similar inquiries that are ongoing: