Geneva – The Israeli army’s execution of an elderly Palestinian after using him in a propaganda campaign promoting its “safe corridor” in Gaza was strongly condemned in a statement released by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor today.
The rights organisation expressed outrage over Israel’s incorporating the man into its attempt to cover up horrific crimes against displaced Palestinians fleeing Israeli violence in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel’s army released a photo of one of its soldiers talking to Bashir Hajji, a 79-year-old resident of Gaza City’s Zaytoun neighborhood, as he travelled on Salah al-Din Road, the main route to the southern Gaza Valley. The soldier in the photo appears to be helping and protecting displaced Palestinian civilians, said Euro-Med Monitor, yet Hajji was subjected to a field execution on the morning of Friday 10 November.
The elderly man’s granddaughter, Hala Hajji, told the Euro-Med Monitor team that her grandfather was brutally executed while crossing the “safe corridor” when members of the Israeli army intentionally shot him in the head and back. She also confirmed that he is in the photo that was put out by Israel—exposing the Israeli army’s dangerous practice of flagrantly fabricating stories.
Euro-Med Monitor stated that it has previously documented dozens of cases where the Israeli army executed displaced Palestinians by live bullets and, in some cases, by artillery shells. Those displaced were attempting to flee to the south of Wadi Gaza at the Israeli army’s request.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor renewed its calls for the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to open an urgent independent investigation into the execution crimes to which displaced Palestinians have been and are still being subjected to, to hold those who ordered such crimes accountable, and to achieve justice for the victims.
Bit more than some criticism though. Both seem to be defacto propaganda outlets for the Muslim Brotherhood / Qatar.
Of course, that doesn’t mean this story didn’t happen, it’s just that like a story on Russia Today, it’s probably best to take it with a large pinch of salt.
And it’s not as if it’s easy to find unbiased reporting from middle-eastern sources anyway. Eg. Al-Jazeera’s also a flaming pile of poop (especially the arabic version which doesn’t try to maintain a veneer of respectability), but if you disregard everything they report (even if it is potentially biased or cherry picked) that’s also very problematic because they’re often the only ones on the ground.
But I broke a promise to myself to avoid wading into discussions on this topic. They inevitably end in shit flinging, given it’s such an emotive subject. Not as if it’s going to change anything anyway.
Absolutely. I’m just asking if there’s anything specific about EMM that calls them into question. To me, it seems they have an inherent bias, but that doesn’t mean their reporting isn’t objective when taking that into account. I’ve certainly seen questionable articles from MEM, but that doesn’t mean that similar or affiliated outlets are as bad.
The story itself is rooted in a quote from his granddaughter. It could be that the quote is false, it could be that she lied, it could be that she was pressured to lie after Hamas killed her grandfather. It could also be completely true. The most annoying thing is how hard it is for independent journalists to verify anything, what with how Gaza has been cut off from the rest of the world by Israel.
I hope you don’t feel like I was slinging shit your way, that wasn’t my intention.
Oh, no. You were being perfectly civil.
It’s just that IME debating this topic often goes off the rails, for perhaps understandable reasons.