Human Rights Watch's Jihad Against Israel

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has once again exposed its unvarnished anti-Israel bias by alleging that Israel systematically targets Palestinian children. The outrageous -- and false -- allegation was included in a new report published by HRW on August 28 under the title: "West Bank: Spike in Israeli killings of Palestinian children." The report claims that "the Israeli military and border police forces are killing Palestinian children with virtually no recourse for accountability."

Noting that HRW "investigated four fatal shootings of Palestinian children by Israeli forces between November 2022 and March 2023," the report fails to mention that during this period Israel has faced a massive wave of terrorism sponsored and funded by the Iranian regime and its Palestinian terror proxies, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The report also fails to mention that the terrorist groups have been recruiting Palestinian teenagers as combatants and sending them to kill Israeli civilians and soldiers.

It even further fails to mention that more than 30 Israelis have been killed since the beginning of this year in a series of terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank. In the past two weeks, Palestinian terrorists murdered a Jewish mother of three and a Jewish father and his son in two separate shooting attacks in the West Bank. HRW did not issue a report about that.

One of the cases "investigated" by HRW is that of Mahmoud al-Sadi, 17, reportedly killed by Israeli security forces as he walked to school near the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on November 21, 2022. Notably, the HRW report does not mention why Israeli troops had entered the refugee camp.

Were the Israeli soldiers bored and thinking, "Gee, might be fun to go shoot up a few kids today"? No. The Israeli security forces went to the camp as part of a counter-terrorism operation designed to foil attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Jenin refugee camp has long been serving as a hub for Iran-backed Islamist terrorists who see themselves engaged in a Jihad (holy war) to eliminate Israel. Several terrorists who carried out shooting attacks in the West Bank and Israel had come from the camp.

In the past two years, a large militia called Jenin Battalion started operating in the camp. Its members have since carried out constant shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Jenin Battalion terrorists, who are heavily armed, are mostly affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an extremist Islamist organization responsible for countless terrorist attacks that have killed and injured hundreds of Israelis in the past few decades. There is no mention of this militia or its activities in the HRW report. Evidently, HRW does not want to the facts to spoil its effort to slander Israelis by depicting them as child-killers.

The exact circumstances of al-Sadi's death will never be known since he was quickly buried by his family and other Palestinians in the refugee camp. The Israeli army said soldiers who were trying to arrest suspected terrorists had come under fire from Palestinian gunmen. Apparently, al-Sadi was killed in the exchange of gunfire.

While HRW presents al-Sadi as an unarmed teenage boy, Palestinians posted a photo of him carrying a M-16 rifle. Apparently, for HRW such photos, where Palestinian teenagers are featured brandishing weapons and dressed in military outfits, are irrelevant because they do not serve its anti-Israeli propaganda.

Bizarrely, HRW does admit that the remaining three "children" allegedly killed by Israel were involved in terrorist attacks. Yet, as far as HRW is concerned, Israeli soldiers or police have no right to defend themselves when they are attacked with stones, Molotov cocktails, and fireworks. Why? According to the logic of HRW, the perpetrators are "only" teenagers.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19938/human-rights-watch-israel