Myth: Hamas uses the Palestinian population as human shields.
The difficulties that Israel has had in locating and destroying Hamas leaders has led to this myth. The Israeli PR machine uses quotes made by Hamas leaders that the Palestinian population is not afraid of death as proof that they are using Palestinians as human shields.
The truth is that the international law that forbids the use of human shields is referring to militants who use captured enemy civilians as hostages to prevent an attack. There is no evidence that Hamas is forcing its own population to be where it is. In fact, the irony is that Palestinian civilians have nowhere to go within the Gaza Strip even if they wanted to leave.
Read more at:
- Israeli use of Palestinians as human shield.
“On 6 October 2005, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that it was illegal for the IDF to use Palestinian civilians during military actions. The decision was made on a petition that B'Tselem and six other human rights organizations filed in 2002. The petition followed the IDF's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields since the beginning of the second intifada, primarily during IDF operations carried out in Palestinian population centers, as occurred in Operation Defensive Shield.
The method is the same each time: soldiers pick a civilian at random and force him to protect them by doing dangerous tasks that put his life at risk. For example, soldiers have ordered Palestinians to:
• enter buildings to check if they are booby-trapped, or to remove the occupants
• remove suspicious objects from roads used by the army
• stand inside houses where soldiers have set up military positions, so that Palestinians will not fire at the soldiers
• walk in front of soldiers to shield them from gunfire, while the soldiers hold a gun behind their backs and sometimes fire over their shoulders.
The soldiers in the field did not initiate this practice; rather, the order to use civilians as a means of protection was made by senior army officials.
Despite the High Court’s decision and army orders preceding and following it, security forces continue to use Palestinians as human shields. In 2007, for example, B'Tselem documented twelve such cases.
The IDF must act in accordance with the High Court’s ruling, issue clear commands and briefings, and direct the commanders to transmit to their forces the absolute prohibition on use of Palestinians to carry out military assignments. Also, the Judge Advocate General’s Office must open a Military Police investigation into every case of suspected violation of the prohibition, and prosecute every soldier, including the senior command echelon, if the findings of the investigation warrant it.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Human_Shields/Index.asp
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Myth: Palestinians are not sincere in peace with Israel or do not accept two state solution:
The vast majority of Palestinians (78%) believe in living peacefully with Israelis in a two-state solution as indicated by the following U.S. government report. Both Hamas and Palestinian Authority accept the idea of two-state solution within 1967 borders, as reported by the following Haartez reports:
http://www.america.gov/st/mena-english/2009/July/200907021105032SAdemahoM0.6612164.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/abbas-accuses-israel-of-disfiguring-two-state-solution-1.266874
http://www.haaretz.com/news/haniyeh-hamas-willing-to-accept-palestinian-state-with-1967-borders-1.256915
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Myth: Muslim extremism is rooted in Muslims inherent hatred against Western values:
Soon after 9/11, US officials claimed hatred against Western freedom and democracy was the main motive for 9/11 perpetrators. Similar argument is used by Israelis by accusing Islam is incompatible with peaceful coexistence. Every attempt is made to disconnect discontentment in Muslim world with occupation and oppressive policies of the West. There is also an attempt to hide the fact that Muslim extremists were often created and supported by West and Israel.
These myths have been debunked by 9/11 Commission report which found blind US support for Israeli occupation as a major factor in radicalizing 9/11 mastermind. These findings were acknowledged by professors Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Walt (Harvard). Finally, Gen. David Petraeus have echoed these thoughts and has even warned that blind support for Israel puts American troops in the Middle East in harm's way.
The case of Taliban:
The roots of Taliban go back to first Afghan Jihad in the 80s when USA generously provided weapons and cash to Afghan mujahideen to support their "Jihad" against Soviet Russians. Many of these Jihadists were propped up again in the 90s to create Taliban in order to provide stability in Afghanistan and access to Central Asian resources. US support was not limited to weapons and money but also included extreme ideological indoctrination to create fanatic warriors against Soviet Russians, many of them later turned against USA.
Here's Washington Post report from 2002 describing violent text-books published by University of Nebraska to indoctrinate Pushtuns into Islamic extremism and violence:
"Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university's education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.
"The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the texts are even much worse," said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-based nonprofit.
An aid worker in the region reviewed an unrevised 100-page book and counted 43 pages containing violent images or passages.
The military content was included to "stimulate resistance against invasion," explained Yaquib Roshan of Nebraska's Afghanistan center. "Even in January, the books were absolutely the same . . . pictures of bullets and Kalashnikovs and you name it.""
http://www.washingtonpost.
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Here's a report from a prominent Pakistani intellectual Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy on USA providing virulently violent textbooks to people in Pakistan. Dr. Hoodbhoy is outspoken in his campaign against Islamic extremism in Pakistan:
"Readers browsing through book bazaars in Rawalpindi and Peshawar (Pakistani cities closer to Afghan border) can, even today, find textbooks written as part of the series underwritten by a USAID $50 million grant to the University of Nebraska in the 1980's. These textbooks sought to counterbalance Marxism through creating enthusiasm in Islamic militancy. They exhorted Afghan children to "pluck out the eyes of the Soviet enemy and cut off his legs". Years after the books were first printed they were approved by the Taliban for use in madrassas - a stamp of their ideological correctness."
http://www.pugwash.org/rep
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Myth: Muslim extremism is rooted in Muslims inherent hatred against Western values:
Soon after 9/11, US officials claimed hatred against Western freedom and democracy was the main motive for 9/11 perpetrators. Similar argument is used by Israelis by accusing Islam is incompatible with peaceful coexistence. Every attempt is made to disconnect discontentment in Muslim world with occupation and oppressive policies of the West. There is also an attempt to hide the fact that Muslim extremists were often created and supported by West and Israel.
These myths have been debunked by 9/11 Commission report which found blind US support for Israeli occupation as a major factor in radicalizing 9/11 mastermind. These findings were acknowledged by professors Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Walt (Harvard). Finally, Gen. David Petraeus have echoed these thoughts and has even warned that blind support for Israel puts American troops in the Middle East in harm's way.
The case of Taliban:
The roots of Taliban go back to first Afghan Jihad in the 80s when USA generously provided weapons and cash to Afghan mujahideen to support their "Jihad" against Soviet Russians. Many of these Jihadists were propped up again in the 90s to create Taliban in order to provide stability in Afghanistan and access to Central Asian resources. US support was not limited to weapons and money but also included extreme ideological indoctrination to create fanatic warriors against Soviet Russians, many of them later turned against USA.
Here's Washington Post report from 2002 describing violent text-books published by University of Nebraska to indoctrinate Pushtuns into Islamic extremism and violence:
"Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The agency spent $51 million on the university's education programs in Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.
"The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the texts are even much worse," said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-based nonprofit.
An aid worker in the region reviewed an unrevised 100-page book and counted 43 pages containing violent images or passages.
The military content was included to "stimulate resistance against invasion," explained Yaquib Roshan of Nebraska's Afghanistan center. "Even in January, the books were absolutely the same . . . pictures of bullets and Kalashnikovs and you name it.""
http://www.washingtonpost.
**************************
Here's a report from a prominent Pakistani intellectual Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy on USA providing virulently violent textbooks to people in Pakistan. Dr. Hoodbhoy is outspoken in his campaign against Islamic extremism in Pakistan:
"Readers browsing through book bazaars in Rawalpindi and Peshawar (Pakistani cities closer to Afghan border) can, even today, find textbooks written as part of the series underwritten by a USAID $50 million grant to the University of Nebraska in the 1980's. These textbooks sought to counterbalance Marxism through creating enthusiasm in Islamic militancy. They exhorted Afghan children to "pluck out the eyes of the Soviet enemy and cut off his legs". Years after the books were first printed they were approved by the Taliban for use in madrassas - a stamp of their ideological correctness."
http://www.pugwash.org/rep
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