Communicated: TefillaChillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending human rights, released a report Monday, condemning the Hamas rulers of Gaza for War Crimes.
During a released statement on their website, the human rights organization condemned not only the launching of some 1500 rockets at Israelis, with 800 hitting Israeli territory, but also for doing so from within Palestinian civilian areas.
During the Operation ‘Pillar of Defense’, HRW interviewed witnesses, victims and their families, Israeli officials from the communities struck by the rockets and a spokesperson for Israeli emergency services.
“Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch. “There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas.”
This report is unique because for the first time, it puts the onus of responsibility on Hamas, as the ruling party of the Gaza Strip. This differs from the stance that views Gaza’s territory as part of a greater Palestine, together with Judea and Samaria. It also attempts to hold armed groups, rather than states, accountable for attacks on civilians.
“The laws of war prohibit reprisal attacks against civilians, regardless of unlawful attacks by the other side”, Human Rights Watch stated. “Statements by armed groups that they deliberately targeted an Israeli city or Israeli civilians are demonstrating their intent to commit war crimes,” the organization added. “Hamas, the ruling authority in Gaza, is obligated to uphold the laws of war and should appropriately punish those responsible for serious violations,” the organization concluded.
The report is significant because it was released several weeks after the successful Palestinian bid at the United Nations General Assembly upgrading its status to that of a “non member state”. The report, by focusing on the Gaza Strip and the separate Hamas rulers, indicates that the Palestinian territories are far from united, both diplomatically and during international conflicts, according to HRW.
This report comes after HRW released a 43 page report in October titled “Abusive System”, condemning Hamas for corruption and human rights abuses.
About the Author: Gil Lavie is a regular contributor to Tazpit News Agency.


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“Oh my God, that’s Anthony Weiner!”
The Kaspersky Lab has revealed that the first quarter of 2013 almost a million network attacks were detected in Israel. In fact, every third Israeli computer is under malware attacks at any given moment. Kaspersky Lab and its representative in Israel Power Communications presented this data on Wednesday, in Tel Aviv. Last year, six million [...]

The recommendations determine new rules for sharing the security burden equally.

Judging by the sheer onesidedness of the parts I’ve read, I cannot see how the report can serve as a foundation for discussion.
Arab stone throwing and other violent disturbances near Efrat continues. Following in the footsteps of the pipe bomb found near the northern entrance last week, a girl was hurt Thursday when rocks were thrown at a car she was riding in. A number of cars were hit and damaged near Efrat’s northern entrance. Last week [...]
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed deep disappointment with the members of Detroit City Council and local clergy who met with and embraced the antisemitic and racist leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, during his visit to the city last week. During his visit to Detroit, Farrakhan was invited by Rev. Wendell Anthony, President [...]
A number of bills targeting Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program have advanced in the U.S. Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved and sent to the full House a bill backed by Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), the chairman of the committee, and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), its senior Democrat, that would [...]
Former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz was appointed the new president of Bar-Ilan University. Hershkowitz’s appointment was approved unanimously on Monday during a meeting of the university’s board of trustees. He will begin serving in October, at the start of the 2013-14 academic year. The Haifa native succeeds Moshe Kaveh, who [...]
Former Iranian president Akbar Rafsanjani on Wednesday strongly criticized the leadership of his country, following his disqualification as presidential candidate this week. “I don’t think the country could have been run worse, even if it had been planned in advance,” the 78-year-old Rafsanjani reportedly told members of his campaign team. “I don’t want to get [...]
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Observers of the world body in Geneva said the annual hypocrisy reached a new low this year.
It now turns out that if a foreign corespondent is a self-centered, name dropping blowhard, he is also likely to be an Israel hater.
We interrupt this thoughtful column to share with you the above image, which I just received by email from my wife (and which you, I’m sure, have first seen back in 2006, because the media are always behind with these things). “For the first time, women are now being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.” [...]
Some 25,000 Belz chassidim packed the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, Grandson of the Belzer Rebbe, and Chana Batya Pener, May 22, 2013, in Jerusalem. Pretty amazing images. It says something about these people’s comfort with one another in close quarters. I find it very difficult to be standing or sitting so close to [...]
Let everyone know of the shelter at Chabad
The US considers a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria an international issue, so much so that a US official attending a hearing on an anti-outpost Peace Now petition.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending human rights, released a report Monday, condemning the Hamas rulers of Gaza for War Crimes. During a released statement on their website, the human rights organization condemned not only the launching of some 1500 rockets at Israelis, with 800 hitting Israeli [...]

The link was posted with the tweet to an anti-Semitic video by Eustace Mullins, a conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite who claims the Jews are at war with the Western World. In the video, he claimed that the word “Nazi” is translated to mean “National Socialist” and “Zionist.” Check out a Eustace Mullins clip…
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Actually HRW has often criticized Hamas. Here are some other examples:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/10/20/hamas-investigate-attacks-israeli-civilians
http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/05/24/letter-hamas-minister-interior
http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/09/02/west-bankisrael-hamas-must-end-attacks-civilians
http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/06/24/hamas-human-beings-are-not-bargaining-chips
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/04/10/gaza-hamas-should-halt-executions
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/10/03/abusive-system