Israel’s armed forces delete tweet after unwittingly admitting to Gaza massacre

Israel’s armed forces have deleted a tweet after unwittingly admitting to the recent massacre in Gaza.

On 30 March, Israeli soldiers shot at protesting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. At least 17 people died – 12 of those at the protests. Hundreds more suffered injuries. But far from claiming this massacre was an accident, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted:

everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed

The tweet soon disappeared from the IDF’s Twitter feed, but people had already taken screenshots:

pic.twitter.com/wDWYaw13dW

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 31, 2018

The SNP Friends of Palestine group on Facebook responded to this tweet by saying:

Planned, calculated, deliberate, determined and cold hearted… and also, by mistake, a full confession.

But almost no media outlets seemed to talk about this admission.

Wide condemnation

In the UK, however, there was widespread condemnation of Israel’s actions. Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, David Lammy, Richard Burden, and Chris Williamson were among those to speak out. Green MP Caroline Lucas also expressed her concern, along with Plaid Cymru MPs and the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard.

Actor and writer David Schneider, meanwhile, lamented the irony of the massacre coinciding with Passover celebrations:

https://twitter.com/davidschneider/status/979822511910252552

But it was Israeli human rights group B’Tselem which had one of the loudest voices both before and after the massacre. A day before the event, it tweeted:

Israeli officials threatened to respond with lethal force to the demonstrations planned to start tomorrow in Gaza. Israeli forces have already been lethally shooting Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza, killing 8 unarmed Palestinians In December 2017 alonehttps://t.co/GJaCVY7MMi

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 29, 2018

Official Israeli statements have made no reference to the actual reason for the protest – the disastrous reality in Gaza – or to the right to free protest. Israel has made Gaza a huge prison, yet forbids the prisoners even to protest against this, on pain of death.

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 29, 2018

Media reports indicate: soldiers are ordered to shoot anyone coming within 300 meters of the fence; snipers will fire at anyone touching it; live fire will be used in circumstances which are non-life-threatening.
In other words: shoot-to-kill unarmed Palestinian demonstrators

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 29, 2018

Israel is ignoring the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and its responsibility for it, couching planned Gaza protest in terms of a security risk, framing demonstrators as terrorists, referring to Gaza as “combat zone”. Gaza is NOT “combat zone”, shooting at demonstrators IS a crime

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 29, 2018

Then, as the events unfolded, it tweeted:

B’Tselem: Shooting unarmed demonstrators is illegal and the command that allows it is manifestly illegal https://t.co/drC8AXyFNI

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) March 31, 2018

Friday was a bloody day, but Israel has already long since become an expert at whitewashing such bloody days and weeks. Do not anticipate any investigation, and even if eventually one is conducted, certainly do not expect accountability. https://t.co/S2NwKIaoRo

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 2, 2018

In the article above, B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad wrote:

Israel’s ongoing control over millions of Palestinians is impossible without committing war crimes…

From time to time, control over another people requires days of killing and slaughter.

Israel’s position

Israel, however, said the protesters were part of a “hostile infiltration” orchestrated by Gaza’s Hamas government. An IDF spokesperson said all the people killed had engaged in violence. And Hamas itself reportedly acknowledged that five members of its military wing had died on 30 March.

Israel, the US and the EU have designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation. But the party, which rules the Gaza Strip, labels itself “a national resistance movement”.

Between 2001 and August 2014, rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza (not necessarily launched by Hamas) reportedly killed 30 civilians in Israel. During the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza alone, meanwhile, roughly 1,500 Palestinian civilians lost their lives, along with five civilians in Israel.

Taking a stand

B’Tselem is now calling on Israeli soldiers to disobey “illegal” orders to shoot protesters, and is launching a campaign around this issue on 5 April:

We are publishing newspaper ads in Israel captioned “Sorry Commander, I cannot shoot” clarifying to soldiers that they must refuse to open fire on unarmed demonstrators in Gaza. This unusual step is following Friday’s events, when soldiers used live fire & killed 12 Palestinians pic.twitter.com/NMxHJ5jyru

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 4, 2018

This is big: Israeli human rights NGO @btselem is calling on IDF soldiers to refuse the “illegal command” to shoot unarmed Palestinian protesters, and will be running ads throughout the country.

The campaign is called, “Sorry commander, I cannot shoot.

— David Harris-Gershon (@David_EHG) April 4, 2018

After Israeli troops shot dead 17 Palestinians on Gaza border last weekend, a bold new campaign from @btselem tells Israeli soldiers: Refuse orders to shoot Gaza protesters https://t.co/oaBBXWz6Na by @edokonrad at @972mag

— Natasha Roth-Rowland (@NatashaRoth01) April 4, 2018

Ongoing massacres like the one on 30 March only push peace further away from Israel and Palestine. And until civilians and soldiers alike say ‘no more’, both sides – the occupier and the occupied – will effectively remain at war. And innocent civilians, as always, will be caught in the middle.

This situation cannot, and must not, go on.

Get Involved

– Join or support the Stop the War Coalition. Show your support for Veterans for Peace, who are fighting for peaceful solutions to the world’s problems. And take action with the Campaign Against Arms Trade.

– Also find out more about the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign; about the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement; and see other Canary articles on Palestine and Israel.

Featured image via screenshot