Sigh. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth is at it again. Aren’t you getting tired of seeing his face on our homepage? I know I am. Also here . . . and here . . . and here. OK, Commentary did not actually use his picture. But lots of people are noticing his bias.
This time, we see Ken sharing with us his doubt about the IDF claim that many of the Gaza casualties were terrorists involved in the attacks on Israel.
Israel claimed 45% non-civilian casualties counts not only combatants but also "terror operatives," whatever that is. http://t.co/nhY0jjcnxQ
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) September 5, 2014
This is one of three tweets that Ken posted with links to this same Washington Post article. In none of them, however, does he acknowledge this fact, from the same article:
Of the 4,500 rockets fired by Hamas and allies, 875 fell inside Gaza. Many were lobbed at Israeli soldiers during the ground offensive, but others were duds or misfires that landed short, meaning Hamas dropped explosives on its own people.
The argument over the percentage of the Gaza casualties that were civilians will go on for at least a while longer – the Washington Post’s reporting tells us that Israeli intelligence hasn’t concluded its investigation yet. But with 875 Hamas rockets landing inside Gaza, it seems certain that some number of those civilian casualties were directly caused by Hamas rocket fire. One such incident is known: On July 28, a Hamas misfire killed at least eight children on a playground in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza. It doesn’t seem likely that it would ever be possible to know how many more such incidents occurred, or how many people in Gaza were killed by Hamas rockets. And it doesn’t seem any more likely that Ken Roth will ever acknowledge this.