B’Tselem: Israel is the one who uses human shields

The nature of the occupation is such that Palestinian victims who die at the hands of Israeli soldiers are blamed for their own deaths. Israel falsely argues that it is absolved of each and every Palestinian civilian death because, for example, when Palestinians die it is because Hamas uses them as human shields and Israel has no choice but to fire back and civilians inevitably die in the process.  These are blatant lies designed to absolve Israel of its murderous occupation. The reality is that Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has long argued that Israeli soldiers are the ones who in fact use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Look at Josh Huntsman, a “senior adviser” to the Israeli ambassador to DC peddle this farce. The sad thing is that he was my classmate when we were Master’s students at Harvard’s Middle East Studies program. He used to tell me that not all Israelis agree with the government. Now he works for one of the most right-wing warmongering Israeli governments. Noura Erakat, however, was a friend of mine during my undergrad days at Berkeley and here she makes all progressive Berkeley alumi proud.