Israel calling Francesca Albanese a witch!?

[Everexpanding]

I understand anti semite was losing its power to silence but now Israel is calling Francesca Albanese a witch??? At a meeting of the UN?
Has the Israeli government lost it’s mind

None of this addresses what I wrote. You're trying to swerve the double standard being pointed out, because you want to pretend we can't possibly draw any conclusions about Hamas based on their known behaviour whilst also not taking back your evidence free speculation about their estimates.

Also, I've decided we should have some more balanced denial of the bleeding obvious. You don't know and can't prove that Israel aren't allowing journalists in because they have something to hide. Neither can I actually, it's just what I believe to be true.

But if we're entertaining speculation based on blind faith, one could just as easily argue that the Israeli rationale for not letting journalists in has nothing to do with them not wanting scrutiny, that they're telling the truth about it being down to security.

Um, I would just like to raise a couple of points relating to the title of this post, as a witch, practising my religion in the Western tradition.

I recognise that some people still use the word as an accusation and as a misogynistic insult, which is how I believe it has been used here.

I know that some people use the word synonymously and incorrectly with "Satanist"

I am also aware that some other cultures, ie some African ones, use the word witch, meaning devil worshippers, or some such thing, and then the"witches" are purged, persecuted or killed.

We have been working to reclaim the word since the repeal of the witchcraft legislation in 1951.
We are both men and women, carrying on with our quiet nature revering religion, based on the old religions of Europe, along with other pagan traditions.
Just saying...

They can be restricted from individual operations for the sake of specific battle conditions but never a blanket ban. Give me an example if you disagree.

And the fact that they have their hands pretty full with security threats on all sides, internal terrorism, and a very hostile international.community that is going to believe the worst of them whatever they do. How much worse would it all be with foreign journalists at risk in Gaza. But also the idea that there is some sort of complete blackout is also nonsense. The media is full of footage coming out of Gaza.

Security from who. If you're answer is going to be Hamas, that is nothing to do with Israel if the journalists want to take their chances. Israel knows that so what other reason could there be that they won't allow journalists in. If you could enlighten me I would be delighted. If Israel allowed the journalists in and Hamas blocked them, guess what, I'd say Hamas are the liars. We will never know until we get either a plausible explanation from Israel as to why no journalists are allowed in or after journalists are actually allowed in.

"and a very hostile international community that is going to believe the worst of them whatever they do." That's the whole point. If they have nothing to hide think how it would help their international reputation if they allowed international journalists in to see exactly how moral an army they are. What are they so scared of?

Oh give over. You know damn well nothing they do makes the slightest bit of difference to people that are already hostile and if journalists were killed of course they would be blamed. You've already shown you don't believe anything they say and no level of 'independent verification' is good enough.

Depends who kills the journalists. If a BBC or most other journalists say that Hamas are lying and Israel are telling the truth, I would definitely take that as verification. If Hamas or the Israeli government say anything, no I don't take that as verified.

Well there you go. Even if journalists were allowed completely free rein (which they NEVER are in a conflict) a BBC journalist is not going to always be in the right place at the right time to fulfil your independent verification demands. Why the hell should Israel facilitate this shit?

This is going to be my last post on this subject now. I've spent too much time on this today struggling with a hangover instead of getting on with what I had to do. It has been reported that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than the American Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam combined. An independent journalist going into this war would be very brave indeed. We know who's killing the journalists. The point is, even if they weren't in the right place at the right time it's better than the alternative of relying on a military that slaughtered aid workers and then tried to not just bury them but their ambulances as well. Don't you think?

Oh make your mind up. I thought you didn't know anything because there were no journalists who could 'independently verify' stuff so how do you KNOW all this? You don't believe Hamas, you don't belkeve Israel, there are no journalists, so how do you know anything?

If Israel continued to deny it happened, I would say it's not verified but, they did admit it so even I can assume it's verified.

Could you please stop haranguing dawnchorus @SharonEllis

Am I bullying? I don't think I am.

The most problem with that comparison is how many of that combined figure of journalists in other wars you quoted were locals who may or may not have been working for the propaganda arm of a terrorist government.

Would journalists reporting under the Taliban, Al Shabab, ISIS, the Houthis or Hezbollah be considered as legitimate sources?

Any local journalists in Gaza would have been affiliated with Hamas. How did they have so many in such a small area anyway?

No you are not @Thedawnchorus
that was directed to @SharonEllis

Israel is not allowing journalists into Gaza for the same reason it has banned the IRC from inspecting it’s prisons in contravention of the Geneva convention, it wishes to cover up it’s war crimes, like many posters on here seek to do too,

Wow? You're comparing Palestinians with the all those groups. There were universities in Gaza. Under a sea, air and land blockade, they tried to have some form of life but now you are trying to compare them to the Taliban? You question the integrity of Palestinian journalists and hence support their murder as justified. Just wow.

The dehumanisation of the Palestinians in these threads astounds me.
People live in the circumstances they are given and do the best they can. Hamas were the local government, it would be surprising if many ordinary people weren’t aligned with them in some way.
That doesn’t mean they deserve to die or have their testimonies discredited, any more than the testimonies of people connected with the Israeli government.
Why do we see the humanity in Israeli people and make excuses for them based on their past suffering but not so for the Palestinians?

I'm checking out now but thanks for the support. Don't worry, I'm happy to be harangued without feeling the need to push the report button or whatever they do.

Rude.

Racism unfortunately. Although they would never admit it.

The idea of racism against Palestinians on this thread and the Conflict in ME threads generally is laughable. There’s not a shred of evidence for that. Condemning Hamas is just that, nothing else.

And I can’t see anything that Sharon Ellis has said that’s bullying or rude.

These threads always go the same way. If you’re willing to stand up for Israel and Jews expect to be set upon.