No, seriously. Human rights groups like Amnesty International are claiming that Hamas’s crimes are so blatant, they need no investigating. Israel, on the other hand…

Human rights groups argued Wednesday that a detailed probe into Hamas’s firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli communities is not necessary, because it constitutes such a “blatant” war crime. By contrast, Israel’s actions are more complex, and therefore do require such investigation, they said.

War crimes, said Sarit Micha’eli of B’tselem, are those actions that violate Article III of the Geneva Convention, and it was clear that Hamas was in violation of the requirement of distinction between civilian and military targets.

“It makes it quite easy regarding Hamas. It is quite clear that they are attacking and targeting civilians. When someone straps a bomb on themselves or fire missiles at civilians, the details are less important. It is clearly a war crime without even looking at the details,” she said. “Even if they fired a Kassam missile as a military target, the fact that it is an inaccurate weapon, it would still count as an indiscriminate attack.”

“With Israel things are more complicated because Israel states it does not deliberately target civilians and that it safeguards them. With Israel, you have to investigate each specific incident because even if a civilian is killed in an attack, it doesn’t mean its necessarily a war crime. Targeting civilians is a war crime, but the damage to civilians in a given situation isn’t indicative of a war crime.”

“The Israeli authorities deny everything, so one has to prove what happened in a way that you don’t need to do with the Palestinian rockets,” said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International.

So, they’re agreeing that Hamas targets civilians on a regular basis. They also agree that Israel does everything it can to safeguard citizens. Yet somehow, Israel is the country that needs to be investigated?

Basically, they’re saying that they know that Hamas is bad, but they need to find some way to make Israel out to be just as bad. The Palestinians are the victims, after all. Hamas claims to be targeting civilians out of “self-defense”, which is OK, but Israel is not allowed to defend themselves. Therefore, Israel requires investigation while Hamas does not.

Got it.

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs