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The Abed Rabbo story illustrates many of the basic elements that go into a Goldstone report item. It begins on January 7, 2009, with a tragedy directly related to Hamas' policy of bombing Sderot: they tunneled under the house of a Fatah supporter who lived right across the border from Sderot, and fired on the Israelis. According to the earliest reports, the house was hit from the air, during Israel's unilateral truce.
But by the time journalists had access to Gaza after the cessation of hostilities, the story had become a "lethal narrative," accusing Israel of deliberately murdering little children in front of their parents, and then crushing the ambulance that came to evacuate the wounded. This story impressed numerous journalists, including Tim McGirk who published a lurid version in Time. CAMERA and The Augean Stables, among others, pointed out the extensive contradictions and improbabilities in this narrative of Israeli evil.
But to no avail. When the NGOs got to work, they found Abed Rabbo's account trustworthy. HRW, in it's report on "White Flag Deaths" gave it an important place in their analysis, which brought a detailed rebuttal from NGO Monitor. Goldstone's work, despite the ever greater list of contradictions in the evidence, continues to retail this narrative as reliable, and it was probably one of the incidents that inspired Colonel Travers question to the Palestinian psychiatrist.
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Maan News Agency reported on January 7 that the previous day three girls (the Abed Rabbo sisters) were killed by a strike from an Israeli war plane. Two weeks later, their family attributed their deaths to an Israeli soldier who shot them point-blank in cold blood. Note also that the article reports heavy fighting in al Zeitun the previous day, and ambulances arriving thereafter.
Published Wednesday 07/01/2009 18:04
Updated 21:16
Gaza - Ma'an - Israeli warplanes killed three Palestinian civilians on Wednesday afternoon during what Israel had earlier declared to be a unilateral three hour halt in its attacks on Gaza.
Israel had announced that it would halt attacks between 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoon to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Medics at Kamal Udwan Hospital confirmed that three sisters were killed by Israeli fire in the east of Jabaliya Refugee Camp. The sisters were identified as two-year-old Amal, four-year-old Su'ad and six-year-old Samar. Others were injured, medics said.
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This section constitutes perhaps the single most damning tale recounted and confirmed by the Goldstone Report, the deliberate and completely gratuitous murder of three girls and an old lady, followed by the refusal to allow an ambulance to come evacuate them so they bled to death. Here is the FFM's discussion of the testimony.
9. The shooting of Amal, Souad, Samar and Hajja Souad Abd Rabbo
770. The Mission visited the site of the shooting of Amal, Souad, Samar and Hajja Souad Abd Rabbo and interviewed an eyewitness, Mr. Khalid Abd Rabbo, on site. Khalid and Kawthar Abd Rabbo gave their testimony at the public hearing in Gaza on 28 June 2009. The Mission also reviewed sworn statements from two additional witnesses it was not able to interview in person.(428)
428 Affidavits of W5 and W6.
771. The family of Khalid Abd Rabbo and his wife Kawthar lived on the ground floor of a four-storey building in the eastern part of Izbat Abd Rabbo, a neighbourhood east of Jabaliyah inhabited primarily by members of their extended family. Khalid Abd Rabbo’s parents and brothers with their families lived on the upper floors of the house. The residents of Izbat Abd Rabbo started hearing the sound of shooting and of the Israeli ground incursion in the evening of
3 January 2009. Khalid Abd Rabbo’s family decided to stay inside the house, all gathered on the ground floor, as they had done safely during previous Israeli incursions into the neighbourhood.
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The original story of the Abed Rabbo family's losses appeared that day in the Palestinian news agency, Ma'an.
Airstrike kills three sisters during supposed lull
Gaza death toll approaching 700
Published Wednesday 07/01/2009 18:04
Gaza - Ma'an - Israeli warplanes killed three Palestinian civilians on Wednesday afternoon during what Israel had earlier declared to be a unilateral three hour halt in its attacks on Gaza.Israel had announced that it would halt attacks between 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoon to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Medics at Kamal Udwan Hospital confirmed that three sisters were killed by Israeli fire in the east of Jabaliya Refugee Camp. The sisters were identified as two-year-old Amal, four-year-old Su'ad and six-year-old Samar. Others were injured, medics said.
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An article in the PA Daily quotes the Abd Rabbo family speak of their dilemma. Not a word about Israelis, but much about Hamas' use of their compound and their intimidation of anyone who crosses them.
Gaza victims describe being used as human shields by Hamas
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Jan. 29, 2009
Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a "fortress" by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. They told the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper that for years Hamas has used their property and homes for military installations from which to launch rockets into Israel, dig tunnels and store arms. According to the victims, those who tried to object were shot in the legs by Hamas.
The following are excerpts from the article from the official Palestinian Authority daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
"The Abd Rabbo family kept quiet while Hamas fighters turned their farm in the Gaza strip into a fortress. Right now they are waiting for the aid promised by the [Hamas] movement after Israel bombed the farm and turned it into ruins...
The hill on which the Abd Rabbo family lives overlooks the Israeli town Sderot, a fact that turned it into an ideal military position for the Palestinian fighters, from which they have launched hundreds of rockets into southern Israel during the last few years. Several of the Abd Rabbo family members described how the fighters dug tunnels under their houses, stored arms in the fields and launched rockets from the yard of their farm during the nights.
The Abd Rabbo family members emphasize that they are not [Hamas] activists and that they are still loyal to the Fatah movement, but that they were unable to prevent the armed squads from entering their neighborhood at night. One family member, Hadi (age 22) said: "You can't say anything to the resistance [fighters], or they will accuse you of collaborating [with Israel] and shoot you in the legs."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 27, 2009]
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Khaled Abed Rabbo's testimony as of January 24, 2009 given to an Arab reporter (Google translation)
Khaled Abed Rabbo told «Middle East»: Girls killed in front of my eyes and unable to help them
Israeli army executed «fiction» tried to help us Isaaffhn
Gaza: Abdul Hadi Okal thought that the truce for three hours, which was announced by Israel after two weeks of war in Gaza, destroying human beings and trees and even birds and stone, will provide security and peace for him and his family living Abed Rabbo, east of the northern Gaza Strip.
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Halevi looks closely at the testimony of Abed Rabbo. He finds extensive evidence of fighting - a Hamas ambush - in the area at the time, and concludes that one cannot rule out the possibility that Abed Rabbo's children were killed by Palestinian fire.
From: Blocking the Truth of the Gaza War: How the Goldstone Commission Understated the Hamas Threat to Palestinian Civilians
Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi
Statement of Khaled Muhammad Abd Rabbo
Khaled Abd Rabbo reported on the deaths of two of his children on January 7, 2009.25 Khaled lives in Jabaliya near the Israeli border in a four-story house. He and his family did not leave it even when the land battles began. He claimed he saw no activity of armed Palestinians in the area. He said that on January 7 an IDF force entered the area around his house and positioned tanks nearby. The soldiers used a megaphone to call the residents out of the house. They came out holding a white flag, and one of the soldiers got out of a tank and shot at his children for no reason. He said two of his daughters were killed, another was seriously wounded, and his wife was also wounded.
No questions were asked by the members of the commission, not about the events, or whether there was fighting in the area, or whether there were armed Palestinians.
Contrary to the claims made by Khaled Abd Rabbo, Palestinian sources reported on armed Palestinian activity in the area near the incident and on exchanges of fire between Palestinians and IDF forces. At the time Khaled claimed his daughters were shot by IDF soldiers, four other Palestinians were killed nearby: Ibrahim Abd al-Rahim Suleiman, 19, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative; Shadi Issam Hamad, 33, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (George Habash) operative; Muhammad Ali al-Sultan, 55, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative; and Ahmad Adib Faraj Juneid, 26, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative.26
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HRW’s Credibility Gap: 14 Versions of the Abed Rabbo “White Flags” Incident
NGO Monitor
September 11, 2009
A number of NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Al Mezan have accused Israel of “war crimes” for an incident involving the Abed Rabbo family of Jabaliya, Gaza. This incident was the first and primary case presented in HRW’s “White Flags” indictment of Israel (see Pathological politics: HRW’s “white flags” report , NGO Monitor, August 18, 2009), which was followed by a formal request filed by Al Mezan, Al Haq, and Adalah, to the Israeli military advocate general. In response, the IDF announced that it is opening an investigation “into Palestinian allegations that soldiers opened fire and killed two children who were waving a white flag during Operation Cast Lead” (Jerusalem Post , January 2009). HRW then issued a statement (Israel: Gaza ‘White Flag´ Deaths Inquiry a Step Forward , September 10 2009) repeating these allegations. The language and timing of the HRW report coincides with the completion of the Goldstone report, with which HRW is closely linked .
Such highly-charged moral accusations, and the repeated use of terms like “war crimes”, are largely based on Palestinian “testimony”, while the ability to verify these allegations is very limited or impossible. Although HRW repeated the misleading claim (in its Sept 10 statement) that its “on-the-ground investigations found no evidence of Palestinian fighters in the area at the time”, HRW had no researchers in Gaza until weeks after the fighting. Their entirely non-transparent, “investigations” apparently consisted of recording Palestinian statements in an interview process that is readily subject to manipulation, conducted by HRW officials who lack professional credentials and have a clear bias, (in this report, Joe Stork ) and are therefore impossible to evaluate.
As in numerous other examples of highly flawed HRW “investigations” (Gaza Beach, the 2006 Lebanon War, etc.), as documented in detail in NGO Monitor’s report “Experts or Ideologues ”, the evidence shows major inconsistencies and contradictions in the Abed Rabbo incident. NGO Monitor, CAMERA , and other researchers have documented at least 14 significantly different versions of the story. NGOs have published 6 distinct accounts, and 8 others are from the media. The evolution of these accounts also suggests motivations for promoting allegations that may be far from the truth.
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Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009
Voices from The Rubble
By Tim McGirk / Jebel al-Kashif
Standing with his grieving wife, Khaled Abed Rabu insists on showing the old report cards of his 7-year-old daughter Suwad as if the fact that she was an excellent student makes her death any more unfair or inexplicable. He reads out the teacher's comments in a faltering voice. "See?" he says. "She was the best student in her class."
You can measure the destruction in Gaza by the number of bombs dropped or buildings flattened or the price to rebuild it all, but the real cost lies within people like Abed Rabu, whose pain and sense of loss are apparent from the moment you meet him. Two weeks after the end of Israel's 22-day operation against Hamas militants, the battle to control the story of what happened in Gaza continues. The U.N. and human-rights groups accuse the Israeli military of using disproportionate force and even of committing war crimes. The Israeli government has responded to such charges by arguing that Hamas deliberately positioned weapons and fighters in areas populated by civilians. Israel has begun investigating some of the more egregious allegations about civilian deaths, which are multiplying as Gaza picks itself up from the rubble. One such account was presented to Time by Abed Rabu. (See pictures of heartbreak in the Middle East.)
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Case Study 
