That's Norman Finkelstein at right, posing questions last night to three Hamas officials at left. The questions came from the delegation to Gaza that I'm with, which was organized by Code Pink, the antiwar group. Notice the microphone in Finkelstein's left hand.
I asked about a statement by John Ging, the head of United Nations relief organization here (UNWRA), that some of the victims in the Gaza war were "killed because they were taken as human shields."
Basem Naim, the Health Minister, at center on the dais, denied that this had taken place, saying that if it had, evidence of the practice would have come out by now. Besides, he said, Hamas militants are related to 99 percent of the population here so they would not have done so. He went on to attack Fatah, saying that it has held the entire Palestinian people hostage because it is "committed to the fruitless peace process."
Naim stressed that Hamas was prepared to make a longlasting truce with Israel on the basis of the 1967 lines, but as matters stand the group will not give up its right to militant resistance to occupation–which he said George Washington had also not been willing to give up.
As for Ging's statement that some of those killed in the war were "human shields," he made it the other day in an audience with a mixed group of mostly-American students and activists. He said that among many international laws Israel had violated during the war were international norms on the "duty of care" in a "hostage" situation. If someone is holding hostages in a bank, you don't "throw a grenade in and go home for tea," he said.
The other Hamas officials at the table are Fauzy Barhoom, a spokesman for the party, at left, and Taher Al-Nounou, a government spokesman, at right.
