A senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, Katrina Pierson, posted a video to social media of rockets fired into a dimly-lit sky on Sunday in a tweet about escalations in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Yet the clip was not from the Middle East. The video recorded confrontations in Ukraine in 2015.
“650 Rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza in an attempt to overwhelm Israels Iron Dome: 173 intercepts, 4 people killed, and 28 wounded,” Pierson wrote, tagging Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn): “What is @IlhanMN response to this violence? Will she condemn it?”
Over the weekend, months of increased tensions between Israel and Hamas peaked with airstrikes into Gaza killing 24 Palestinians including 14 civilians according to officials in Gaza. Hamas fired more than 600 rockets into Israel, killing 4 civilians. A fragile ceasefire took hold early Monday morning, hours after Pierson’s tweet.
After responses poured in correcting the location of the Ukrainian rockets, Pierson’s added, “The video is used as a ‘gif’ to underscore what hundreds of rockets would look like to Americans. It’s not tagged nor did I say ‘This is’ so let’s get back to Omar’s response. Anyone have it?”
650 Rockets being fired into Israel from Gaza in an attempt to overwhelm Israels Iron Dome: 173 intercepts, 4 people killed, and 28 wounded. What is @IlhanMN response to this violence? Will she condemn it? pic.twitter.com/Vb1Ymxygj6
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) May 5, 2019
Pierson, a former liberal turned Tea Partier, was a Trump campaign spokesperson in 2015 and 2016. During that period she was a CNN contributor where she made several blunders on-air.
In August 2016 on “The Situation Room Wolf Blitzer” Pierson blamed President Barack Obama for the death of Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim who was killed while serving in Iraq in 2004, during George W. Bush’s presidency. In 2015 when describing then-candidate’s Trump proposal for a Muslim ban, she told CNN’s S.E. Cupp, that the ban was about “insurgents.”
Cupp corrected Pierson, saying “You’re talking about not allowing regular Muslims, that’s what you’re talking about. No one’s talking about insurgents.” Pierson responded “You know what, so what? They’re Muslim.”
How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends?
The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 5, 2019
Rep. Omar did post about the violence in Israel and Gaza later on Sunday, asking: “how many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends.”
The tweet caught flack from President Trump’s son Don Jr. He weighed in to accuse Omar and fellow first-year Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of siding “with Hamas terrorists over Israel.”
The former press secretary for George W. Bush also named Omar in a tweet: “The problem is terrorists, and their supporters, like @IlhanMN.”
It’s deeply troubling that we’ve reached the point where no one is shocked when sitting members of congress, like @IlhanMN & @RashidaTlaib, side with Hamas terrorists over Israel. By remaining silent, democrat leadership & presidential candidates are endorsing this insanity. https://t.co/A8STX8WqLf
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 6, 2019
Gaza is not occupied. Israel withdrew. Gaza’s Palestinian leaders then burned synagogues and greenhouses full of food. Its leaders are terrorists who have attacked Israelis and Egyptians. The problem is not Israel. The problem is terrorists, and their supporters, like @IlhanMN. https://t.co/xxNisKp5sG
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) May 6, 2019
In response to Ari Fleischer’s inane comment above:
Human Rights Watch, 2005: “…Israel will continue to be an Occupying Power [of the Gaza Strip] under international law and bound by the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention because it will retain effective control over the territory and over crucial aspects of civilian life. Israel will not be withdrawing and handing power over to a sovereign authority – indeed, the word ‘withdrawal’ does not appear in the [2005 disengagement] document at all… The IDF will retain control over Gaza’s borders, coastline, and airspace, and will reserve the right to enter Gaza at will. According to the Hague Regulations, ‘A territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised’. International jurisprudence has clarified that the mere repositioning of troops is not sufficient to relieve an occupier of its responsibilities if it retains its overall authority and the ability to reassert direct control at will.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross: “The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, ratified by Israel, bans collective punishment of a civilian population.”
“In practice, Gaza has become a huge, let me be blunt, concentration camp for right now 1,800,000 people” – Amira Hass, 2015 correspondent for Haaretz, speaking at the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University.
To quote Dov Weisglass, PM Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser:
“‘The significance of the [then proposed] disengagement plan [implemented in 2005] is the freezing of the peace process,’ Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s senior adviser Dov Weisglass has told Ha’aretz. ‘And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda….’ Weisglass, who was one of the initiators of the disengagement plan, was speaking in an interview with Ha’aretz for the Friday Magazine. ‘The disengagement is actually formaldehyde,’ he said. ‘It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’” (Top PM Aide: Gaza Plan Aims to Freeze the Peace Process, Ha’aretz, October 6, 2004)
Mist,
The HRW report dates to 2005, before Hamas took control.
Do you think Israel currently “retains its overall authority and the ability to reassert direct control at will.”? If that’s the case, then why didn’t they simply exercise their authority and demand that the rockets stop, the riots end, etc?
Cheating, lying, dishonesty…without these many people could not advance.
yes, the zionist calorie counters have effective control over gaza, just like wardens and their staff have effective control over prisoners, who nonetheless carry out acts against the wishes of their jailers.
@mondoughnut
“Import and export goods? See above.”
All those Zio gunboats patrolling Gazan “international” waters just accidentally drifted in there of course and just accidentally fire at Gazan ” import” and “export” shipping.
Wazzock!