#NotATarget is a Disguised Slogan Used by Westerners to Whitewash Israel’s War Crimes

Since the beginning of the #Gaza conflict and, more recently, #Lebanon, the number of #NotATarget social media campaigns has risen. Most of these campaigns are initiated by the United Nations or other Western international NGOs, like the ICRC.

At first glance, you would be inclined to endorse these campaigns. After all, these campaigns aim to deter war parties from actively targeting humanitarian personnel, medical personnel, journalists, schools, children, etc.

Look closer, though…

For the past year, Israel has been actively targeting medical personnel in #Gaza, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and ambulances. Some of these targeted killings have been live-streamed on several reliable international news outlets.

We have also observed the systematic killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza by Israel, particularly from Al-Jazeera, the latest of whom was Ali El-Attar, an Al-Jazeera journalist who was critically wounded yesterday.

When attacks against medical personnel occur, #WHO, the #ICRC, and the #UN rush to run #NotATarget social media campaigns.

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And so it goes…

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#NotATarget is a slogan frequently used in social media campaigns calling for the protection of civilians, humanitarians, and health workers and reminding the world that war parties should not aim their weapons at these categories of people.

This is precisely what Israel has been doing systematically for the past year—the act of intentionally targeting and killing these individuals.

Just as Israel targets medical personnel and journalists, it has also launched into indiscriminate air raids against civilians both in Gaza and in Lebanon. As a consequence, Israel kills thousands of individuals randomly every day.

On the first week of its war against Lebanon, Israel killed a UNHCR Lebanese protection officer, Dina Darwich, and her four-year-old son. The truth is that Dina was not killed as a targeted act. She was killed following an indiscriminate air strike by Israel in her house. Israel also killed another UNHCR staff member, Ali Basma, in the city of Tyre. Ali was not a direct target as well.

UNHCR quickly issued statements once more using the #NotATarget slogan. Lengthy statements praising Dina's 12 years of service with UNHCR in Lebanon, but not a single word denouncing the perpetrator: Israel. UNHCR concluded its statement by using the #NotATarget hashtag.

Similarly, In Gaza, more than 400 UNRWA staff were killed and buried under the rubble when Israel carried out massive bombing of civilian buildings.

The truth is, these staff were not targeted because they worked for UNRWA, but instead were killed as a result of the monstrous indiscriminate killing spree of Israel. UNRWA and the UN SG once again issued vague statements, branding them with the #NotATarget hashtag. They failed, however, to condemn Israel for the killing of the 400 UNRWA staff.?

Last week, Israel targeted the UNRWA Jabalia camp operations officer Ahed Al-Muqayyad and killed him in front of the world.? Israel specifically targeted him because they unlawfully claimed he was a Hamas operative. The UN didn’t say a word.

So, what good is there in not publicly naming the Perpetrator of these War Crimes, the state of Israel? What good is there to use the ambiguous hashtag #NotATarget instead, except to conceal Israel's war crimes?

#NotATarget is a fancy UN modernish slogan that wants to sway you and keep you in the realm of a blurry space in which the murdering party Israel gets a free pass for its war crimes.

So don't let anyone sway you.

The truth is that whether you are a target of Israel's killing machine or you’re not, the UN will never denounce Israel.

Instead, it will entice you into emotional and blurry slogans in its attempt to convince you that it stands for international humanitarian law and the rule of law, while in reality, all it does is cover Israel’s war crimes.

If you come across this slogan, please don't like or repost it.?

Instead, create your own hashtag like, for example:

#IsraelKilledDina

or

#IsraelKilledAli