• Sure, it can be reasonable. Using it as “whataboutism” though isn’t a legitimate argument.

    Hamas uses entire cities. Millions of people. Generations of young men and women who might otherwise prosper except they are born into a place run by Hamas.

    It’s disgusting when anyone uses human shields. In Israel it’s a crime. In Gaza, it’s a the greatest hope of the leadership, that a civilian might die to an Israeli bomb.

    • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Hamas uses entire cities. Millions of people.

      Can you explain exactly how? How can someone sat in their home above a tunnel they did not create or possibly even know about be a human shield? That is meaningfully different to being strapped to the front of a car or forced into a booby trapped tunnel at gunpoint, no?

      • Voluntary vs involuntary human shields. Hamas plundered the wealth of all Gaza and used it to build 500 miles of tunnels in an area only 25 miles wide.

        It is meaningfully different, yes. There’s been a handful of strapping people to a car. It’s a crime in Israel. People have been imprisoned for it.

        ~5 people < ~2,000,000 people.

        5 people is basically an isolated incident.

        2,000,000 people decade over decade is a modus operandi.

        • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 hours ago

          How exactly are Gazans human shields? In what meaningful sense? Being in your home near something Israel deems a target doesn’t make you a shield, does it?

          Voluntary vs involuntary human shields.

          Who is voluntary?

          It is meaningfully different, yes.

          Glad we agree. And much worse, imo.

          ~5 people < ~2,000,000 people.

          The rest of this all depends on how exactly you’re alleging that 2 million people are human shields and not just humans