Dan Hodges Gaza Shooting Shame

The killing of unarmed civilians on the border between Israel and Gaza earlier this week provoked condemnation, even from the UN, where, as Metro has reported, “Michael Lynk, of the UN Human Rights Council said the killings may amount to a war crime”. His comments put the supposed “clashes” into context.

He's desperate, Dan

“The blatant use of excessive force by Israel - an eye for an eyelash - must end … There must be true accountability for those in military and political command who have ordered or allowed this force to be once again employed at the Gaza fence”. But none of that was allowed to enter when BBC This Week discussed the killings last night.

Instead, carte blanche was given to the Mail on Sunday’s not at all celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges to reinvent reality in accordance with the worldview of Himself Personally Now. Desperate Dan concluded that it was the Palestinians’ fault, that it wasn’t really a protest, and that it was all proportionate and appropriate.

The response was overwhelmingly negative. “I've oft thought that Dan Hodges talks shite, having seen him on #bbctw I now know he does. 'It wasn't protests...' was it not? … British Forces Rules of Engagement don't permit the shooting of unarmed civilian protesters. It's that simple. Objectivity has no value in Dan Hodges world”. There was more.

“Dan Hodges #VictimBlaming. He's virtually saying the Palestinians were wearing short skirts so they deserved it … Dan Hodges implicitly saying Bloody Sunday was appropriate force in Northern Ireland. If he was a journalist in 1972 of course he would have defended it … Dan Hodges is willing to tackle a subject he knows almost nothing about just so he can defend the deliberate shooting and maiming of defenceless women and children. Irretrievably repugnant, of course, but full marks for commitment”. And more.

“Never heard of Dan Hodges before tonight, but not the slightest bit surprised to learn he’s a Daily Mail journalist” [cue whinnying that “it’s a totally different paper”] …  “Sadly; it's isn't only Dan Hodges that can look at these pictures & conclude that the children being abused are the ‘terrorists’” … “Dan Hodges is to political commentary what Dan Hodges is to pole dancing. He would be out of his depth in an evaporated puddle”.

More than sixty unarmed protesters were shot dead and several hundreds more injured by snipers. Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry talked of a “calculated and deliberate policy to kill and maim unarmed protesters, who posed no threat” and said many were “shot in the back, many of them shot hundreds of metres from the border, and many of them children”. That is not “protecting the border”.

Small wonder that Michael Rosen was moved to conclude “The script Israel is putting out about the fatalities was written by Vichy France, Brits in Cyprus and Kenya and apartheid South Africa”. Of course, Desperate Dan could always get on his high horse and claim that these could only be the remarks of an anti-Semite.

But in this case he might have a problem with that one. Dan Hodges, wrong yet again.