Photos Of Dead Syrian Children Used As Propaganda For Palestinian Plight Sparks Outrage

The recent conflict between Israel and the terrorist group, Hamas was bitter, although relatively short-lived this time round. There were many casualties, especially in Gaza.

But some international organizations were so keen, or even over-eager, to bring the plight of the Gazans to the attention of the world that they even disseminated pictures of dead children taken even before the Israel/Hamas war even started!

One such organization which employed this cynical and immoral method of furthering the Palestinian cause is called the “Australians for Palestine” group. Even though it didn’t campaign about the oppression of other minorities in the middle east, it distributed pictures of dead Syrian children, comparing them to Holocaust victims and claiming they were Palestinian children recently killed by Israel!

The International Business Times reported that Australian MP’s across the board have expressed outrage at the manipulating tactics of the group and condemned them, in no uncertain terms, for trying to pass dead Syrian children off as dead Palestinian children.

The photos were accompanied with the caption: “some people may find the above photo disturbing, and we hope it is.” Yes, it is indeed disturbing to show pictures of dead children, especially when they are from a completely different country.

In the email, Australians for Palestine editor, Sonja Karkar, wrote:

“Almost 2,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered and some 10,000 Palestinians have been wounded… Israel’s bombs continue to strike with vengeance at the civilian population below. Make no mistake about it: more than 80 percent of those already killed were civilians. We cannot shed tears over yesteryear’s Holocaust victims when reading books, seeing films or visiting museums and not see that these innocent Palestinian children today are just as deserving of your sorrow and outrage.”

But her comments don’t match the reality. The figures for the dead and injured were produced by Hamas as part of their propaganda war and bear little relation to the truth. Analysis from the statistical departments of both the BBC and The New York Times – neither of which are noted for their support of Israel — proved that the claims were false. The IDF claims more than 1,000 of the dead were men aged between 18-45 and were Hamas fighters.

The other very important fact that Karkar failed to mention was that Israel only carried out airstrikes against Hamas because they fired over 4,000 short and long-range missiles on to the Jewish State, targeting over 90 percent of Israeli territory.

Karkar obscured the fact that the main reason Palestinian civilians were killed, including children, was because Hamas used their homes and schools as launching pads for their deadly rockets and used their own population as human shields.

We wonder what Australians for Palestine would do if it were faced with over 4,000 rockets from neighboring New Zealand, being fired at them from school playgrounds in Wellington, onto their cities, towns and farms.

Liberal MP Luke Simpkins was very vocal in his outrage against the group telling The Australian:

“Given that the Australians For Palestine calls for outrage, I can say that I was outraged at their abuse of the facts and taking advantage of the deaths of innocent Syrian children in the biggest, most desperate conflict and human tragedy in the region.”

If you plan to wait for a proper apology, and a suitable amount of backtracking from the Australians for Palestine group, we suggest you don’t hold your breath.