Episode 197: The "Human Shields" Canard as Catch-All Colonial Absolution

Episode 197: The "Human Shields" Canard as Catch-All Colonial Absolution

"Viet Cong Use Children as Human Shields," the Associated Press alleged in 1967. "'Civilian casualty?" That's a gray area," Alan Dershowitz argued in The Los Angeles Times in 2006. "We can't ignore the truth that Hamas uses human shields,""Jason Willick wrote in The Washington Post in 2023.

For more than five decades, military forces with overwhelming firepower, including the U.S., Israel, and others have accused enemy combatants of using "human shields." According to these allegations, militant resistance throughout the world, from the Vietnamese National Liberation Front to Palestinian militants, herd civilians in front of them, or hide in hospitals, religious institutions, and other public places, in order to evade attacks. In turn, they force the enemy to "risk" killing civilians, and they themselves bear responsibility for those who are killed.

But rarely, if ever, have these accusations been true. Indeed, the term "human shields," despite having a clear legal definition, has become a catch-all for militias or insurgency groups that merely operate among a civilian population, functioning as a convenient pretext for invading, occupying and colonial forces to kill civilians, and reinforcing racist conceptions about besieged populations. So why, and how, do media provide cover for governments that lie about and instrumentalize supposed "human shielding"?

On this episode, we dissect the decades-old "human shields" accusation, examining how it dehumanizes and militarizes people living under occupation and invasions, demonizes resistance movements, and sanitizes civilian-killing aggressors as reluctant actors who "simply had no choice."

Our guests are Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini.

Avsnitt(367)

News Brief: How Decades of Media Distortions and Lies about "Iran's Nuclear Program" Lead to War

News Brief: How Decades of Media Distortions and Lies about "Iran's Nuclear Program" Lead to War

In this News Brief, we discuss a recent poll showing 70% of Americans are fundamentally wrong about the nature of Iran's "nuclear program"—including 1 in 4 who think Iran currently possesses a nuclear...

25 Mars 34min

"Shadow Fleets," Sanctions & Western Media's International Law-ification of Arbitrary US Dictates

"Shadow Fleets," Sanctions & Western Media's International Law-ification of Arbitrary US Dictates

In this episode, we explore how arbitrary—often unilateral—sanctions against Enemy States are given the halo of international legal legitimacy with a combination of lies, slippery language and brainle...

11 Mars 1h 22min

News Brief: As Trump Crushes Academia, the NYT and Atlantic Still Fight 'Woke' Wars from 5 Years Ago

News Brief: As Trump Crushes Academia, the NYT and Atlantic Still Fight 'Woke' Wars from 5 Years Ago

In this News Brief, we are joined by Chenjerai Kumanyika and Todd Wolfson of the American Association of University Professors to discuss Trump's gutting of higher education, its expansion on previous...

18 Feb 45min

Ep 234: TikTok, Gen Z's Move to Social Media and Elite Panic Over Unsanctioned News

Ep 234: TikTok, Gen Z's Move to Social Media and Elite Panic Over Unsanctioned News

In this episode, we examine our political class' TikTok neurosis, how Gaza fueled its sell to US and Israeli military contractors, and the long history of elite panics around unsanctioned information ...

4 Feb 1h 13min

News Brief: ICE, Senate Dems' Counterinsurgency PR, and the Limits of Body Cam Liberalism

News Brief: ICE, Senate Dems' Counterinsurgency PR, and the Limits of Body Cam Liberalism

In this News Brief, we detail the fundamental problems with Senate Democrats' cosmetic reforms, the strategy of letting outrage blow over and the conspicuous absence of any proposal that touches ICE's...

30 Jan 39min

Ep 233: How US Media Naturalizes Capital Strikes and Helps the Rich Undermine Democracy

Ep 233: How US Media Naturalizes Capital Strikes and Helps the Rich Undermine Democracy

In this episode, we examine how billionaires and corporations threatening capital strikes and capital flight to discipline populist politicians and movements is treated as normal, obvious, and healthy...

28 Jan 1h 24min

News Brief: As Dem Leadership Waffles—Labor, Organizers, Immigrants Fight Back in Minneapolis

News Brief: As Dem Leadership Waffles—Labor, Organizers, Immigrants Fight Back in Minneapolis

In this News Brief, we break down Dem leadership's fatuous "body cam" and "training" response to ICE brutality, and how organizers in the Twin Cities are not settling for cosmetic reform. With guest J...

22 Jan 43min

News Brief: For Media Reporting on Iran, Trump Suddenly Morphs into Pro-Democracy Humanitarian

News Brief: For Media Reporting on Iran, Trump Suddenly Morphs into Pro-Democracy Humanitarian

In this News Brief, we discuss mainstream media coverage of ongoing protests across Iran and how nearly every major Western outlet has been uncritically framing any potential regime change plans by th...

17 Jan 25min

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