Israel must Renounce Violence
By Ghali Hassan, Axis of Logic
May 16, 2006, 10:27
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“Iman was not the only one. Mohammed Aaraj was eating a sandwich in front of his house, the last house before the cemetery of the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus, when a soldier shot him to death at fairly close range. He was six at the time of his death. Kristen Saada was in her parents’ car, on the way home from a family visit, when soldiers sprayed the car with bullets. She was 12 at the time of her death. The brothers Jamil and Ahmed Abu Aziz were riding their bicycles in full daylight, on their way to buy sweets, when they sustained a direct hit from a shell fired by an Israeli tank crew. Jamil was 13, Ahmed six, at the time of their deaths”. [1]
Israel’s-state violence has the advantage to be condone by Western (US and EU) governments and ignored or distorted by all mainstream media. Yet, Palestinian self-defence and miniscule retaliations, including resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation is magnified and condemned as “terrorism”.
To show who has the uncontested monopoly on violence, a comparison of the situation on the ground is necessary. According to the International Middle East Media Centre (IMEMC), the month of April has been the bloodiest month since August 2005. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) murdered 36 Palestinian civilians, including three children in the West Bank and Gaza; more than 300 Palestinian civilians were arrested. Since last January, the IOF killed more than 50 Palestinians, including several children in cold blood and wounded many. Indeed, “over 22 times more Palestinian children were killed [by Israelis soldiers] than Israeli children [killed by Palestinians]” [2]. According to Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem, since autumn 2000, the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians has totalled 998 and the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis has totalled 3,466.
In addition, Palestinians are portrayed as cold-blooded suicide bombers by the Western media around the world in order to distort the facts and depict Palestinian self-defence as “terrorism”, while avoid associating Israel’s greater crimes against the Palestinian civilians with terrorism. This distortion of facts has concealed and covered Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and Israel’s serious threat to peace in the region.
In the West, the US in particular, Israel is portrayed as the victim of terrorism not the perpetuator of terrorism. Many of the Palestinian attacks were Resistance operations against Israeli soldiers and involved no suicides at all. Suicide bombing is used as a form of desperate retaliation. Other attacks were with harmless home-made rockets (the Qassam Rockets). Israeli strikes were with U.S.-made F16 and thousands of bombs dropped on towns and villages indiscriminately killing innocent Palestinian civilians. Everyday, Israeli Occupation forces kill Palestinians, demolished their houses steal their lan
www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_21997.shmtl
By Ghali Hassan, Axis of Logic
May 16, 2006, 10:27
Email this article Printer friendly page
“Iman was not the only one. Mohammed Aaraj was eating a sandwich in front of his house, the last house before the cemetery of the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus, when a soldier shot him to death at fairly close range. He was six at the time of his death. Kristen Saada was in her parents’ car, on the way home from a family visit, when soldiers sprayed the car with bullets. She was 12 at the time of her death. The brothers Jamil and Ahmed Abu Aziz were riding their bicycles in full daylight, on their way to buy sweets, when they sustained a direct hit from a shell fired by an Israeli tank crew. Jamil was 13, Ahmed six, at the time of their deaths”. [1]
Israel’s-state violence has the advantage to be condone by Western (US and EU) governments and ignored or distorted by all mainstream media. Yet, Palestinian self-defence and miniscule retaliations, including resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation is magnified and condemned as “terrorism”.
To show who has the uncontested monopoly on violence, a comparison of the situation on the ground is necessary. According to the International Middle East Media Centre (IMEMC), the month of April has been the bloodiest month since August 2005. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) murdered 36 Palestinian civilians, including three children in the West Bank and Gaza; more than 300 Palestinian civilians were arrested. Since last January, the IOF killed more than 50 Palestinians, including several children in cold blood and wounded many. Indeed, “over 22 times more Palestinian children were killed [by Israelis soldiers] than Israeli children [killed by Palestinians]” [2]. According to Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem, since autumn 2000, the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians has totalled 998 and the number of Palestinians killed by Israelis has totalled 3,466.
In addition, Palestinians are portrayed as cold-blooded suicide bombers by the Western media around the world in order to distort the facts and depict Palestinian self-defence as “terrorism”, while avoid associating Israel’s greater crimes against the Palestinian civilians with terrorism. This distortion of facts has concealed and covered Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and Israel’s serious threat to peace in the region.
In the West, the US in particular, Israel is portrayed as the victim of terrorism not the perpetuator of terrorism. Many of the Palestinian attacks were Resistance operations against Israeli soldiers and involved no suicides at all. Suicide bombing is used as a form of desperate retaliation. Other attacks were with harmless home-made rockets (the Qassam Rockets). Israeli strikes were with U.S.-made F16 and thousands of bombs dropped on towns and villages indiscriminately killing innocent Palestinian civilians. Everyday, Israeli Occupation forces kill Palestinians, demolished their houses steal their lan
www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_21997.shmtl