At least 4,789 Palestinians and 1,053 Israelis have been killed since September 29, 2000. (Click on hyperlinks)
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American news reports repeatedly describe Israeli military attacks against the Palestinian population as “retaliation.” However, when one looks into the chronology of death in this conflict, the reality turns out to be quite different.
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Source: B’Tselem, The Israeli
The figure for Palestinian deaths is extremely conservative, since it is difficult for B’Tselem to report on deaths in the Palestinian territories. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, (click on hyperlink) internationally respected for its statistical rigor, reports significantly higher numbers of Palestinian deaths. I do not doubt the reliability of their data; I only use B’Tselem’s more conservative numbers because they collect data on both populations.
982 Palestinian children killed by IDF in seven years
1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians, while 10,756 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel.
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“Since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. This forms approximately 20% of the total Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).”
– Palestine Monitor |
Source: The Mandela Institute for Human Rights – Palestine (last updated March 31, 2007) and Reuters.
Breakdown of Palestinian Prisoners
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Palestinian Prisoners
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| Juveniles Imprisoned |
398
DCI
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Israel is the target of at least 65 UN Resolutions and the Palestinians are the target of none.
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Aside from the core issues—refugees, Jerusalem, borders—the major themes reflected in the U.N. resolutions against Israel over the years are its unlawful attacks on its neighbors; its violations of the human rights of the Palestinians, including deportations, demolitions of homes and other collective punishments; its confiscation of Palestinian land; its establishment of illegal settlements; and its refusal to abide by the U.N. Charter and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
– Donald Neff |
Source: Paul Findley’s Deliberate Deceptions (1998, pages 192-4). This number only covers resolutions passed from 1955 through 1992.
No Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 18,147 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967.
“Any humanitarian looking at the sheer number of innocent civilians who have lost their homes can only condemn Israel’s house demolition policy as a hugely disproportionate military response by an occupation army… It is a policy that creates only hardship and bitterness, and in the end can only undermine hope for future reconciliation and peace.” Peter Hansen, Commissioner General of UNRWA
Source: Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions
In addition to the homes demolished by Israel, thousands of Palestinian homes have been destroyed or significantly damaged by Israeli bombing and shelling. On the flip side, while Palestinians have not demolished any Israeli homes, there is one known case of a Palestinian destroying an Israeli home in an explosion.
Video on home demolitions:
http://www.btselem.org/English/Video/200412_House_Demolitions.asp
On average, the U.S gave more than $6.8 million* to Israel each day and gave $0.3 million** to the Palestinians each day during Fiscal Year 2007.
During 2007, Israel received about 20 times more aid than the Palestinians. |
“Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct U.S. economic and military assistance since 1976 and the largest total recipient since World War ll. Total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America’s entire foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year. This largesse is especially striking when one realizes that Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to South Korea or Spain.”
– John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt
“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”
REFERENCES
(www.johnmurphyforcongress.org / 14.04.2011)
