.
Palestinians
& Israelis: Unequal Treatment By Stephen Lendman |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Israeli deaths alone matter. Palestinian ones go unnoticed. Unequal treatment ignores their suffering. Daily crimes against humanity go unreported. Israelis killed make headlines. A previous article discussed IDF Staff Sgts. Tomer Hazan and Gal Kobi. Both were shot and killed. Nine-year old Israeli Noam Glick was shot and wounded. She's in stable condition. Feature stories covered what happened. Israeli soldiers went on a rampage. They sealed off Palestinian communities, refugee camps and surrounding areas. They stormed them. They conducted intensive house-to-house searches. Homes were broken into violently. They were ransacked. Cars were stopped and inspected. Dozens of Palestinians were assaulted. Dozens more were arrested. Brutal interrogations followed. It's longstanding Israeli practice. Detained individuals are isolated. They're denied counsel or access to family members. They're tortured. Children are treated like adults. On October 11, Haaretz headlined "Israeli reserves colonel murdered outside his Jordan Valley home," saying: "Colonel (Res.) Seraiah Ofer was killed in a suspected terror attack outside his home in the Jordan Valley settlement Brosh Habika at 10 PM Thursday night." "His wife Monique was moderately wounded, but managed to escape and contact police." Palestinians were blamed. Doing so is automatic. Israel called the killing a terror attack. Roadblocks were erected. Area sweeps followed. Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon suggested canceling peace talks. He wants agreed on Palestinian prisoner releases stopped. He told Israeli public radio: "I think there's room to consider whether to carry on the negotiations, carry on the release of terrorists." "If we need to stop for a number of months; to fight terror and stop the incitement, then that's what we need to do." Israel's Yesha Council is an extremist umbrella settlement organization. It's militantly hardline. It's committed to continued Palestinian land theft. It wants unlimited settlement expansions. Its chairman Avi Ro'eh wants no further Palestinian prisoner releases. "(I)t has been proven, again, that negotiations only push quiet and distance away and increase terror," he said. "The government of Israel should not continue to close their eyes against the wave of recent attacks and against the deception of the Palestinian Authority's incitement." Housing Minister Uri Ariel called Friday's incident "another lowly murderous attack that proves, once again, that 'peace talks' just equal 'peace victims.' " Other Israeli extremist officials voiced similar sentiments. Blaming Palestinian victims is longstanding Israeli policy. B'Tselem publishes data on Palestinian and Israeli fatalities. Doing so reveals an entirely different picture. Disproportionality best defines it. On September 29, 2000, the second Intifada erupted. From then through December 26, 2008 Palestinian and Israeli fatalities were as follows:
Palestinian and Israeli Cast Lead Fatalities from December 27, 2008 - January 18, 2009 were as follows:
Palestinian and Israeli fatalities post-Cast Lead through August 31, 2013 were as follows:
From September 29, 2000 through August 31, 2013, Israeli security forces and militant settlers killed 6,752 Palestinians. Over the same period, Palestinians killed 989 Israeli military personnel and civilians. Most perished during the nearly four and half year second Intifada. From late December 2008 through August 31, 2013, Palestinians killed 41 Israelis. Over the same period, Israelis killed 1,930 Palestinians. The disproportional kill ratio was 47 - 1. It bears repeating. Israelis killed by Palestinians make headlines. Brutal security force retaliation follows. Collective punishment is official Israeli policy. Palestinians killed by Israelis go largely unnoticed. Jewish deaths alone matter. Palestinians die out of mainstream sight and mind. Longstanding injustice continues. Long denied liberation remains a distant dream. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity." http://www.claritypress.com/ Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www. |
Donate to Rense.com Support Free And Honest Journalism At Rense.com | Subscribe To RenseRadio! Enormous Online Archives, MP3s, Streaming Audio Files, Highest Quality Live Programs |