Palestine+Casualties,+Helena+Cobban,+JustWorldNews

JustWorldNews, USA, August 31, 2006 12:31 PM
=Palestine Casualties=


 * Posted by Helena Cobban**


 * [|Here]** is the weekly summary that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights produced for the period 17-23 August, 2006, cataloguing major rights abuses inflicted on the Palestinians by the Israeli Occupation Forces in (and around) Gaza and the West Bank.

During the week, as PCHR reports, __30 Palestinians, including 3 children, a mentally disabled young man and a woman, were killed by IOF__. The 30 included two who died during the week from wounds previously inflicted by the IOF.

The report added:

‘the number of Palestinians killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip since 25 June 2006 has increased to 217, including 46 children and 12 women. In addition, 755 others, mostly civilians, including 203 children, 28 women, 4 paramedics and 6 journalists, have been wounded. ‘

Figures available from the "**[|Statistics" page on B'tselem's website]** (click through the links in that first table there, and look down the right sidebar on the pages that up) tell us that from January1 through July 31, 2006, a total of **15 Israeli civilians and 3 Israeli security forces personnel** were killed by Palestinians... while the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the OPTs and in Israel in the same period was **346**.

And then, yes, there was Laura Blumenfeld's spine-chilling article in the **[|WaPo]** (and **[|elsewhere]**) August 28, in which she told us how much the Israeli securocrats "agonized" over every single decision they "had" to make regarding the "targeted killings" of Palestinian suspects.

Including this, about former IDF chief of staff Moshe Yaalon:

‘Almost every day, Yaalon had to decide who would live or die. "Who is a 'ticking bomb'? Can we arrest him? Who is a priority -- this guy first, or this guy first?" Yaalon recalled. Once a week, military intelligence and Shin Bet proposed new names. At first, the list was limited to bombers themselves, but __several years later it expanded to those who manufacture bombs and those who plan attacks.__

‘"I called it 'cutting weeds.' I knew their names by heart," Yaalon said. How many did he kill? "Oh, hundreds, hundreds. I knew them. I had all the details with their pictures, maps, intelligence, on the table... " ‘

We learn from B'tslem, that from January to the end of July this year, **[|16 Palestinians were the targets]** of Israeli assassination sqauds, whereas **[|31 Palestinians]**, total, were killed during these operations.

Maybe Yaalon could spend some of his time at the (AIPAC-affiliated) Washington Institute for Near East Policy reading the **[|testimonies]** of former apartheid enforcers like Jeffery Benzien. Now there's an (a-)moral community he could be a part of, where he might find people who would understand his "wrenching dilemmas".

Of course, no word in Blumenfeld's article about the people being targeted for assassination being given the benefit of anything like "due process under the law"....

Anyway, friends, because this is such a crucial and tragic subject, please keep the discussion here courteous and constructive.


 * From: http://justworldnews.org/archives/002094.html**

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