Palestinian children in Israeli crosshairs
By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Saturday 30 October 2004, 18:19 Makka Time, 15:19 GMT


The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of making the killing of Palestinian children by the occupation army a daily occurrence while calling on the world to put an end to the practice.


"Every day they murder one or two Palestinian children on their way to school," Palestinian Deputy Foreign Minister Abd Allah Abd Allah said.

"It is becoming a gruesome daily routine and Israel, as you see, is interested more in concocting and inventing lies to justify the murder than in stopping it."

He told Aljazeera.net that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian people were increasingly frustrated by the international community's failure to force Israel to stop the killing of Palestinian children.

Abd Allah said: "I am afraid that much of the international community has reached the nadir of its morality. What else explains this deadly silence and indifference in the face of the daily killings of our children?

"I wonder how many of our children will have to be riddled by Israeli bullets before there is an awakening of the world's conscience."

Unequal contest

Abd Allah's remarks coincided with the killing by Israel of another Palestinian child in the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

Palestinian sources and witnesses said Israeli soldiers manning armed personnel carriers opened fire on a group of children who reportedly had hurled stones at Israeli tanks.

An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers opened fire after "somebody" fired from the direction of the children.

A witness contested the Israeli account. "I was there, I saw no firing, I heard no firing. The only people who were firing were the Israeli occupation soldiers," Fadi Nazzal, a Palestinian from the nearby town of Kabatya, told Aljazeera.net.

He said the Israeli soldiers opened fire on children whose stone throwing had in no way put Israeli troops at risk.

Nazzal added: "The children were hurling stones from a long distance. The stones didn't hit the armoured vehicles. But even if stones were hurled at these huge tanks, would that justify executing children in this manner?"

Firing through fog

On Thursday 28 October, Israeli soldiers manning a watchtower opposite the Khan Yunus refugee camp, south of Gaza City, opened fire at children, killing eight-year-old Ranya Iyad Aram.

Hospital sources said a stray bullet hit Aram in the neck, killing her on the spot.

The Israeli army admitted that soldiers were "firing through heavy fog" towards Palestinian neighbourhoods to forestall "possible" firing of mortar shells by Palestinian resistance fighters.

The army said: "The IDF opened machine-gun fire towards the Palestinian areas from which Palestinian regularly fire mortar fire. Apparently, one of the bullets hit the child. We are sorry about it."

'State terror'

PA minister Abd Allah Abd Allah says an army that fires heavy machine-gun fire through fog in civilian areas actually intends to kill civilians.

"This is Israel's state terror. When troops open fire randomly on crowded streets and schools just because somebody had fired a mortar shell from these areas many days ago, it is murder, it is terror."

However, Israeli army spokesman Eitan Arusi rejected Abd Allah's view.

"We are the most moral army in the world. Look at what the Russians are doing in Chechnya, it is a huge carnage there. The Israeli Defence Forces are trying as much as humanly possible to avoid harming civilians," he said.

"Don't blame the soldiers, blame the terrorists who operate in the midst of Palestinian population centres."

People brutalised

Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Mushir al-Masri, dismissed what he called Arusi's "corrupt reasoning".

"The Palestinian resistance fighters happen to be in their own homes, towns, streets," he said.

"They are defending their children and women from this Nazi-like military occupation which is brutalising and savaging an entire people in ways unprecedented since the second world war."

Earlier this month, the Israeli army killed two girls, one in Rafah in southern Gaza and the other in central Gaza.

Since the beginning of October, as many as 33 Palestinian children and minors under 17 have been killed by the Israeli army. All in all, nearly 158 Palestinians, the bulk of them civilians, were killed in October.

During the same period, the Israeli army lost three soldiers.

The frequency of killing Palestinian children and civilians by the Israeli army has aroused suspicions within Israeli judicial circles over the credibility of the army's accounts and investigations into the deaths.

Distraction

Last week an Israeli officer who in October shot a 12-year-old Palestinian child in Rafah in southern Gaza 20 times to ascertain that she was dead, was arrested briefly on suspicion that he lied about the incident.

PA official Abd Allah Abd Allah dismisses the arrest as "no more than a public-relations distraction from the real thing".

"They are trying to deceive the world, and I must admit they are succeeding. This is not a case of one or two or three or even 10 isolated cases of deliberate murder," he said.

"I am talking about a deliberate and systematic practice of targeting and murdering Palestinian children for the purpose of inflicting pain and suffering on our people. When murder occurs on a daily basis, it becomes policy and Israel's policy is to murder Palestinian children."


Aljazeera

asseem I have long admired your posts and I thank you for adding your intelligent viewpoint here.

___________________________________________
incredible gift giving people operate this charity: http://www.gktw.org/

click on the link below to add content to the website that promotes this forum
http://global-military.com/index.php

It's happened so much and so often that it's a totally excusable action on the part of the IDF. Military commanders don't question their troops or discipline them when children are shot, so what do you expect? The troops take their cue from on high and shoot first and ask questions later.

It doesn't help that you have a bunch of right-wing Rabbi's running around proclaiming that the killing of non-Jews for the "defence of Israel" is permissable. Since the "defence of Israel" is whatever the current regime in Tel Aviv says it is, that promotes open license to kill anyone you even suspect is a threat. And collateral damage be damned!

Israel's violation of human rights in the occupied territories is appalling. Whats more appalling is the blind support the US government gives to that nation. It obscene, frankly.

E Tan, E Epi Tas!

I have start to read it and the moment i saw this is the clime of :
Palestinian Deputy Foreign Minister Abd Allah Abd Allah said.

i ... stopped to read.

No Virgins - No Terror !©

Surely a Palestinian minister should be considered an authoritative source on the impact against Palestinians, don't you think?

No, i dont think so.
The Palestinians leaders or i might say the Muslim leaders have very very
developed imagination, U have no idea how much it is developed.
Here is some of climes of those "Authoritative Sources":

Yasser Doggy Arafat:
accuse Israel of using Depleted Uranium against the Palestinians.
accuse Israel of using "secret black gas" against the Palestinians ,that
cause Palestinians womans to have an abortion.

Abu Mazen ex PM(This guy is consider moderate):
His Project, for getting the degree in the 80s, dealing with the Holocaust.
He explain very well ,i might say, how it is impossible that the Holocaust occur.

Saeb Arikat and Hanan Ashrawi:
Those "Authoritative Sources" explain us very well how Israel massacre 3000
Palestinians in Jennin during Defensive Shield operation
(they start with 3000 and then decreas it to 500).
Massacre that did not happened ,~50 terrorist were killed.

I can go on and on ...

Now about Israel.
Israel is a Democraty, we have free press ,in the end everything is reveals.
Nothing can be hide.





No Virgins - No Terror !©

"Saeb Arikat and Hanan Ashrawi:
Those "Authoritative Sources" explain us very well how Israel massacre 3000
Palestinians in Jennin during Defensive Shield operation
(they start with 3000 and then decreas it to 500).
Massacre that did not happened ,~50 terrorist were killed."


Since the IDF blocked foreign reporters from entering Jenin, we'll never know how many people were killed. But reports indicate many folks were killed and the IDF basically "ran amok" because 13 troops were killed in a Palestinian ambush. We know for a fact that Israeli troops have shot at independent journalists in the occupied territories and have killed peace activists. Those are facts. How can we believe anything else you say? Israel respects human rights only as it applies to Israelis and Jews in general. Thats a fact.


E Tan, E Epi Tas!

Since the IDF blocked foreign reporters from entering Jenin, we'll never know how many people were killed.

No we R know exactly how many terrorist were killed in Jennin.
It is ~50(i think 54 but not sure) the Palestinians do not clime for
different number.

Israel make mistake in this battle, we had to do what the Americans R doing-
Use the air force.

We had to drop tons of bomb and only then send ground troop, we did not have
to wait for the killing of 13 soldiers.

No Virgins - No Terror !©

If the Israelies have the right to kill palestinans for defense, then by all means I will not care if Palestinians kill jews for their own personal defense. Hey, what is fair is fair, and you can not set double standards like that.

Did not sharon say that he would rather see a dead palestinian child than a man, because with the child there is a new generation.

Quite disturbing. But hey, as long as the Israelis are safe that is all that matters.

Like I said before, Israel is nothing but the modern day version of the Nazis.

Now about Israel.
Israel is a Democraty, we have free press ,in the end everything is reveals.
Nothing can be hide.

But journalists are routinely attacked by the Israeli military.  How can there be a free press if the reporters, even if they are Palestinian, are targetted?

'Toll of Palestinian children raises disturbing questions'

like... why does allah not save them??

Why doesn't Jesus save US/UK soldiers?....

because he doesnt exist..? lol

sorry,that first post was a bit immature,just couldnt help it... :P

But journalists are routinely attacked by the Israeli military. How can there be a free press if the reporters, even if they are Palestinian, are targetted?

haha,
routinely??
R U sure?
I dont think journalists are routinely attacked, maybe U will enlighten us.
How many journalists were shot by IDF in the last 4 years?


No Virgins - No Terror !©

Here is one letter, dated 2004-06-30:

ISRAEL: CPJ expresses grave concern about Gaza strike

June 30, 2004 TO: His Excellency Ariel Sharon Prime Minister of the State of Israel Office of the Prime Minister 3 Kaplan Street Kiryat Ben-Gurion Jerusalem, Israel Via facsimile: 011 972 2 566-9425

Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned by the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF's) missile attack in the Gaza Strip on a building that houses several media outlets. According to journalists in Gaza, an Israeli helicopter gunship fired three missiles at the Al-Shawwa Wil Hossary building on Al-Wihda Street just after midnight on June 29. The building contains the offices of several local and international media organizations, including those of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Qatar-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, and German television ARD. Two employees of Ramattan Broadcast Services, a company that provides studio equipment and services to international news outlets in Gaza and also operates from the building, were slightly injured in the attack. Other journalists were reported to be in the building, which is typically occupied throughout the day and night. The missile attack took place a day after Palestinians fired rockets on the Israeli town of Sederot on Monday, killing two Israelis — an attack for which Hamas claimed responsibility. Journalists in Gaza told CPJ the missiles struck the third floor of the building, which houses Al-Jeel Press Office, headed by freelance journalist Mustafa al-Sawaf, who contributes to news outlets that include the Cairo-based news Web site Islamonline.com; the BBC; and Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). CPJ sources said that Al-Saada, a weekly magazine with Islamist sympathies, had previously shared an office with Al-Jeel, but had recently vacated the building and moved to another location. According to an IDF statement posted on its Web site, the media building was targeted because it was used by Hamas as a base for distributing "incitement material" in the Gaza Strip, as a "communication center which maintained constant contact with terrorists," and as a "channel through which Hamas claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks." No further details were provided. CPJ reminds you that media offices are civilian facilities and are protected from attack under international humanitarian law unless they are used for military purposes. The IDF has not provided any compelling evidence that the office was used in this manner. The attack on the building was also disproportionate to any perceived threat and reckless in endangering civilians — in this case the many journalists who work there. As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom around the world, we call on you to provide a detailed explanation of the reasons for this attack, and to ensure that Israeli forces refrain from attacking or recklessly endangering media facilities. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. We await your reply. Sincerely, Ann K. Cooper Executive Director

From PBS:

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/israel.palestine/update.html

From the US embassy in Tokyo:

http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-gl0301.html

Not even Israeli media seems immune to attacks

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=220502&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0

This is from the letter U post:

According to an IDF statement posted on its Web site, the media building was targeted because it was used by Hamas as a base for distributing "incitement material" in the Gaza Strip, as a "communication center which maintained constant contact with terrorists," and as a "channel through which Hamas claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks." No further details were provided.


There are hundreds of journalists in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
It is logical that people ,journalists or not, who walking in fighting zone
can be shoot.

U post 3 links!!!.
Hello , we R talking about routinely, U remember??
If there R hundreds of journalists and Israel shooting journal "routinely",
i am expecting dozens of journalists would have been killed.




No Virgins - No Terror !©

He knows the IDF targets journalists and peace activists. The whole world knows it. Israeli policy in the occupied territories can't stand up to the scrutiny of a free press. So the IDF does whatever it can to keep a lid on the truth. And if that means shooting a few peace activists or journalists, they do that to. When the PM of your country is a homicidal psychopath, what do you expect?

E Tan, E Epi Tas!

The agression Israel has shown is extremely obvious. It is quite disturbing how they screen their crimes in the US.

Ironic thing is; Make fun of a black, nothing happens. Make fun of a mexican, nothing happens. Make fun of an irishmen(for example!), nothing happens. Make fun of a jew, you get your ass criticized and labeled as a racist. The power of indoctrination is CLEARLY evident.

I was watching a documentary, and honestly what those soldiers at check points have to deal with, I would open up into the crowd. The soldiers really have no respect for the Palestinans, and that's because they're getting yellad at and have rocks and garbage thrown at them. Remeber this is a conflict that stretched thousands of years, there is generational hate here. I mean the fact that Israel is oviously the stronger power gives it the upper had. But honestly, if I was in that hostile of an enviroment, I don't know what I'd do.

The documentary, was on the documentary channel, at about 3:00 am. Its was really good, didn't see the name though :'(

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"deeds, not words"

thousands of years? typical for someone who protects Israel to not know jack squat about it! it is not ancient, it began in the late 40s when the JEWS actually returned to israel. there hasnt been any conflict of any considerable size between them.

So fool, you would open up in a crowd of people who have lost their lands due to your country invading it? It would be wonderful for you to switch places with palestinians, i wnat to see how you can cope with your children playing ball under the surveillance of israeli forces armed with guns and sometimes tanks.

Fool.

Meemperor's comments are logical.  In the army the senior commanders deliberately limit your intake of information in order to increase the chances you will act in a predictable manner.  Anybody that has served in the military can tell you this.  For example, you put a black USMC trooper in the same situation and he will likely open up on the crowd if the only information he receives on Palestinians is bad, and the only thing he sees is bad.

so you are saying that the government purposally does this so innocent civilians can take a hit?

Ha!

I am not excusing the actions of the IDF.  And Turtle's conclusion has some merit and is not entirely false.

I'm not talking about the Isreal-Palestine war. I'm talking about Jews vs. Musliums vs. Christians.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"deeds, not words"