“Debate: Does U.N. Statehood Bid Advance or Undermine Palestinian Struggle?”

JUAN GONZALEZ: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to officially submit a statehood request to the United Nations Security Council later today. The United States has vowed to veto the move.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I am convinced that there is no shortcut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians, not us, who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them, on borders and on security, on refugees and Jerusalem.

JUAN GONZALEZ: A new poll shows the Obama administration’s stance on Palestinian recognition at the United Nations is more extreme than that of a strong majority of Israeli citizens. A joint Israeli-Palestinian poll shows 69 percent of Israelis think their government should accept U.N. recognition of an independent Palestinian state. The survey also found 83 percent of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories supported the bid. Many Palestinians have expressed concern about the U.S. decision but remain committed to their goal.

KIMUR, Ramallah Resident: [translated] We have brought a lot to the table, and we have conceded a lot. We have given up on 78 percent of the land of historical Palestine for the state of Israel. What else do they want? They want us to leave. We will not leave. We will stay. And we will not be afraid of America, Israel or any other threats, whether they are to cut off donations or American aid. We will persist to remain on this land.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, Israeli Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Danny Danon praised President Obama’s speech at the United Nations and warned Israel will have a strong reaction to the Palestinian bid for U.N. membership.

DANNY DANON: There is no hope in the near future. This is the reality for the near future. Until we will not see a viable partner among the Palestinians, there will be no real, genuine peace. It is not popular to say it. We all want change, peace, tomorrow morning. It’s not going to happen tomorrow morning. We will have to wait until we will see a real partner among the Palestinians.

AMY GOODMAN: Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has said President Mahmoud Abbas will not be deterred and hopes the U.S. will not continue to be opposed to his country’s bid for statehood.

SAEB EREKAT: I would hope that the U.S. would revisit its position, because if we want to seek a Middle East that’s democratic, free, void of extremists and so on, we cannot maintain the status quo. The U.S. cannot continue treating Israel as a country above the laws of man. And that’s the truth.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more on the proposal for Palestinian statehood set to go before the U.N. Security Council, we’re joined by two guests. Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of news and analysis website, The Electronic Intifada, and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He’s in Cleveland. We’re also joined by Mouin Rabbani in Washington, D.C., visiting scholar at the Institute for Palestine Studies. He is also co-editor of Jadaliyya Ezine. Previously he worked as Palestine director of the Palestinian American Research Center.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s go first to Washington, D.C., to Mouin Rabbani. What is your take on what is happening today at the United Nations, Mahmoud Abbas presenting his statehood bid?

MOUIN RABBANI: Yeah, well, the Palestinian leadership today is going to deposit an application for full membership in the United Nations at the Security Council. And it seems that the Security Council, at the behest of Washington, will sit on it, while Washington seeks to garner enough votes in opposition to this proposal, so it doesn’t have to exercise a veto. And it seems that the Palestinian leadership is not going to increase the pressure by also going to the General Assembly.

I have to say I think the main issue here is not the bid for recognition or statehood. I think the key issue here is the extent to which this initiative creates space and possibility for the internationalization of the question of Palestine in all its dimensions. In other words, a beginning of an irrevocable turn away from the Oslo process, which time and again has proven that it serves as nothing more than a political cover for the consolidation of Israeli control and the deepening colonization of the Occupied Territories.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Ali Abunimah, you have been a vocal opponent or critic of this move by the Palestinians. Why?

ALI ABUNIMAH: Good morning, Juan. Good morning, Amy and Mouin.

Well, if we take what the PA, the Palestinian Authority, leadership say at face value, they say that their goal here was to try to break the status quo and to sort of return to negotiations, but on much better and more reasonable terms. That’s what they said. And if we evaluate it by those criteria, it’s been a complete disaster, because, in fact, what we saw from President Obama was a speech that was more pro-Israel than anything we have ever seen from him, which is saying something. And that was not a speech by a president of the United States addressing a world body with any sincerity about bringing an end to the conflict. That was a candidate running in an election where he is being very falsely and unfairly accused of not being pro-Israel enough. And that showed in the speech. So, the Palestinian Authority, rather than having ended the Oslo status quo, will go back home having achieved nothing and having simply demonstrated that it remains a captive of a situation where Palestinians are expected to carry out security, so-called security, for the Israeli occupation, are totally dependent on European Union and United States financing, and therefore financial blackmail, and have closed off all avenues for political action. And so, I see, really, this as a total failure.

The source of the opposition really came from a lot of Palestinians across the political spectrum who expressed fears that going to the United Nations to call for a state on a fraction of historic Palestine, without recognition of any other Palestinian rights, such as the rights of Palestinian refugees or the rights of Palestinian citizens in Israel, rather than advancing the cause of Palestine, could actually limit it and circumscribe it in the future because of unintended consequences. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to be a factor, after all, because this bid has gone absolutely nowhere.

AMY GOODMAN: Mouin Rabbani, your response?

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, you know, Ali is making the point that, for the Palestinian leadership, they’ve approached this entire issue as a tactical maneuver rather than a strategic initiative. And in that, he’s completely correct.

The point, rather, is, does this—does this initiative—or to the extent that it’s initiative, rather—create possibilities for a new dynamic for Palestinians to deal with the issues of occupation and self-determination and so on? And what I think you’ve seen in Palestinian society is a very broad desire to begin to move decisively away from the Oslo framework, which has been really, you know, bilateral negotiations, forever, about nothing, under unilateral American custodianship, with the U.S.—you know, Obama’s speech yesterday left even the Israelis in stunned disbelief about the extent of its pro-Israeli partisanship. So, no disagreement there. Rather, the issue is, you now have this initiative. This initiative creates possibilities, if the leadership is put under sufficient pressure by Palestinian society, to take it well beyond what the leadership intended. I think what Ali has been saying about the leadership is, more or less, essentially correct. But there—you know, the dynamic that’s created is by no means limited to what the leadership intends to do with it. And I think the key issue here is that this provides an opportunity to move away from Oslo and back towards the internationalization of the question of Palestine, where Palestinian—the issues of Palestinian self-determination are addressed on the basis of Palestinian rights as codified in a very large corpus of U.N. resolutions, rather than, you know, being codified in the pro-Israeli positions of the American administration and a Congress that has decisively gone off the deep end.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Ali Abunimah, what about this issue of bringing back the question of the—through the international community, of dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian question? I was struck a couple of days ago by an interview with Brzezinski, a former key official in the Carter administration, who said that he saw this as a possible turning point in terms of the loss of influence of the United States in the Middle East and the rise, basically, of the European powers to be—to take a lead in attempting to resolve the question.

ALI ABUNIMAH: I don’t think that’s right. On the contrary, the role the European Union has been playing has been absolutely abject in terms of trying to be sort of a deal maker to get Israel’s demands written into Quartet statements, the Quartet being the self-appointed ad hoc group of international officials that has unilaterally placed the—replaced the United Nations on the question of Palestine. And the European Union provides the largest subsidies to Israeli occupation under the guise of aid to the Palestinian Authorities. So I don’t see the Europeans playing that role.

But on the question of internationalization and changing the dynamic, I agree with Mouin that that’s what needs to happen. But, you know, listen to your—to the introduction to this debate, and we had someone called Saeb Erekat being quoted as the chief negotiator. I and the rest of the Palestinians thought that Saeb Erekat had resigned after the scandals of the Palestine Papers were revealed. And yet, there he still is, calling himself chief negotiator. I think that that demonstrates the lack of accountability of this Palestinian leadership, the lack of connection to the Palestinian people, the lack of responsiveness to the Palestinian people, particularly the Palestinian diaspora and Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have essentially been written out of the question of Palestine. And part of the disaster of the Oslo process has been to reduce and circumscribe the Palestinian cause to residents of the West Bank and Gaza—and now perhaps only residents of the West Bank, as even Gaza is consigned to the garbage can.

And what we really need to do, I think, is rebuild a Palestinian consensus and body politic based on the rights and demands of every segment of the Palestinian people, inside and outside the country, based on fundamental rights, not a demand for limited statehood, which ignores the rights of the majority of Palestinians. Can this bid jump-start that process? I don’t know. But I think there are other movements going on that have been much more dynamic and much more inclusive, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which was dismissed as very marginal just a couple of years ago but is now sufficiently frightening and threatening to Israel, that they’re enlisting the United States government to fight it, which, of course, the Obama administration has enthusiastically volunteered to do by pledging to help Israel fight so-called delegitimization. What they call delegitimization, we call a struggle for universal rights and self-determination of Palestinians.

AMY GOODMAN: Mouin Rabbani—

ALI ABUNIMAH: So I think there are other avenues that need to be explored. And this U.N. bid, I think, has, if anything, demonstrated the dead end of a diplomatic process within a U.N. system that is so hopelessly broken and rigged on behalf of the powerful.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Mouin Rabbani, your response, but also what you would have liked to have seen President Obama say?

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, you know, Ali makes some very relevant criticisms of the Palestinian leadership, and I think one could add many more to what he’s said. And, of course, what is an essential requirement here is a reconstruction of the Palestinian national movement on the basis of an inclusive and purposeful strategy, and all the rest of it. At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that there is this initiative at the United Nations and that Palestinians now have an opportunity to take this initiative well beyond the objectives for which it was launched by the leadership and to seek to intelligently use this initiative to promote the re-internationalization of the question of Palestine by addressing the issues of self-determination and the end of occupation on the basis of Palestinian rights as codified in international law and U.N. resolutions. I don’t think that that issue should have to wait until we get the leadership that we want or that we deserve, and I don’t think that these two elements are necessarily contradictory.

Now, in terms of Obama’s speech, I mean, you know, it’s—again, Israelis themselves reacted with stunned disbelief that an American president would give a speech at the U.N. that left even Avigdor Lieberman delighted and saying, you know, Bibi Netanyahu is now going to have to rewrite his own speech, lest he come across as less Israeli than the American president.

So, again, you know, getting back to the larger question, one of the key values of going to the United Nations and promoting the internationalization of the question of Palestine is precisely to get away from this hopelessly compromised American role in—not in resolving this conflict, but which has in fact come down to a policy of transforming Israeli impunity and promoting Israeli impunity as a central plank of American Middle East policy and basically acting in support of perpetual Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. So there can be no solution within the current framework. There can be no solution, unless the American role is replaced by a genuinely international one. And I think that going to the United Nations represents an essential first step in that direction, complemented, of course, by many other strategies and tactics, some of which Ali has mentioned. But at the end of the day, one either has Oslo or one has internationalization, and I don’t think that there’s a third option between the two.

AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there, Mouin Rabbani, with the Institute for Palestine Studies, and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

 

–Democracy Now!, 23 September, 2011

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/23/debate_does_un_statehood_bid_advance

“‘Irvine 11’ jury finds all 10 students guilty”

After more than two days of deliberation, an Orange County jury on Friday found 10 Muslim students guilty of two misdemeanors to conspire and then disrupt a February 2010 speech at UC Irvine last year by the Israeli ambassador to the United States. There was crying as the verdict was read in Superior Court Judge Peter J. Wilson’s courtroom. The students showed no visible emotion, although they hugged each afterward. Some also stormed out. In a case that garnered national attention over free-speech rights, the trial centered on conflicting views of who was being censored. Prosecutors argued that Ambassador Michael Oren was “shut down” when his speech was interrupted by students who took turns shouting preplanned phrases in a crowded UC Irvine ballroom. PHOTOS: ‘Irvine 11’ trial Six defense attorneys argued that the students, seven from UC Irvine and three from UC Riverside, were only following the norm of other college protests and were being singled out. A guilty verdict, the defense had said during the trial, could chill student activism and the free exchange of ideas at colleges nationwide. University administrators disciplined some of the students involved and suspended the campus Muslim Student Union, whose members participated in the protest, for an academic quarter. The group is still on probation. The case also has drawn the attention of a wide range of groups, including Muslim and Jewish organizations and civil libertarians. The trial began Sept. 7. Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Irvine’s Law School, has said that although freedom of speech is not an absolute right, university sanctions were enough for the students. But he also added that he believes criminal sanctions go too far. Chemerinsky told The Times last week that “it makes no sense” to use such resources. “It’s so minor.” Charges against one defendant were tentatively dismissed pending completion of 40 hours of community service at a local soup kitchen. But the other 10 went on trial Sept. 11 before packed, at times noisy, crowds in the courtroom.

 

–Nicole Santa Cruz and Mike Anton, The LA Times, 23 September, 2011

 

 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/irvine-11-verdict-1.html

Electronic Intifada Interviews Students for Justice in Palestine

First, from Democracy Now!:

Palestinians Rally for Statehood as U.S., Israel Press Opposition

“Tens of thousands of Palestinians are rallying in the occupied West Bank towns of Ramallah and Nablus today in a show of support for the statehood bid at the United Nations. The demonstrations come ahead of a speech by President Obama in which he is expected to press his case for subverting the statehood attempt. The Israeli government is also frantically trying to thwart the Palestinian effort. Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attempt to meet with Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Mark Regev: ‘My Prime Minister has said he is willing to meet President Abbas here in Jerusalem. He is willing to go to Ramallah to meet President Abbas there. He said last night he is willing to meet President Abbas in New York. President Abbas is already there. We will be arriving tomorrow, we want to see a meeting, we want to see the restart of the peace talks between us and the Palestinians.’

The Obama administration has tried to undermine the Palestinian effort for statehood despite insisting it supports a two-state solution. On Tuesday, a group of Palestinian citizens of Israel gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to denounce the Obama administration’s opposition to Palestinian statehood.

Protester: ‘We are here to protest against the intention of the United States to vote veto against the Palestinian state in the United Nations. We think that the United States is biased towards Israel and actually became an obstacle toward just peace in the region.’

–Democracy Now!, 21 September, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/21/headlines#7

Zionist bullying “doesn’t work”; Students for Justice in Palestine interviewed

Campus activists working with Students for Justice in Palestine and similar groups are gearing up for a national Students for Justice in Palestine meeting to be held at Columbia University in New York City on 14-16 October. Hundreds of students from around the United States are expected to attend.

The Electronic Intifada recently interviewed three organizers of the conference — Aman Muqeet, a graduate student at Florida International University; Gabriel Schivone, an undergraduate student at Arizona State University; and Tanya Keilani, a graduate student at Columbia University — about the conference goals and objectives, the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement at US campuses and the challenges activists face from Zionist groups and school administrations.

Maureen Clare Murphy: How did the SJP national conference get organized and why is it happening now?

Aman Muqeet: The movement started building off last year’s US Social Forum in Detroit. … Then the Anti-Defamation League made that statement that SJP is one of the ten most anti-Israel organizations in the United States. After that, [SJP activists] came together and made a statement which was signed by 67 SJPs from the US. And that was the point of unity where the 67 groups came together and signed on this. Our conversations [about the national conference] culminated I would say eventually in January or late December, when Gabriel actually had made a conference in Arizona. All the conversation, all of this happened online, in email and developed [eventually] to have it at Columbia University.

Tanya Keilani: A few members from Columbia SJP went to the BDS conference in Montreal [in October 2010] and we also saw students from other SJPs there, for example Hampshire SJP. It was also that conference that allowed us to start having these conversations and provided us with an opportunity to meet other students who were working on similar campaigns, who were dealing with similar challenges and struggles and had the same goals, and that’s been really exciting. With this culmination of these meetings that are happening in different places and these conversations that are happening online, it’s been an amazing thing to be able to speak with students who really share this commitment to justice in Palestine.

As an undergrad I was actually part of another group in Texas, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which is based in Austin at the University of Texas, and that’s been around since 1982. It’s been very interesting being here at SJP in Columbia and communicating with other groups who may not be SJPs but are kind of operating basically in the same way. … I remember being in undergrad and feeling pretty isolated in Texas and not really having any sort of contact with SJPs outside of our state. This is a really great opportunity for us all to really come together.

Gabriel Schivone: When I attended the BDS conference at Hampshire college in November 2009, I saw first-hand and was able to interact and observe SJP — [there were] upwards of fifty schools coming together to try to answer and try to figure out things on a national, centralized sort of level.

MCM: Palestine solidarity organizing on campus is much more visible than when I was a student ten years ago. What factors do you attribute to this upswing in awareness in Palestine solidarity organizing on US campuses?

AM: After Operation Cast Lead [Israel’s winter 2008-09 attacks on Gaza], the movement started building. I don’t think [momentum should be] credited to Operation Cast Lead, but I think after Operation Cast Lead, things have been moving forward very fast.

TK: We’ve also been seeing all these BDS victories. I feel like that’s also been a really big push for students. BDS is something we can all come together around. Just having a little bit of success here and there, even if it’s small, really pushes us to work on these campaigns and make sure that we have a presence on each campus and make sure that we have a consolidated movement.

I remember as an undergrad we never mentioned BDS until the [2005 Palestinian civil society call] came out. Then it was something that we discussed and thought, you know, is this something we want to take on, how do we feel about this. At the time that was a really scary thing to think about taking on BDS, and now that’s very different. It’s definitely a challenge and it’s nothing that SJP groups look at as an easy task. But it’s definitely something that more and more SJP groups are on board with and feel like is a necessary part of their programming for the year.

GS: More and more other groups have been taking BDS on as well, as we can reconcile BDS and the tactics of education and outreach, fitting in very comfortably to why we were formed in the first place. We’re seeing that in the short term, if there’s no direct victory at first, there are still very small ones, like Tanya was saying. Like the East Timorese guerrilla leader said, to resist is to win — and that education and outreach in order to mobilize public opinion is exactly what we’re all about.

MCM: What outcomes do you want from the conference, and do you anticipate that the SJP chapters will have a more centralized structure after the conference?

GS: [The conference aims toward] campaign building — sharing our individual experiences and tactics and strategies, and hearing others and trying to develop things like a centralization of political power — brain power. Not necessarily structure; but maybe that’s something we have to take up at the conference. The SJPs up to this point have been a really decentralized system of freely-associated chapters, which doesn’t really have to change and it’s nothing new — the labor movement or the anti-war movement against US aggression in Vietnam [was built on this model], for example. They’re a bunch of movements or organizations and groups, but the power centralized as a national force and that’s why it was able to gain so much ground and have an effect on policy.

TK: We have clearly-defined goals that we have come up with together as the national organizing community. In addition to movement building and campaigns, two more goals are political development and skill development. Political development is very important for us because as students, we may be in different places in our lives and in our ways of thinking about Palestine. This is a really great way for us to come together and critically think about these issues and how they affect us and how they affect the world. [It also encourages us to] envision our futures and think about activism and where we feel like we best fit and how we can use our resources properly. And how we can think about what’s happening when it comes to, for example, issues like statehood, when it comes to BDS, and how we want to think about these things. How we want to work with other people or not work with other people.

As far as skill sharing goes, that’s something I’ve always really valued because I’ve been doing Palestine activism for a while now. I remember starting out as an undergrad and feeling very overwhelmed but also very committed. It’s important for students in different places to really emphasize self-education and peer education, and we have a lot of different skills that we can all bring together. We don’t operate in a structural way. Zionist organizations have a lot of centralized leadership which gets their tips from other organizations, from staff people who have handbooks given to them each year and are told what to say and what their argument should be. We operate in a grassroots, organic, collective sort of way and that’s our strength. But it also means that we do have to be committed to teaching each other, working with each other, and sharing those skills.

AM: The Zionist organizations have a lot of money. Most of the Palestine solidarity groups don’t have much money. And we are working on a very, very tiny budget. Michael Oren came to FIU and they spent $20,000 on that event. So we are working on very, very small events but are having much bigger turnouts and are making a lot of difference.

MCM: Can you briefly describe what campus solidarity organizing is looking like at your different schools and other US campuses?

GS: I’m from Tucson, on the US-Mexico borderland. A lot of what we were doing consciously over a year at the University of Arizona, where I was at before, was foundational cross-movement building and organization between migrant justice, indigenous resistance and the Palestine justice movement. Building solidarity roots and highlighting each other’s struggles, especially highlighting significant parallels as well as discussing significant differences in the realities of the death and suffering. The mechanisms of oppression and responses like resistance, activism, protests to them, between and among all of our movements together. That’s been a lot of what we’ve been doing in Arizona and we managed to make some noise in the last year with that.

TK: One of the main groups we work with [in New York] is LUCHA, which is an immigrant rights group. As is the case with Arizona, we find that our struggle has a lot in common with other struggles and so immigrant rights is also something that we can relate to. New York is a place for immigrants from everywhere; in the case of Arizona and Texas, my solidarity work with Palestine was more based in the Latino community. Here it’s very different, but many of the issues are the same.

MCM: As the Palestine solidarity movement claims more and more victories along with that comes the backlash and SJPs have been a main target of that backlash. Aman already mentioned how the Anti-Defamation League named SJP on its list of the top ten anti-Israel groups in the United States. The Electronic Intifada recently reported on how the Israeli government has sit in on meetings to undermine the boycott measure passed at Evergreen State College. And last December SJP activists initiated a letter signed by dozens of campus groups protesting FBI repression of the solidarity movement. What kind of challenges you have personally faced in campus organizing and what are SJP chapters doing about it?

AM: Zionist groups like Christians United for Israel, and Hillel and the other organizations step up when you have an SJP on the campus. They start having more events and they start becoming more active. We’ve also taken our student government head-on because AIPAC had sponsored some of our student leaders on free trips to Israel. That’s one way [they are working], they’re sponsoring student government leaders and other students who they think might be useful for them.

TK: We do face intimidation, we do have people come into our events, whether it’s Pamela Geller, whether it’s Campus Media Watch. They do take notes, they do take photographs, they do try to intimidate us. And it doesn’t work. But it is a challenge that we face and we also have issues coming from the administration. Sometimes the administration will work with us and other times they won’t. We’ve had some difficulties in the past year with Columbia working with [Zionist organizations], trying to let them know where we’re at. I think a lot of Zionist groups try to make sure that they’re on the side of the administration and that the administration is not on our side, and so that’s one of our biggest challenges here.

At Columbia, one thing we’ve recently dealt with is the fact that the Zionist group here sponsored a dinner with the Black Student Association. It was a nice little meeting and they had speakers and it was done in private. We don’t have the ability to invite people out to a fancy dinner and let them know that they should be a part of our cause. But at the same time that’s not really what we’re looking for. We’re looking for real solidarity.

–Maureen Clare Murphey, The Electronic Intifada, 21 September, 2011

http://electronicintifada.net/content/zionist-bullying-doesnt-work-students-justice-palestine-interviewed/10408

Also from The Electronic Intifada:

How civil society pushedTurkeyto ditchIsrael’s war industry

“Backed by civil society movements, the Turkish government sends a message to the UN: the international community must not guarantee Israel of impunity for its crimes against international law…”

–Jamal Juma’ and Maren Mantovani, The Electronic Intifada, 16 September 2011

http://electronicintifada.net/content/how-civil-society-pushed-turkey-ditch-israels-war-industry/10390

Also of Interest:

‘Irvine11’ case goes to jury

An Orange County Superior Court jury will begin deliberations Wednesday in the case of 10 Muslim students accused of illegally disrupting a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren last year at UC Irvine.

Jurors listened to two days of closing statements before being given the so-called Irvine 11 case late Tuesday. Those deliberations are expected to last one to two days.

Each of the 10 defendants — seven from UC Irvine and three from UC Riverside — are charged with a misdemeanor for conspiring to disrupt Oren’s speech on Feb. 8, 2010, and a misdemeanor for disrupting it. Charges against an 11th student were dropped pending completion of community service. The defendants face up to six months in jail.

The Orange County district attorney’s office contends that the protesters prevented Oren from speaking freely when they cut off his address on U.S.-Israeli relations by standing up, one by one, and shouting at him.

The defense argues that prosecuting the students is meant to chill criticism of Israel by Muslim Americans.

In closing statements, both sides invoked the right to free speech.

Defense attorneys on Tuesday compared their clients to civil rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez — and said that the students were defending the Constitution when they shouted in protest.

They “are serving our society with their conscience,” said Jacqueline Goodman, one of six defense attorneys.

Among the comments shouted that night:

“Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!” one student yelled.

“You, sir, are an accomplice to genocide!” another shouted.

Goodman said the remaining supporters of the protest peacefully walked out of the ballroom at 6:25 p.m., leaving Oren plenty of time to finish his speech. In fact, the ambassador did complete it but canceled a planned question-and-answer session.

Lisa Holder, another defense attorney, said the defendants’ shouted comments were impolite and critical of Israel but legally protected by the 1st Amendment.

“Ultimately what was disruptive was the message,” Holder said.

Dan Stormer, another defense attorney, told the jury in his closing statement: “Being rude may be unpleasant, but it’s not unlawful.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Wagner, in his rebuttal of the defense arguments Tuesday, said the subjects chosen by the students in their protest were irrelevant. The case, he said, is about how the defendants conducted themselves in a crowded room of 700 people, some of whom became frightened and unsettled during the disruption.

The students could have jumped up and said, “Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse!” and the result would have been the same, Wagner said. “Once the rules are getting broken like that, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Yes, that’s anarchy. I suppose that’s where they want to go.”

Wagner said he believed the six defense attorneys repeatedly addressed him as “the Government,” rather than by his name or “the prosecution” in order “to make it seem like a scary Big Brother idea.”

A day earlier, Wagner said in his closing statement to the jury that the “right to free speech is not absolute.”

He said the students, by interrupting Oren’s speech in the manner they did, violated the 1st Amendment by substantially limiting the ambassador’s ability to communicate his ideas.

Censorship of ideas breaks down a free exchange of information, he said.

“Who is the censor in this case?” Wagner asked the jurors. “Right there — 10 of them.”

 

–Lauren Williams, Los Angeles Times, September 21, 2011

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0921-irvine-eleven-20110921,0,4693257.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+(L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

 

Also See: http://www.irvine11.com/

Chomsky: “9/11 – was there an alternative response?”

Chomsky, by illuminating American foreign policy, puts the occupation of Palestine in its proper context.–USC SJP Editors

“”

From Al Jazeera: On another 9/11 - September 11, 1973 - the CIA launched a coup that overthrew democratically-elected Chilean president Salvador Allende and replaced him with a military dictatorship.

Suppression of one’s own crimes is virtually ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated.

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11, 2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1, the presumed mastermind of the crime, Osama bin Laden, was assassinated in Pakistan by a team of elite US commandos, Navy SEALs, after he was captured, unarmed and undefended, in Operation Geronimo.

A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the US. “He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the US from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them,” Eric Margolis writes. “‘Bleeding the US,’ in his words. The United States, first under George W Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden’s trap  … Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction … may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States” – particularly when the debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.

That Washington was bent on fulfilling bin Laden’s fervent wishes was evident at once. As discussed in my book 9-11, written shortly after those attacks occurred, anyone with knowledge of the region could recognise “that a massive assault on a Muslim population would be the answer to the prayers of bin Laden and his associates, and would lead the US and its allies into a ‘diabolical trap’, as the French foreign minister put it”.

The senior CIA analyst responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden from 1996, Michael Scheuer, wrote shortly after that “bin Laden has been precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us. [He] is out to drastically alter US and Western policies toward the Islamic world”, and largely succeeded: “US forces and policies are completing the radicalisation of the Islamic world, something Osama bin Laden has been trying to do with substantial but incomplete success since the early 1990s. As a result, I think it is fair to conclude that the United States of America remains bin Laden’s only indispensable ally.” And arguably remains so, even after his death.

The first 9/11

Was there an alternative? There is every likelihood that the Jihadi movement, much of it highly critical of bin Laden, could have been split and undermined after 9/11. The “crime against humanity”, as it was rightly called, could have been approached as a crime, with an international operation to apprehend the likely suspects. That was recognised at the time, but no such idea was even considered.

In 9-11, I quoted Robert Fisk’s conclusion that the “horrendous crime” of 9/11 was committed with “wickedness and awesome cruelty”, an accurate judgment. It is useful to bear in mind that the crimes could have been even worse. Suppose, for example, that the attack had gone as far as bombing the White House, killing the president, imposing a brutal military dictatorship that killed thousands and tortured tens of thousands while establishing an international terror centre that helped impose similar torture-and-terror states elsewhere and carried out an international assassination campaign; and as an extra fillip, brought in a team of economists – call them “the Kandahar boys” – who quickly drove the economy into one of the worst depressions in its history. That, plainly, would have been a lot worse than 9/11.

Unfortunately, it is not a thought experiment. It happened. The only inaccuracy in this brief account is that the numbers should be multiplied by 25 to yield per capita equivalents, the appropriate measure. I am, of course, referring to what in Latin America is often called “the first 9/11”: September 11, 1973, when the US succeeded in its intensive efforts to overthrow the democratic government of Salvador Allende in Chile with a military coup that placed General Pinochet’s brutal regime in office. The goal, in the words of the Nixon administration, was to kill the “virus” that might encourage all those “foreigners [who] are out to screw us” to take over their own resources and in other ways to pursue an intolerable policy of independent development. In the background was the conclusion of the National Security Council that, if the US could not control Latin America, it could not expect “to achieve a successful order elsewhere in the world”.

The first 9/11, unlike the second, did not change the world. It was “nothing of very great consequence”, as Henry Kissinger assured his boss a few days later.

These events of little consequence were not limited to the military coup that destroyed Chilean democracy and set in motion the horror story that followed. The first 9/11 was just one act in a drama which began in 1962, when John F Kennedy shifted the mission of the Latin American military from “hemispheric defense” – an anachronistic holdover from World War II – to “internal security”, a concept with a chilling interpretation in US-dominated Latin American circles.

In the recently published Cambridge University History of the Cold War, Latin American scholar John Coatsworth writes that from that time to “the Soviet collapse in 1990, the numbers of political prisoners, torture victims, and executions of non-violent political dissenters in Latin America vastly exceeded those in the Soviet Union and its East European satellites”, including many religious martyrs and mass slaughter as well, always supported or initiated in Washington. The last major violent act was the brutal murder of six leading Latin American intellectuals, Jesuit priests, a few days after the Berlin Wall fell. The perpetrators were an elite Salvadorean battalion, which had already left a shocking trail of blood, fresh from renewed training at the JFK School of Special Warfare, acting on direct orders of the high command of the US client state.

The consequences of this hemispheric plague still, of course, reverberate.

From kidnapping and torture to assassination

All of this, and much more like it, is dismissed as of little consequence, and forgotten. Those whose mission is to rule the world enjoy a more comforting picture, articulated well enough in the current issue of the prestigious (and valuable) journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. The lead article discusses “the visionary international order” of the “second half of the twentieth century” marked by “the universalisation of an American vision of commercial prosperity”. There is something to that account, but it does not quite convey the perception of those at the wrong end of the guns.

The same is true of the assassination of Osama bin Laden, which brings to an end at least a phase in the “war on terror” re-declared by President George W Bush on the second 9/11. Let us turn to a few thoughts on that event and its significance.

On May 1, 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in his virtually unprotected compound by a raiding mission of 79 Navy SEALs, who entered Pakistan by helicopter. After many lurid stories were provided by the government and withdrawn, official reports made it increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law, beginning with the invasion itself.

There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 79 commandos facing no opposition – except, they report, from his wife, also unarmed, whom they shot in self-defense when she “lunged” at them, according to the White House.

A plausible reconstruction of the events is provided by veteran Middle East correspondent Yochi Dreazen and colleagues in the Atlantic. Dreazen, formerly the military correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, is senior correspondent for the National Journal Group covering military affairs and national security. According to their investigation, White House planning appears not to have considered the option of capturing bin Laden alive: “The administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior US official with knowledge of the discussions. A high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him alive.”

The authors add: “For many at the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency who had spent nearly a decade hunting bin Laden, killing the militant was a necessary and justified act of vengeance.” Furthermore, “capturing bin Laden alive would have also presented the administration with an array of nettlesome legal and political challenges”. Better, then, to assassinate him, dumping his body into the sea without the autopsy considered essential after a killing – an act that predictably provoked both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.

As the Atlantic inquiry observes, “The decision to kill bin Laden outright was the clearest illustration to date of a little-noticed aspect of the Obama administration’s counterterror policy. The Bush administration captured thousands of suspected militants and sent them to detention camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration, by contrast, has focused on eliminating individual terrorists rather than attempting to take them alive.” That is one significant difference between Bush and Obama. The authors quote former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who “told German TV that the US raid was ‘quite clearly a violation of international law’ and that bin Laden should have been detained and put on trial”, contrasting Schmidt with US Attorney General Eric Holder, who “defended the decision to kill bin Laden although he didn’t pose an immediate threat to the Navy SEALs, telling a House panel … that the assault had been ‘lawful, legitimate and appropriate in every way’”.

The disposal of the body without autopsy was also criticised by allies. The highly regarded British barrister Geoffrey Robertson, who supported the intervention and opposed the execution largely on pragmatic grounds, nevertheless described Obama’s claim that “justice was done” as an “absurdity” that should have been obvious to a former professor of constitutional law. Pakistan law “requires a colonial inquest on violent death, and international human rights law insists that the ‘right to life’ mandates an inquiry whenever violent death occurs from government or police action. The US is therefore under a duty to hold an inquiry that will satisfy the world as to the true circumstances of this killing.”

Robertson usefully reminds us that:

“[I]t was not always thus. When the time came to consider the fate of men much more steeped in wickedness than Osama bin Laden – the Nazi leadership – the British government wanted them hanged within six hours of capture. President Truman demurred, citing the conclusion of Justice Robert Jackson that summary execution ‘would not sit easily on the American conscience or be remembered by our children with pride … the only course is to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused after a hearing as dispassionate as the times will permit and upon a record that will leave our reasons and motives clear.’”

Eric Margolis comments that “Washington has never made public the evidence of its claim that Osama bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks”, presumably one reason why “polls show that fully a third of American respondents believe that the US government and/or Israel were behind 9/11”, while in the Muslim world skepticism is much higher. “An open trial in the US or at the Hague would have exposed these claims to the light of day,” he continues, a practical reason why Washington should have followed the law.

In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects”. In June 2002, FBI head Robert Mueller, in what the Washington Post described as “among his most detailed public comments on the origins of the attacks”, could say only that “investigators believe the idea of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon came from al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan, the actual plotting was done in Germany, and the financing came through the United Arab Emirates from sources in Afghanistan”.

What the FBI believed and thought in June 2002 they didn’t know eight months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know) to permit a trial of bin Laden if they were presented with evidence. Thus, it is not true, as President Obama claimed in his White House statement after bin Laden’s death, that “[w]e quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda”.

There has never been any reason to doubt what the FBI believed in mid-2002, but that leaves us far from the proof of guilt required in civilised societies – and whatever the evidence might be, it does not warrant murdering a suspect who could, it seems, have been easily apprehended and brought to trial. Much the same is true of evidence provided since. Thus, the 9/11 Commission provided extensive circumstantial evidence of bin Laden’s role in 9/11, based primarily on what it had been told about confessions by prisoners in Guantanamo. It is doubtful that much of that would hold up in an independent court, considering the ways confessions were elicited. But in any event, the conclusions of a congressionally authorised investigation, however convincing one finds them, plainly fall short of a sentence by a credible court, which is what shifts the category of the accused from suspect to convicted.

There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession”, but that was a boast, not a confession, with as much credibility as my “confession” that I won the Boston marathon. The boast tells us a lot about his character, but nothing about his responsibility for what he regarded as a great achievement, for which he wanted to take credit.

Again, all of this is, transparently, quite independent of one’s judgments about his responsibility, which seemed clear immediately, even before the FBI inquiry, and still does.

Crimes of aggression

It is worth adding that bin Laden’s responsibility was recognised in much of the Muslim world, and condemned. One significant example is the distinguished Lebanese cleric Sheikh Fadlallah, greatly respected by Hizbollah and Shia groups generally, outside Lebanon as well. He had some experience with assassinations. He had been targeted for assassination: by a truck bomb outside a mosque, in a CIA-organised operation in 1985. He escaped, but 80 others were killed, mostly women and girls as they left the mosque – one of those innumerable crimes that do not enter the annals of terror because of the fallacy of “wrong agency”. Sheikh Fadlallah sharply condemned the 9/11 attacks.

One of the leading specialists on the Jihadi movement, Fawaz Gerges, suggests that the movement might have been split at that time had the US exploited the opportunity instead of mobilising the movement, particularly by the attack on Iraq, a great boon to bin Laden, which led to a sharp increase in terror, as intelligence agencies had anticipated. At the Chilcot hearings investigating the background to the invasion of Iraq, for example, the former head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 testified that both British and US intelligence were aware that Saddam posed no serious threat, that the invasion was likely to increase terror, and that the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan had radicalised parts of a generation of Muslims who saw the military actions as an “attack on Islam”. As is often the case, security was not a high priority for state action.

It might be instructive to ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos had landed at George W Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic (after proper burial rites, of course). Uncontroversially, he was not a “suspect” but the “decider” who gave the orders to invade Iraq – that is, to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country and its national heritage, and the murderous sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region. Equally uncontroversially, these crimes vastly exceed anything attributed to bin Laden.

To say that all of this is uncontroversial, as it is, is not to imply that it is not denied. The existence of flat earthers does not change the fact that, uncontroversially, the earth is not flat. Similarly, it is uncontroversial that Stalin and Hitler were responsible for horrendous crimes, though loyalists deny it. All of this should, again, be too obvious for comment, and would be, except in an atmosphere of hysteria so extreme that it blocks rational thought.

Similarly, it is uncontroversial that Bush and associates did commit the “supreme international crime” – the crime of aggression. That crime was defined clearly enough by Justice Robert Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States at Nuremberg.  An “aggressor,” Jackson proposed to the Tribunal in his opening statement, is a state that is the first to commit such actions as “[i]nvasion of its armed forces, with or without a declaration of war, of the territory of another State …” No one, even the most extreme supporter of the aggression, denies that Bush and associates did just that.

We might also do well to recall Jackson’s eloquent words at Nuremberg on the principle of universality: “If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.”

It is also clear that announced intentions are irrelevant, even if they are truly believed. Internal records reveal that Japanese fascists apparently did believe that, by ravaging China, they were labouring to turn it into an “earthly paradise”. And although it may be difficult to imagine, it is conceivable that Bush and company believed they were protecting the world from destruction by Saddam’s nuclear weapons. All irrelevant, though ardent loyalists on all sides may try to convince themselves otherwise.

We are left with two choices: either Bush and associates are guilty of the “supreme international crime” including all the evils that follow, or else we declare that the Nuremberg proceedings were a farce and the allies were guilty of judicial murder.

The imperial mentality and 9/11

A few days before the bin Laden assassination, Orlando Bosch died peacefully in Florida, where he resided along with his accomplice Luis Posada Carriles and many other associates in international terrorism. After he was accused of dozens of terrorist crimes by the FBI, Bosch was granted a presidential pardon by Bush I over the objections of the Justice Department, which found the conclusion “inescapable that it would be prejudicial to the public interest for the United States to provide a safe haven for Bosch”. The coincidence of these deaths at once calls to mind the Bush II doctrine – “already … a de facto rule of international relations”, according to the noted Harvard international relations specialist Graham Allison – which revokes “the sovereignty of states that provide sanctuary to terrorists”.

Allison refers to the pronouncement of Bush II, directed at the Taliban, that “those who harbour terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves”. Such states, therefore, have lost their sovereignty and are fit targets for bombing and terror – for example, the state that harbored Bosch and his associate. When Bush issued this new “de facto rule of international relations”, no one seemed to notice that he was calling for invasion and destruction of the US and the murder of its criminal presidents.

None of this is problematic, of course, if we reject Justice Jackson’s principle of universality, and adopt instead the principle that the US is self-immunised against international law and conventions – as, in fact, the government has frequently made very clear.

It is also worth thinking about the name given to the bin Laden operation: Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound that few seem able to perceive that the White House is glorifying bin Laden by calling him “Geronimo” – the Apache Indian chief who led the courageous resistance to the invaders of Apache lands.

The casual choice of the name is reminiscent of the ease with which we name our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Blackhawk … We might react differently if the Luftwaffe had called its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy”.

The examples mentioned would fall under the category of “American exceptionalism”, were it not for the fact that easy suppression of one’s own crimes is virtually ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated and forced to acknowledge reality.

Perhaps the assassination was perceived by the administration as an “act of vengeance,” as Robertson concludes. And perhaps the rejection of the legal option of a trial reflects a difference between the moral culture of 1945 and today, as he suggests. Whatever the motive was, it could hardly have been security. As in the case of the “supreme international crime” in Iraq, the bin Laden assassination is another illustration of the important fact that security is often not a high priority for state action, contrary to received doctrine.

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor emeritus in the MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. He is the author of numerous bestselling political works, including 9-11: Was There an Alternative? (Seven Stories Press), an updated version of his classic account, just being published this week with a major new essay – from which this post was adapted – considering the 10 years since the 9/11 attacks.

A version of this piece was originally published on TomDispatch.com.

–Noam Chomsky, Al Jazeera English, 7 September, 2011

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/20119775453842191.html

“Murdering Babies is ‘Permissible’ When They’re Palestinian”

From CounterPunch:

“US media have been widely and repeatedly reporting on the awful March 11 murder of three small Israeli children and their parents. While no one yet knows who committed this act, reports presume that the murderers were Palestinian, and for this reason the incident is receiving major attention. Various heads of state, including President Obama, have condemned it.

If it turns out that the murderer or murderers were Israeli, as some previously presumed ‘terrorists’ have turned out to be, or a foreign worker who had previously threatened the family over unpaid wages, as some reports from the area suggest, it is likely that coverage of the incident will quickly vanish from U.S. headlines.

For now, however, American news reports continue to provide excruciating details about the atrocity. Given the amount of reportage, it is surprising how much significant information is omitted.

For example, none of these reports mention that the location of the murders, Itamar (near Nablus), is an illegal Jewish-only settlement on stolen Palestinian land in the midst of refugees whom Israel pushed off their ancestral land through massacres and ruthless military actions.

Nor do reports mention the frequency with which Israeli settlers beat, occasionally torture, and sometimes murder Palestinians of all ages, burn their crops, and hack down their groves of olive trees, the livelihood of many Palestinian villagers; hundreds, at least, of these trees, have been destroyed by rampaging Israeli settlers.

Religious extremism

Even lengthy articles on the tragic incident fail to mention the extremely relevant and chillingly ironic fact that Itamar was founded and is largely populated by fanatic Jewish extremists, many of whom believe that the killing of non-Jewish infants is religiously permitted, and sometimes mandated, as discussed in a best-selling book ‘The King’s Torah,’ which was written by authors from the area and endorsed by numerous rabbis and religious schools (but opposed by most Israelis).

In their elaborate descriptions of the murder scene, U.S. articles neglect to mention that the building next door is the house of Chabad Lubavitch emissaries, a Hassidic movement in Orthodox Judaism, and features a photo of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known for his astoundingly supremacist teachings.

Schneerson is widely revered by such settlers (and his followers in the U.S.); many believed him to have been the messiah. In their book ‘Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel,’ professors Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky quote Schneerson’s teachings about the differences between Jews and non-Jews:

“… we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather, we have a case of “let us differentiate” between totally different species. This is what needs to be said about the body: the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world…A non-Jew’s entire reality is only vanity…The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for the sake of the Jews…’

Which children matter?

Finally, news reports on the abhorrent Itamar murders fail to mention the frequent, tragic, and equally abhorrent killing of massive numbers of Palestinian children by Israelis.

For example, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Itamar incident was ‘the deadliest such attack against Jewish settlers in the area since 2002,’ but didn’t bother to report that there have been numerous deadly attacks on Palestinians in the area in the intervening years, that dozens of Palestinian minors have been killed, many more injured and maimed, and even more Palestinian mothers, fathers, and grandparents killed.

This viewpoint is typical of U.S. media. Statistical studies show that primetime network news shows report on Israeli children’s deaths at rates up to 14 times greater than they report on Palestinian children’s deaths; regional newspapers report Israeli deaths at even more disproportionate rates.

Palestinian deaths are therefore often virtually invisible to American news consumers, even though they occurred first and are far greater in number.

In the round of violence that began in fall 2000, over 90 Palestinian children were killed before a single Israeli child; in total, approximately 1,500 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis, and approximately 130 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians during this period.

Since American media, in stark contrast to coverage of the Itamar victims, so rarely report on Palestinian victims and their weeping families, or provide details of their grisly deaths, at the end of this article is a partial list of these young, largely disappeared victims.

While this very incomplete list does little to balance the moving, detailed reporting on Israeli children’s deaths found in U.S. news media, and completely ignores the even greater number of children grieving for parents killed by Israeli forces, publishing it here at least provides the names of Palestinian victims, a rarity in American media coverage.

A few years ago an Israeli army officer emptied, at close range, the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl. Afterward he said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old. Because so many of his underlings reported this particular incident, he was eventually tried in an Israeli military court – but on minor offenses, not murder. He was acquitted of all charges.

It is hard to imagine the feelings of Americans if these were our children and if we were suffering this degree of unbearable loss. The population in the Palestinian Territories is less than 1/90th the population of the U.S.; there is hardly a Palestinian family that has not experienced tragedy.

Because Israel partisans consistently screen out the mass of significant information on this issue, and other editors, perhaps through ignorance, negligence, and/or timidity, go along, Americans receive the kind of highly filtered, lying-through-omission ‘journalism’ that is so effectively creating fear, hatred, and ignorance of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims – and that perpetuates the uniquely massive flow of American money to Israel, currently over $8 million per day. Israel, with a population of seven million, is reportedly about to ask for an additional $20 billion.

Regarding the as-yet unsolved murder of three children in Itamar, President Obama pronounced: ‘There is no justification and there can be neither excuse nor forgiveness for the murder of children.  I expect a similar condemnation, and I demand a similar condemnation, from the Palestinian Authority.’

Perhaps someday President Obama will have the integrity – and the courage – to make the same pronouncement about the murders of Palestinian children, and address it to the Israeli government.

A partial list of Palestinian Children Killed by Israelis

The following information is taken from “Remember These Children,” [ which works to document all Israeli and Palestinian children who have been killed, in the belief, sadly not shared by the U.S. media, that all of these children matter.

In the list below, “IDF” stands for Israeli Defense Forces, an offensive, occupying force; “Incursion” refers to an invasion of Palestinian land by Israeli military forces.  To reiterate: this is a partial list of children mostly 13 and under of the approximately 1,500 Palestinian minors killed by Israeli forces in the past 11 years; during the same period Palestinians killed about 130 Israeli minors.

2000

Muhammad Saleh Muhammad al-Arja, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by Israeli sniper fire to his head near the Rafah boder crossing.

Math Ahmad Muhammad abu-Hadwan, 11, of Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire to his head in Tel Rumeida.

Abdul-Rahman Khaled Hammouda Khbeish, 4, of Balata refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire to his head.

2001

Obeisi infant girl, of Nablus, died at an IDF checkpoint when her mother was prevented from crossing to reach the hospital.

Muhammad Ismael Hashem Nasr, 10, of Dahyet al-Bareed, near Jerusalem, killed by Israeli settlers.

Isra Ahmad, 11, of Nablus, died at an IDF checkpoint when she was prevented from reaching a hospital.

Mahmoud Ismael al-Darwish, 11, of Dura, near Hebron, killed by IDF shelling to his chest.

Yehya Fathi Muhammad al-Sheikh Eid, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to his face, neck and abdomen.

Iman Muhammad al-Haju, 4 months, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while in her mother’s arms.

Suleiman Sami al-Masri, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his back.

Khalil Ibrahim Muhammad al-Moghrabi, 11, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to his head while playing with a friend near the border with Egypt.

Diya Marwan Hilmi al-Tmeizi, 3 months, of Ithna, near Hebron, killed, with her older brother, by Israeli settler gunfire to her head and back.

Ashraf Khalil Abdul-Minem, 8, of al-Judeidah, near Jenin, killed, with his brother, in an IDF helicopter missile strike during a targeted assassination.

Bilal Khalil Abdul-Minem, 10, of al-Judeidah, near Jenin, killed, with his brother, in an IDF helicopter missile strike during a targeted assassination.

Azhar Said Shalafa, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died at an IDF checkpoint when her mother was prevented from taking her to the hospital.

Muhammad Subhi abu-Arrar, 14, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF sniper fire to his chest while playing in front of his home.

Inas Samir abu-Zeid, 5, of Rafah, Gaza, killed, with her brother, by IDF shelling.
Suleiman Samir abu-Zeid, 7, of Rafah, Gaza, killed, with his sister, by IDF shelling.

Abdallah Atatrah, 3, of al-Tarm, near Jenin, died at an IDF checkpoint when the car carrying him was prevented from getting to the Yabad medical center after he fell into a swamp.

Khaled Arafat al-Batash, 2, of Hebron, killed by the IDF and Israeli settlers during a gas attack.

Riham Nabil Younis Abul-Ward, 10, of Jenin, killed by IDF gunfire to her head while in her classroom.

Abed-Rabo infant, newborn, of Bethlehem, died at an IDF checkpoint after its mother was denied access to medical care.

Akram Naim Abdul-Karim al-Astal, 6, of Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his brother and three cousins, by an IDF missile while on their way to school.

Anis Idris Muhammad al-Astal, 11, of Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his brother and three cousins, by an IDF missile while on their way to school.

Muhammad Rateb abu-Shahla, 12, of Jenin, killed by IDF shelling to his head.

Shadi Ahmad Abdul-Moti Arafeh, 13, of Hebron, killed in an IDF helicopter missile strike during a targeted assassination.

Burhan Muhammad Ibrahim al-Himuni, 3, of Hebron, killed in an IDF helicopter missile strike during a targeted assassination.

Muhammad Zakin, 8 hours, of Yamoun, near Jenin, died at an IDF checkpoint after his mother was denied access to medical care.

Rami Salahaldeen Muhammad Zurob, 13, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF helicopter fire to his head while playing in front of his house.

2002

Muna Sami Ataya al-Bajasa, 13, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed, with her mother, by IDF tank fire to her head during an incursion.

Mahmoud Hasan Ahmad al-Talalka, 7, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his abdomen near the Nisanit settlement.

Maria Izaldeen abu-Sarieh, 9, of Jenin refugee camp, killed by IDF shelling to her head while in her home during an incursion.

Inas Ibrahim Eisa Saleh, 9, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Feb. 19 from IDF shelling during a targeted assassination.

Muhammad Hussein abu-Kweik, 8, of Amari refugee camp, killed, with his two sisters, by IDF helicopter fire during a targeted assassination.

Shaima Izaldeen Ibrahim al-Masri, 7, of Ramallah, killed by IDF helicopter fire during a targeted assassination.

Said Ali Ibrahim Subeih, 12, of Ramallah, died of head wounds sustained Feb. 28 from IDF gunfire.

Muhammad Mamoun Fayez abu-Ali, 10, of Tulkarm refugee camp, died of chest wounds sustained March 7 from IDF gunfire during an incursion.

Amani Odeh Muhammad al-Awawdah, 12, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with her mother, brother, sister and cousin, by an IDF land mine while riding on an animal drawn cart.

Salim Odeh Muhammad al-Awawdah, 10, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his mother, 2 sisters and cousin, by an IDF land mine while riding on an animal drawn cart.

Tariq Muhammad Salman al-Awawdah, 10, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his aunt and three cousins, by an IDF land mine while riding on an animal drawn cart.

Mujahed Arafat abu-Shabab, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling.
Shaima Said Abdul-Rahim Hamad, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained March 15 from IDF gunfire.

Iyad Imad Muhammad al-Mughrabi, 11, of Askar refugee camp, died of head wounds sustained March 17 from IDF gunfire.

Riham Hussam Mustafa abu-Taha, 4, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained March 21 from IDF shelling.

Mahmoud Muhammad Musa abu-Yasin, 13, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of abdominal wounds sustained March 12 during a funeral.

Abdullah Samir Omar al-Shubi, 10, of Nablus, killed, with his family of seven, by an IDF missile during an incursion.

Anas Samir Omar al-Shubi, 4, of Nablus, killed, with his family of seven, by an IDF missile during an incursion.

Azzam Samir Omar al-Shubi, 7, of Nablus, killed, with his family of seven, by an IDF missile during an incursion

Salwa Khaled Dahaliz, 10, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her head near the Rafah Yam settlement.

Sumaya Najeh Abdul-Hadi al-Hasan, 6, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her head.

Isra Ghaleb Othman, 10, of Beitunia, near Ramallah, killed by IDF gunfire to her side.

Ahed Rasmi Ali Hamad, 5, of Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire during an incursion.

Qusay Farah abu-Aisha, 12, of Askar refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire while playing in his yard during an incursion.

Fadel Mahmoud abu-Zuheirah, 9, of Beitunia, near Ramallah, killed by IDF tank fire to his abdomen while in his home during an incursion.

Rifat Bassam Shehada Awad, 12, of Awarta, near Nablus, killed, with his two brothers, by an IDF armored personnel carrier.

Khayri Bassam Shehada Awad, 11, of Awarta, near Nablus, killed, with his two brothers, by an IDF armored personnel carrier.

Faraj Hekmat Udwan, 4, of Awarta, near Nablus, killed by an IDF armored personnel carrier.

Othman Fadel Khaled Masharqah, 7, of Jenin, killed by IDF shelling to his head and limbs during an incursion.

Asad Faysal Ersan Qarini, 10, of Jenin, killed by IDF gunfire to his head and foot during an incursion.

Huda Muhammad Said abu-Shaluf, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her head while at home during an incursion.

Fadi Ghassan al-Ajlouni, 8, of Hebron, killed by IDF gunfire.

Abed Khaled Muhammad Ismael, 11, of Artas, near Bethlehem, killed by IDF gunfire.

Abeer Muhammad Yousef Zakarna, 3, of Qabatiya, near Jenin, killed, with her brother and mother, by IDF shelling to her limbs.

Basel Muhammad Yousef Zakarna, 4, of Qabatiya, near Jenin, killed, with his sister and mother, by IDF shelling to his back.

Tamer Khaled Mahmoud abu-Siriyye, 10, of Tulkarm, killed by IDF tank fire to his chest while throwing stones.

Salem Sami Salem al-Shaer, 15, of Rafah, Gaza, died of back wounds sustained May 7, with his brother, from IDF gunfire during an incursion.

Anwar Elian Saleh abu-Said, 12, of Juhor al-Deek, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling.

Hussein Eid Hassan al-Matwi, 8, of al-Maghraqa, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to his heart near his home.

Abdul-Samad Hashem Shamlakh, 10, of Gaza City, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while in his home during an incursion.

Ahmad Yousef Abdul-Aziz al-Ghazawi, 9, of Jenin, killed by IDF tank fire.

Fares Hussam Fares al-Sadi, 13, of Jenin, killed by the IDF when his neighbor’s house was blown up.

Sjoud Ahmad Turki Fahmawi, 6, of Jenin, killed by IDF tank fire to her chest and left arm during an incursion.

Jamil Yousef Abdul-Aziz al-Ghazzawi, 12, of Jenin, died of leg and thigh wounds sustained June 21, with his brother, from IDF tank fire.

Bassam Ghassan Ragheb al-Sadi, 6, of Jenin refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest.

Muhammad Shteiwi, 12, of Fara refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest.

Anwar Muhammad Kamal al-Hindi, 2, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed, with her mother, by IDF gunfire to her head.

Shukri Fayq Abdel-Haj Daoud, 10, of Qalqilya, died of head wounds sustained June 27 from IDF gunfire during curfew.

Ahmad Said Abdul-Jawad abu-Radaha, 7, of Amari refugee camp, killed by an IDF bomb.

Muhammad Mahmoud al-Huwaiti, 3, of Gaza City, killed, with his brother, in an IDF airstrike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Subhi Mahmoud al-Huwaiti, 5, of Gaza City, killed, with his brother, in an IDF airstrike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Ayman Raed Matar, 18, of Gaza City, killed, with his brother, sister and cousins, in an IDF airstrike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Dina Raed Matar, 2, of Gaza City, killed, with her brothers and cousins, in an IDF airstrike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Muhammad Raed Matar, 4, of Gaza City, killed, with his siblings and cousins, in an IDF airstrike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Dunia Rami Matar, 5, of Gaza City, killed, with her cousins, in an IDF airstrike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Ala Muhammad Matar, 11, of Gaza City, killed, with his cousins, in an IDF airstike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Ahmad Muhammad al-Shawa, 5, of Gaza City, killed, with his father, in an IDF airstike while at home during the targeted assassination of Salah Shehada.

Asma Tahseen Ahmad Ahmad, 9, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her back while playing in her front yard.

Hamzeh Muhammad Badawi Dweikat, 13, of Balata, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest and neck while in his home during curfew.

Ayman Atiya abu-Mugheiseb, 12, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained Aug. 7 from IDF gunfire while in his backyard.

Ayman Bassam Nadid Fares, 6, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while in his field near the Ganei Tal settlement.

Jihad Musa Muhammad al-Athra, 6, of Yatta, Hebron, killed by an Israeli settler vehicle.

Bahira Borhan Mefleh Daraghma, 7, of Tubas, killed, with her cousin, by an IDF missile strike during an assassination attempt.

Abdul-Salam Fawzi Abdul-Rahman Samreen, 11, of al-Bireh, killed by IDF gunfire to his abdomen during curfew.

Rawan Murad Eisa Hrezian, 3 days, of Hebron, died at an IDF checkpoint.

Rami Kahlil Ibrahim al-Barbari, 12, of Nablus, killed by IDF tank fire to his head during curfew.
Mahmoud Hamza Ahmad Zaghloul, 11, of Nablus, killed by IDF shelling to his heart.

Thaer Salah al-Hout, 12, of Rafah refugee camp, killed by IDF tank fire to his head during an incursion.

Shaima Kamal Yousef abu-Shamaleh, 8, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to her head while in her home during an incursion.

Nafez Khaled Mashal, 2, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his abdomen.

Muhammad Rifat abu-Naja, 9, of Rafah, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Oct. 17 from IDF gunfire.

Hamed Asad Hasan al-Masri, 2, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to his chest.

Jihad Tahseen Darweesh al-Faqih, 8, of Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire to his heart during an incursion.

Fawaregh infant, newborn, of Masarah, near Bethlehem, died at an IDF checkpoint after his mother was delayed on her way to the Bethlehem hospital.

Infant, Newborn, of Tel, near Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire.

Nada Kamal Muhammad Mahdi, 11, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her chest while at home.

Hanin Saud abu-Sita, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her pelvis.

Hanin Abdul-Kader Saleh abu-Suleiman, 8, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her head.

2003

Abdul-Rahman Samer abu-Bakr, 10, of Nablus, died at an IDF checkpoint after he was prevented from reaching medical care.

Iyad Salim Othman abu-Shaer, 12, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, died of neck wounds sustained Dec. 24 from IDF gunfire.

Ali Taleb Ghreiz, 8, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to his head.

Mustafa Ibrahim abu-Adwan, 10, of Khan Younis, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained Feb. 7 from IDF shelling.

Aref Omar Afif Bisharat, 13, of Tammun, near Tubas, died of head wounds sustained Feb. 5 from IDF gunfire while throwing stones.

Husni Majdi al-Ghul, 8, of Qalqilya, killed by Israeli border police gunfire to his chest during an incursion.

Abdul-Rahman Mustafa Ali Jadallah, 9, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head during a funeral.

Ilham Ziad Hassan al-Assar, 4, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her abdomen and left foot during an incursion.

Christine George Antoine Sada, 10, of Aida refugee camp, killed by undercover IDF gunfire to her head and chest while riding in a car with her family during a targeted assassination.

Anas Jihad al-Kahlout, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head.

Amir Ahmad Muhammad Ayyad, 2, of Gaza City, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest and abdomen during an incursion.

Elian Saad Elian al-Bashiti, 18 months, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to his head.

Tamer Nizar Fathi Arar, 11, of Salfit, killed by IDF sniper fire to his head during a demonstration.

Afnan Yasser Muhammad Taha, 1, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with her mother, in an IDF helicopter missile strike during the targeted assassination of her father.

Amal Nimer Salem al-Jarusha, 8, of Gaza City, died of wounds sustained June 10 in an IDF helicopter missile strike while playing in her yard during a targeted assassination.

Muhammad Sharif Jawdat Kabaha, 3, of Barta al-Sharkiya, near Jenin, killed by IDF tank fire to his head while waiting in a car with his family at a checkpoint.

Aya Mahmoud Noman Fayyad, 9, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to her chest while in her home.

Sana Jamil al-Daour, 9, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of head and neck wounds sustained Aug. 26 from IDF helicopter fire during a targeted assassination.

Thaer Monsur Noman al-Sayouri, 9, of Hebron, killed by IDF tank fire to his head while in his home during an incursion.

Muhammad Ayman Yousef Ibrahim, 7, of Tulkarm refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest during a targeted assassination.

Ibrahim Ahmad Frej al-Qreinawi, 10, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his abdomen while with his family in their yard during an incursion.

Atwa Yousef abu-Muhsen, 8, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head during an incursion.

Muhammad Ziad Muhammad Baroud, 12, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF helicopter fire during a targeted assassination.

Muhammad Ismael Elian al-Hamayda, 10, of Deir al-Balah, killed by IDF gunfire to his abdomen while on his way to the mosque during an incursion.

Ahmad Muhanad Nafeh Meri, 11, of Jenin refugee camp, died of head wounds sustained Nov. 8 from IDF gunfire to his head while throwing stones at soldiers demolishing a home in Jenin.

Hani Salem Rabayah, 9, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head and neck.

Muayad Mazen Abdul-Rahman Hamdan, 9, of al-Bireh, killed by IDF gunfire to his head during an incursion.

Latifa, premature, of Deir Balut, near Ramallah, died, with her twin sister, at an IDF checkpoint after her mother was delayed access to medical care.

Moufida, premature, of Deir Balut, near Ramallah, died, with her twin sister, at an IDF checkpoint after her mother was delayed access to medical care.

2004

Iman Samir Darwish al-Hams, 13, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her head, chest, limbs and abdomen on her way to school near the Tal Zarub army post.

[An Israeli officer who emptied his entire magazine into her, shooting her 17 times at close range, was acquitted of all charges by an Israeli court. He said that he would have done the same even if she had been three years old. He had been charged with minor offences.]

Tariq Majdi Abdul-Muati al-Sousi, 11, of Gaza City, killed by IDF helicopter fire while being driven home from school during a targeted assassination.

Motaz Nafez Hussein al-Sharafi, 11, of Gaza City, died of neck and head wounds sustained Feb. 28 from IDF helicopter fire during a targeted assassination.

Mahmoud Abdullah Hasan Younis, 10, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF sniper fire.

Fatma Muhammad Sharifi al-Jaled, 7, of Khan Younis, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained March 19 from IDF gunfire to her head while playing in her yard with friends.

Khaled Maher Zaki Walwil, 6, of Balata refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire to his neck while looking out of a window in his home during an incursion.

Iman Muhammad Khalil Talbiyeh, 12, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her head while in her kitchen.

Muna Hamdi Shehada abu-Tabak, 10, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her abdomen and left arm while on her way home.

Asma Ali abu-Qaliq, 4, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by IDF tear gas.

Ahmad Muhammad Ali al-Mughayer, 10, of Rafah, Gaza, killed, with his sister, by IDF sniper fire to his head while feeding birds on the roof of his home.

Mahmoud Tariq Mahmoud Monsur, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile during a peaceful demonstration near the Tal Zorub military post.

Mubarak Salim Mubarak al-Hashash, 11, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile during a peaceful demonstration near the Tal Zorub military post.

Walid Naji Said abu-Qamr, 12, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile during a peaceful demonstration near the Tal Zorub military post.

Iyad Muhammad Afana, 13, of Gaza City, died of head wounds sustained May 11 from IDF gunfire during an incursion.

Tamer Younis al-Arja, 3, of Rafah, Gaza, died of a heart attack from IDF shelling.
Hamed Yasin Hamed Bahlul, 16, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF helicopter fire near the zoo.

Islam Muhammad Mahmoud Husniya, 13, of Fawwar refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while throwing stones during a demonstration against the Israeli incursion in Rafah.

Rawan Muhammad Said abu-Zid, 4, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her head and neck while going to the store with her big sister to buy candy.

Hani Mahmoud Khaled Kandil, 13, of Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire to his head at close range during an incursion.

Omar Muhammad Awad abu-Zaran, 12, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire near his home.

Ihab Abdul-Karim Ahmad Shatat, 9, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to his chest while walking to the grocery store.

Safah al-Shaer, 4, of Rafah, Gaza, died of wounds sustained July 1 from IDF gunfire.

Samr Omar Hasan Fawju, 3, of Rafah, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained July 8 from IDF gunfire while standing near her home.

Ali Abdul-Rahim Ashraf abu-Alba, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF helicopter fire to his abdomen during an incursion.

Khaled Jamal Salim al-Asta, 8, of Hosh al-Jitan, near Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest while in his home.

Munir Anwar Muhammad al-Daqs, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by Israeli tank fire to his chest near his home during an incursion.

Maram Moufid Abdul-Aziz al-Nahleh, 11, of Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire to her face while at home during an incursion.

Raghdah Adnan Abdul-Muati al-Asar, 9, of Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained Sept. 7 from IDF sniper fire while sitting at a desk in her United Nations-administered school near the Neve Dekalim settlement.

Saber Ibrahim Iyad Asaliya, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his back while trying to escape during an incursion.

Luay Ayman Muhammad al-Najjar, 4, of Khuza, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to his head while playing near his home during an incursion.

Iman Samir Darwish al-Hams, 13, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her head, chest, limbs and abdomen on her way to school near the Tal Zarub army post.

Samah Samir Omar Nasr Musleh, 10, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to her abdomen at the entrance to her home.

Ghadir Jaber Hussein Mukhemar, 9, of Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza, died of chest wounds sustained Oct. 12 from IDF gunfire while in her classroom at a United Nations-administered school.

Hisham Hassan Husni Ashour, 10, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest at a neighborhood gathering.

Rania Iyad Ahmad Aram, 7, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her neck while preparing to leave for school from her home near the Nouria army post.

Rana Omar Abdul-Hadi Siyam, 8, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire while eating lunch in her home near the Neve Dekalim settlement.

2005

Mahmoud Kamel Muhammad Ghaben, 12, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with two brothers and three cousins, by IDF shelling while tending their family’s land.

Rajeh Ghassan Kamal Ghaben, 10, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with five cousins, by IDF shelling while tending their family’s land.

Omar Ramadan Muhammad al-Qrenawi, 6, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained Jan. 13 by IDF tank fire during an incursion.

Rahma Ibrahim Musa abu-Shams, 3, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her head while eating breakfast in her home near the Tal Katif settlement.

Ahmad Ismael Muhammad al-Khatib, 12, of Jenin refugee camp, died in an Israeli hospital of head and abdominal wounds sustained Nov. 3 from IDF gunfire while carrying a toy gun. Ahmed’s organs, donated by his father, saved the lives of three Israeli children and a 54-year-old Israeli woman.

2006

Aya Muhammad Suleiman al-Astal, 9, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire near the Kissufim crossing.

Raed Ahmad Adel al-Batash, 11, of Gaza City, killed, with his brother, by an IDF missile during a targeted assassination.

Akaber Abdul-Rahman Izzat Zayd, 9, of Yamoun, near Jenin, killed by IDF gunfire to her head while riding in her uncle’s car to get medical stitches removed during an incursion.

Bilal Iyad Muhammad abul-Einein, 5, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile during the targeted assassination of his father.

Hadeel Muhammad Rabih Abdullah Ghaben, 8, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to her head while doing homework in her home.

Muhanad Hamdi Farouq Aman, 6, of Gaza City, killed, with his mother and aunt, by an IDF missile during a targeted assassination.

Haithem Ali Eisa Ghalya, 5 months, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his mother, father and four sisters, by IDF shelling from an offshore warship while having a family picnic at Waha beach.

Hanadi Ali Eisa Ghalya, 18 months, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with her mother, father, brother and three sisters, by IDF shelling from an offshore warship while having a family picnic at Waha beach.

Sabrin Ali Eisa Ghalya, 4, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with her mother, father, brother and three sisters, by IDF shelling from an offshore warship while having a family picnic at Waha beach.

Maher Ashraf Farouq al-Mughrabi, 8, of Gaza City, killed, with his brother and father, by an IDF missile while gathered at the site of a targeted assassination.

Samia Mahmoud Ziad al-Sharif, 5, of Gaza City, killed by an IDF missile while going to her local grocery store during a targeted assassination attempt.

Muhammad Jamal Shukri Ruqa, 6, of Gaza City, killed by an IDF missile while going to his local grocery store during a targeted assassination attempt.

Majzarah Shaban Abdul-Qader Ahmad, 12 hours, of Khan Younis, Gaza, killed, with her mother and uncle, by an IDF missile during a targeted assassination attempt.

Anwar Ismael Abdul-Ghani Atallah, 12, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained July 5 from IDF gunfire.

Rawan Farid Shaban Hajaj, 6, of Gaza City, killed, with her older brother, while in their home when the IDF bombed their neighborhood gas station.

Walid Mahmoud Ahmad El-Zeinati, 12, of Gaza City, died of wounds sustained July 6 in an IDF missile strike.

Huda Nabil Abdul-Latif abu-Salmeya, 13, of Gaza City, killed, with her parents, two brothers and four sisters, in IDF airstrikes on their family home.

Iman Nabil Abdul-Latif abu-Salmeya, 12, of Gaza City, killed, with her parents, two brothers and four sisters, in IDF airstrikes on their family home.

Yehya Nabil Abdel-Latif abu-Salmeya, 10, of Gaza City, killed, with his parents, brother and five sisters, in IDF airstrikes on their family home.

Aya Nabil Abdel-Latif abu-Salmeya, 9, of Gaza City, killed, with her parents, two brothers and four sisters, in IDF airstrikes on their family home.

Nasrallah Nabil Abdul-Latif abu-Salmeya, 7, of Gaza City, killed, with his parents, brother and five sisters, in IDF airstrikes on their family home.

Nadi Habib Abdullah al-Attar, 10, of Atatra, near Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his grandmother, by IDF shelling while riding on an animal-drawn cart.

Khitam Muhammad Rebhi Tayeh, 11, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while on her way to the grocery store.

Bara Ahmad Hussein Habib, 2, of Gaza City, killed by an IDF missile fired from a drone to his head and abdomen during a targeted assassination.

Shahid Samir Ata Oukal, 8 months, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with her sister and mother, by IDF shelling.

Maria Samir Ata Oukal, 5, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with her sister and mother, by IDF shelling.

Anis Salem Jadua abu-Awad, 11, of Rafah, Gaza, killed in an IDF airstrike.

Shahed Saleh Omar al-Sheikh Eid, 3 days, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling.

Raja Salam abu-Shaban, 3, of Gaza City, killed by an IDF missile.

Nidal Abdul Aziz al-Dahdouh, 14, of Gaza City, killed by IDF sniper fire.

Hussam Ahmad Muhammad al-Sarsawi, 12, of Gaza City, died of wounds sustained Aug. 27 from IDF tank fire.

Iman Usama Fadel al-Harazin, 2, of Gaza City, killed in an IDF airstrike while walking with her father.

Suhaib Adel Zerei Mahmoud Qudaih, 13, of Abasan al-Kabira, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile while in his home.

Bara Riyad Muhammad Fayyad, 4, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Nov. 1 from IDF shelling of his home.

Saad Majdi Said al-Athamna, 8, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with 16 family members, by IDF shelling while asleep at home.

Mahmoud Amjad al-Athamna, 12, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with 16 family members, by IDF shelling while asleep at home.

Maram Ramez Masoud al-Athamna, 2, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with 16 family members, by IDF shelling while asleep at home.

Maisa Ramez Masoud al-Athamna, 6 months, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with 16 family members, by IDF shelling while asleep at home.

Abdul-Aziz Salman Muhammad Salman, 10, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by IDF tank fire to his abdomen while playing by al-Zawia mosque.

Ayman Abdul Qader abu-Mahdi, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of head wounds sustained Nov. 25 from IDF gunfire while playing near his home.

Jamil Abdul-Karim Jamil Jabji, 5, of Askar refugee camp, killed by IDF gunfire from a jeep to his head while throwing stones.

2007

Abir Bassam Abed-Rabo al-Aramin, 10, of Anata, near Jerusalem, died of head wounds sustained Jan. 17 from an IDF percussion grenade while in her schoolyard during a demonstration against the annexation wall.

Saifadeen Said Khalil Jundiyah, 9, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling from a tank while sitting in front of his home during an incursion.
Ahmad Iyad Hiles, 16, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed by an IDF shell during an incursion.

Ibrahim Ali abu-Nahl, 16 months, died of heart disease at the Erez checkpoint, after Israel denied him entry for treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Sana Muhammad Yusuf al-Hajj, 6 months,died of kidney disease at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked a necessary pediatric dialysis unit, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment.

Amir Shahir Abdullah al-Yazji, 9, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of meningitis at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary vaccines, after Israel denied him entry for treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. An urgent transfer request, submitted five days earlier, went unanswered.

Hala Rohi Muhammad Zanoun, 3 months, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, died of a heart defect and severe skin infections at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which lacked necessary medical equipment, after Israel denied her entry for treatment at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

Razan Muhammad Kamel Atallah, 6, of Rafah, Gaza, died of cerebral atrophy, after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Yusuf Iyad abu-Maryam, 5, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of cancer after Israel denied him entry to receive medical treatment. Because hospitals in Gaza lacked necessary equipment to administer chemotherapy, the Palestine Ministry of Health had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Oct. 11.

2008

Ibrahim abu-Jazar, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Ibrahim abu-Jazar, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Shirin Ismail Abdullah abu-Shawareb, 11, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of heart problems at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary equipment, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment. Doctors had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Dec. 27. On Jan. 10, believing permission for a transfer had been granted, Shirin’s father took her to the Erez checkpoint, where Israel again denied her entry.

Amir Muhammad Hashem Muhammad al-Yazji, 5, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, along with his older brother and uncle, by an IDF missile which struck their car on al-Nafaq Street in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.

Hamid Maher abu-Hamda, 90 days, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness that required medicine not available in the Gaza Strip after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Faten Majdi al-Hafnawi, 10, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Tamer Muhammad Abdul-Riziq abu-Shar, 9, of Wadi al-Salqa, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while he and his family attempted to flee their home during an incursion.

Said Muhammad Said al-Aidi, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died of a congenital liver defect after he was denied permission by Israel to return to Abul-Rish Hospital for Children in Cairo for medical treatment. Treatment at the hospital had begun in December 2006 and required Said to return again in six months.

Shihab Muhammad Khleif, 20 days, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of a heart defect after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Amin abu-Watfa, 12, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of a brain hemorrhage after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Nasr Abdul-Aziz al-Boray, 7 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by shrapnel from IDF missiles to his head and chest while in his home when IDF aircraft destroyed the neighboring Ministry of Interior building. Muhammad was the only child of parents who struggled with infertility for five years before he was born.

Ali Munir Muhammad Dardunah, 6, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his first cousin and a distant cousin, by IDF missile fire from a helicopter while playing soccer near his home with friends.

Dardunah Deeb Khalil Dardunah, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF missile fire from a helicopter while playing soccer near his home with friends.

Salah Zaki Mansour, 10, of al-Shouka, near Rafah, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an unexploded IDF ordinance while attempting to salvage it for scrap metal.

Muhammad Zaki Mansour, 12, of al-Shouka, near Rafah, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an unexploded IDF ordinance while attempting to salvage it for scrap metal.

Adel Khalil Barbakh, 11, of al-Shouka, near Rafah, Gaza, killed by an unexploded IDF ordinance while attempting to salvage it for scrap metal.

Saifadeen Said Khalil Jundiyah, 9, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling from a tank while sitting in front of his home during an incursion.

Ibrahim Ali abu-Nahl, 16 months, died of heart disease at the Erez checkpoint, after Israel denied him entry for treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Sana Muhammad Yusuf al-Hajj, 6 months,died of kidney disease at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked a necessary pediatric dialysis unit, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment.

Amir Shahir Abdullah al-Yazji, 9, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of meningitis at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary vaccines, after Israel denied him entry for treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. An urgent transfer request, submitted five days earlier, went unanswered.

Rawan Samih Diab, 13 months, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of kidney inflammation at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary equiptment, after she was denied treatment at an Israeli hospital.

Hala Rohi Muhammad Zanoun, 3 months, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, died of a heart defect and severe skin infections at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which lacked necessary medical equipment, after Israel denied her entry for treatment at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

Razan Muhammad Kamel Atallah, 6, of Rafah, Gaza, died of cerebral atrophy, after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Yusuf Iyad abu-Maryam, 5, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of cancer after Israel denied him entry to receive medical treatment. Because hospitals in Gaza lacked necessary equipment to administer chemotherapy, the Palestine Ministry of Health had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Oct. 11.

Dua Hani Habib, 6 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of a bone marrow disorder after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Ibrahim abu-Jazar, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Shirin Ismail Abdullah abu-Shawareb, 11, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of heart problems at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary equipment, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment. Doctors had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Dec. 27. On Jan. 10, believing permission for a transfer had been granted, Shirin’s father took her to the Erez checkpoint, where Israel again denied her entry.

Amir Muhammad Hashem Muhammad al-Yazji, 5, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, along with his older brother and uncle, by an IDF missile which struck their car on al-Nafaq Street in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.

Hamid Maher abu-Hamda, 90 days, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness that required medicine not available in the Gaza Strip after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Faten Majdi al-Hafnawi, 10, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Sana Muhammad Yusuf al-Hajj, 6 months,died of kidney disease at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked a necessary pediatric dialysis unit, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment.

Amir Shahir Abdullah al-Yazji, 9, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of meningitis at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary vaccines, after Israel denied him entry for treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. An urgent transfer request, submitted five days earlier, went unanswered.

Rawan Samih Diab, 13 months, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of kidney inflammation at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary equiptment, after she was denied treatment at an Israeli hospital.

Hala Rohi Muhammad Zanoun, 3 months, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, died of a heart defect and severe skin infections at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, which lacked necessary medical equipment, after Israel denied her entry for treatment at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.

Razan Muhammad Kamel Atallah, 6, of Rafah, Gaza, died of cerebral atrophy, after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Nada Iyad al-Agha, 13, of Khan Younis, Gaza, died of liver disease after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Yusuf Iyad abu-Maryam, 5, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of cancer after Israel denied him entry to receive medical treatment. Because hospitals in Gaza lacked necessary equipment to administer chemotherapy, the Palestine Ministry of Health had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Oct. 11.

Dua Hani Habib, 6 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of a bone marrow disorder after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

2008

Ibrahim abu-Jazar, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Shirin Ismail Abdullah abu-Shawareb, 11, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of heart problems at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary equipment, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment. Doctors had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Dec. 27. On Jan. 10, believing permission for a transfer had been granted, Shirin’s father took her to the Erez checkpoint, where Israel again denied her entry.

Amir Muhammad Hashem Muhammad al-Yazji, 5, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, along with his older brother and uncle, by an IDF missile which struck their car on al-Nafaq Street in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.

Hamid Maher abu-Hamda, 90 days, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness that required medicine not available in the Gaza Strip after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Faten Majdi al-Hafnawi, 10, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Tamer Muhammad Abdul-Riziq abu-Shar, 9, of Wadi al-Salqa, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his head while he and his family attempted to flee their home during an incursion.

Said Muhammad Said al-Aidi, 2, of Rafah, Gaza, died of a congenital liver defect after he was denied permission by Israel to return to Abul-Rish Hospital for Children in Cairo for medical treatment. Treatment at the hospital had begun in December 2006 and required Said to return again in six months.

Shihab Muhammad Khleif, 20 days, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of a heart defect after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Amin abu-Watfa, 12, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of a brain hemorrhage after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Ali Munir Muhammad Dardunah, 6, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his first cousin and a distant cousin, by IDF missile fire from a helicopter while playing soccer near his home with friends.

Dardunah Deeb Khalil Dardunah, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF missile fire from a helicopter while playing soccer near his home with friends.

Salwa Zaidan Muhammad Ghali Assaliya, 13, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with her older sister, by an IDF missile while in her home.

Salsabeel Majid Muhammad abu-Jalhoum, 2, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile while in the garden of her home.

Nael Zuhair Shukri abu-Oun, 12, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile while standing in the street with friends.
.
Safah Raed Ali Said abu-Saif, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of wounds sustained from IDF gunfire to her abdomen while in her home. Bled to death when IDF soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching her.

Amira Khaled Faraj abu-Aser, 20 days, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to her head while in the home of family friends in Deir al-Balah during an incursion.

Iman Amin al-Safi, 4, of Khan Younis, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Salsabeel Ibrahim Tabasi, 9 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of acute pneumonia after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Yusuf Wasim Mushtaha, 2 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of kidney disease after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Ihab Haniya, 14 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of a heart defect after Israel denied him permission four times to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment for “security reasons” and threatened to destroy his medical file if additional requests were made.

Nuralhuda Khamis al-Kilani, 7 months, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Ziad al-Ajala, 63 days, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of an atrioventricular septal heart defect at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City after he was twice denied entry to Israel to receive medical treatment.

Masad Ahmad Eid Hassan abu-Metiq, 1, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with his mother, brother and two sisters, by shrapnel from an IDF missile while eating breakfast in his home during a targeted killing.

Hana Ahmad Eid Hassan abu-Metiq, 3, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with her mother, sister and two brothers, by shrapnel from an IDF missile while eating breakfast in her home during a targeted killing.

Rudeina Ahmad Eid Hassan abu-Metiq, 4, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with her mother, sister and two brothers, by shrapnel from an IDF missile while eating breakfast in her home during a targeted killing.

Saleh Ahmad Eid Hassan abu-Metiq, 5, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with his mother, brother and two sisters, by shrapnel from an IDF missile while eating breakfast in his home during a targeted killing.

Nasim al-Biouk, 4 months, of Rafah, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Yusuf Muhammad Zakut, 2 days, died of an unspecified illness at al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary equipment, after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Salwa Nahed abu-Tawahin, 8 months, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, died of blood cancer at Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, which lacked necessary equipment, after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. The permit request was submitted twenty days prior to her death.

Ward Hashim Sabiha, 10 days, died of kidney disease at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which lacked necessary medicine, after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Sujud Khalil al-Farra, 1 week, died, with her sister, of an unspecified illness at al-Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, which lacked the necessary drug “Alservictant,” due to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. A third triplet sister died two days later.

Faiza Khalil al-Farra, 1 week, died, with her sister, of an unspecified illness at al-Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, which lacked the necessary drug “Alservictant,” due to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. A third triplet sister died two days later.

Aya Hamdan Hamdan al-Najjar, 8, of Khuza, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile while playing near her home.

Hamada Saleh Hamada, 4 months, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Hasan abu-Mamar, 17, of Khan Younis, Gaza, died of cancer after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Ayat Anwar Daheik, 8 months, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied her permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Imad Ismail al-Oweini, 6, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, died of kidney disease after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Wasim Iyad Hamdan, 10 months, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, died of an unspecified illness after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Ahmad Husam Yusuf Musa, 11, of Nileen, near Ramallah, killed by IDF gunfire to his head during a demonstration against the annexation wall.

Ahmad Eid abu-Amra, 3 months, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied him entry to receive medical treatment.

Ali al-Dahdouh, 27 days, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

al-Mutasim Bila Muhammad Jundiya, 2, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of cerebral palsy after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Ala al-Sarhi, 5 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of heart disease after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Abu-Rideh infant boy, of Nablus, died at an IDF checkpoint while his mother was prevented from reaching the hospital for more than forty minutes.

Hadi al-Hassainah, 3, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of protein deficiency in his brain after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Muhammad Ramzi al-Imawi, 18 months, of Jabalya, Gaza, died of cerebral atrophy after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Odeh Saleh Abdul-Al, 7, of Rafah, Gaza, died of a heart and lung disorder after he was denied permission by Israel to return to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv for medical treatment.

Abdul-Rahman Hani Akram Khuziq, 10 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of cerebral atrophy after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.

Tamer Hassan Ali al-Akhras, 5, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Ahmad Riyad Muhammad al-Sinwar, 3, of al-Zahra City, near Deir al-Balah, Gaza, killed by the IDF in al-Zahra City, near Deir al-Balah.

Uday Abdul-Hakim Rajab Mansi, 6, of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Deir al-Balah.

Samar Anwar Khalil Balousha, 6, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with four sisters, by an IDF missile while sleeping in her home.

Dina Anwar Khalil Balousha, 7, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with four sisters, by an IDF missile while sleeping in her home.

Jawaher Anwar Khalil Balousha, 8, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with four sisters, by an IDF missile while sleeping in her home.

Muath Yasir al-Abed abu-Teir, 6, of Abasan al-Kabira, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Abasan al-Kabira.

Sidqi Ziad Mahmoud al-Absi, 4, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with two brothers, by an IDF missile while in his home.

Ahmad Ziad Mahmoud al-Absi, 12, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with two brothers, by an IDF missile while in his home.

Wisam Akram Rabi Eid, 12, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by the IDF near the Zemu roundabout in the northern Gaza Strip.

30       December 2008
Lama Talal Shehada Hamdan, 4, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with her sister, by an IDF missile strike while standing near her home in the al-Rayes area of Beit Hanoun. Her brother died the next day from injuries sustained during the attack.

Haya Talal Shehada Hamdan, 12, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with her sister, by an IDF missile strike while standing near her home in the al-Rayes area of Beit Hanoun. Her brother died the next day from injuries sustained during the attack.

Ismail Talal Shehada Hamdan, 9, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Dec. 30 in an IDF missile strike which also killed two of his sisters.

Al-Muez Ledinallah Jihad al-Nasla, 3, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with his sister, by IDF bombs while on his way to the market in the al-Nada apartment buildings near a water reservoir in Izbat Beit Hanoun.

2009

Muhammad Iyad Abed-Rabo al-Astal, 12, of al-Qarara, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed, with his brother and distant cousin, by an IDF missile fired from a drone, on their return home from picking sugar cane at a nearby field. Two of the boys died at the scene, while the third died on his way to the hospital.

Abed-Rabo Iyad Abed-Rabo al-Astal, 8, of al-Qarara, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed, with his brother and distant cousin, by an IDF missile fired from a drone, on their return home from picking sugar cane at a nearby field. Two of the boys died at the scene, while the third died on his way to the hospital.

Abdul-Satar Walid Abdul-Rahim al-Astal, 10, of al-Qarara, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed, with two distant cousins, by an IDF missile fired from a drone, on their return home from picking sugar cane at a nearby field. Two of the boys died at the scene, while the third died on his way to the hospital.

Muhammad Musa Ismail al-Silawi, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with 14 others, by an IDF missile fired from a drone at a mosque in Jabalya refugee camp during sunset prayers.

Hani Muhammad Musa al-Silawi, 6, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with 14 others, by an IDF missile fired from a drone at a mosque in Jabalya refugee camp during sunset prayers.

Ziad Muhammad Selmi abu-Snaima, 10, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile while in the streets of al-Nasr, near Rafah.

Baha Muayad Kamal abu-Wadi, 8, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Asma Ibrahim Husain Afana, 12, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Shatha al-Abed Muhammad al-Habbash, 10, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with her cousin, by an IDF missile while at home in Gaza City’s al-Tufah neighborhood.

Farah Amar Fuad al-Helu, 1, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with her grandfather, by IDF gunfire while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Suheir Ziad Ramadan al-Nimr, 11, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with her brother, by IDF shelling while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Mahmoud Sami Yahya Asaliya, 3, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by an IDF shell while in his home.

Ibrahim Kamal Subhi Awaja, 9, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Beit Lahya.

Jihad Samir Fayez Erhayem, 9, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Wadi Amin Omar Omar, 3, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Beit Lahya.

Hamza Zuhair Riziq Tantish, 12, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his older brother, by an IDF shell while on the roof of his grandfather’s house in Beit Lahya.

Wiam Jamal Mahmoud al-Kafarneh, 2, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan. 4 in an IDF attack on Beit Hanoun.

Arafat Muhammad Arafat Abdul-Dayem, 12, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by the IDF in an attack on the funeral of his cousin, a paramedic who was killed in the line of duty by the IDF on Jan. 4.

Sayed Amr Riziq Saber abu-Eisha, 12, of Shati refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his father, sister and brother, by an IDF missile while in his home.

Ghaida Amr abu-Eisha, 8, of Shati refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with her father and two brothers, by an IDF missile while in her home.

Muhammad Amr abu-Eisha, 10, of Shati refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his father, sister and brother, by an IDF missile while in his home.

Fatheia Ayman Salim al-Dabbari, 4 months, of Rafah, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling in al-Shouka, near Rafah.

Muamen Mahmoud Talal Allaw, 12, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while in his home.

Nasr Ibrahim Helmi al-Samouni, 5, of Gaza City Gaza, killed with two brothers, an older brother, an uncle, a first cousin, seven distant cousins, and nine other relatives, by IDF bombs while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Muhammad Helmi Talal al-Samouni, 6 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with his first cousin, nine distant cousins, and eleven other relatives, by IDF bombs while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Azza Salah Talal al-Samouni, 6, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with her first cousin, nine distant cousins, and eleven other relatives, by IDF bombs while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Huda Nael Faris al-Samouni, 7, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two first cousins, eight distant cousins, and eleven other relatives, by IDF bombs while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Ahmad Helmi Atiyah al-Samouni, 4, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with ten distant cousins and eleven other relatives, by IDF bombs while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Al-Mutasem Bilah Muhammad Ibrahim al-Samouni, 1 month, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with ten distant cousins and eleven other relatives, by IDF bombs while at home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Aya Usama Nayif al-Sersawi, 6, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while in her home in al-Shejaya, near Gaza City.

Muhammad Salam Awad al-Tarfawi, 4, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by the IDF near the al-Je’el gas station on al-Karama street in Jabalya.

Ismail Haider Eleiwa, 7, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two brothers and a sister, by IDF shelling while at home in al-Shejaya, near Gaza City.

Lana Haidar Eleiwa, 10, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with three brothers, by IDF shelling while at home in al-Shejaya.

Muamen Haidar Eleiwa, 12, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two brothers and a sister, by IDF shelling while at home in al-Shejaya.

Shahid Muhammad Amin Hiji, 3, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Nada Radwan Naim Mardi, 6, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Beit Lahya’s al-Seyafa neighborhood.

Ahmad Jabr Jabr Hweij, 6, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Dec. 27 during an IDF attack on Gaza City’s al-Tufah neighborhood.

Ahmad Shaher Fayq Khudair, 10, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan 3 in an IDF attack on Beit Lahya’s al-Seyafa neighborhood.

Islam Odeh Khalil abu-Amsha, 12, of al-Shejaya, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed by an IDF tank shell in Gaza City’s al-Tufah neighborhood.

Muhammad Iyad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 7 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two brothers, three sisters, his parents, paternal grandparents, six first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at his grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Ala Iyad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 7, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with three brothers, two sisters, her parents, paternal grandparents, six first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Ali Iyad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 10, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two brothers, three sisters, his parents, paternal grandparents, six first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at his grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Sharafeddin Iyad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 5, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two brothers, three sisters, his parents, paternal grandparents, six first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at his grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Raba Iyad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 6, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with three brothers, two sisters, her parents, paternal grandparents, six first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Khitam Iyad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 5 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with three brothers, two sisters, her parents, paternal grandparents, six first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Bara Ramez Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 2, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with a sister, her parents, paternal grandparents, ten first cousins, two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Salsabil Ramez Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 5 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with a sister, her parents, paternal grandparents, ten first cousins two aunts, and an uncle, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Yusif Muhammad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 2, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with three sisters, his mother, paternal grandparents, two aunts, and two uncles, by IDF bombs at his grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Amani Muhammad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 6, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two sisters, a brother, her mother, paternal grandparents, two aunts, and two uncles, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Qamr Muhammad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 5, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two sisters, a brother, her mother, paternal grandparents, two aunts, and two uncles, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Arij Muhammad Fayez Misbah Hashim al-Daia, 3, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with two sisters, a brother, her mother, paternal grandparents, two aunts, and two uncles, by IDF bombs at her grandfather’s home in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Abdul-Jalil Hasan Abdul-Jalil al-Hels, 8, of Shati refugee camp, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile that struck a police vehicle parked nearby in Shati refugee camp.

Adam Mamoun Saqr Ramadan al-Kurdi, 3, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya refugee camp.

Zakaria Yahya Ibrahim al-Tawil, 5, of Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling at a house in Block 2 of Nuseirat refugee camp.

Hassan Ata Hassan Azzam, 20 months, of al-Mughraqa, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with his brother and father, by the IDF in al-Mughraqa.

Ibrahim Suleiman Muhammad Baraka, 12, of Bani Sheila, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Bani Sheila.

Nur Muin Shafiq Deeb, 3, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with two brothers, a sister, and a first cousin, by IDF shelling while at home near al-Fakhoura school in Jabalya refugee camp.

Aseel Muin Shafiq Deeb, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with three brothers and a first cousin, by IDF shelling while at home near al-Fakhoura school in Jabalya refugee camp.

Lina Abdul-Monim Nafez Hasan, 10, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while at home near al-Fakhoura school in Jabalya refugee camp.

Muhammad Basem Ahmad Shaqoura, 9, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while at home near al-Fakhoura school in Jabalya refugee camp.

Marwan Hasan Abdul-Muamin Qdeih, 5, of Abasan al-Kabira, near Khan Younis, Gaza, killed by an IDF shell near his home in Abasan al-Kabira.

Ranin Abdullah Ahmad Saleh, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya refugee camp.
Shahid Husein Nazmi Sultan, 8, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya refugee camp.

Anas Aref Baraka, 8, of Wadi al-Salqa, near Deir al-Balah, Gaza, died in an Egyptian hospital of head wounds sustained Jan 4. from IDF gunfire in Deir al-Balah.

Abdullah Muhammad Shafiq Abdullah, 11, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan 6. from IDF shelling near al-Fakhoura school in Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza.

Suad Khaled Muhammad Abed-Rabo, 7, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with her sister, by IDF tankfire to her chest after her family, waving white flags, left their home in Izbat Beit Hanoun to search for water.

Amal Khaled Muhammad Abed-Rabo, 2, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed, with her sister, by IDF tankfire to her chest after her family, waving white flags, left their home in Izbat Beit Hanoun to search for water.

Tawfiq Khaled Ismail al-Kahlout, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with a brother, an older brother, father and distant cousin, by an IDF missile while riding in a car through the Beit Lahya Housing Project.

Radwan Muhammad Radwan Ashour, 12, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an IDF missile in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Abdul-Rahman Muhammad Radwan Ashour, 11, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an IDF missile in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Hussam Raed Rizq Subuh, 12, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while standing among a crowd of people in Beit Lahya’s al-Salateen neighborhood.

Basma Yasser Abed-Rabo al-Jilawi, 5, Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by IDF bomb shrapnel in Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza.

Yousef Awni Abdul-Rahim al-Jaru, 2, Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with his mother, a Ukranian national, by an IDF tank shell in Gaza City’s al-Tufah neighborhood.

Amr Ibrahim Khalil Balousha, 10, of al-Zahra, near Gaza City, Gaza, killed in al-Zahra City.

Bara Iyad Samih Shalha, 7, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in the Beit Lahya Housing Project.

Shahid Saadallah Matar abu-Halima, 18 months, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in the Beit Lahya Housing Project.

Ghainma Sultan Fawzi Halawa, 11, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya.
Ala Ahmad Fathi Jabr, 13, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by IDF tankfire in Jabalya.

Fatima Raed Zaki Jadallah, 11, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while at home in the camp’s Tal al-Zatar area.

Rana Fayez Muhammad Salha, 12, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his mother, two brothers and a sister, by an IDF missile while at home in Beit Lahya.

Baha Fayez Muhammad Salha, 5, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his mother, brother and two sisters, by an IDF missile while at home in Beit Lahya.

Rula Fayez Muhammad Salha, 2, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with her mother, two brothers and a sister, by an IDF missile while at home in Beit Lahya.

Ali Kamal Ali al-Nethur, 11, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an IDF missile while fleeing an apartment building in Jabalya under IDF attack.

Abdul-Rahman Ahmad Haboush, 4, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s al-Tufah neighborhood.

Zakaria Hamid Khamis al-Samouni, 8, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan. 4 during an IDF attack on Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Amal Najib Muhammad Aloush, 12, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling in Jabalya.

Tasnim Yasir Jabr al-Rafati, 3, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile strike targeting her father while at home in Jabalya.

Faris Talat Asad Hamouda, 2, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighborhood.

Haitham Yasir Yousef Marouf, 11, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile in Beit Lahya.

Ayat Kamal Mahmoud al-Bana, 12, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by IDF tankfire in Jabalya.
Fadallah Imad Hasan al-Najjar, 2, of Jablya refugee camp, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile strike on Jabalya refugee camp.

Nashat Raed al-Firi, 12, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile strike on Jabalya.
Abdul-Rahman Muhammad Atiya Ghaben, 15, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by IDF bombs in Beit Lahya.

Basim Talat Jamil Abdul-Nabi, 12, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an IDF missile while playing on the site of a demolished house in Jabalya refugee camp.

Qasim Talat Jamil Abdul-Nabi, 7, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by an IDF missile while playing on the site of a demolished house in Jabalya refugee camp.

Hamza Saadallah Matar Masoud abu-Halima, 8, of Atatra, near Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with two brothers and his father, by IDF bombs in Beit Lahya.

Ziad Saadallah Matar Masoud abu-Halima, 10, of Atatra, near Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with two brothers and his father, by IDF bombs in Beit Lahya.

Aisha Ibrahim al-Said al-Najjar, 4, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya.

Hadeel Jabr Diab al-Rafati, 9, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya, Gaza.

Khalil Muhammad Musa Bahar, 12, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling in Gaza City’s al-Shaf neighborhood.

Hala Isam Ahmad al-Mnei, 1 month, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan 13 in an IDF attack on Beit Lahya.

Haneen Fadel Muhammad al-Batran, 10, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighborhood.

Shaima Adel Ibrahim al-Jadba, 9, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling while at home in Gaza City’s al-Tufah neighborhood.

Bara Ata Hasan al-Ermaliat, 1, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with two sisters and her mother, by IDF shelling in Beit Lahya.

Arij Ata Hasan al-Ermaliat, 2 months, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with two sisters and her mother, by IDF shelling in Beit Lahya.

Husam Muhammad Shaban Eslim, 7, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed, with his brother and first cousin, by an IDF missile strike during a targeted assassination.

Ahmad Usama Muhammad Kurtom, 7, of Gaza City, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood.

Anwar Salman Rushdi Abdul-Hai abu-Eita, 7, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with two cousins and an older relative, by an IDF missile in Beit Lahya.

Malak Salama Abdul-Hai abu-Eita, 3, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with her brother, cousin, and an older relative, by an IDF missile in Beit Lahya.

Ahmad Salama Abdul-Hai abu-Eita, 10, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his sister, cousin, and an older relative, by an IDF missile in Beit Lahya.

Muhammad Atef Muhammad abul-Husni, 12, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Jabalya.

Iman Isa Abdul-Hadi al-Batran, 11, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with her mother, sister, and three brothers, by an IDF missile fired from an Apache helicopter while at home in Bureij refugee camp’s Block 4.

Bilal Isa Abdul-Hadi al-Batran, 6, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his mother, two sisters, and two brothers, by an IDF missile fired from an Apache helicopter while at home in Bureij refugee camp’s Block 4.

Izaldeen Isa Abdul-Hadi al-Batran, 3, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed, with his mother, two sisters, and two brothers, by an IDF missile fired from an Apache helicopter while at home in Bureij refugee camp’s Block 4.

Muhanad Amr Khalil al-Jdeili, 8, of Bureij refugee camp, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile while at home in Bureij refugee camp’s Block 7.

Rawan Ismail Muhammad al-Najjar, 7, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling in Jabalya.

Bilal Muhammad Shehada al-Ashkar, 6, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by IDF shelling near a U.N.-administered school in Beit Lahya.

Muhammad Muhammad Shehada al-Ashkar, 4, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, killed, with his brother, by IDF shelling near a U.N.-administered school in Beit Lahya.
Aseel Munir Matar al-Kafarna, 1, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Beit Hanoun.

Fawzia Fawaz Ahmad Saleh, 5, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with her brother, by IDF shelling in Jabalya.

Ahmad Fawaz Ahmad Saleh, 10, of Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with his sister, by IDF shelling in Jabalya.

Rakan Muhammad Musa al-Ir, 5, of Izbat Abed-Rabo, near Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with his brother and older sister, by an IDF missile in Izbat Abed-Rabo.

Ibrahim Muhammad Musa al-Ir, 12, of Izbat Abed-Rabo, near Jabalya, Gaza, killed, with his brother and older sister, by an IDF missile in Izbat Abed-Rabo.

Angham Rafat Atallah al-Masri, 10, of Beit Hanoun, Gaza, killed by an IDF missile in Beit Hanoun.

Isa Muhammad Iyada Rimeliat, 12, of Rafah refugee camp, Gaza, killed by the IDF in Rafah refugee camp’s al-Shaboura section.

Abdullah Nasr Abdullah al-Sdoudi, 7, of Nuseirat, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan. 18 in an IDF attack on Nuseirat.

Nancy Said Muhammad Waked, 6 months, of Gaza City, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan. 18 in an IDF attack on Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Muhammad Yahya Said Baba, 11, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan. 10 in an IDF attack on Beit Lahya.

Sundus Said Hasan abu-Sultan, 4, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died of wounds sustained on Jan. 17 in an IDF attack on Jabalya refugee camp.

Dima Said Ahmad al-Zahal, 5, of Beit Lahya, Gaza, died of wounds sustained Jan. 7 in an IDF attack on Beit Lahya.

Zaynaldeen Muhammad Zurub, 7 months, died of a lung infection in the Gaza Strip’s European Hospital after Israel denied him permission to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. His parents tried for several weeks prior to his death to obtain a permit from Israel to take him to Jerusalem for treatment.

Muhammad Taysir Muhammad Zumlot, 11, of Jabalya refugee camp, Gaza, died in al-Amal Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza, of head wounds sustained Jan. 6 from IDF bombing while at home in Block 2 of Jabalya refugee camp. His grandmother and father were also killed in the attack.

2010

Hamza Samar Muhanna abu-Maria, 7 months, of Beit Omar, Near Hebron, died of IDF tear gas inhalation May 7 while in her home during a demonstration.

ALISON WEIR is President of the Council for the National Interest and Executive Director of If Americans Knew, a nonprofit organization that provides information on Israel-Palestine. She splits her time between Sacramento and Washington DC. She can be reached at contact@ifamericansknew.org.”

–CounterPunch, 17 March, 2011

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/03/17/murdering-babies-is-quot-permissible-quot-when-they-re-palestinian/

See Also:

Colouring books, colouring young minds

“‘Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?’—

George W. Bush
Florence, South Carolina; January 11, 2000

A commemorative 9/11 colouring book that rapidly sold out its initial ten thousand print run has opened up a vista to a few uncomfortable questions on the ten year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The Stream discussed this and gauged the online community’s reaction to the comic books.

Unsurprisingly, Ibrahim Hooper, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), aired his disgust at the publication of the book.

The publisher, Wayne Bell from Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. claims they approached CAIR, and asked them to be involved in the development of the book.

CAIR declined, as Hooper says, because it is clear when a ‘group has an agenda,’ which in this case was to ‘smear Islam’, it’s pointless working together…”

–Imran Garda, Al Jazeera, 6 September, 2011

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2011/09/06/colouring-books-colouring-young-minds

Democracy Now! Digest: Late Summer in Israel

Israeli Military Prepares to Supply Jewish Settlers with Tear Gas, Stun Grenades

“The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports the Israeli military is planning to give tear gas and stun grenades to Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank ahead of the expected United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood this fall. The move comes as part of Israel’s preparations to deal with possible confrontations with Palestinians after the vote. The Israeli army is also drafting guidelines on when it would be appropriate to shoot live ammunition at the feet of Palestinian protesters.”

–Democracy Now!, 30 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/30/headlines#11

Israel Orders Reinforcements Deployed to Gaza Strip, Egypt Border

“Israel has ordered the deployments of reinforcements around the southern Gaza Strip and Egyptian border. Meanwhile, Israeli police have arrested a Palestinian man from the West Bank accused of wounding eight people in South Tel Aviv. Police say the man ran over a police officer with a stolen taxi and then stabbed people outside a night club.”

–Democracy Now!, 29 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/29/headlines#9

Glenn Beck Holds Rally in Israel Denouncing United Nations, Human Rights Organizations

Former Fox television host Glenn Beck has declared he is forming a new Texas-based global movement to defend Israel from the United Nations and international human rights organizations. Beck made the announcement while addressing roughly 1,000 American Evangelical Christians and right-wing Israelis in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Beck, a born-again Mormon, showered praise on Israelis and the Israeli state.

Glenn Beck: “In Israel, there is more courage in one small square mile than in all of Europe. In Israel, there is more courage in one soldier than in the combined and cold hearts of every bureaucrat at the United Nations.”

Beck’s appearance in Israel was the first stop in his worldwide speaking tour entitled “Restoring Courage,” which will take him to South Africa and South America before a major event in Texas on Sunday. Roughly three dozen activists with the group Peace Now gathered to protest the rally. Yariv Oppenheimer is Peace Now’s secretary general.

Yariv Oppenheimer, Peace Now Secretary General: “We came to protest against this show of Glenn Beck. I think he tried to use the tension in this city for his career. And we have enough fanatics here, we don’t need anymore. We need friends who come from abroad to support the idea of two states, of sharing Jerusalem as capital for two states, for the Palestinians and the Israelis, and not people who come here just to provoke.”

–Democracy Now!, 25 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/25/headlines#15

Israeli Air Strikes in Gaza Kill Four; Nine-Month-Old Israeli Baby Wounded by Rocket

“In news from the Middle East, Israeli air strikes in Gaza have killed at least four people. Meanwhile, more than 20 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel. A nine-month-old Israeli baby was wounded. The attacks threaten an informal truce agreed by Israel and Hamas on Sunday.”

–Democracy Now!, 25 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/25/headlines#14

Israel, Hamas Agree to Ceasefire Following Days of Cross-Border Violence

“Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a ceasefire after five days of cross-border violence. The violence erupted on Thursday when militants crossed into southern Israel and carried out a series of deadly attacks near the Egyptian border. Since then, Israel has launched a series of air strikes against Gaza. On Sunday, at least nine Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, were wounded by Israeli drones and F-16 fighter jet attacks.”

–Democracy Now!, 22 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/22/headlines#9

Israel Bombs Gaza in Response to Deadly Attacks on Egyptian Border

“Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas outposts in Gaza earlier today while Palestinians fired rockets into southern Israel, as violence escalated following a series of deadly attacks. On Thursday, eight Israelis died and 25 were injured in southern Israel in an attack along the border with Egypt. Israel blamed the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees for the attack. Israeli jets later carried out air strikes in Gaza, killing at least six people, including a nine-year-old boy.”

–Democracy Now!, 19 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/19/headlines#10

 

Deadly Attacks Hit Southern Israel

“In breaking news out of the Middle East, at least five people have been killed and a number of others have been wounded in simultaneous attacks on vehicles in southern Israel. The exact number of deaths is unknown, nor is it clear if the assaults were related. In the first attack, a passenger bus carrying both civilians and Israeli soldiers was fired on as it traveled to the port city of Eilat. At least 10 passengers were reportedly wounded. The attackers were pursued by helicopters and Israeli forces who reportedly exchanged fire with the gunmen. Moments later, an Israeli military vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb, injuring an unknown amount of people. In the third reported incident, an anti-tank missile was fired at a passenger car, critically injuring at least five people. The Associated Press has reported a fourth potential attack, but details have not been confirmed.”

Israel Refuses to Apologize to Turkey for Flotilla Killings

“The Israeli government has announced it will refuse to apologize to Turkey for the deadly flotilla raid that killed nine people, including a U.S. citizen, last year. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the decision was long overdue.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman: ‘It’s clear that it’s a pity we didn’t make this decision earlier. The fact that it took so long shows a bit of insecurity. Sending a message of weakness would be the most dangerous thing for Israel today.'”

–Democracy Now!, 18 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/18/headlines#11

 

Israel Arrests Al Jazeera Journalist in West Bank

“A journalist for the news network Al Jazeera has appeared in an Israeli court one week after his arrest while crossing the border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank. Israel has charged Samer Allawi with being a member of Hamas and has extended his detention by at least seven more days. Allawi currently serves as Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Allawi’s attorney says his client has been interrogated about his work and management of the Kabul bureau, his personal financial information, and his relationships with colleagues, friends and relatives. Allawi reportedly told his lawyer he would be charged with transferring money and orders from Afghanistan to the West Bank if he refused to act as an informant.”

–Democracy Now, 17August, 2011

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/17/headlines#12

 

1 Palestinian Killed, 5 Wounded in Israeli Bombings of Gaza Strip

“At least one Palestinian has been killed and five others wounded in a series of Israeli air strikes on the occupied Gaza Strip. Two of victims were left on life support. Israel has said it is responding to rocket fire that has increased from Gaza over the past month. But Palestinians have accused Israel of escalating attacks on the Occupied Territories in order to subvert the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations next month.

Israel Approves New Settlements in West Bank

“The Israeli government has approved a new settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The settlement of Ariel will receive nearly 300 new homes in the largest housing project in a single settlement since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office. One hundred of the apartments will house Israeli settlers who left the Gaza Strip six years ago.”

Israeli Lawmakers Meet on Economic Protests

“In Israel, lawmakers have interrupted a summer recess amidst ongoing protests against economic inequality and the high costs of living. Tens of thousands of people continue to take part in the protests across Israel.

Protester: ‘The gaps between rich and poor really got wider and wider, and I think right now people really feel frustrated, because they’re working, they do work, they work in very, like, respectable jobs, but they don’t get enough to live their lives and to raise their children. So I think this is the uprising. This is where it comes from.’

Protester: ‘I believe it might get a bit more violent towards next week, if we don’t start seeing the government taking us a bit more seriously.’

–Democracy Now!, 16 August, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/16/headlines#7

 

EI: Survey on Racism Among Israelis

Video survey: Racism rampant among Israeli youth

 

“Over the past three years, my wife Pennie and I have been working on a documentary film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During our second production trip to the region, one of the many remarkable people we encountered was Uri Davis. He is one of a handful of Israelis who has built a life for himself among the Palestinians of the West Bank. This made him a very interesting subject for our film, which examines the practical and moral failings of the two-state solution.

During our interview with Davis, one of the questions we asked was whether he had encountered any anti-Semitism in the West Bank. The question was motivated by a desire on our part to address a narrative — prevalent among American and Israeli Jews — which claims that anti-Semitism is an obvious feature of Palestinian culture.

As these two groups are an important part of our target audience, we felt that it was our responsibility to address this perception. Who better to ask about the veracity of this narrative than a Jew living among Palestinians? Davis answered by saying that although Palestinian anti-Semitism does exist, it is a marginal phenomenon, while anti-Arab sentiment among Israelis is a mainstream phenomenon. Shortly after the interview, it occurred to us that we could either substantiate or disprove Davis’s provocative statement with our cameras.

We began our survey in February 2011 and completed it in early March. On the Israeli side, we interviewed a total of 250 Jewish Israelis in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Jerusalem and Beersheba. For this part of the survey I conducted the interviews myself from behind the camera in Hebrew. On the Palestinian side, we interviewed a total of 250 Palestinians in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. (Despite multiple attempts, we were unable to procure permission to enter the Gaza Strip.) Here, we collaborated with local journalist Mohammad Jaradat who, using my questions, conducted the interviews in Arabic.

The questions we asked pertained to a number of sensitive political topics and the idea was to get people to talk long enough to detect if there was any racism at play in their answers. In sociological terms, we were engaged in qualitative analysis, but unlike typical qualitative interviews, we spent minutes, not hours with our subjects. Our survey is not exhaustive and our method was very simple. We went to public places and asked people to talk to us on camera. In designing the questions, I set out to distinguish actual racism from conflict-based animosity. That is, to allow for the possibility that Israelis might exhibit animosity towards Palestinians without being racist and to allow the same on the Palestinian side in reverse.

The very first question we asked of Jewish Israelis was the extremely broad ‘What do you think about Arabs?’ It is only reasonable to expect that people who harbor anti-Arab sentiment would mask their feelings when answering such a direct question on camera. Most people responded to this question with some variation of “They are people,” although we were surprised that a sizable minority used the opportunity to launch into anti-Arab diatribes.

One of the most disturbing trends that we noticed was the strong correlation between age and anti-Arab sentiment. The majority of Israeli teenagers that we spoke to expressed unabashed and open racism towards Arabs. Statements like ‘I hate them,’ or ‘they should all be killed’ were common in this age group…”

 

 

–Eli Ungar-Sargon, The Electronic Intifada, 18 August 2011

 

http://electronicintifada.net/content/video-survey-racism-rampant-among-israeli-youth/10286