B'Tselem Statistics Re: Zionism and Anti-Zionism

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon May 13 19:54:42 PDT 2002


Brad wrote:


>In this case, there are people on both sides--more on the Arab side,
>I think, however--who love the smell of napalm in the morning.

The following is from B'Tselem's statistics (I only copy the totals here -- to see the trends, go to <http://www.btselem.org/>) and click on the link titled "Statistics":

***** Palestinians Killed in the Occupied Territories (including East Jerusalem), since the Beginning of the Intifada (Dec. 9, 1987) until the end of January 2002

Year Palestinian Palestinians Palestinian

civilians security civilians

killed by forces killed by

Israeli personnel Israeli

security killed by civilians

forces Israeli

security

forces

Total- 1,965 163 126

Israelis Killed in the Occupied Territories (including East Jerusalem), since the Beginning of the Intifada (Dec. 9, 1987) until the end of January 2002

Year Israeli Israeli Israeli

civilians security security

killed by forces forces

Palestinians personnel personnel

killed by killed by

Palestinian Palestinian

civilians security

forces

Total 179 109 24

In addition to the data above: Six foreign citizens were killed by Palestinians; Nine foreign citizens were killed by Israeli security forces.

Total Casualties in Israel from the Beginning of the Intifada (Dec. 9, 1987) untill the end of January 2002

Year Palestinian Palestinian Israeli Israeli

civilians civilians civilians security

killed by killed by killed by forces

Israeli Israeli Palestinian personnel

security civilians civilians killed by

forces Palestinian

civilians

Total 48 27 275 79

In addition to the data above: Two foreign citizens were killed by Israeli security force personnel; 23 foreign citizens were killed by Palestinians. ******

As you can see above, both Israelis and Palestinians have killed civilians _and_ more civilians than security forces personnel, but, proportionally speaking, 57% of the Israelis killed by Palestinians in the occupied territories are civilians, whereas *92%* of the Palestinians killed by Israelis in the occupied territories are civilians. Counting the deaths in both the occupied territories and Israel proper, 68% of the Israelis killed by Palestinians are civilians, whereas *93%* of the Palestinians killed by Israelis are civilians. Looking at the trend, the murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinians in the occupied territories reached two digits only in the years 1992 (11), 1993-4 (38), and 2000-2002 (87); the murders of Israeli civilians by Palestinians in Israel proper did the same in the years 1989 (17), 1990 (13), 1994 (47), 1996 (38), 1997 (25), and 2000-2002 (98). (The figures between parentheses are the numbers of the dead in the years mentioned.) Lastly, when the statistics mention Israeli civilians, they include settlers as well.

While I do not approve of Palestinian murders of Israeli civilians, I also think it important to remember that the Palestinian record in observance of laws of war looks much better than the Israeli record (not to mention the US record) in the proportions of civilian and military casualties. Further, the Palestinian murders of Israeli civilians came to outnumber those of Israeli security forces greatly only in very recent years, i.e., since the beginning of the 2nd Intifada. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



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