On Wednesday, May 23, Amnesty International reported that, in 2006, Palestinians killed more than 650 Israelis, including 120 Israeli children, while the Israelis killed 27 Palestinians, including one Palestinian child. Readers of the New York Times would not be surprised to read such figures, since the Times regularly features Palestinian violence on the front page and elsewhere in the front section.

The problem with the Times’ depiction of Palestinian violence, however, on the occasion of Amnesty’s 2007 annual report and other such reports, is that Amnesty actually reported the opposite—in 2006 Israel killed over 650 Palestinians, including 120 children, while Palestinians killed 27 Israelis, including one child.

 

One Israeli child killed by Palestinian terrorists is one child too many; likewise with respect to the 20 Israeli civilians that Palestinians also killed in 2006. Most people in the United States rightfully condemn the Palestinians who kill innocent and unarmed Israelis. But what about the Israeli government and military officials who authorized and carried out the policies that killed 120 Palestinian children and another 200 Palestinian civilians in 2006? Would most people in the US even guess that in 2006 more Palestinians than Israelis were killed by a ratio of 24 to 1, let alone condemn Israeli terrorism in the occupied territories?

 

For many years, including since the start of the Second Palestinian Intifada on September 29, 2000, Amnesty International has issued annual reports detailing Israeli and Palestinian casualties. In its 2001 report (covering events in 2000), Amnesty reported that “More than 350 Palestinians, including nearly 100 children, were killed mostly through excessive use of lethal force by Israeli security services.” Amnesty also reported that “More than 60 Israelis, including more than 30 civilians, were killed by Palestinian armed groups and individuals.” The fact is that Israel has killed well over 800 Palestinian children since September 2000.

 

On December 31, 2000, a Switzerland-based human rights organization, Defense of Children International, which has consultative status with UNESCO and UNICEF and the Council of Europe, issued a report, and the chart below, detailing how those 100 Palestinian children were killed “through excessive use of lethal force” from September 30, 20

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