Mainstream media ignores Palestinian deaths

BY Feilim O hAdhmaill

Since the start of the Intifada, between three to four times more Palestinians have been killed by Israelis than Israelis by Palestinians. Last year, the number of Palestinians killed rose dramatically, while the number of Israelis killed dropped dramatically.

Eight times more Palestinians than Israelis were killed last year, many of them children.

Most Palestinian deaths went unreported in the Western media. Most of the Israeli deaths were reported. The result is that the public is misled into believing that most of the violence in the Middle East emanates from Palestinians. The call, therefore, has been for Palestinians to stop the violence but not for the main perpetrators of the violence, the Israelis, to stop the violence.

Meanwhile, the demolition of Palestinian homes continued, the confiscation of their land continued and, despite the hype around the ending of Israeli settlements in Gaza, where only 8,000 Israelis live, the building of more settlements in the West Bank, where an estimated 400,000 Israelis live, was accelerated. More than 50% of the West Bank is now in the hands of Israeli settlers and the Israeli state.

The other 50%, of course, is under Israeli military occupation.

From Sept 2000 until 12 January 2005, 3,540 Palestinians were killed — 625 of them under 18, 146 of them under 12 years of age. In the same period, 1,030 Israelis were killed.

Last year, 881 Palestinians were killed, 20% of them children, 160 under 18 years of age, 29 under 12 years of age.

In 2003, 664 Palestinians were killed. Thus, in 2004, 33% more Palestinians were killed than in the previous year.

117 Israelis were killed in 2004 compared to 214 in 2003, a drop of nearly 50%

Between the death of Yasser Arafat in November until the election in January 2005, 88 Palestinians were killed by Israel.