DUBAI (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday that Palestinians should end a four-year-old revolt because it was spreading terrorism and hindering the creation of an independent Palestinian state. "It is time to end the uprising. We want a Palestinian state. The (U.S.) president wants the establishment of a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people which exists side by side with Israel," Powell told Arab satellite television Al Jazeera. His comments were translated into Arabic.

"This will only happen when terrorism ends. But the uprising has helped spread terrorism and has not accomplished anything during these years except adding to the deterioration of the Palestinian economic situation and the deterioration of living standards in general among Palestinians," he said.

Violence has spiralled on the heels of the fourth anniversary of the Palestinian revolt, which broke out following the visit of then Israeli opposition leader, now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to a sensitive Jerusalem holy site on Sept. 28, 2000.

"The uprising has prevented us from achieving progress in several peace plans," Powell said.

Last year, the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- adopted the so-called "road map" peace plan calling for mutual steps toward an interim Palestinian state in 2005.

Ministers of the group said after a meeting last Wednesday that no significant progress has been made in implementing it.

GENEVA -- Three of every four Palestinians live in poverty and their economy still depends on donors, despite 4.5 percent economic growth last year, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

The rise was fueled largely by agriculture and small businesses, which engage in ``forced import substitution'' because so few goods can get past Israel's tough blockade, said Raja Khalidi, a senior official at the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.

But the increase in Gross Domestic Product follows two years of ``freefall'' since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in late 2000 and is unlikely to be sustained, Khalidi said.

``The fact that there was growth in 2003 is really a matter of bottoming out, not a rebound,'' he said, as he launched UNCTAD's annual report on the economic consequences of the conflict. ``Treading water is perhaps an apt metaphor,'' Khalidi later told the AP.

The Palestinian economy has been hit by Israeli roadblocks and closures, which have hampered commerce in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel says the restrictions are needed to stop Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen who have killed around a thousand Israelis. Around 3,000 Palestinians have died.

The World Bank has cited a 40 percent fall in Palestinian per capita GDP since the outbreak of violence, saying it far exceeds the impact of the Great Depression in the United States.

``The Palestinian economy is being transformed into one of subsistence,'' said Khalidi.

Average income among the 3.5 million Palestinians fell from $1,750 a year in 1999 to $1,040 last year. Overall, 72 percent of Palestinians live below a poverty line of $3.60 a day.

Some 127,000 Palestinians used to work in Israel, providing vital income for many families. But under security restrictions the number has slumped to 53,000.

Around 277,000 Palestinians are unemployed, from a 792,000-strong work force, according to U.N. figures. The figure would be worse but for the Palestinian economy's ability to absorb many workers who used to have jobs in Israel, albeit at far lower wages, the report said.

Palestinian areas also rely on international aid to keep the economy afloat, Khalidi said. ``It's a crutch, and without that crutch (growth) is not sustainable,'' he said.

With new upscale restaurants, bars, and theater, the West Bank city is undergoing a cultural revival.

Just a few minutes drive from Yasser Arafat's half-destroyed headquarters, Usama Khalaf's version of upscale Ramallah dining is taking off.

His restaurant called Darna occupies a grand renovated stone villa with high-ceilinged archways and a second-floor patio that draws scores of young Palestinians. It serves large dishes of innovative Middle Eastern fare, but, more importantly, offers fragments of normalcy, which has become so elusive during the past four years.

The $800,000 spent by the restaurateur to open Darna - where waiters sport snappy bow ties and tuxedo vests - represents more than a shrewd bid to attract the city's bourgeois; it signals a revival of the cultural scene that made Ramallah a cosmopolitan capital for Palestinians.

In recent months new eateries have opened and the city's offerings have expanded despite Israel checkpoints and military raids. For Khalaf, opening Darna was simultaneously the fulfillment of a life's dream and an act of political defiance.

"I had an obligation to my hometown," Khalaf says. "When they saw someone investing despite the closures and incursions, it gave people the willingness to stay."

In the 1950s under Jordanian rule, Arab vacationers would arrive in Ramallah from the Persian Gulf in the summer to savor the cool mountain breeze during the evening. Pleasant weather and pastoral surroundings earned the tiny city the nickname "the Bride of Palestine." When the West Bank came under Israeli control, the Arab citizens of Israel would overrun the city's hotels on the weekends. It boasted a thriving nightlife, which included the only jazz club in the West Bank.

Danny Jafar, the grandson of a Ramallah hotelier, opened the Sangrias restaurant during the first year of the fighting with just five tables and a menu featuring nachos and burritos.

During the four months of daily military curfews in the summer of 2002, word of mouth spread that Sangrias had remained open for journalists. Patrons desperate to break the monotony of the citywide lockdown surreptitiously found their way to the bar. "I used to open up when people would go home and the tanks would come out," Jafar says. "Lights would be off and curtains would be drawn, but there were people inside. It was a hangout."

Last month, Jafar opened a new lounge area out back and expanded Sangrias' capacity to 45 tables. On a recent Saturday night, recordings by American rapper 50 Cent played from a stereo in the courtyard and smoke from nargilla water pipes floated among diners under illuminated walnut trees.

"I could be at a funeral procession in the morning and I could be at a bar at night," said Sameh Katkhuda, an information technology consultant. "This isn't Ramallah. It's San Francisco."

Unlike other cities in the West Bank, Ramallah is a base for the Palestinian government, nonprofit organizations, and foreign diplomats, providing for a steady flow of disposable income. The international presence in the city of 21,000 (the population goes up to 250,000 if you count surrounding villages) has helped turn it into hub for cultural institutions. The Ramallah Cultural Palace, a state-of-the art auditorium that opened in July, has already hosted a film festival and a production of "Al-Fawanees," the first Palestinian musical.

"As an outsider, you would think that there's no place for cultural activities or a cultural life," says Rita Janssen, a UN official who is the director of the cultural palace. "But it seems to be more important to them than when you're living in peace and quiet."

Hours after a performance of "Al-Fawanees," both Ms. Janssen and casts members were dining at Darna, where 20-somethings wearing American athletic jerseys had gathered to lounge in the patio.

When the restaurant was featured on Israeli television news magazine, Ariel Sharon is said to have been "amazed" at the site of such an establishment, owner Khalaf recalled with satisfaction.

"We're not just suicide bombers. We don't love just blood," Khalaf said. "We have another face. Ultimately, we have a desire to live."

To all Friends and Supporters of Human Rights around the World:

The Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank, representing 7,500 political prisoners currently in Israeli prisons, is seeking the support of the international community in its campaign against the gross violations of their rights that the prisoners are enduring and against the appalling conditions under which they are being detained.

Political prisoners in Israeli prisons will be commencing a hunger strike on Sunday, August 15, 2004 to protest their conditions. They complain that the conditions they experience are reminiscent of the former Abu Ghoraib facility in Iraq which gained worldwide notoriety recently for its treatment of detainees.

The families of the Palestinian political prisoners plead with you, the members of the international community, to join in solidarity with our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who are being held in Israeli prisons by organizing demonstrations, marches, holding silent vigils or activities to publicize the plight of the political prisoners and to bring pressure on the government of Israel to cease these violations of law and to treat Palestinian prisoners as human beings entitled to basic human rights.

Israeli Public Security Minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem on August 13th that the prisoners "can strike for a day, a month, even starve to death, we will not respond to their demands".

Some of the conditions that the prisoners are protesting include:

- Arbitrary and indiscriminate beating of prisoners in their cells, in prison courtyards and during transportation to and from prisons.
- Arbitrary and indiscriminate firing of tear gas into prisoner's cells and prison courtyards and intimidation of prisoners by guards entering their cells with guns.
- Humiliating strip searches of prisoners in full view of other prisoners and guards each time they enter or exit their cells
- Subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement for excessive periods of time, for months and even years.
- Arbitrary imposition of financial penalties on prisoners for minor infractions, arbitrary revocation of visitation rights and extended confinement to cells as punishment for minor infractions such as singing or speaking too loudly
- Confining children with adult prisoners and political prisoners with criminals
- Withholding or delaying medical treatment and the provision of medication to sick detainees
- Severely restricting the category of family members entitled to visit prisoners thus denying visitation rights to other close family members
- Arbitrary denial of travel permits to family members of prisoners living in the West Bank or Gaza so that they cannot travel to prisons to see their relatives
- Imposing conditions on travel for family members and obstacles that result in travel of a few hours being prolonged to 16 or 17 hours for a 45-minute visit
- Conducting humiliating strip searches of visiting family members even though they are usually separated from the prisoners by a full glass barrier as well as a wire mesh barrier.
- Providing such poor visitation facilities that prisoners find it difficult to see or hear their loved ones
- Maintaining prisoners on near starvation diets that are insufficient to sustain health.
- Applying rules concerning items that prisoners may receive from their families arbitrarily and inconsistently, on the whim of the guards, with each visit.
- Withdrawing studying privileges that in the past allowed prisoners to continue their high school or university studies through correspondence courses

The treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel violates both international and Israeli laws, as well as rules governing the administration of Israeli prisons. The Committee for the Families is planning a series of activities in the West Bank to coincide with the start of the hunger strike on August 15th.

Scheduled Activities:

1. A press conference at noon in Ramallah will kick off the campaign Sunday, August 15.
2. Hunger strike solidarity tents will be set up in the centre of all the cities in the West Bank and in all the Red Cross Centres and will be occupied by the public around the clock for as long as the prisoners'strike lasts.
3. August 18; The Palestinian Prime Ministers' office has declared this day National Day for Prisoners, a day that all Palestinians will show solidarity with the prisoners. All government ministers, members of the Palestinian National Council and heads of all political parties will join the public in the Solidarity Tents and fast in support of the prisoners.
4. August 20; after Jumپfa prayers at mosques processions will march towards the Solidarity Tents.
5. August 21st; Palestinians in various Israeli cities will march, together with other supporters, to the prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are being held
6. August 22; after church services, processions will march to the Solidarity Tents. These processions will be held every weekend during the campaign.
7. August 23; children of the prisoners will lead a procession.
8. August 25; all professionals involved in the Justice system in Palestine will congregate at the Solidarity Tents in their official legal gowns and will lead a procession to the centre of their cities.
9. August 26; the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Arun Gandhi, will lead a mass procession in Ramallah.
10. August 28; candlelight processions will be held at 8:00 p.m.
11. August 29; all members of the public are invited to join the open hunger strike.

September 4, 2004: International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners

We ask you also to register your protests by letter, fax, email, or telephone to the officials listed below. Ask them to stop the harsh treatment of Palestinian political prisoners and to accede the demands of the striking prisoners so that the conditions under which they are imprisoned are consistent with international norms of human rights and basic decency.

In addition, please register your protest with your own political representatives and governments ministers.

Please send a copy of your protest message to alhureih@yahoo.com

Messages of support from organizations would also be appreciated by the prisoners and their families. Please send them to the same address with some details of the organization.

For more information visit our temporary website at www.palsolidarity.org/prisoners or telephone (972) 2 277 4602 or (972) 547-358-579 or email: info@palsolidarity.org

With much appreciation for your valued support,

Mahmoud Ziadi, General Secretariat, Families of Palestinian Political Prisoners PO Box 2151, Ramallah, Palestine.

Israeli Government Contacts:

Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon Office of the Prime Minister 3 Kaplan Str., P.O. Box 187 Jerusalem, 91919 Israel Fax: 972-2-670-5475 e-mail: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz 37 Kaplan Str. Tel Aviv, 61909, Israel Fax: 972-3-696-2757 or 691-7915 e-mail: san@mod.gov.il or pnoit@mod.gov.il

Minister of Justice, Yosef Lapid 29 Salah al-Din Str. Jerusalem, 91010, Israel Fax: 972-2-628-5492 e-mail: san@justice.gov.il

Minister of Interior, Tzahi Haneghi Kiryat Hamenshala, P.O. Box 18182 Jerusalem, 91181 Israel Tel. 972-2-530-9999 Fax: 972-2-584-7872 e-mail: sar@mops.gov.il

Addresses of Israeli embassies worldwide can be found at www.embassyworld.com/embassy/isreal1.htm or go to the Government of Israel website at www.info.gov.il/FirstGov/

The Palestinian land has been witnessing a devastating escalation in the Israeli aggression on our people, our institutions and our capabilities, especially during the latest events in Beit Hanoun, Rafah, Nablus and other areas. The Apartheid Separation Wall continues to be built and settlements continue to be enlarged with the blatant cover of the US Administration. Along with this deterioration, there has been an unprecedented state of loose security, violation of law, attempted political assassination, violent events, kidnappings and assaults on public properties.

Today, more than ever before, there is a need to confront this deteriorating crisis which has affected the Palestinian political system in all its components. Cosmetic, administrative and partial solutions are no guarantees that this crisis will not endanger the whole Palestinian national scheme.

Facing those challenges and the threats posing before us requires the restoration of our political initiative in confronting the Sharon plan that aims to prevent the creation of a fully sovereign Palestinian state. To face those challenges, we should also revive our Palestinian national program and introduce deep-rooted reforms into our political regime structure and into the decision making process. Add to this everything we need to rehabilitate the executive, judicial and legal authorities, enforce law and order, spread the basis of equality and justice, immediately cease all forms of corruption, anarchy and security chaos and prevent the phenomenon of taking law into one's hands.

Dangers of the US-backed Israeli plan threaten to destroy the basic foundations of our Palestinian people's unity and our territorial integrity. Therefore, there is a fundamental need to restructure our internal conditions and put our home in order in order to be able to confront this plan.

We, the undersigned, call for the unification of all forces, figures and institutions that are loyal to our national goal in order to fortify the steadfastness and to introduce reforms and change. We emphasize the following:

ONE: Our commitment to our national legitimate rights to return, self determination and to set up our fully sovereign independent Palestinian state on all the land occupied in 1967 with Jerusalem our capital. We strongly adhere to the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of our people.

TWO: Support the right of our people to resist occupation, settlement and aggression while excluding civilians on both sides from the cycle of violence. We stress on the importance to revive the populace intifada and to enhance forms of public resistance.

THREE: Our condemnation of, and fight against, all forms of corruption and our support for genuine, serious and persistent work to uproot corruption, to expose those involved in it to accountability within the framework of law.

FOUR: Our condemnation of all forms of anarchy and security chaos, including assaults or takeover of public and private lands and properties, all kinds of armed demonstrative rallies, resorting to violence and the use of arms in settling internal accounts or differences.

FIVE: The immediate launching of comprehensive reforms into the PLO institutions and the institutions of the Palestinian National Authority and its security apparatuses, as well as all civil society organizations.

This endeavor represents a fundamental national need to strengthen our internal powers and to augment our capabilities of steadfastness in the face of the Sharon plan and against outside pressure. It is also needed to improve the performance of the PNA and to enable it to provide the best services to the people mainly in the fields of employment, health, education and social welfare. To achieve all these calls, we demand the following:

1- Enable the government to shoulder its responsibilities and to carry out its duties with full powers as stated in Basic Law and call on the Palestinian leadership and all political forces to work together in order to reinforce political partnership and to form a national salvation government based on the widest coalition possible and to implement the reforms that were ratified by the Palestinian Legislative Council.

2- The supremacy of the rule of law and the independence and impartiality of the judicial system while following up all corruption files, subject those involved to accountability and punishing the convicts. Work should be accelerated to introduce the law of "illegal wealth" and the law that regulates works, structure, authorities and the terms of reference for all the Palestinian security apparatuses so that they would shoulder their responsibilities in protecting the safety of the people and of the homeland and in enforcing law and public order. This law should ban the security apparatuses from interfering in political, financial or economic fields or in the works of civil society organizations, except when deemed necessary under the law. The security apparatuses should be rehabilitated and their commanders be renewed.

3- Call on all political forces to shoulder their historical responsibilities and to start a serious and comprehensive dialogue based on the foundations and results reached in previous dialogue sessions in such a way that would crystallize a national program that reinforces partnership and centrality in the decision making process.

4- Serious preparation for public (presidential and legislative) and local elections based on a modern democratic law that adopts rules of mixed gender and guarantees posts for women. Call on the international community to assist the Palestinian people in organizing the elections through guaranteeing the withdrawal of Israel and preventing her from interfering, whether directly or indirectly, in the democratic process.

5- Call on the Palestinian Government to treat all forms of social congestions and to distribute with utmost justice and balance all resources in order to face the ramifications of occupation and aggression, through giving top priority to areas struck by aggression and by the Apartheid Separation Wall, and through finding the appropriate methods for achieving these goals by cooperating with civil society organizations and augmenting the rules of justice and equality.

6- Call for democratic dialogue to prevail and condemnation of all forms of breaching this rule and urge the people not to get drawn after attempts aimed at splitting national unity or imposing dangerous polarizations and to renounce all those who assail the rights of our society and endanger its very existence.

The signatories of this public statement hereby reiterate their insistence to follow up all the listed items above while inviting and welcoming the participation of all those interested, including public, national and political figures and forces. This is a Grand National duty for all of us.

Signatures:

1. Abdul Aziz Q'deih
2. Abdul Karim Ashour
3. Abdul Qader Husseini
4. Abdul Rahman Abu Arafeh
5. Abdul Rahman Awadallah
6. Abdullah Abu Al Ata
7. Abdullah Abu Samahdaneh
8. Adi Al Hindi
9. Ahmad Dahbour
10. Ahmad Daoud
11. Andalib Adwan
12. Dr. Anton Sh'heiber
13. Dr. Awad Hijazi
14. Aziz Abdul Jawad
15. Dr. Azmi Al Shu'aibi
16. Baker Abu Baker
17. Basel Jaber
18. Bassam Musleh
19. Bassam Salhi
20. Daoud Talhami
21. Dhiab Al Louh
22. Elias Zananiri
23. Dr. Faiha' Abdul Hadi
24. Dr. Fat'hi Waheidi
25. Dr. Fawaz Abu Sitta
26. Fuad Rizeq
27. Dr. Ghassan Al Khatib
28. Ghazi Lutfi
29. Dr. Goerge Geacaman
30. Dr. Haidar Abdul Shafi
31. Haidar Awadallah
32. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
33. Hanan Taha
34. Hani Al Hayek
35. Hani Al Masri
36. Hani Habib
37. Hani Saba
38. Hanna Amireh
39. Hanna Siniora
40. Hassan Khader
41. Hatem Abdul Qader
42. Hiam Abu Ghazaleh
43. Hisham Abdul Razeq
44. Huda Elayyan
45. Ibrahim Dughmeh
46. Dr. Ibrahim Khreisheh
47. Ibtisam Salem
48. Dr. Ilham Abu Ghazaleh
49. Ismail Abu Shamala (Abu Nidal)
50. Dr. Issa Ja'anini
51. Issam Abdul Hadi
52. Issam Arouri
53. Issam Younis
54. Dr. Iyad Sarraj
55. Jaber Washah
56. Jamal Abu Nahel
57. Jamal Shobaki
58. Jamal Zaqout
59. Dr. Jamil Hilal
60. Jiries Qassis
61. Dr. Kamal Al Sharafi
62. Khaled Al Khatib
63. Khaled Jum'aa
64. Khaled Mansour
65. Lama Al Horani
66. Maha Abu Dayyeh
67. Maha Al Tamimi
68. Mahmoud Sh'qeir
69. Dr. Mamdouh Al Aker
70. Mamdoun Noufal
71. Mansour Abu Radwan
72. Marwan Jilani
73. Mazen Al Jarbawi
74. Dr. M'kheimer Abu Sa'ada
75. Mohammad Abu Sham'a
76. Mohammad Adel Al Masri
77. Mohammad Al Horani
78. Mohammad Al Masrouji
79. Mohammad Dahman
80. Muhannad Abdul Hamid
81. Mustafa Al Rantisi
82. Nabil Amr
83. Nabil Kutari
84. Nabil Qabalan
85. Dr. Nabil Qassis
86. Nabil Tarazi
87. Dr. Nader Said
88. Nadia Abu Nahleh
89. Na'ela Ayesh
90. Nafez Ghneim
91. Naim Nasser
92. Nassar Nassar
93. Nasser Al Shurafa
94. Nasser Aleiwah
95. Dr. Nasser Jab'r
96. Nawal Zaqout
97. Dr. Nazmi Al Ju'beh
98. Nibras Bseiso
99. Ni'meh Al Hilo
100. Omar Sha'ban
101. Qaddoura Fares
102. Qais Abdul Karim (Abu Laila)
103. Ra'ed Abu Al Sa'oud
104. Rafiq Abu Dhalfeh
105. Reem Abboushi
106. Rida Nattil
107. Dr. Riyad Za'anoun
108. Sa'ad Khurma
109. Sa'di Abu Abed
110. Sa'ed Abdul Hadi
111. Safi Safi
112. Saji Salameh
113. Sakher Bseiso
114. Salah Abdul Shafi
115. Dr. Salim Tamari
116. Sama'an Khouri
117. Samer Shihadeh
118. Dr. Sami Kilani
119. Sami Sa'idi
120. Dr. Samih Al Abed
121. Samih Khalil
122. Dr. Samir Abdallah
123. Samir Hleileh
124. Siham Al Barghouti
125. Subhiyeh Jum'a
126. Suheil Jad'oun
127. Talal Owkal
128. Tal'at Safadi
129. Dr. Taleb Awad
130. Tamer Issawi
131. Dr. Taysir Arouri
132. Taysir M'heisen
133. Terry Boullata
134. Tewfiq Abu Ghazaleh
135. Tewfiq Abu Khousa
136. Dr. Usama Farra
137. Wafa' Abdul Rahman
138. Walid Abu Baker
139. Walid Al Awad
140. Walid Atatrah
141. Dr. Walid Mustafa
142. Yasser Abed Rabbo
143. Yousef Abu Safiyyeh
144. Zahira Kamal
145. Dr. Zakaria Al Agha
146. Dr. Zaki Abdul Majid
147. Zeinab Al Ghanimi
146. Dr. Zaki Abdul Majid
147. Zeinab Al Ghanimi

This article first appeared on www.dissidentvoice.org on June 5, 2004

The media usually focuses on the latest casualty and quickly forgets those who died even a few days before. The American media in particular has a Dracula-like predilection for warm bodies, and no interest in cases where blood has already dried. Unfortunately this ahistoric focus on the last victim hides the scale of mass crimes and the responsibility of various perpetrators. Whether in Iraq, Palestine, Colombia, or Haiti, it is necessary to locate human rights abuses in a wider context to appreciate the scale of what is occurring on the ground.

In the case of Palestinian casualties, it is all too evident that CNN, BBC, and most other major media are mostly interested in today's casualties: they seem to studiously ignore precedents, and above all, they will not refer to the pattern of killings as systematic in nature. Of course, admitting that such killings are systematic would imply that Israel is committing “crimes against humanity”, a precursor to genocide. When the media seeks to whitewash “friendly” mass crimes, there is a tendency to fixate on specific instances to the exclusion of broad patterns. Even when a pattern of killings and other abuses is chronic and systematic, the BBC/CNN will tend to focus on specific cases without reference to broader trends. When referring to Palestinian conditions, what we find is that reports of casualties, house demolitions, and dispossession in these media outlets pertain to specific cases and not to general patterns. [1] Incidentally, the opposite is true when there is an incident of Palestinian violence; here lists and charts are available to highlight their context.

The chosen context can be used to obfuscate the reality on the ground. The tools at the media's disposal can be likened to an instrument of variable magnification ranging from a wide-angle lens to a telescope. Informative journalism requires using the most appropriate level of magnification for the story under investigation. On the other hand, propaganda requires contextual blurring and the use of inappropriate tools. Thus, it is best to use a telescope to view the stars, and clearly, a wide-angle lens is the wrong tool. In the case of Palestinian casualties, it is evident that the mainstream media are intent on presenting news using a telescope (preferably out of focus), when a wide-angle lens should be used.

The tables and graphs below put the Palestinian casualty toll into perspective over the course of the second intifada. These graphs speak for themselves, revealing a pattern that is all too evident. These graphs are meant to fill a gap in the available data pertaining to the casualty toll during the second intifada.

Average death tolls and an interpretation

During the course of the second intifada, the average number of Palestinians killed stands at 2.26 per day. The total killed between September 29, 2000 and May 31, 2004 is 3,023. To interpret these numbers one must scale these figures to make them comparable to understand what they would mean in the context of our own countries. This is the purpose of the table below.

An average daily fatality rate of 2.26 would proportionally equate to 177 deaths per day in the US. Similarly, the total Palestinian fatalities of 3,023 would equate to 236,938 in the US. One wonders how Americans would react if they experienced such a fatality rate, i.e., they would suffer a 9-11 death toll every two weeks. One suspects that there would be a level of mass hysteria, and rightly so. Actually, Americans are prone to suffer from mass hysteria with far less provocation. The Washington DC snipers killed ten and wounded three during a three-week “killing spree”; this is relatively minuscule when compared with the Palestinian experience. However, the media stoked a level of mass hysteria about these killings; Americans were even afraid to fill up their SUVs at the gas station — heavens! Americans are entitled to their hysteria about sniper killings, but then they should be aware that they finance the Israel military machine and support Ariel Sharon to the hilt, and therefore they have direct responsibility in the killing of 2.26 Palestinians per day (on average), something that would translate to 177 deaths per day in their society. While in the US such numbers would be abhorrent, when it comes to Palestine, Americans even provide the bullets and untold billions of dollars in funding. While the US justifies “preventive” wars, the abrogation of democracy, etc., after suffering 3,000 fatalities during 9-11, it lambastes and demonizes a brutalized Palestinian population which is suffering a death toll that is several orders of magnitude higher in terms of a scaled fatality rate.

Before anyone objects to the use of these scaled numbers, consider that Israel has frequently used such statistics for its own ends – referring exclusively to Israeli casualties. [2]

Average fatalities per month

Graph 1 plots the average death toll per month during the second intifada. It has fluctuated depending on Sharon's willingness to play along with “peace processes” and temporarily alternating with his proclivities to demolish Palestinian hopes for an independent state. Thus during the attack on the West Bank in April 2002, about eight Palestinians were killed every day. [3] While it was convenient for Sharon to play along with the Aqaba peace negotiation appearances, only 0.3 Palestinians were killed per day – the lowest level during the intifada.

What is also evident is the escalation of the fatality rate after July 2003. After the Aqaba summit, it was not possible to obtain any meaningful negotiations due to the inexorable building of the land-grab wall. Inevitably, the on-going ethnic cleansing and dispossession gave rise to an increasing death toll. From the graph it seems that the Israeli military increase the level of dispossession or killings in a gradual fashion. If they can get away with killing four Palestinians per day now, then we can expect a gradual increase in the following months. While killings, destruction, and dispossession remain under a magic threshold level, the media will not consider this to be “news”. Even human rights organizations aren't much bothered if the killings remain below this threshold. Of course, if some egregious killings take place, then Amnesty International, the Mother Theresa of the human rights organizations, will suggest that the killings “were not proportionate”, and occasionally it will utter a condemnation. Killings under the magic threshold are presumably “proportionate” and thus can be ignored.

And the wounded

Even when the mainstream media will say something about fatalities, the wounded are mostly ignored. However, consider that Israel uses heavy-duty battlefield weaponry against a mostly defenseless population in densely populated civilian neighborhoods, where the effect of these weapons on their victims is devastating. Even the so-called non-lethal bullets create harrowing wounds; even tear gas can be fatal or cause permanent lung damage. There are tens of thousands of wounded with permanent disabilities: blindness, paraplegia, as well as loss of limbs. These numbers are staggering, and a tremendous burden for a society already on the edge.

The average number of injured Palestinian victims stands at 19.6 per day (the US scaled equivalent would be 1,540). This number includes victims shot with military high velocity bullets, the so-called plastic or rubber bullets, tear gas and other unidentified gases with neurological effects, helicopter gunfire, and other large military ordnance. One must also remember that at the beginning of the intifada 193 Palestinians were injured on average every day. The Israeli army used millions of bullets during the first month of the intifada – and their effects were all too evident. [4]

The nature of the wounds

While at the beginning of the intifada a significant percentage of the casualties were shot with so-called non-lethal bullets, the ratio of casualties due to this type of weaponry has fallen significantly. It is increasingly rare to find Israeli soldiers using “plastic bullets” (in reality plastic-coated-bullets); the predilection today is to use “high-velocity bullets”. Graph 3 shows that the percentage of injuries due to “live ammunition” has increased steadily. In other words, this implies that the use of “non-lethal” bullets/weapons has fallen over time. However, the graph hides some increasing trends. Someone wounded by a missile fired by an Apache helicopter enters the “other” category, and hence it doesn't register as “live ammunition”. The reason why the “live ammo” ratio has fallen during the past few months is directly attributable to wounds caused by helicopter or tank fire. The graph (not shown) with the “other” category as a ratio of total injuries shows a steady increase.

Injuries and deaths

Graph 4 shows the number of injuries in relation to deaths over the same period. Thus at the beginning of the intifada there were a large number of injuries for each fatality, and this ratio has fallen steadily. The reason behind the dropping trend is the changing nature of the confrontation. Whereas at the beginning there were many popular demonstrations with a large number of ensuing wounded victims, this has steadily given way to sniper fire, helicopter or tank fire. The latter is more lethal, and the resulting ratio of injuries to fatalities tends to be lower. A reduction in this ratio sometimes implies an increase in the lethality of the Israeli tactics: they are increasingly shooting to kill.

Interference with medical treatment

A clear crime committed against Palestinians is the destruction of ambulances, abuse of ambulance staff, and the impediment of access to medical treatment. The summary statistics during the intifada are the following:

The Palestine Red Crescent Society, keeps meticulous statistics and it is worth studying this graph. If one found that the most of the damage occurred during the April 2002 attack, then maybe this would be understandable. However, the recurrent pattern is a steady interference and destruction of Palestinian ambulances; the graph makes this very clear. Even though a so-called peace process was kicked off in July 2003, the level of ambulance destruction continued unabated. One could easily imagine the howls of indignation and disgust if Palestinians were to shoot up an Israeli ambulance or just impede its access. However, destruction of these increasingly important vehicles, or even their commandeering by the Israeli military is a media nonevent.

Is it Genocide?

It is evident that Israel under Ariel Sharon is pursuing relentless campaign that aims to drive the Palestinians off the land and dispossess an ever-greater number of people. The construction of the wall is proof that this policy is being implemented. Driving armored Caterpillar bulldozers through refugee camps obviously entails a casualty toll. Similarly, the usually violent suppression of the demonstrations against this policy conjures its own grim statistics. From the graphs we detect a pattern: the repression is systematic and gradually increases the severity of its methods – this is especially apparent after July 2003. In Ariel Sharon's calculus, and with American blessing, the dispossession and repression of the Palestinians can continue as long as it is performed gradually with a slowly increasing rate. So, mass abuses are occurring in the occupied territories today; these are chronic, and indeed systematic. When the scale, intent and period are taken into account, then one can only conclude that Israel's policy is genocidal. [5]

Please note that this is not a conclusion that could only have been reached recently. In December 2, 2000, Francis Boyle, a professor of International Law at Univ. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, stated:

I am sure we can all agree that Israel has indeed perpetrated the international crime of genocide against the Palestinian People. [6]

So, who will take responsibility for blowing the whistle and classifying Israeli actions as genocide? Unfortunately, this has to be determined by the UN Commission on Human Rights or the General Assembly, and the legal basis for the classification of genocide is the UN convention against Genocide. [7] There are numerous obstacles before the UN will take any action because of this arrangement. Via a private communication with senior UN personnel, we discover that there has been no movement whatsoever at the UN to determine if Israel's policies are genocidal, confirming that the UN's role in preventing genocide is hopeless. It is very likely that the UN will not move at all regarding Palestine.

The explanation for the UN's inaction has much to do with the US's role at the UN; this has been less than constructive, and it will pressure member countries to avoid issuing a “genocide” warning. [8] One only has to remember the US efforts prior to February 2004 to block the International Court of Justice's hearings on the land-grab wall; to defend its client it attempted to obstruct this international legal body. Furthermore, the UN convention against genocide is very narrowly defined and it is almost the case that genocide can only be determined after the fact. The convention almost guarantees that there will be no action to prevent genocide or stem an on-going genocide. Finally, the insufferable Kofi Annan is known for his callousness and inaction in the face of mass slaughter. As head of UN peacekeeping forces during the Rwandan genocide, he was instrumental in delaying and obstructing UN action. As Michael Hourigan, a UN war crimes investigator in Rwanda, stated: “consistently, repeatedly people like Kofi Annan failed to act.” And the UN's Carlson Commission, an internal inquiry about the Rwandan genocide, actually blamed Kofi Annan and the unit he led. [9] Annan's record of inaction bodes ill for the UN to engage in any action to lend international protection to the Palestinians, a population that has been brutalized for many decades.

Further reading

• Francis Boyle, Palestine Should Sue Israel for Genocide before the International Court of Justice, MediaMonitors, December 2, 2000.

• Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide, City Lights Books, 1997.

• Linda Polman, We did nothing: Why the truth doesn't always come out when the UN goes in, Penguin Viking 2003.

• Paul de Rooij, Ambient Death in Palestine, DissidentVoice, June 21, 2003.

Paul de Rooij can be contacted at proox@hotmail.com (NB: all attachments will be deleted automatically). ©2004 Paul de Rooij

Data Sources

The data used in this article originates from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society – with one small modification discussed below. This is a high quality database and the origin of its data is from the PRCS hospitals and medical staff. The numbers are conflict-related deaths and injuries, which includes all Palestinian killed or injured irrespective of cause. PRCS numbers are closely related to the Health Ministry numbers, but they are not the same. The Palestine Authority is now publishing its numbers on its website, and data quality has improved over time. The PA's statistics can be found here. Finally, the Palestine Monitor also publishes good quality data and can be found here. The total casualty numbers of these three sources are not equal, yet there is only a minor discrepancy. Part of the reason for the discrepancy has to do with the reported numbers during the April 2002 attack. In many instances, there was no access to hospitals, victims were buried without adequate record keeping, or victims were removed by the Israeli army. PRCS's approach has been to zero out most of the entries of this period, and thus understates the total casualty figures. The Palestine Monitor has imputed some numbers to this period based on interviews with residents and victim exhumations. The approach taken in this article was to use Palestine Monitor data for the months that were zeroed out by PRCS. This makes a difference of 19 fatalities.

Endnotes

[1] The opposite also happens. That is, if confronted by a particularly egregious Israeli crime, this can be whitewashed by placing it in a wider context. Alternatively, Israeli actions can be juxtaposing with Palestinian violence – thus the Israelis are only responding.

[2] See Israel's Campaign of Misinformation, The Palestine Monitor, January 14, 2004.

[3] Please note that the statistical record during the April 2002 military assault on the West Bank is incomplete. For example, not withstanding the UN or Amnesty International reports, it is not known how many people were killed in Jenin or the West Bank during this month. NB: Because the investigation was vetoed by the US, there was no in-depth investigation of the killings in Jenin.

[4] Source: Raji Sourani, Lawyer and Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza. Data provided during his “The worst yet to come from Occupied Palestine” lecture in London, October 11, 2002.

[5] Mass killings don't need to occur before mass abuses can be classed as genocide. See Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide, City Lights Books, 1997, pp. 399 – 444.

[6] Francis Boyle, Palestine Should Sue Israel for Genocide before the International Court of Justice, MediaMonitors, December 2, 2000.

[7] The official name of the convention is: The International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, UN, 1948.

[8] In the late 1940s, the US sought to wreck and postpone the UN convention on genocide. It managed to have the principal architect of the convention (Raphael Lemkin) removed; it then reduced the scope of the convention thereby eliminating its effectiveness in preventing future genocides. Even after wrecking the convention, the US didn't ratify it but delayed until 1988 when it gave a conditional ratification, and ratified it only after adding many provisos that rendered the convention toothless. For an excellent discussion of the American machinations surrounding the convention see Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide, City Lights Books, 1997, pp. 363 – 393.

[9] Judi Mcleod, “One minute for 100 days of Rwandan hell”, CanadaFreePress.com, April 5, 2004. Also important: Per Ahlmark, “UN chief's career clouded”, The Australian, May 3, 2004. Finally, this article also contains important info: Max Teichman, “UN: Kofi Annan and the Rwanda genocide,” NewsWeekly, April 24, 2004.