Israeli soldier fighting terrorism.

This picture comes from the Gush Shalom web site.

“During these days we are seeing the People of Israel at its best — a proud people whose spirit will not be broken, a people determined to protect its home, while extending its hand in peace. Every day we see new expressions of courage, volunteers [sic] and mutual assistance.”

Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, in an address to the Knesset, 8 April 2002, translation provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

During the past 18 months, we have seen not Israel but the Palestinian people showing expressions of courage and mutual assistance. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank since 1967 has demonstrated its own capability to ignore international law with support and backing by the United States.

Israel has shown repeated patterns of human rights violations in the areas of:

Use of civilians as human shields
Intimidation and shooting of journalists
Execution of captured Palestinians
Torture of detainees
Indiscriminate use of military force
Deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure and looting
Collective punishment
Annexation of conquered territory

What I have tried to do here is to gather some images from the Second Intifada along with some testimonies collected by human rights organizations in order to show how Israel’s “war on terrorism” has affected Palestinians on the West Bank.

I think that it is necessary to do this since I believe that the American media has tended to present Palestinians as crazed suicide bombers and the Israelis as innocent victims. I hope that these stories of everyday life of a people while living under occupation by an invading army shows just how much the Palestinians are just like us.

The pages on the site are as follows:

Old Palestine — A folk tale and some pictures of Palestinian embroidery
The boy and the tank — media and its images
Ambulances as targets — the death of a 3-day-old child
Buried alive — Jenin and the military rescue of civilians
Bethlehem — the death of a 16-year-old
Checkpoints — the last day of a businessman
A boy and his father — pictures
IDF Spokesperson’s Unit — refrigerators in Jenin
Links — links to sites related to human rights, the occupation, and Israel’s side

I would really like to hear what people think of this. Send emails to George.