Thursday 22 March 2012

Yes Virginia, Israel Does Murder Palestinian Children

By Keith Johnson


In between heaping helpings of flesh and blood, Israeli war criminals feasting on the carcass of Palestine stopped long enough on Tuesday to shriek out an indictment against EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton because she dared count Gaza’s children among “young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances.”

During a speech delivered on Monday to Palestinian refugees in Brussels, Ashton addressed the recent shooting at a Jewish school in Toulouse that left four people dead, and then referred to other tragedies that have taken the lives of children around the world—including last year’s massacre in Norway, a bus crash in Switzerland that killed 22 Belgian school children a week ago, the current violence in Syria and “what is happening in Gaza and in different parts of the world.”

This was enough to “incense” serial-child-murderer Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ears must be constantly ringing as Palestinian mothers grieve over the loss of their offspring.
  
“What gets me especially incensed is the comparison between the targeted slaughter of children and the surgical, defensive activities of the (Israel Defense Forces) that are meant to hit terrorists who use children for human shields,” Netanyahu told reporters on Tuesday.
Netanyahu has that ass-backwards. Members of the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF—Not IDF) are the ones who target children for slaughter, and they are also the ones who use Palestinian children as human shields.

On November 12, 2011, Moammar Mashni of Australians for Palestine wrote:

“Contrary to the often regurgitated myth that Palestinians use their children as human shields, it has never been proven – not once. Yet in October 2010, two Israeli soldiers were convicted of using a 9-year-old boy as a human shield during the infamous Operation Cast Lead of 2008/9. There are at least 15 other documented cases of children being used as human shields since 2004, with only the aforementioned case of the 9-year-old ever having been investigated.”

“Analysing the statistical data of child mistreatment by Israel is a horrific mission. The average number of Palestinian children in Israeli detention over the last 12 months is 212 – that is children aged 12 to 18 locked up on for the most minor indiscretion as Israel creates specific military orders that criminalise any form of opposition to the occupation.”

Without doubt though, the statistic that should trouble any person of good conscience is the data relating to child fatalities. From 2000 to 2009, 1,329 children were killed by Israel. In real terms that means a Palestinian child was killed every three days, of every week, of every month, of every year, for 10 long years. How can this possibly be justified?

Don’t just take Mashni’s word for it. An October 2010 report by Defense of Children International states:

“Between 26 March and 14 October 2010, DCI-Palestine documented 14 cases of children shot whilst collecting building gravel near the border fence between Gaza Strip and Israel. Due to a severe lack of job opportunities and a shortage of construction material entering Gaza from Israel, hundreds of men and boys scavenge for building gravel amongst the destroyed buildings close to the border fence. The gravel is collected into sacks, loaded onto donkey drawn carts and sold to builders for use in concrete. Children can earn up to 50 shekels (US $13) per day which is used to help support their families. Reports indicate that Israeli soldiers on duty in the observation towers which line the border between Gaza and Israel frequently fire warning shots to scare workers away from the border region. Reports also indicate that these soldiers sometimes shoot and kill the donkeys used by the workers, and also target the workers, usually, but not always, shooting at their legs. In the cases documented by DCI-Palestine, the children report being shot whilst working between 50 to 800 metres from the border fence.”

Statistics maintained by if Americans knew estimate that 1,471 have been killed by Israel from September, 2000 to present day. This month alone, at least seven Palestinian children were killed and dozens more seriously injured during Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza.

Yes, Virginia—Israel deliberately targets children, makes them into human shields, and even uses their dead bodies for target practice. Read this heart wrenching tale, entitled “Dad, I’m Dying.”
Here is an excerpt:

“Laughs got louder as they carried the body to a higher place to start their party. For a whole hour, the father hushed his cries of pain as he watched the Israeli soldiers compete in sniping on his dead son’s body. ‘They were using his bullet-ridden, bleeding body as a shooting practice,’ said the Father. ‘With each bullet, they were humming with words I could not figure out, but it sounded full of rapture. It was as if they were celebrating.’”

Some may claim that these atrocities don’t represent Israeli policy, and are only carried out by a few demented individuals. Really? I would argue that this hatred for Palestinian children is epidemic throughout Israeli society. In 2009, “The King’s Torah,” became a best-selling book in Israel. Written by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, it sets out a justification for murdering any gentile that poses a threat to the Jewish—even babies and children.

According to Haaretz:

“Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs.

“It is permissable to kill the Righteous among Nations even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” he wrote, adding: “If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments – because we care about the commandments – there is nothing wrong with the murder.”

Several prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Yithak Ginzburg and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, have recommended the book to their students and followers.”

This attitude is not just confined to soldiers and the Rabbinate. Just recently, when a bus that crashed near Ramallah and killed nine Palestinian children, Israeli citizens posting on Facebook were overjoyed.

Some of the comments were:

Tali: It seems like they are Palestinian children.. Thank God..

Benny: Calm down, they are Palestinian Children.

Tal: Thank God they are Palestinians

Ajala: Great less terrorists!!!!

Eliya: Only Palestinian children were injured about ten.

Itai: Thank God its Palestinians, let it be such bus every day.

Aleyah: calm down, Its a bus with Palestinian children, lets pray there will be deaths, or at least severe injuries, this is great news to start the day with.

Oh, by the way—Netanyahu wasn’t the only Israeli official offended at Ashton’s speech. Equally complicit serial-child-murderer Ehud Barak was also pissed.

According to Reuters;

“Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the grouping of Gaza violence with the Toulouse shooting and the fighting in Syria was ‘infuriating and detached from reality.’”

Detached from reality, Mr. Barak? Tell that to 15-year-old Ahmed F., who describes how IOF soldiers blindfolded him then used a dog during an interrogation for an alleged “stone throwing” incident:

“They saw me shaking and started laughing and making fun of me. Then they put another piece of bread on my trousers near my genitals, so I tried to move away but he started barking. I was terrified.”
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian    
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