Palestinians and Israelis inflict terror on each other

While sitting at the Royal Café on Kirkwood one afternoon chatting with a girl about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, I brought up the time in mid-July when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb in a crowded Gaza apartment building. This act murdered 15 people, nine of them children, to assassinate one militant. Her explanation for the death of innocent Palestinians claimed that the militant purposely surrounded himself with children. This implies that Palestinians are by nature inhuman, and would simply volunteer their children to be blown up like firecrackers. \nA column written by Joe Brown in the IDS on Sept. 24 titled "The Shame of Crying Wolf," asserts that Palestinians staged a massacre in Jenin last May. Brown's piece states, "The audience stood by and watched as actors (Palestinians) fell off stretchers and ran to get back on the stretchers to be carried away from the so-called 'massacre.'" \nAccording to the Palestine Monitor, 60 percent of Palestinians currently live below the poverty level. Entire families are obliterated to dust while sleeping in their own homes by Israel's indiscriminate use of bombs, bullets and bulldozers. According to an article from USA Today, the Palestinian death count is three times that of Israeli deaths. They are too busy trying to survive and have no time to "stage" massacres. Brown was correct in that there was no evidence of a massacre in Jenin, but Israel would not let anyone in to investigate. It becomes increasingly difficult to investigate a massacre if you do not have access to the site in which it took place. Furthermore, preliminary findings by Amnesty International found evidence of war crimes. \nVarious groups have systematically documented Israel's use of force against the civilian population in the occupied territories. For instance, Btselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights states that "The IDF's (Israel Defense Forces) open-fire policy throughout this intifada has resulted in extensive harm to Palestinian civilians who were not involved in any activity against Israel." They further assert that these incidents account for a "large portion of casualties." \nWhat would you do if someone invaded your home and forced you to live in a tent? Then what would you do if they hired you as cheap labor and deprived you of human rights such as water, freedom of movement and due process of the law. In reality, Palestinians are human beings. Imagine having children and encouraging them to seek bullets.\nThe fact is that both sides inflict terror in each other. A soldier who drops a bomb in a crowded neighborhood is no better than a suicide bomber. Self-righteous claims of maintaining a moral high-ground are diversionary tactics used to steer people away from the truth. These attempts at blaming the victim reinforce this moral image. Both sides are at fault, but one side has more power than the other, and uses this to suffocate and oppress the other. \nA report by Amnesty International condemns both sides for their "utter disregard" for the lives of children. In the past year alone 250 Palestinian and 72 Israeli children have been killed. According to Amnesty most of these children "were killed when the IDF randomly opened fire, or shelled or bombarded residential neighborhoods in Palestinian towns and villages." Only with an adherence by both sides to International Law, human rights, freedom and justice can this conflict be resolved. Anything held below these standards is unacceptable and will only condone the ongoing violence and disregard for human life.