Israeli “human rights” organization, B’tzelem issued its report for 2006.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in 2007 has fallen by almost two-thirds compared to the figure for 2006, the human rights group B’Tselem reported Sunday.According to the figures published in the organization’s annual report, 131 Palestinian civilians were killed this year – 36 in the West Bank and 95 in the Gaza Strip. Last year, Palestinian civilian fatalities numbered 283 in the Gaza Strip and 65 in the West Bank, for a total of 348.
The drop mirrored a decline in overall hostilities this year compared to last. One hundred eighty-eight illegal Palestinian combatants were killed in 2007, compared with 292 the previous year.
The figures also paralleled a drop in the number of Israeli civilian fatalities in 2007. Seven Israeli civilians were killed in 2007, compared with 17 in 2006. Four soldiers died this year, compared to six last year.
But still
“The figures, nevertheless, still give cause for concern,” wrote B’Tselem, which blamed the civilian deaths primarily on Israeli policy allegedly determined by the army’s top echelon. The policies include allegedly illegal easing of the military’s rules of engagement, faulty transmission of these rules to soldiers in the field, approval of operations that cause disproportionate harm to civilians and failure to independently investigate most cases in which Palestinian civilians are killed.
Forgetting for a moment that according to the Geneva conventions positioning oneself near civilians does not render a combatant immune from attack, is Btselem certain that all of the innocents were necessarily innocent. Do they use the same criteria as the IDF?
Of course B’Tselem doesn’t count the number of Palestinians killed by other Palestinians, which has passed 600 for the year.
And as Elder of Ziyon has been noticing recently, the IAF really has been avoiding civilian casualties in its recent attacks on illegal combatants. Or as Meryl has summarized, 97% of the attacks on illegal combatants in 2007 have resulted in no civilian casualties.
Of course, for Israel’s critics, B’Tselem included, Israel must maintain an impossible standard in fighting its enemies or be judged in the wrong.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
If Lee Kaplan’s story at Front Page Magazine a few years ago is true, B’tselem actively helps shield terrorists. Kaplan infiltrated a training session for International Solidarity Movement volunteers. Accoring to Kaplan, the trainers told the volunteers how to help shield terrorits, and instructed the volunteers to lie to Israeli border officials about their reason for coming to Israel. The trainers told the volunteers to say that they were coming to visit friends, and told the volunteers that if they did not know anyone in Israel, B’tselem would provide them with a cover story by giving them the name and address of a B’tselem activist as the person they were going to visit.
This is an organization with credibility?
ISM isn’t B’tselem. They are two completely different organizations.
Meryl,
Unless I was reading Yankev wrong, he wrote that B’Tselem was providing the opportunity for ISM’ers to enter Israel unharrassed.
Then I have to add the caveat that Lee Kaplan is not the most reliable of reporters. I’d need more evidence of B’tselem’s involvement, and not the involvement of someone who happens to also be a member of Btselem.
Thanks, I was unaware of Lee Kaplan’s history. I looked it up.
Soccer Dad or Meryl, can you give me more detail about why Kaplan is unreliable?