Facts You Won't Find In the New York Times or on NPR

Relatives mourn the death of 4-year-old girl Lama Hamdan.
Americans may find it difficult to remember that Palestinians are human beings,
since the Times and other American sources
rarely print photos of Palestinian civilians suffering.

As Israel turns from genocide by blockade and starvation to just plain old brute force, Americans may be surprised to learn that it is Israel that occupies Palestine, not the other way round. [1] This is just one of a vast array of facts about which Americans are ignorant thanks to a grossly biased (or timid) media, government and academe.

Here are some more:

Number of Israelis killed by rockets and mortars in the 2001-2008 interval: 23 (433 injured)

Number of Palestinians killed in the same interval: nearly 5000 (1000 under 17 years old)

On the BBC (Tuesday, Dec. 30), Benjamin Netanyahu equated Palestinian rockets with German V1 and V2s fired on London during the Second World War.

Number of Britons killed by V1 and V2 rockets: 8938 (25,000 injured seriously)

In one day, Saturday Dec. 27, Israel killed 230 Palestinians (5% of all the people Israel has killed since the beginning of 2001). 70 of that 230 (30%) were civilians.

From the ceasefire Hamas (not Israel) announced on June 2008 until Saturday, Dec. 27, no Israelis had been killed by Hamas by any means.

This one should go without saying: Palestinians have no tanks, no fighter/bombers, no helicopters, no heavy artillery.

Palestinians in Gaza have been deprived of food, water, fuel, medical supplies since Fall, 2007

Collective punishment of civilians is a war crime under international laws to which both Israel and the United States are signatories.

Israel has been charged with crimes against humanity by Richard Falk (UN special rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Territories), Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, and former President Jimmy Carter.

Activists trying to bring medical aid to Gaza by boat on Tuesday, Dec. 30, were attacked by Israeli gunboats while in international waters. Among the 15 people onboard was former Representative Cynthia McKinney.

Despite claims by Israel that it "pulled out" of Gaza in 2005, Israel has controlled land, sea and air access continuously (with the exception of the land crossing with Egypt, where Egyptian authorities have carried out Israeli policy).

NOTES

1. A 2004 study found that only 29% of Americans university students did not know that Israelis are both the occupiers and the settlers in the West Bank (and at the time Gaza). http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/18/opinion/fenton/main630386.shtml

Five sisters killed in Gaza.