Reply #27: Follow up. [View All]

Waited too long to add as an edit. I got my stats from a hardcopy of a magazine, which I don't have with me, but Gimel was kind enough to have posted a pretty good link that backs up what I said (as does Blue Soul's link, but Gimel's is easier to read). Gimel's site also has an in depth summary (which we should all read). http://www.ict.org.il/ Anyways, my numbers in my first post were a little off. It's actually the case that more than 95% of the Palestinian deaths so far have been male (90.4% of the "noncombatant" deaths, "noncombatant" being a term I use loosely). The Israeli figures are about 70/30 male to female (about 60/40 when you knock out the IDF deaths). I said I use the term "noncombatant" loosely when referring to Palestinians because of the fact that . . . well, look, just read the study. I'll paste a chunk of the conclusion at the bottom, but it's worth it to read it on your own. It's not that long.

On edit: For the link, click on "Arab-Israeli Conflict" and then click "Statistical Report Summary." And thanks again Gimel for a worthy link. (And I now have more than 200 posts . . .)


"The statistics show that Israeli noncombatants over the last 23 months have been killed essentially at random, as Palestinian terrorists have chosen to attack whichever civilian targets were accessible. Palestinian fatalities, however, have been strongly concentrated within a particular population segment – teenaged boys and young men.

"Population segments like women or older people are not military targets; thus their higher prevalence among Israeli fatalities is an indication of the degree to which Palestinian terrorists have killed Israelis simply for the “crime” of being Israeli.

"In contrast, Palestinian noncombatant fatalities have been overwhelmingly young (but over the age of 11) and male. This pattern of Palestinian deaths completely contradicts accusations that Israel has “indiscriminately targeted women and children.” It is clear that the vast majority of the Palestinians killed did not die as the result of random Israeli attacks on inhabited areas, or on mixed-sex crowds at roadblocks and the like. There appears to be only one reasonable explanation of this pattern: that Palestinian men and boys engaged in behavior that brought them into conflict with Israeli armed forces. Certainly, at least after the first few days of the conflict, these Palestinian men and boys (or, in the case of the younger ones, their parents and teachers) have to have been aware that they were placing themselves in harm’s way.

"In fact, the highly specific pattern of Palestinian noncombatant fatalities suggests that many of these deaths have resulted from an active Palestinian indoctrination campaign glorifying “martyrdom” – effectively encouraging boys and young men to confront Israeli forces and risk death even when there was no real likelihood of causing material harm to Israelis."