Public Comment

I am writing to express my views about the current escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine. The shedding of any child's blood is cause for deep mourning, and my heart is broken for the families of the 3 teenagers who were killed in the West Bank. But my heart also breaks for the families of the ten Palestinians killed in the last three weeks, and for the families of the 1,384 Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military since 2000, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. That's 1 child killed every 3 to 4 days. One of the Palestinian victims was 16 year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair who was found dead in East Jerusalem, the victim of what appears to be a price tag attack, revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers on the West Bank. He was the 10th Palestinian killed by the IDF or right-wing extremists in the last two weeks. We mourn his death as we do all lost lives. 

For the past few weeks, Israeli leaders' calls for revenge have escalated racist attacks on Palestinians. In the last few days alone, hundreds of right-wing Jews rioted in the streets of Jerusalem, chanting “death to the Arabs†and “we want war†. Groups searched for random Palestinians on the street, even forcing their way into a Mcdonald's in an attempt to assault Palestinan workers. Others burst into commuter trains while, according to the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, “Light rail security guards stood next to Palestinian passengers to protect them from the mob.†Moereover, Prime Minister Netanyahu's repeated calls for vengance in the form of collective punishment of Palestinian civilians including mass arrests, killings and even missle drops on Gaza should trouble any person believes in due process and the law. 

Good media coverage gives the readers all of the facts and the context. In your ongoing coverage, you might consider reporting that according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, since 2000 1,384 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israeli forces, and 127 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians.