How poignantly paradoxical it is that the descendents of Lemkin’s generation are now attempting the very same horror that he fought so hard for recognition of and against ever being repeated, has now been underway for 60 years against the indigenes of Palestine.
They mock you, Raphael...........they mock you.

If a person does not agree with my opinion ... so be it. It will not change my opinion.

No need to drag all that other crap in like you're always trying to do to draw the attention away from the actual topic ... okay? The Native Americans have nothing to do with it.

While Hamas and other Palestinian political groups were using alleged civilian casualties to bolster their case with international public opinion, they demonstrably knew otherwise. In fact, they publicly bragged about the military activities of those they labeled innocent civilian bystanders.

The basis for many claims about the distribution of casualties was in a March report by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). Widely covered and credulously accepted in the Western media, the report was a seemingly comprehensive, detailed list of every death. The bottom line: the name, gender, age, location, and job of each person is detailed. Most importantly, the PCHR claimed 1180 of the alleged 1414 victims were civilians.

Our team cross-checked the names listed by PCHR with lists of "resisters" compiled by the Al- Mezan Center for Human Rights, lists of "martyrs" published by Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and other militant groups in Gaza, as well as from the Ma'an News Agency, and other Palestinian sources.

The IDF released its own report on casualties from Operation Cast Lead, saying that there were 1166 killed in Gaza, of whom 709 were known Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants. The IDF did not release their list of casualties, so we could not check specifics against the PCHR claims.

Our results so far show that at least, if all armed police are counted, 428 of the 1180 people who PCHR classifies as "civilians," were, in fact, militants.

That means 662 people were legitimate combatants under IHL and therefor legitimate targets.

PCHR's criteria to determine exactly who is a "militant" are unclear. Sometimes they speak of "active combatants" but at other times they state, accurately, that any members of armed groups, such as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, would be considered legitimate targets under international law.

The team has identified members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, the PFLP and the DFLP considered "civilians" by the PCHR. Examples include Adib Harb (brigade commander for the PRC), 'Eid 'Oda al-Shandi (field commander in the al-Qassam Brigades) and even senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan.

The IDF has categorized most or all of the Hamas police force as "Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives" and therefore as legal targets. The PCHR takes strong exception to this categorization, saying that Hamas policemen are civilians.

Even by the PCHR's own criteria, our research has detailed proof identifying over 74% of the police killed in Operation Cast Lead some 206 of them out of 279, were also members of militant groups, predominantly the al-Qassam Brigades acting as combatants against Israel.

Certainly, the PCHR is aware of the affiliations of many of not all of the victims in Gaza . For example, the PRC al-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades, the most extremist group in Gaza which has been reportedly linked to al-Qaida, published a list of its 18 of its "martyrs" on January 22. Yet nine of them, including two commanders, were classified as "civilian" by the PCHR months later. Similarly, an al-Qassam Brigades' leader famous for developing the Qassam rocket, Amir Yousef Al-Mansy, was also called a "civilian." It strains credulity to think that the PCHR was unaware that they were militants engaged in fighting Israel.

Why, then, did they classify so many known militants as civilians? One can only conclude that the reason is to deceive the media.

Such a high number of Al Qassam members among the police killed indicates that Hamas itself does not distinguish between its so-called civilian and military wings. Effectively, Hamas considers its police to be the same as its military force. If Hamas does not make such a distinction, why shouldn't everyone else conclude that its entire police force is a legitimate target?

We have identified 355 militants in addition to the police, of whom 159 were identified as civilian by PCHR.
None of our findings are inconsistent with the IDF report on Gaza casualties.

While the PCHR misrepresents the facts about Palestinian casualties it makes other statements which reveal the highly politicized nature of the group that show it is not a human rights organization. For example, it consistently uses the phrase "IOF" ("Israel Occupation Forces") instead of Israel Defense Forces, the proper name of Israel's military, in trying to make Israel look as bad as possible.

The PCHR's influence cannot be overstated. UN groups routinely quote PCHR figures and reports. News media around the world rely on organizations like the PCHR to give them accurate information about what happens in Gaza. The PCHR presents itself as an unbiased party and is taken as such in media reports. The truth, however, is quite different.

Israel's war in Gaza was not aimed at causing civilian losses, nor was it a war of "occupation," as the PCHR would have it, but of defense. The fact that the casualty figures are being misrepresented is a demonstration of the fact that charges made against Israel are false. We are confident that as our research continues we will find many more soldiers of Hamas and other groups waging war against Israel disguised as civilians.

LMAO ... are we back to that again? Trying to get another thread shut down?

Yes ... well we see that happening already ... eh? They've already targeted Iran and they have been bombarding Pakistan with the drones.

He reminds me of that snake in the animated Robin Hood film ... the one that kept "whispering" advice in the King's ear.

If any other country were acting as abominably as Israel, those same posters would be screaming their heads off for justice.

I suppose if we’re boycotting Batsheva, then we should also boycott Canadian artists as Canada has a rather grim record of treatment of First Nation’s Peoples, not to mention our current role in Afghanistan, and we should certainly boycott all American artists for obvious reasons. Sudanese artists should most definitely be boycotted as should all Sinhalese artists, Chinese artists, Burmese artists, and Afghan, Iranian and most certainly Libyan and Chadian artists should be boycotted. So should Congolese artists and…oh dear I give up, the list is too long.

since you asked, while on an international peacekeeping mission left 5 of 8 men under 22 years old behind dead as the result of an unprovoked and cowardly attack on a refugee camp of about 40 women and their infants...
nuff said

Why does it always come back to the Yankee/Israeli factor?

Protestors may decide to bypass Ahmadinejad and decide to go directly after the Supreme Council themselves and oust them

It seems the two state solution is a failed enterprise because the zionist want more territory than the Palestinians are prepared to relinquish.

Ya ... set up a distraction so that we won't focus on the fact that they are illegally occupying Palestinian land and building (in record speed) more and more illegal Israeli settlements. I have seen more than enough news coverage that documents them stating that if they can settle the land ... it will become theirs.

That's why I maintain ... this is not a Palestinian problem ... it's truly an ISRAELI problem and we are contributing to it in a very WRONG way

I guess I just don't understand [...]

I never thought [...]

End Israeli Apartheid. One secular democratic state with equal rights for all, including all ethnically cleansed Palestinian Refugees.

Would this mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state? Absolutely.
Would this mean the end of the Jewish people? Absolutely not.

Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.

This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.

Some how I don't think it matters much any more, you can blame it on the Qassam rockets all you like. The fact of the matter is the rockets had stopped till Israel broke the cease fire with a attack to blow up some tunnels back in Nov. Lets look at the Qassam rockets this from Wikpedia...................
The smallest is about 2'7" and has about a pound of payload the largest is about 6' 7" with about 22 pounds of payload. They are primitive at best and at most improvised fireworks. Yes they have killed but the damage done has been very limited.

Being the most hated country in your region isn't exactly positive and they need to change their attitude towards their neighbours

Those people shouldn't have been in israeli prisons anyways, the number seems big, in reality their there for low level reasons israel calls crime, others would call self defence or freedom fighting.

then to come back and tell me of the blessed wonders of zionism.

To this end they trained 500 Fatah fighters in Egypt at a cost of 84 million.

And this is my point exactly. Hopeless people will resort to extreme behaviour. When misery presents itself as never ending, and insurmountable forces are your enemy, there really is no point, is there?

The problem being , that we only hear from one side.

The Encyclopedia Of The Palestinian Problem is an enclopedia with history well supported by extensive bibliography. It is forewarded by two professors of international law, Francis Boyle and John Quigley, who vetted it carefully.

Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem by Issa Nakhleh

"My Sisters and Brothers, I am going to address you tonight about the Zionist conspiracy to destroy Al Masjid Al Aqsa, Al Kupa Til Sakrah, wa Haram Al Sharif and to build a Jewish Temple. Now what the Jews are doing every month, everyday they make resolutions, all rabbis in the United States in England, and in Israel, they make meetings, conferences and they declare that they have to destroy Al Masjid Al Aqsa and build the Temple."

truth speaks and those who have committed crimes against peace and crimes against humanity are obliged to take notice.

The use of the "wipe israel off the map" canard , delivered with the patented bushs' "smoking gun" straight-faced lie,falsely implys Ahminejad has the power to unleash the power of the sun, when in fact he is little more than a figurehead. They have used this fear-mongering tactic many times, I wonder if it still works.

So why do the zionists want to destroy Iran? Iran , by its' support of Lebanon and Syria stands in the way of the zionist dream of eretz israel, israel from the nile to the euphrates ,(or as herzl said, "the brook in Egypt") Far from being an" existenial threat" Iran is an existential barrier.