How much is one Israeli life worth?  About one hundred Palestinians, apparently.

Earlier in the week Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel and killed one Israeli.  The retaliation by Israel in Gaza has resulted in about 100 Palestinian deaths, including some young boys playing football in a field.

Gaza is the most densely populated plot of land on the planet – firing a missile into Gaza City is like dropping a grenade into a tin of Sardines with the intention of missing the fish.  The general attitude of the Israeli military toward Palestinian life is similar to that of Australians toward Aborigines in the first half of the last century, when they were classed as animals and it was legal to hunt them.  The civillian deaths in Palestine aren’t collateral damage, it’s punishment.

Whether you support Israel and it’s illegal occupation of Palestine or not, there is no way you can reasonably justify the deaths of 100 Palestinians in response to the death of one Israeli.  It’s not self-defence, it’s morally and legally wrong.  Deliberately targeting civillians is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and international law says that the response to an attack must be in proportion to the threat.  A group of militants in Gaza firing rockets into Israel is not the same as a land and air attack by the Israeli armed forces.

There is only one way that the conflict in Palestine and Israel will ever end and that is for Israel to pull out of Palestine.  That is never going to happen whilst the Americans continue to support Israel.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestine