Monday, April 24, 2006
Recent Suicide Bombings - Context
I am writing this blog post in the wake of the Suicide Bomb attack on a Tel Aviv bus station where 5 people were killed. Since I have been in Palestine there have been 2 suicide bombings. The one before this recent attack only took place, a couple of weeks prior and killed 4 settlers in a settlement just outside of Nablus. I do not feel it fair to talk about the suicide bombing in Nablus and the one in Tel Aviv like they are the same. The settlement outside Nablus is a settlement of armed extremist settlers who are waging in many senses of the word a guerilla war, to drive out the Palestinians. They are not civilians and I don't morn their deaths.
The bombing in Tel Aviv however is a different story. Whilst Israel may be a coloniser not all Israelis support the occupation and the arbitrary killing of Israeli civilians does nothing to aid the Palestinian cause. While 5 Israeli civilians have lost their lives this year as a result of suicide bombings, nearly every day since I got here, I heard stories of Palestinians killed. I was personally near at least 5 killings of Palestinians since my time here. This is on top of the non-fatal collective punishment that the Palestinians face on a daily basis some of which is recorded in this blog.
With the literal torture that Palestinians are facing I am surprised that one of them hadn't taken up this extreme reaction earlier this year. In terms of the hitting of civilians one thing that is not really looked at in terms of Israel's recent bombing of Gaza is that they have launched over 2000 missiles yet have only killed 16 people including children. To be honest I am surprised that 2000 missiles cant kill more then 16 people and suggests to me that these bombs are very erratic in terms of what they hit and of course they are going to hit civilians. The occupation is causing ongoing terror, frustration, control etc and suicide bombing of civilians whilst horrible needs to be understood in that context.
The bombing in Tel Aviv however is a different story. Whilst Israel may be a coloniser not all Israelis support the occupation and the arbitrary killing of Israeli civilians does nothing to aid the Palestinian cause. While 5 Israeli civilians have lost their lives this year as a result of suicide bombings, nearly every day since I got here, I heard stories of Palestinians killed. I was personally near at least 5 killings of Palestinians since my time here. This is on top of the non-fatal collective punishment that the Palestinians face on a daily basis some of which is recorded in this blog.
With the literal torture that Palestinians are facing I am surprised that one of them hadn't taken up this extreme reaction earlier this year. In terms of the hitting of civilians one thing that is not really looked at in terms of Israel's recent bombing of Gaza is that they have launched over 2000 missiles yet have only killed 16 people including children. To be honest I am surprised that 2000 missiles cant kill more then 16 people and suggests to me that these bombs are very erratic in terms of what they hit and of course they are going to hit civilians. The occupation is causing ongoing terror, frustration, control etc and suicide bombing of civilians whilst horrible needs to be understood in that context.
