Some Perspective

This came in an e-mail on our local peace listserv:

From December 1987 through June 2004:
--Israelis have killed 3,429 Palestinian adults and 819 Palestinian children; "more than fifty percent of the Palestinians killed" by Israelis through 2003 were unarmed.
--Palestinians have killed 1,203 Israeli adults and 112 Israeli children.
--88.0% of all children killed have been Palestinians; 12.0% have been Israelis.
--In 2002, the worst year for the killing of children on both sides, Israelis killed 153 Palestinian children; Palestinians killed 37 Israeli children.
Source: Data from the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem

B'Tselem has the statistics broken down many ways. These numbers would probably come as a complete surprise to most Americans, since the suicide bombings always make big headlines on the front pages, while the shootings and missile strikes against Palestinians are hidden in the back pages, if they make the papers at all.