Israel’s Indifference to Civilian Lives

By Wendy Pearlman

Israel’s July 22 killing of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh in Gaza has taken to new heights this war in which civilians are constantly forced to pay the price. In using American F-16 combat planes to drop a one-ton bomb on a crowded apartment building, Israel left 15 people dead, more than 140 people wounded, and half a city block flattened. The nine children on the death list included two babies, five children aged 4 to 6, an 11 year old, and a 15 year old.

Coming under a barrage of condemnations from around the world, Israeli spokesmen tried to back away from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s initial celebration of the attack as “one of our greatest successes.” We should be careful, however, not to be duped by the Israeli government’s attempts to use conciliatory language to avoid a diplomatic debacle. Lest the international community think Israel is sincere in its concern for Palestinian civilians, it should heed the bitter irony underlying the Israeli army’s statement issued directly after the attack.

“The IDF is sorry for any harm that befalls innocent people,” it declared. “Regretfully, this is what can happen when a terrorist uses civilians as a human shield and their homes for places of refuge.”

I have three comments to make in response. First, Shehadeh was not using his home as a place of refuge because he knew that there is no refuge. Shehadeh went about daily life aware that Israel was planning to “liquidate” him as it had the 90 other Palestinians selected for “targeted killings” since the start of the second intifada. He knew that Israeli intelligence tracked Palestinian militants so closely that it has booby-trapped their cell phones, dropped bombs on the taxis in which they were passengers, and sent missiles into their offices. Shehadeh knew that he had been sentenced to death without legal charges, trial, or an opportunity to defend himself. He knew that the Geneva Convention’s prohibition on extra-judicial killings would not protect him against Israel’s assertions that its definition of security trumps international law.

Second, even if Shehadeh had been using his wife and children as human shields, this does not give Israel license to bombard civilians. International law is unequivocal in this regard.

Third, Shehadeh could not have avoided being among civilians even if he had tried. I know, because I lived in Gaza and I tried. Don’t get me wrong. In Gaza I was treated to kindness and hospitality unlike anything I had ever known. People I had barely met welcomed me into their homes as a daughter. And in Gaza, a guest invited for lunch stays for dinner, spends the night, and does not leave without some gift as a memento.

But there were times when I wanted, to use IDF lingo, a “place of refuge.” I longed for a bit of privacy…to go for a walk without being greeted by dozens of children wanting to play or practice their English. I found it impossible to do so. Gaza is just bursting with people. About twice the size of Washington, DC, the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places on earth. Israel controls 40 percent of this land for it settlers, who make up one half of 1 percent of Gaza’s total population. The other 60 percent of the land is home to 1.2 million Palestinians, three-fourths of them refugees and half under the age of 15.

There is no place to hide inside Gaza and, at the same time, there is no way out. Externally, the Gaza Strip is completely surrounded by an Israeli security fence that seals it off from the rest of the world. Internally, Israeli military checkpoints divide the area into three parts, with travel between them varying between dangerous and forbidden, according to Israeli whims. Palestinian farmers are prohibited from digging water wells underground. Palestinian fishermen are banned from sailing more than a short distance from the shore.

In other words, Palestinians in Gaza are trapped. It is no wonder that they are always referring to Gaza as a prison…or a time bomb waiting to explode. And it is also little wonder that they believe that there can never be peace until Israeli soldiers and settlers leave Gaza, and like it the West Bank, once and for all. As Salah Shehadeh himself said in an interview last May, “We do not fight Jews because they are Jews, but because they are occupying our lands. We do not fight them because of their faith, but because they are violating our rights.”

But none of these three points get to the crux of what is awry in the Israeli army’s statement. What is most disturbing is its nonchallance toward killing innocent people. As a recent column in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz put it, “Something very basic has gone wrong in the decision makers’ judgment…a kind of apathetic indifference to the possibility of Palestinian casualties has set in.”

This indifference to civilian life insinuates an uncomfortable commonality between this Israeli strike against Palestinians and the kind of strikes that Shehadeh himself orchestrated against Israelis. Like suicide bombings, Israel’s assault was a sudden explosion leaving women and children dead in the double digits. Like suicide bombings, it shook an area teeming with civilians and sent scores of bystanders to the hospital. And like suicide bombings, it bore the mark of astute planners who knew their target well, gauged anticipated damage, and chose method and timing accordingly.

Unlike Palestinian suicide bombings, however, Israel’s attack was executed by a state that the international community regards as a democracy. Unlike the Palestinians, Israel employed military technology manufactured and paid for by the United States. And unlike the Palestinians, Israelis have not been accused of terror and told to change their leadership if they ever want security.

The killing of civilians by either side is wrong. And so is the double standard that views some attacks on civilians as “terrorism” and others as merely “regrettable.”

Wendy Pearlman is earning a Ph.D. in Government at Harvard University. She has lived in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and is currently preparing a book of interviews with Palestinians about their experiences during the second intifada.