THE HARD FACTS ABOUT PALESTINIAN TERRORISM DEBUNK WESTERN NARRATIVE
While Israel and the West repeatedly and incessantly insist that Hamas is nothing more than one of the most deadly, formidable terrorist groups in the world, the data collected and published by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs debunks that narrative. The claim against Hamas is false. You don’t have to take my word for it, I am going to show you the data. The following tables and spreadsheets contain data collected by Israel between 27 September 2000 and 26 April 2024. [Israel continues to update the figures at the website linked above.]
As an aside, Israel does not include the casualties suffered as a result of the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas. Israel calls it, Swords of Iron. In contrast to the meticulous list of the name of every dead Israeli and foreign victim, who allegedly died at the hands of Palestinians, the Swords of Iron data does not name the victims, especially the 40 children that Israeli officials insist were killed by Hamas. I find that curious, to say the least.
The first Israeli casualty in 2000 was Sgt. David Biri, 19, of Jerusalem, who was fatally wounded in a bombing near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip on 27 September. The last victim, who died on 26 April, was Sharif Suad, 35, of the Bedouin town of Sallama near Karmiel. A anti-tank missile launched from Lebanon hit the truck he was driving in the Mount Dov area on the Lebanese border. Between those dates, there were an additional 592 attacks. Mind you, these are attacks that resulted in the death of an Israeli or citizen of another country.
It is quite clear that “terrorism” attributed to Palestinians has been trending downwards since 2003. Not my numbers, those are Israeli Government numbers. It is noteworthy that the high-water mark of Palestinian violence in the five year span — 2000 to 20005 — is commonly known as the Second Intifada.
The number of Israelis killed and wounded is equally revealing. A total of 1,552 Israelis died during that 24 year period and 5,595 were wounded. A close look at the data shows that 76% of the deaths occurred during the five-year period marking the Second Intifada and a whopping 92% of the wounded happened during that same period.
The subsequent decline in attacks and casualties following the end of the Second Intifada is, in my judgment, a result of two things — stepped up border security (and other security measures) by Israel and a shift in the Palestinian view about the efficacy of terrorism, especially suicide bombings. For example, the last suicide bombing inside Israel, which was claimed by Hamas, occurred on January 29, 2007. [Note — the Israeli Foreign Ministry attributes a suicide bombing on 18 July 2012 in Bulgaria to Palestinians, but provides no further identifying data on the bomber.]
I was surprised to learn that only one-third (33%) of the fatalities were the result of bomb attacks, while bombings accounted for 62% of all persons wounded. Firearms accounted for another third of the deaths while rockets, stabbings and vehicle crashes led to the deaths of the remaining victims.
The public hysteria in the West about Hamas terrorism is not supported by the data — only 15% of the attacks during the last 24 years were attributed to Hamas, acting alone or in concert with another Palestinian entity. I am not suggesting that Hamas is a pacifist organization — it is not — but neither is it a political entity engaged in unrelenting violence.
Labeling Hamas as a strictly terrorist organization is, in my view, a cop out from addressing the fundamental political issues that undergird the war between the Zionists and the Palestinian people. This is not just a battle of Muslim versus Jew, although many in the West certainly try to portray it as such. The truth of the matter is that Hamas is now the most popular entity among the Palestinian people, and Israel played a direct role in elevating them to that position, albeit unwittingly.
We also cannot ignore the fact that shortly after Hamas formally organized in 1987, the Government of Israel embarked on a covert action to funnel money to Hamas in order to create an alternative to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. This was done in order to sabotage any prospect for a legitimate two-state solution.
Israeli insistence that Hamas is some awful terrorist group is simply not backed up by the facts. Zionist diatribes about Hamas being nothing but murderous thugs is belied by the grossly disproportionate number of Palestinians that have been slaughtered, not only by the Israeli Defense Force, but by armed settlers. The reality is being driven home with each passing day as Israel continues to bomb and strafe Palestinians in their homes and in temporary shelters. The sheer lopsided body count tells the true story and it is one the ICJ has declared is genocide.
Finally, I am indebted to one of my readers, who took on the job of assembling the raw data into a comprehensive spreadsheet, complete with Pivot tables. Thank you, you know who you are.
Last, my latest chat with Nima.