By Gideon Polya (*)

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Population Division provide up-dated demographic data from which we can estimate that the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories now total 0.3 million and the post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million. However what is the CURRENT position in relation to the avoidable deaths of Arab children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory?

UNICEF data (2005 figures) inform that the “annual under-5 infant death rate” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is 23 deaths/1,000 births as compared to 6 in Apartheid Israel proper and in its staunch supporter Racist White Australia. Accordingly the “annual avoidable under-5 infant death rate” is 23 – 6 = 17 deaths/1,000 births.

UN Population Division data indicate that the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory is 3,762,000 and the annual birth rate is 37.5/1,000 of population. Accordingly the annual number of births is 37.5 x 3,762 = 141,075.

Using the above information we can calculate that the “annual under-5 infant deaths” in the OPT = 23 x 141.075 = 3,245 and that the “AVOIDABLE annual under-5 infant deaths” in the OPT = 17 x 141.075 = 2,398.

What do these numbers mean?

The Racist Zionist justification for the continuing Occupation by Apartheid Israel is “terror”. Taking the Racist Zionists (RZs) at their word we can turn to the official site of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs concerned with “terrorism deaths in Israel”.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs site states that “from 1920 through 1999, a total of 2,580 residents of Mandatory Palestine and, since 1948, the State of Israel fell victims to hostile enemy action; in most cases, terrorist attacks” and “1,130 people have been killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism since September 2000.” Deducting the pre-1949 deaths specified on this site yields post-1948 Israeli deaths from “terrorism” as 2,646.

Thus EACH YEAR nearly as many Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old infants die AVOIDABLY as have Israeli victims of “terrorism” over the LAST SIXTY (60) YEARS.

Further, we can estimate that so far in the first 7 years of this century the total AVOIDABLE Occupied Palestinian under-5 infant deaths total about 17,000, over 6 times the number of Israelis killed by “terrorism” over the last 60 years. And, of course, one notes that “avoidable under-5 infant deaths” is just one component (albeit a major component) of the “total avoidable deaths”.

Who is responsible?

What Catholic theologians call the Natural Law says that the Ruler is responsible for the Ruled. This is stated in greater detail by the Internationally-agreed Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which unequivocally insists that the Occupier is obliged “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” to preserve the health and lives of its Conquered subjects. Thus the following excerpts:

Article 38- “ the situation of protected persons shall continue to be regulated, in principle, by the provisions concerning aliens in time of peace. In any case, the following rights shall be granted to them: … 5. Children under fifteen years, pregnant women and mothers of children under seven years shall benefit by any preferential treatment to the same extent as the nationals of the State concerned.”

Article 55 – “To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate …”

Article 56 – “To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties …”

 Conclusions

Racist Zionist Apartheid Israel steadfastly refuses to meet its obligations as an Occupier under the Geneva Conventions and this deliberate refusal is associated with horrendous avoidable deaths of the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with the annual avoidable under-5 infant deaths alone totalling about 2,400.

The UN Genocide Convention Article II defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Apartheid Israel, with the support of Racist Zionist-perverted Western nations, is clearly involved in a slow Palestinian Genocide.

Racism is indefensible and Genocide the worst of crimes. Racist Zionist (RZ)-ruled Apartheid Israel (AI) is deliberately killing SEVEN ARAB INFANT DAILY. The Gaza Strip has become a Concentration Camp for Palestinians run by Western -backed Apartheid Israel. About half of the Palestinians are Children and three quarters Women and Children.

Jews, Americans, Anglo-Celts – indeed anyone – who deny, ignore, minimize, excuse, obfuscate, support, advocate or are otherwise complicit in gross abuses of Women and Children (as in the Palestinian Genocide) – or indeed of anyone - have crossed the line between decent humanity and proto-Nazi barbarism. Intra-national and inter-national Sanctions and Boycotts (successful in bringing down the Apartheid régime in South Africa) must be urgently applied to halt the genocidal crimes of US-Israeli State Terrorism (USIST), Israeli S tate terrorism (IST), Racist Zionism (RZ) and Apartheid Israel (AI).