The GTI (Global Terorrism Index) has been compiled between the years 2000-2013 by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and features a list of sub-national (non-state actors) related terrorist activity. Interestingly enough, either due to classification errata or blatant omission, the varied occurrences of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem is nowhere to be found. Is Israel not capable of such gross malevolence? Here is an excerpt highlighting a lack of critical oversight on the agencys part to include Israels violent crimes and excessive force against Palestinians: A cursory look at the Global Terror Database[2] for Israel indicates various problems. Some of the listed incidents are inadequately documented, with “unknown” location. Actions attributed to Hamas are counted despite what should have been its state exclusion and the exclusion for legal actions. The “West Bank and Gaza Strip” is listed but the incidents involving Palestinians are far from complete. It is only in Appendix C that the Global Terrorism Index mentions that despite a “notable amount of terrorism” in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), this region is excluded “by Global Peace Index convention”. Since the GTI was supposed to be using the START Global Terrorism Database, it is not clear why the Global Peace Index “convention” was relevant; also, the GPI’s source, the Economist Intelligence Unit, does include the Palestinian Territories. By excluding the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and pre-2006 Gaza Strip from the survey, the attacks by Israeli settlers are omitted. It becomes apparent why the occupied Palestinian territories were excluded when the incidence of Israeli settler violence is examined. According to their definition of terrorism, the Israeli settlers’ violence not only qualifies as terrorism, but puts them near the top of the listing of the most violent terrorists. With over 1750 violent settler attacks fully documented from 2006 - 2013[3], the only group credited with more terror attacks was the Taliban, with 2757 incidents from 2002 – 2013. Al Qaeda’s 1089, Boko Haram’s 750 and ISIL’s 492 attacks aren’t even close.[4] When the numbers of settler attacks on Palestinians are combined with the number of non-military Israeli attacks on the Arabs within Israel, the problem of Israeli violence within the tiny state can be seen to be one of staggering proportions. Yet, according to the GTI, Israel was not in the 20 worst states for terrorism.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 13:44:12 +0000
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