New website: Timeline and details of every Palestinian and Israeli death

www.IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

If Americans Knew
September 27, 2016

After months of hard work, we are proud to announce the launch of a new website, Israel-Palestine Timeline: The human cost of the conflict.

For the last 15 years, If Americans Knew has provided information on Israel-Palestine largely left out of U.S. media reporting.

Our website www.IfAmericansKnew.org was one of the first sites to focus on providing clear, factual information on Israel-Palestine to the general American public – to explain the history, the U.S. connection to the conflict, and the ongoing reality.

In particular, we’ve provided compelling statistics showing the disparities in the impact of the conflict on Israelis and Palestinians, and our charts and media analyses have been widely used and cited by students, activists and academics to educate their communities.

But we wanted to do more.

While our charts show the big picture, we wanted to provide an ongoing timeline that would (1) provide a constantly updated list of everyone killed among both populations, and (2) provide human details of each tragic death, not only the ones the U.S. media decide to focus on.

When Israelis are killed, American media reports frequently provide personal details of the victims. Palestinian deaths, on the other hand, most often go unreported, and when they are occasionally mentioned, there is usually very little information about the victim. [Read below for the latest information on The New York Times‘ reporting.]

In addition, the media almost always state or or suggest that Palestinian violence shattered a “period of calm,” giving Americans the mistaken impression that it is Palestinians who initiate the violence.

The reality, however, is that Palestinians are being killed continuously, and that it is Israel that consistently initiates the violence. I’ve periodically written about this reality (e.g. here and here), and other researchers have documented it in a detailed study.

Therefore, we wanted to provide a resource that would provide personal information on all the human beings who have been killed: their names, pictures, ages, the manner in which they were killed, the impact their deaths had on their families, and additional details of the lives that were so abruptly ended.

Now with this timeline, when media focus on an Israeli who has been tragically killed, the general public can be referred to this resource and learn of all the Palestinian men, women, and children who were killed in the days and weeks before.

We feel this is critically important if we are to overcome media-induced misunderstanding of the situation in Palestine.

The New York Times’ latest distorted reporting

So far in 2016, at least 98 Palestinians (33 of them children) and 10 Israelis (1 of them a child) have been killed by someone from the other side.

However, a preliminary survey of New York Times‘ online articles shows that while the Times covered 140% of Israeli deaths in the headline, first paragraph, or featured photo caption, it only covered 37% of Palestinian deaths in the same way. (Some deaths were reported on more than once, which is why the Israeli number is greater than 100%.)

Additionally, while every single Israeli victim was featured by the Times, and each one was named somewhere in the article, only 18 of the 33 featured Palestinian victims were named. The rest were referred to as “man” or “teenager.” Just 8 of the 33 Palestinian children killed during this period were named.

Sadly, this is consistent with our 2004 study that found that the Times reported on 125% of Israeli children’s deaths and only 18% of Palestinian children’s deaths in headlines or first paragraphs.

For the average American, Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israelis is largely kept out of sight and out of mind, while Israeli suffering is highlighted. We feel that providing clear, factual information will help to overcome this distortion. (In addition, of course, our main website provides detailed, essential information on the overall context, the Nakba, and the continued occupation of Palestine.)

Please share this resource

In creating this website, we hope to impart to Americans the tragic human cost of our continued military aid to Israel.

We hope you will check this website frequently, use it as a resource in your educational efforts, and share it with as many people as possible. It takes all of us working together to create an informed voting public that will eventually demand moral and rational U.S. Middle East policies, rather than the destructive and suicidal ones currently enabled by so many politicians from both parties.

We would like to extend our deepest appreciation and respect to the newest member of our team, Saed Bannoura of IMEMC, whose passion, work and dedication to this project has been invaluable. We could not have done this without him.

We would also like to thank all of you who have supported our work over the years. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today to help us continue our efforts! Your contributions are essential to everything we do. Thank you in advance for anything you can give.

In solidarity and gratitude,

Alison Weir and the If Americans Knew team