A recent discussion on this list had a number of people asserting that a massacre had not occured - and arguing what a massacre really was. This is quite in line with the Jerusalem Post's recent headlines (a dreadfully unreliable news source, Ha'aretz is much less inclined to histrionics and bias).
However the report (http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/index.html) does say that:By the time of the IDF withdrawal and the lifting of the curfew on 18 April, at least 52 Palestinians, of whom up to half may have been civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were dead.as well as (a) A total of 497 Palestinians were killed in the course of the IDF reoccupation of Palestinian area A from 1 March to 7 May 2002 and in the immediate aftermath;
(b) Palestinian health authorities and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported approximately 1,447 wounded with some 538 live-ammunition injuries (for the same period);
Are 497 Palestinians a massacre? How about the 52 in Jenin? How about the 25 suggested civilians in Jenin? Are you arguing that this is not a massacre?
At least we have some numbers to work from. Given that it has been argued that a massacre is a very subjective measurement, I decided to see how well the claim that 25 are not a massacre stood up to comparisons. First, I tried Columbine where the death toll, including the shooters, was 15. A quick Google for "columbine massacre" turned up 25,400 hits. It appears that Columbine was indeed a massacre. Then I went to the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com) website, and selected an advanced search for "massacre suicide", setting the date range prior to 1 April 2002. The volume of hits (it does not report how many, although it was in excess of the 50 hits which is the maximum selectable) indicates that this Israeli newspaper regularly uses the word "massacre" for death tolls of 4 or more people.
So, for those arguing that there was not a massacre, it seems this is only true when the victims are not Palestinians. To appears that for some people, only Americans and Jews can be massacred.
Hermit
---- This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25934>
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