EU defies own statistics to blame violence on Jews

THE ISRAELI government is not doing enough to prevent an “alarming” increase in attacks on Palestinians by Jewish residents of the West Bank. That is the damning conclusion drawn by a report recently compiled by EU diplomats in Ramallah.

The only problem is that the report — which was leaked to the newspaper Euobserver earlier this month — is so utterly cooked that it defies even its own internal logic. According to Euobserver, the report notes:

There were 411 assaults by Jews last year compared to 266 in 2010 and 132 in 2009. The attacks varied from gunfire to throwing stones and garbage, including at Palestinian schoolchildren, as well as burning homes and mosques, killing livestock and uprooting olive trees.

There were three Palestinian deaths and 183 injuries last year. Some 10,000 trees were destroyed.

On the other side, Palestinians killed eight Jews — including one entire family — and injured 37. But the EU report said: “There has been no widespread response from the Palestinian side.”

In other words, if we assume that the statistics are accurate (doubtful though that is, since they are based exclusively on Palestinian sources), we find that Palestinians murdered almost three times as many Jews last year as vice versa.

Yet, inexplicably, the figures which support this fact are instead used to substantiate a condemnation of Jewish violence against Palestinians!

With the disproportionate slaughter of Jews by Palestinians treated as a mere footnote when it really ought to be the headline, is it any wonder that the Netherlands refused to endorse the report?

Then there is the supposed number of “assaults” committed against Palestinians by Jews: 411. Even supposing that this figure is not grossly inflated, the report neglects to mention any comparable number of Palestinian attacks on Jews. Yet Palestinian rockthrowing incidents in the West Bank average at over 4,000 every year.

And as those who are familiar with the tragic case of Asher Palmer and his infant son know all too well, a hurled rock can be every bit as fatal as any knife or bullet.

If violent rock attacks in their thousands don’t amount to a “widespread response from the Palestinian side”, is it really justified for the EU to then describe a few hundred crimes of equivalent severity as “alarming”? What this report highlights — and what is truly alarming — is the EU’S fact-defying bias against Israel. A full-length version of this article is available on thecommentator.com