Image by David Baldinger
A Palestinian carries the body of 6-year-old Hadeel al-Smari before her funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 11, 2008. An Israeli shell aimed at a group of militants in southern Gaza Strip slammed into a nearby house early Wednesday and killed al-Smari in her back yard, Palestinian medical officials and a relative said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) Source
What the above report does not mention is that this sweet, innocent child of SIX was decapitated…
That can be read about HERE.
On Wednesday, troops opened fire at militants preparing to launch rockets, the military said, but a shell tore into a home, killing 6-year-old Hadeel al-Smari, Palestinian medical officials and relatives said. Associated Press Television News footage showed that the girl’s head had been blown off.
The military said it identified hitting the rocket squad, but was unaware of any Palestinian civilian casualties.
Hadeel’s cousin, Ahmad al-Smari, said the girl was killed in her back yard.
THANK YOU AMERICA FOR PROTECTING US FROM SIX YEAR OLD TERRORISTS!
Desertpeace 
Laura Knight-Jadczyk said,
June 12, 2008 at 13:25
Psychopaths in action. Sickening.
mannstein said,
June 12, 2008 at 19:50
We won’t see a report of this murder on CNN or FOX to be sure.
brian said,
June 12, 2008 at 21:41
I suggest we post the item around the internet world. Ive just done so on Amazons politics thread.
Phil Sumpter said,
June 13, 2008 at 13:54
I link to this blog in an attempt to hear both sides of the story, but posts like this don’t do much to promote the objectivity of a Palestinian (well, your) view.
You post titles claims that Israeli soldiers caught a six year old, labelled her a terrorist and decapitated her. Shocking. The actual news article reports that Palestinian militants attacked Israelis from a civilian base, Israel shot back and accidently killed one of those civilians.
How is your post supposed to encourage outsiders like me to take you seriously?
Alternate Decider said,
June 14, 2008 at 05:07
Because the Israelis saw clearly in plain view the children near the incident.
And the Palestinian who was decapitated, did nothing wrong to the Israeli army.
If they truly were looking out for the region, they wouldn’t have attacked with rockets against Palestinians to begin with.
Palestinians don’t even have modern weapons to truly defend themselves.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/palestinians.html
Palestinians don’t have Tanks which roll out and explode enormous shells instantly killing people.
If you can’t be expected to research the facts and see why this side is far more serious, then why should they take you seriously to begin with?
Look at the difference of weapons in broad daylight
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/lieofthecentury.html
Some comparison.
Phil Sumpter said,
June 15, 2008 at 21:02
Because the Israelis saw clearly in plain view the children near the incident.
How do you know the Israelis could clearly see the child? That would go some way to justifying the title of this post.
And the Palestinian who was decapitated, did nothing wrong to the Israeli army.
Isn’t it Palestinian policy to seek out civilian centres from which to attack? If so, it would be expected that civilians get accidently killed (unless you can prove your first statement).
If they truly were looking out for the region, they wouldn’t have attacked with rockets against Palestinians to begin with.
I’m not claiming that Israelis are looking out for the region. I’m calling for objective language to describe what is going on.
The rest of your points concerning military hardware, though true in themselves, are not relevant to my comments. My comments concern what appears to be inflammatory language to describe this particular incident.
s mac said,
June 15, 2008 at 22:01
Phil Sumpter
You yourself are guilty of using ‘infammatory language’ when it suits you.
I don’t think that anyone would sensibly infer, from the title of this post, that ‘Israeli soldiers caught a six year old, labelled her a terrorist and decapitated her.’ (quoted from your first post).
However, you might easily infer that Israeli offensives take little care to avoid civilian Palestinian casualties. You describe these as ‘expected’ accidental deaths, as if no further questioning is required of Israeli policy.
Phil Sumpter said,
June 16, 2008 at 11:26
s mach said: You describe these as ‘expected’ accidental deaths, as if no further questioning is required of Israeli policy.
I do believe that Israeli policy ought to be questioned and held under scrutiny. Blogs like this are necessary for that. My concern is the presenation of the situation which seems, from my perspective, to be heavily biased.
To say that deaths of civilians are “expected” is not to say that they are desired. It’s to say that if Palestians choose a housing block from which to launch rockets (regardless how big those rockets are compared to the Israeli’s, regardless how justified their cause), members of that housing block will get killed. Though the Israeli army needs to be critiqued for its actions, the death of civilians in a situation like this is hardly surprising – tragic though it is. If the issue is presented as if the Israeli army purposefully targeted a six year old, it is hard for outsiders like me to take the reporting seriously.
I’m not sure where I was being inflammatory. If I was, it was not intentional.
Phil Sumpter said,
June 16, 2008 at 11:29
Sorry, one more point. You say: I don’t think that anyone would sensibly infer, from the title of this post, that ‘Israeli soldiers caught a six year old, labelled her a terrorist and decapitated her.’. Well, I and my wife did. Perhaps we’re a minority.
Alternate Decider’s comment (Because the Israelis saw clearly in plain view the children near the incident) clearly wants to attribute intentionality to this death, which would strengthen my interpretation of the title.
s mac said,
June 17, 2008 at 21:27
Phil,
I think most people understand that Israeli forces do not carry out impromptu be-headings – however, if the child was ‘decapitated’ by a shell, then that part of the title is entirely objective. The contentious element, if there is one, rests on the use of the word ‘terrorist,’ which in the title is in inverted commas.
This could be seen as inflammatory, if it was taken very literally, but I think most people would read it as sarcasm. There seems to be little concern by Israeli military to make any distinction between what they call ‘terrorists’ and civilians caught in the crossfire. Children make a high proportion of innocent casualties. These civilian deaths are referred to as unfortunate, or regrettable, but ultimately the official Israeli response is always to say that the deaths are justified. Therefore, they are treating every Palestinian civilian as if they are a potential terrorist. I doubt that the child was targeted purposefully, but not enough care was taken, to avoid her death. Why would a soldier bother, if her death can always be justified?
Phil Sumpter said,
June 20, 2008 at 08:31
Thanks for taking the time to clarify, S Mac. The comment in the post (THANK YOU AMERICA FOR PROTECTING US FROM SIX YEAR OLD TERRORISTS!), though no doubt intended only as irony, doesn’t do much to encourage me that this is a serious attempt to analyse the situation.
You may be right that not enough is done to protect children. I’ll need to look into that some more. Whether children’s deaths are always simply justified away, I’m not sure. I’d need evidence of that. I know Israelis who have served in the military, and the impression I get is not that they have strict rules of procedure that are open to scrutiny. When, for example, they blew up the police station in Gaza where two Israelis were smashed to death, they warned people hours beforehand so that there would be no casualties. As a nation that is open to foreign scrutiny and allows the presence of human rights activists, innocent deaths are simply unstrategic (I don’t think any government really cares about actual deaths, whether Western, Asian or African).
I guess I’ll just have to keep on reading and dialoguing.
kash said,
June 21, 2008 at 16:03
Phil stumpter, id like to see you make the same comments when its your daugher, we’ll all laugh at such incident knowing it was only an accident. Not very amusing is it now?