The Netanya Massacre

I'm in the middle of writing something on what I sense is a change for the better in the tone of Guardian op-ed columns in recent months, which I suspect is partly a reaction to the London bombings in July. More on that later. But it reminded me of the response of the British press, including The Guardian, to the so-called Jenin massacre in the West Bank in April 2002.


In March 2002, 103 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians:

2 March .......... 11 killed, including two sisters aged 7 and 3 (pictured below), by suicide bomber



3 March .......... 3 killed in a shooting attack

5 March .......... 3 killed by gunmen in a restaurant; 1 woman killed; 81-year-old man killed on a bus by suicide bomber

7 March .......... 5 eighteen-year-old lads killed

9 March .......... 2 killed, including nine-month-old baby, in a hotel lobby; 11 killed by suicide bomber in café

12 March .......... 1 killed; 5 more killed when gunmen opened fire on vehicles

17 March .......... 18-year-old girl killed

20 March .......... 3 killed on bus by suicide bomber; 3 more killed including pregnant woman

24 March .......... 1 woman killed; 1 man killed

27 March .......... 28 killed by suicide bomber in the hall of the Park Hotel in Netanya. Eighteen of them were aged 70 or over. Two more died later of their wounds.

28 March .......... 4 members of one family killed

29 March .......... 2 worshipers aged 70 and 79 killed on their way to synagogue; 2 killed including 17-year-old girl when a 16-year-old girl blew herself up inside a supermarket

31 March .......... 15 killed by suicide bomber


In direct response to the March 27 attack in the hotel in Netanya, which was launched by Hamas from Jenin, the Israelis launched Operation Defensive Shield on March 28. On April 3, they entered Jenin, igniting a battle that raged for nine days. During the battle, the Palestinian authorities claimed that 800 Palestinians had been killed. Others said thousands. The Guardian wrote that Israel's conduct during the battle was "every bit as repellent" as the September 11 terrorist attack in New York. The Evening Standard referred to it as "genocide." Writing in The Times, Janine di Giovanni commented that "rarely in more than a decade of war reporting from Bosnia, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Kosovo, have I seen such deliberate destruction, such disrespect for human life."

But the final casualty figures were as follows:

Total number of Palestinian civilians killed: 22
Total number of Palestinian militants killed: 34
Total number of Israeli soldiers killed: 23

So, more Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians on just one day (March 27) than Palestinian civilians were killed by Israelis during the nine days of the battle of Jenin. Clearly, it is Netanya that should be remembered as a massacre, not Jenin.