The insanity of the past week seems to remind both Israelis and Palestinians that the only alternative to political dialogue and a peaceful resolution to the conflict is a vicious cycle of endless violence, in which innocent civilians are most often the primary victims.

Israel’s intentional provocation in attempting to assassinate Hamas’ top leader in Gaza last Tuesday, Abdel-Aziz Al-Rantisi, ignited another round of retaliation and counter retaliation which left 60 Palestinians and Israelis dead and scores injured (some with critical injuries and permanent disabilities).

For the past 32 months, Israel has unleashed a full scale military assault against a predominantly civilian Palestinian population, killing and injuring women and children, and strangulating the entire Palestinian territories. Palestinian trees have been uprooted, Palestinian homes have been demolished, and Palestinian civil institutions have been systematically targeted and destroyed.

In exploiting the “war against terrorism” analogy, Israel is attempting to justify its own practice of state terrorism against the Palestinians, unilaterally giving itself the authority to judge and execute whomever it deems a “threat to its security.” Political assassinations, extra-judicial killings, and collective punishment all contribute to Israel’s policies of repression against the Palestinian people. The result is imminently more Palestinian suffering, more anger, more desperation, and ultimately more Palestinian resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation and violent attacks against Israeli military personnel and civilians.

Ariel Sharon’s wilful ignorance and short-sightedness in choosing to negate Palestinian rights, and his brutal measures against the Palestinian people, have contributed to the killing of innocent Israeli civilians. Sharon must be held accountable for provoking Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians, and his shameless attempts in exploiting such attacks for his own political gains should also be fully exposed.

However, from a Palestinian perspective, and despite the pain and agony of the Palestinian people, Palestinian civil society is against the killing of civilians. The Palestinian leadership at all its levels, including the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian institutions and leading Palestinian individuals have repeatedly voiced protest against the killing of civilians; Israeli civilians as well as Palestinian civilians.

The Palestinian cause is a legitimate struggle for liberation, in which all methods of resistance can be justified. However, although the Palestinians stand defenceless against Israel’s brute military measures, the vast majority of them do not condone adopting Israel’s inhumane practices of killing innocent people, thus the deliberate targeting of civilians. The Palestinian people have chosen to keep theirs a struggle for humanity.

Such calls were recently echoed by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in the Aqaba Summit, in which he clearly advocated “…non-violent resistance to Israel’s occupation.” Unfortunately, it only took one Israeli military decision (the attempted assassination of Rantisi) to re-ignite the conflict on the ground, thus making Abbas’ calls go almost entirely unnoticed.

Perhaps the time has come for the international community, the US in particular, to rise above the Israeli government’s political sabotage and stop this endless tragedy.