Gush Shalom: We all have blood on our hands. The ministers of the Government of Israel and generals of the IDF, together with their predecessors, are responsible for the death of hundreds and thousands of innocent civilians, children, women and elderly persons, killed in IDF shooting from the land, the sea and especially the air, in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon.

The heads of the Etzel and Lehi undergrounds, who sent their people to kill the inhabitants of Arab towns and neighborhoods, were considered terrorists but eventually gained the position of Prime Minister of Israel.

There is no place for false moralising: both sides to this confict are not without blame concerning the killing of civilians – and the number of Palestinian victims is far bigger than the number of Israeli ones, because Israel has a far greater firepower.

Instead of wallowing in the horrors of the past, it is better to look forward. A prisoner exchange which would restore soldier Gil’ad Shalit and many Palestinian prisoners to their families could be a good starting point to negotiations on the end of the forty-years old occupation and the signing of peace between Israrel and the Palestinians, as well as with the entire Arab World. Such an exchange should have been implemented long ago.

Marwan Barghouti’s trial was a political show trial, unnecessary and harmful – as Gush Shalom activists have cried out in several protest demonstrations during the trial itself, inside the halls of the Tel Aviv District Court. Now is the time to correct this mistake, to release Barghouti and let him take his fitting central place in the leadership of the Palestinian and at the peace negotiations table.

Contact: Gush Shalom spokesperson Adam Keller adam@gush-shalom.org