The far-left B'Tselem NGO sent a letter to the United Nations asking the international body "to do its utmost to protect the lives of Palestinians and ensure that international norms are maintained" ahead of Thursday's Security Council debate about the violent Gaza riots. According to B'Tselem CEO Hagai El-Ad, Israel was shooting unarmed Gazans during the weekly violent anti-IDF riots on the Israeli-Gaza border. "The United Nations must do all in its power and responsibility to protect the lives of Palestinians and to ensure that international norms are maintained," wrote El-Ad. Listing the names of the 35 Gazans killed by the IDF, El-Ad wrote that "many of them died immediately or a short time after they were hit. Like many other Palestinians in Gaza, it is very likely that they never got out of the small land department - which is about half the size of New York City - the Gaza Strip." "They lived their lives without political rights, without hope for another future, and are totally subject to the decisions and policies of the Israeli government." B'Tselem has raised hackles within Isreal for the support it has given to the rioters on the Gaza border. Earlier this month, B'Tselem launched a campaign calling on IDF soldiers stationed on the Gaza Strip border to refuse orders and not to open fire at Arabs who riot in Gaza and are unarmed. "In anticipation of the upcoming demonstrations this coming Friday, the organization reiterates that shooting at unarmed demonstrators is illegal and that orders to carry out such shooting are clearly illegal," the organization said in a statement. The poster accompanying the campaign read: "Sorry, sir, I am not shooting." As a message to the soldiers, it was written that "the use of lethal force is permitted only in situations of real and immediate danger to human life, in the absence of any other choice."
