The former Palestinian information minister and head of the Palestinian National Initiative political movement backed up his claim with data showing that the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed last year was the most unbalanced ever, at 40:1, up from 30:1 in 2006 and 4:1 from 2000-2005.
A report by the U.N.'s humanitarian office for Palestinian affairs, OCHA, stated that 44 Palestinians were killed in November alone. Most of these deaths were a direct result of Israeli-Palestinian violence, while 12 resulted from inter-Palestinian fighting. In the same month 127 Palestinians were injured.
This compares with one Israeli death and seven injuries in November. The total death toll for 2007 stands at 322 Palestinians and eight Israelis.
"We do not want anyone to die, Israeli or Palestinian, but this ratio is alarming. It is unacceptable to justify such large-scale killings under the pretext of security," Barghouti told the Maan News Agency, adding that five of the eight Israelis killed in 2007 were soldiers who died while carrying out military incursions inside the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
"Israel uses security as a pretext to step up its aggression against Palestinians and to evade any commitments to peace," Barghouti said, adding, "The question here is about security for everyone, not only Israelis, and about equality for everybody."
Yehezkel Lein, research director for the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, expressed his own concerns to the Middle East Times: "We are worried about the number of Palestinian civilians who continue to be killed.
"B'Tselem has filed a petition before the Israeli Supreme Court requesting that every Palestinian civilian killed by the Israeli Defense Forces be automatically investigated by the state, something which doesn't occur, as Israel defines the current situation as an armed conflict in which 'collateral damage' occurs."
Prior to the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, every civilian death was automatically investigated by the Jewish state, as the conflict in the Palestinian territories was regarded as a policing matter.
Indeed, B'Tselem concurred with Barghouti's assessment in its annual end-of-year report, which said Israel uses security to justify virtually every Israeli action in the occupied territories.
"There is no doubt that Israel faces serious security threats, and is entitled and even obligated to do its utmost to protect its population." But too often Israel fails to balance legitimate security needs with protecting Palestinian rights, the report added.
Additionally B'tselem claimed there was a "lack of accountability of Israeli security forces, in all matters relating to human rights. This can be seen clearly in the reluctance of the state to thoroughly investigate violations and to prosecute those responsible for them," the report stated.
And bringing those -- whose fingers are quick on the trigger when it comes to Palestinian lives -- to justice continues to be a problem for other NGOs and human rights activists as well.
Over the last couple of years another Israeli human rights organization, Yesh Din, has helped Palestinian complainants in the West Bank to lay charges against Israeli settlers and military personnel. The rights group escorts the complainants to meetings at police stations in Jewish settlements or to military bases – places that are otherwise out of bounds to Palestinians.
"Conviction rates are [only] around 10 percent of cases opened, due to what we consider unprofessional investigations. This includes the police 'losing the paperwork' or being 'unable to identify the perpetrators,'" Lior Yavne, Yesh Din's research director, told the Middle East Times.
However, an IDF spokesman stated, "IDF soldiers, on all levels, are instructed to grant the Palestinian population, not involved in terrorism, the full protection afforded to civilians under the laws of armed conflict."
Be that as it may, one of the major problems underlying the continuing high rate of civilian casualties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, at the hands of the Israeli military, is Israel's interpretation of its responsibilities toward protecting and investigating the deaths of civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, as a signatory to the Geneva Convention.
The Jewish state argues that although it will respect the convention it is not legally bound to it, because, Israel says, it is not an occupying power and that the Palestinian territories never belonged to another state before, an interpretation that flies in the face of international law and U.N. resolutions.
Nevertheless, the International Red Cross continues to meet with the relevant Israeli authorities to persuade them of Israel's international obligations as a signatory to the convention.
Eloi Fillion, protection coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross, explained to the Middle East Times that his organization also holds regular workshops on principles of international humanitarian law for Israeli security personnel and members of the IDF, which he says are positively received.
But, he said, there was only so much that groups like his could do, as ultimately the protection of Palestinian civilians lay in a negotiated settlement.
"Until there is a political settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Fillion said, "the majority of casualties will continue to be civilian, who will also bear the brunt of the suffering."