I have some sympathy for this view and do believe that attacking civilians is a crime and counter-productive (let alone unIslamic). I can understand why soldiers are captured and offered up in exchange for the thousands of hostages that Israel kidnaps and holds as hostages ('administrative detainees' who have not been charged with any crime) - including women and children.
That said, the Palestinian diplomatic efforts seem to be bearing fruit. Recently the EU has reiterated the illegality of the colonies built on occupied land and the requirement that Jerusalem is a capital of both nations, the South African government has pointed out that the discriminatory practices in East Jerusalem is akin to Apartheid in thier view - and now the UK government is agreeing to distinguishing between Israeli produce and Palestinian produce.
This will help those who wish to protest by boycotting Israeli produce - another form of non-violent protest, that was also applied to the Apartheid regime in South Africa:
Food labels advice change over Palestinian territories
UK unions have voted to boycott Israeli settlement goods
UK food labels are set to distinguish between goods from Palestinians in the occupied territories and produce from Israeli settlements.
Food packaging guidelines advise a change from labels usually only naming Israel or West Bank as the source.
The government said it was opposed to a boycott of Israeli goods, but that the settlements posed an obstacle to peace.
The Palestinian general delegation to the UK welcomed the move, but Israel said it was "extremely disappointed".
All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
The new guidelines recommend that food labels in supermarkets should bear the phrases "Israeli settlement produce" or "Palestinian produce".
Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian general Delegate to the UK, said: "We welcome this. We have been calling for this for two years, since we began lobbying major British supermarkets when we discovered that they were routinely selling products marked 'produce of the West Bank' which were in fact the produce of illegal settlements.
"This is a very positive response by the British government."
But the Israeli embassy said it was "extremely disappointed".
"We think this is singling out Israel and it plays into the hands of those who are calling for a boycott of Israeli goods," it said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8407289.stm
Cheers,
Shafique
