Category: In the Media

The Guardian: Parents of Briton shot by Israeli soldier seek talks with ambassador

By Rory McCarthy (for original article click here)

Five years after their son was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier in Gaza, the parents of the British student Tom Hurndall are still pressing the Israeli government for compensation and a formal apology as they try to build a criminal case against senior Israeli army officers.

Hurndall, a 22-year-old photography student, was shot five years ago today during a demonstration in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

This week his parents, Jocelyn and Anthony Hurndall, wrote to the Israeli ambassador in London, Ron Prosor, asking for an urgent meeting. As well as compensation and an apology, the family are still trying to gather sufficient evidence to bring war crimes charges in Britain against several Israeli army officers.

The family has not revealed the amount of compensation they are seeking. A report in the Israeli press last week put the amount at £500,000, although the correct figure is believed to be higher.

In their letter to the ambassador, Hurndall’s parents wrote: “We claim that the denial to the family of fair and just compensation amounts to supporting a policy of indifference and disregard for … innocent civilians. This can lead to an international criminal responsibility for whoever acknowledges such an attitude.”

They said they had faced a “wall of deceit and fabrication over the shooting” before the trial and were now facing “a further debilitating and prolonged battle to get meaningful compensation”.

It is thought that the Israeli government argues that only the soldier convicted for the shooting was responsible for the death, not any of his senior commanders. Yet the family still hopes to secure the arrest and trial of a number of senior officers. “There is no question that this is very much still on the cards,” Anthony Hurndall said.

On April 11 2003 Tom Hurndall attended a demonstration in Rafah organised by a group called the International Solidarity Movement. Shots were fired from an Israeli army watchtower and Hurndall, who wore a fluorescent jacket, was helping to pull a group of Palestinian children to safety when he was shot in the head. He suffered a severe brain injury and died nine months later in hospital in London.

At first the Israeli military denied responsibility. However, in August 2005 an Israeli soldier, Taysir Heib, was sentenced to eight years jail for manslaughter. The following year a British inquest jury ruled that the soldier had shot Hurndall “with the intention of killing him”.

“In the last five years we have had nothing but barriers and obstruction from the Israelis,” said Jocelyn Hurndall. She said the family hoped to negotiate a settlement in private with the Israeli authorities. So far they have received around £8,000 to cover his repatriation – the first cheque sent for this sum bounced – and then last year a payment of £50,000.

Late last year, after negotiations failed to bring an agreement, they began a civil claim in the Israeli courts. Arye Mekel, Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, said: “This issue is under legal negotiations between the family and the ministry of defence. These contacts are ongoing.”

Many injured in weekly demonstrations

Road 443 – IMEMC: Several injuries reported during a nonviolent protest near Kharabtha village (for original article click here)

Palestinian sources reported on Friday that several residents were injured after the army fired at residents, Israeli and international peace activists who carried a nonviolent protest against the continued closure of a main road since late 2000.


Picture from IMEMC

Dozens of vehicles drove from the center of the village towards the road while dozens of protesters carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation.

Soldiers, intensively deployed in the area, placed barbed-wires in front of the protesters and fired rubber-coated metal bullets and gas bombs at them. Dozens received first aid after inhaling gas fired by the army.

The road, known as Latron Road or Road Number 443 in Israeli military terminology, was closed since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada late September 2000, and the army placed concrete blocks and gates on the road to shut it down.

Nearly 35000 residents of villages near Ramallah are negatively affected by the ongoing closure of the road.

——————
IMEMC: Several protesters injured in Bil’in weekly protest (for original article click here)

On Friday at midday the villagers of Bil’in, a village located near Ramallah in the centre of the West Bank along with their international and Israeli supporters conducted their weekly protest against the Israeli Annexation Wall on the village land.


Picture from IMEMC – Haytham Al Khateb

After Friday prayers, the protesters marched from the village towards the gate of the wall, which separates the villagers from their land.

As soon as the protest arrived at the gate, Israeli troops stationed there showered them with sound bombs, tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets.

A number of civilians were injured, including an Israeli journalist identified as Israel. The man sustained wounds to his leg after being directly hit by a rubber coated steel bullet.

IMEMC: Israeli army prevents Israelis from joining non-violent demonstration in Al-Khader

For original article from IMEMC click here

The Israeli army prevented a number of Israeli peace activists to join the Palestinian residents of Al-Khader in their weekly nonviolent protest against the construction of the separation wall on their land on Friday at noon.

Eyewitnesses told IMEMC that troops stopped the Israeli activists and took the keys of their cars at one of the entrances of the village, and informed the activists that they will get their keys back only if they are going back to Jerusalem.

Coordinator of the Local Committee for Popular Resistance in Bethlehem Samer Jaber, said “This is an attempt by Israel to prevent solidarity with the Palestinians in their just struggle to end the Israeli occupation.”

“Israel has prevented hundreds, if not thousands, of Internationals to come to Palestine the moment they figured out that those internationals are coming to join nonviolent activities with the Palestinians,” Jaber added.

Jaber told IMEMC that around 150 Palestinians and Internationals, protested near the southern entrance of Bethlehem area. The protest took the form of holding the Friday prayer in the street at the presence of around 60 Israeli soldiers.

The protestors dispersed after the Imam gave a speech to the worshippers and protestors calling for an ongoing nonviolent resistance to end the Israeli occupation.

Israeli military attacks weekly Bil’in protest, 17 injured including 7 journalists

Original article found on IMEMC. For original article click here.

On Friday March 28, 2008 scores of residents of Bil’in, a village near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, along with their international and Israeli supporters, took to the streets to conduct their weekly nonviolent protest against the Israeli wall and illegal confiscation of the village’s land. Israeli troops manning the wall and its gate that cuts off the villagers from their land showered the protesters with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets immediately after the protesters reached the gate.

17 people were injured including seven journalists. Medical sources identified some of the injured journalists as Fadi Al Arouri, a photojournalist, Najud al Qassem, a cameraman, Moheb Al Bargouthi, a reporter, and George Haltah, a cameraman.

Also among those injured was Eyad Burnat, of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, who said, “I was trying to protect one of the village youth who was attacked by the soldiers when soldiers attacked and beat me up.”

The parents of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was killed by the Israeli army in Gaza five years ago, took part in the Bil’in protest. Her father, Mr. Craig Corrie, praised the nonviolent resistance in Bil’in and called for more support for the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom. Rachel Corrie was killed in 2003 in Rafah city, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, when an army bulldozer ran over her while she was protecting a local family home from being demolished by the Israeli army.

Haaretz: High Court ruling closes off Route 443 to Palestinians

Original article printed in Haaretz on the 19th March 2008. For the original article click here

The interim decision issued 10 days ago by the High Court of Justice on the use of Route 443 marks the first time the justices have issued a ruling to close a road traversing occupied territory to Palestinian use, for the convenience of Israeli travelers. The interim ruling on a petition by six Palestinian villages adjacent to the highway, which links the coastal plain to Jerusalem, gave the state six months to report progress on the construction of an alternative road for Palestinian use. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which submitted the petition on behalf of Palestinians who have been injured by the travel ban, noted that had the justices sincerely sought to consider opening the road to all, without regard to race or nationality, they would not have requested details on the building of an alternate route, which entails the destruction of additional land and costs tens of millions of shekels.

The decision was issued after both parties argued their positions. According to ACRI, the ruling marks a High Court precedent in upholding a policy of separation and discrimination with regard to movement that has already earned the name “road apartheid.” It violates international law, ACRI holds, permitting the expropriation of land from the local population for the protection of the occupying power.

About 10 kilometers of Route 443 was paved on private Palestinian land in the early 1980s, on the grounds it was needed for the West Bank Palestinian population (and not for “security purposes”). A large part of the expropriated land had been earmarked for a housing development for local teachers. In response to a petition from a Palestinian whose land was expropriated for the road, the High Court ruled that the military government cannot plan and build a road system in an area held by its soldiers if the purpose is solely for the creation of a “service road” for the state. As a result, the state promised that the road was to be open to all.

Shortly after the start of the second intifada, after attacks on Israeli vehicles, the army closed the road to Palestinians. MK Ephraim Sneh, deputy defense minister at the time, admitted in an interview that the closure was not approved by the political leadership. The closure cut off the villages on either side of the road from their main city, Ramallah, and the rest of the West Bank. In court, the Civil Administration offered to issue travel permits for 80 vehicles, for a population of about 30,000 villagers. The villagers refused to cooperate with Israeli authorities and continued their legal battle for right to use the road on their lands. ACRI claimed in court that the Israel Defense Forces had recently begun frequent raids on the six villages that included the use of illumination bombs, pressure grenades, rubber-tipped bullets and live rounds. The IDF Spokesman’s Office said at the time that these were routine operations in response to the throwing or rocks on vehicles traveling on Route 443.

ACRI officials say they fear the High Court stamp of approval for the illegal and immoral policy regarding Route 443 could be cited as a precedent for additional human rights violations. The petitioners protest what they call a lack of judicial process, noting that even though the decision was on an important principle, it was issued without any accompany explanation and with absolutely no reference to the points raised by the petitioners. In addition, they note, the alternative road will not provide for the needs of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in areas bordering Route 443.