Tag: Tom Hurndall

Haaretz: ‘Dear IDF, Please meet us, allow an open dialogue’

By Joseph Algazy
Originally published by Haaretz

The family of an international peace activist, felled by an IDF bullet, hope they can help promote an end to the conflict

Tom Hurndall, a young Briton active in the International Solidarity movement, is lying unconscious at Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. Not long ago he was shot in the head by Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Rafah as he tried to get a 5-year-old girl out of the line of fire. The members of his family – his mother, Jocelyn, his father, Anthony, his sister Sophie and his brothers Billy and Freddy – are tending him at the hospital and hoping for a miracle. They are hurt and angry, but free of any hatred.

More than once they have returned to the place where he was injured. They visited the family of the Palestinian children whom Tom rescued from danger and took testimony from his friends and people who witnessed the incident. They are surprised to discover that the world media are evincing a great deal of interest in the affair, whereas in Israel it has hardly been mentioned. The IDF statement that was published after the incident is defined by the family as mendacious and they are demanding that an independent commission of inquiry uncover the truth of what happened. Thus far, the IDF authorities avoided speaking to them.

In Israel – this is their first visit to the region – the Hurndalls have been living in an apartment in Be’er Sheva put at their disposal by Israelis; in England they live in north London. The mother works in special needs education, the father is a solicitor. Tom, 21, is a student of photography at Metropolitan University. About a year and a half ago he visited Egypt and took a diving course. In February of this year he went to Baghdad. According to his father, Tom was interested in what is happening in the Middle East and wanted to document his experiences photographically while expressing opposition to the war in Iraq.

“Tom was in Iraq not as a pro-Iraqi, but as a human shield, like others who came from all over the world with the intention of stopping the war,” said Anthony Hurndall this week. “He is a young man with a great deal of intellectual curiosity who seeks the truth. He believed that there was no reason that the fate of a young Briton should be better than the fate of a young Iraqi living under the threat of war and wanted to share the risks with him in case of war. He is a thinking person. We are not members of any party or organization, but we are thinking people who take an interest in what is going on around us.”

Tom took many photographs during his stay in Iraq. According to his father, as the date of the attack on Iraq approached, the authorities asked the human shields to stay in eight or nine strategic locations, for example, water pumping stations and bus stations; for his part, Tom wanted to be in places where people might be exposed to danger, especially in hospitals. When he was not granted permission, he left Iraq and went to Jordan, but hoped to return to Iraq with an aid delegation. His wish was not fulfilled, and he stayed at a refugee camp on the Iraq-Jordan border, with people from various nations who had fled Iraq because of the war.

Seeking the truth

In Jordan, Tom found out about the International Solidarity movement and the activities of its members, who serve as a human barrier between the IDF and the Palestinians in the territories of the Palestinian Authority. He arrived in the West Bank accompanied by some of the people who had been in Baghdad with him and received training in non-violent resistance. On April 6, he went to Rafah. During his stay in Iraq, in Jordan and in Gaza, he kept in touch with his family and friends, and in letters to them from Rafah he described his experiences and sent photographs of protest demonstrations, masked armed men, funerals of people who had been killed – and mainly photographs of children playing.

He was shot on Friday, April 11. In the first reports that came out abroad it was said that he had been shot and killed, and only later on was it reported that he was very seriously injured. His father was outside of Britain when he received the news and within two days he came to Israel. The rest of the family followed him.

“Through the media and representatives of the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, we declared from the very first moment that we wanted to meet with anyone who was involved in any way in what happened to Tom in order to find out the truth,” says Anthony. “The intention was to [speak to] witnesses to the incident and representatives of the IDF. So far we have met with most of the International Solidarity activists who were with him in Rafah and with Palestinians who witnessed the incident. We read a statement by a South African photographer who was on the scene and we met with a local cameraman who works for an international news agency who photographed Tom before he was shot. Through British Embassy people we asked to meet official representatives of the IDF, to hear their version of the incident, but they refused to meet us. We were told that the IDF had begun an investigation of the incident.” In reply, Haaretz has been told by the IDF Spokesperson’s office that the military authorities will meet with the Hurndall family and that “upon the completion of the investigations and the formulation of conclusions, we will present them to the relevant people.”

Two days after the incident, the Hurndalls were shocked to read the IDF Spokesperson’s version in The Jerusalem Post, which stated that at approximately 17:00 an IDF position on the Israeli-Egyptian border, in territory under Israeli military control, identified a man of about 20 in camouflage uniform holding a weapon. According to the IDF version, the armed man opened fire, under cover of the building from which he had come out, at the nearby IDF position. IDF personnel fired a single bullet toward the armed man, the statement went on, and identified a hit. It must be noted, said the IDF statement, that this was the only shooting incident known to the IDF in that area at that time.

Indiscriminate fire

From the scraps of information the family has gathered on the ground, it emerges that Tom was wounded while he and his colleagues were at Haret al Barahne (the neighborhood of the Barhum family) in the Yibna refugee camp in Rafah, where Israel has erected a high wall. They were wearing bright orange vests and trying to get to the street at the end of which, every evening, the IDF positions a tank that fires automatic weapons indiscriminately at the street and the adjacent houses. The Palestinians believe that the purpose of the shooting is to frighten the inhabitants and force them to evacuate the area, thus creating an empty space between the wall the army built and the refugee camp.

Two days before the incident, Rushdie Jabr, 15, was wounded in the neck at the same spot by IDF fire. The following day, Mustafa Jabr, 20, was shot in the leg by IDF soldiers. The Hurndalls heard about the circumstances of the injuries to the two from their parents and their testimony was filmed on video.

According to eyewitnesses who have spoken to the Hurndalls, Tom and his friends saw a group of about 10 children playing in the street at which the IDF soldiers fired from a tank and from the tower on top of the wall. Some of the children ran away, but the little ones froze to the spot. Tom, wearing the bright orange vest, ran toward them, grabbed one of them and took him to a safe place. When he returned to get another little girl, he was shot. According to eyewitnesses, he was shot once by a sniper from the tower on top of the wall.

Initially he was taken to the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, but as the means of treating him were not available he was then taken to the European hospital between Rafah and Khan Yunis. There too the medical staff could not treat him and finally, with the intervention of the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, he was transferred to Gush Katif and from there to Soroka Medical Center, three hours after he was wounded.

He arrived at Soroka in critical condition, with no pulse. His family was informed that the entry hole of the bullet that hit the left front side of his head was smaller than its exit hole in the lower back part of his head. According to his father, the doctors told him that Tom’s days were numbered; in the meantime his condition has stabilized, but he is still in a coma and his situation is defined as critical.

“I am angry at what has happened to Tom,” says his sister Sophie. “There is no justification for it. He came to the region to see what is happening here and to document the truth, and it makes me sad that they are spreading all kinds of lies about him; for example, the IDF statement that ostensibly he was wearing camouflage clothing and holding a weapon, while in fact he was wearing a bright orange vest and was not armed.”

Unlike Sophie, who knew about Tom’s plans and had even tried to discourage him from carrying them out, his younger brother Freddy did not know much about what he was doing in the region. Today, he says, he is proud of Tom. At the beginning of the week he and his mother visited Salem, 5, whom Tom rescued from the line of fire and who had played ball with him. According to Tom’s mother, Jocelyn, the little boy has not recovered from the trauma.

“Tom wanted to help the people here, and we also want to contribute in some way to finding a solution that will put an end to this conflict that is causing a lot of suffering, both to the Palestinians and to the Israelis,” says his father. “Like Tom, we are disgusted by wrongs and injustice and we have great empathy for oppressed people and want to help them. We feel great admiration for the Jewish people in Israel, but over the years, the stronger Israel has become, it has acted unjustly toward the Palestinians; we are disappointed. In the past I thought a lot about what is happening here, but I never imagined that I would be involved in it in any way. From now on this is also our responsibility, just as it is the responsibility of the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

Ever since she received word of her son’s serious injury, his mother has had a hard time falling asleep at night. “Again and again I go over in my head what happened. I’ve thought a lot about the conversation Tom related between him and a Palestinian named Mohammed a short while before his injury. Mohammed said that he had formed the impression that Tom was determined to stay in Rafah and help the Palestinian inhabitants. During the moments he tried to save the little children he acted with determination. Even when he was a boy of 9, his headmaster defined him as a thinking person who was determined to protect anyone who was vulnerable. Tom wanted to be a factor setting things moving by taking up a position on the front line and not being passive on the back bench.”

Quietly but clearly, she expresses her anger at those who injured her son. In her call to put an end to the lack of humanity and the oppression, Tom Hurndall’s mother notes that by using force, a great deal of force, Israel is removing itself from any framework of dialogue. “If I had to write a letter to the IDF, my letter would say: `Dear IDF, Please move on and let go of this negativity. Please meet us, allow an open dialogue, hear ordinary human anger, take responsibility where it is right that you do so, allow yourselves to be seen to be doing so. Allow this useless and perpetual dynamic of victimization to shrivel to nothing where it veritably belongs, so that your true qualities of intelligence, research in all areas can be appreciated, benefit the world and earn the international respect that will come your way. Please just put your head out of your faceless watchtowers and dark tanks and hear, feel, smell, breathe and taste the benefits of a more inclusive way of being.'”

L.A. Times: In West Bank, a risky quest for peace

Ruth Morris | Los Angeles Times

Activists’ use of human shields is questioned after two members are killed by Israeli forces.

TULKARM, West Bank – Wearing sandals and amber-colored earrings in a region where soldiers don bulletproof vests, Radhika Sainath stepped up to the driver’s side of an Israeli military jeep on the dilapidated outskirts of the West Bank and demanded an explanation for the armored personnel carriers roaring past.

“Why aren’t you in Israel?” asked the disbelieving soldier at the wheel. “You’re like a superman. You come to fix all of the world.”

“I’m hoping if I’m standing in front of Palestinians, you won’t shoot,” Sainath countered.

Halfway around the globe from the boat slips and glossy swells of her native Newport Beach, 24-year-old Sainath has signed on as a human shield with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement – one of the most controversial and ill-fated activist groups patrolling the battle lines of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Dubbed terrorist sympathizers by some, martyrs by others, ISM has seen three of its volunteers killed or seriously wounded by Israeli security forces in just over a month. That turn of events has focused a harsh light on the group’s high-stakes brand of activism and raised some tough questions for organizers: When does gutsy activism cross the line into unwarranted risk? How can activists stay above the fray in communities where dangerous militants mingle with smiling civilians? In a world of heavy armor, how far is too far?

“I don’t know what too far is. I think we could all go a little further, frankly,” said Fred Schlomka of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, a group that works alongside ISM to block armored Israeli bulldozers from razing Palestinian homes.

Besides kneeling before hulking bulldozers, ISM volunteers ride along with Palestinian ambulance drivers to negotiate quick passage through Israeli checkpoints. They bust military curfews and try to be present when Palestinian youths are hurling stones at tanks. When they hear firefights at night, they go outside to bear witness.

To Palestinians, who see the Israeli army as abusive and trigger-happy, ISM’s losses have brought a degree of credibility and clout to the organization. To the Israeli security forces, pitched into a public relations quagmire, the group’s members are meddlesome and naive.

Schlomka’s group was particularly saddened by the death of ISM volunteer Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Wash. Corrie became the group’s first international “martyr” in late March when she tried to obstruct a mammoth D-9 bulldozer, used by Israel to clear anti-tank mines and demolish Palestinian homes along the Egyptian border.

Israeli security forces say that the bulldozer’s driver couldn’t see Corrie from his perch and that ISM acts provocatively by protecting structures used by terrorists to dig gunrunning tunnels. Witnesses charge that the driver purposefully buried her under a mound of gravel.

Kneeling before an armored Israeli bulldozer “is either foolhardy or extremely courageous,” Schlomka said. “I prefer to think of it as extremely courageous.”

A few weeks after Corrie died, ISM volunteer Brian Avery, 24, of Albuquerque, suffered a gunshot wound to the face while investigating a gun battle in the West Bank city of Jenin. ISM said an armored personnel carrier fired toward Avery and another member of the group while they stood in plain view, in reflective vests, hands above their heads.

Military sources said Israeli troops in the area that evening didn’t report the incident, although they did fire to disperse four youngsters who appeared to be building primitive bombs.

In the most recent violence to befall the group, British ISM activist Tom Hurndall was shot in the back of the head while shepherding a group of children to safety under sporadic fire from an Israeli observation tower. Israeli security forces are investigating the shooting; Hurndall remains on full life support in an Israeli hospital.

Throughout the bloodshed, Israeli critics have cast ISM’s foreign activists as a nuisance.

“They come into a war zone without experience. They don’t know how to behave, and they think that because they’re holding an international passport, nothing will happen to them,” said Sharon Feingold, spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli army says its incursions into the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip are meant to root out terrorists before they reach Israeli streets. In the nearly 31 months since the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began, hundreds of Israelis have died in suicide bombings and armed attacks.

“The split second a soldier hesitates to make sure he’s not shooting the wrong guy, he puts himself in danger,” Feingold added.

ISM’s defenders say the group’s run of misfortune is a reflection of hardhearted Israeli military tactics, not reckless activism. Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “soldiers have had a license to do more and more severe things,” said David Nir, an Israeli activist with the group Taayush, which targets Israeli activities it considers discriminatory against Palestinians. “Once they’re used to one level of brutality, they can go on to the next.”

At ISM headquarters in the West Bank town of Beit Sahur, a poster of Rachel Corrie – blond hair tucked beneath a head scarf – adorns an outer wall lined with tattered and rain-stained posters, mostly of civilians killed during Israeli incursions into the Palestinian territories.

The group is “about being open to radical change and higher levels of danger,” said Ghassan Andoni, one of its founders. Small-framed and intense, Andoni said 40% of ISM’s foreign members register over the Internet, while others are referred by support groups working abroad.

ISM has 40 to 100 foreign volunteers rotating through at any given time, who are accompanied by Palestinian members, Andoni said.The group lightly screens foreign volunteers, and everybody undergoes a day and a half of training after arriving in the region.

“International participation was necessary to provide a level of protection. We’re talking about a scenario where pulling the trigger is easier than drinking water,” Andoni said.

Volunteers vary from pony-tailed bohemians to politically minded professionals to deeply religious conscience-raisers. Most come on three-month tourist visas, and all pay their own airfare. Accommodations are provided – usually a rollout mattress on a hard floor – and the group recommends bringing $200 to $300 a month to pay for pita sandwiches and phone cards. Alcohol is strictly forbidden.

Sainath, the Newport Beach volunteer, has sometimes stayed with olive farmers in villages outside Tulkarm.

“It’s not very comfortable,” she said. “But with what I’ve seen these people go through, I can’t complain.”

One recent training session for a batch of new volunteers was led by a veteran activist known as Starhawk, a frizzy-haired writer on feminist politics and pagan spirituality.

“Ground a little more. Put those roots down,” Starhawk told the recruits as she went from one to another pushing her fists into their chests and shoving them backward. Between plastic cups of dark, sugary tea, she also showed them how to protect a shoulder socket while being dragged across the floor and how to use their peripheral vision while maneuvering through volatile crowds.

Andoni admits the training is limited and says some volunteers have lost their composure during heated confrontations. But after a “painful” review of recent events, he concluded that ISM was not at fault in the shootings and standoffs that killed and injured the three members.

ISM first made headlines last spring, when its activists slipped past Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Ramallah and entered the headquarters of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat as it was pounded by Israeli shells. Other volunteers entered the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and stayed through the end of a five-week standoff with Israeli troops.

The group’s most recent move that infuriated Israeli security forces occurred several weeks ago, when members stationed in Jenin took in a wanted Palestinian fleeing from Israeli troops. The two ISM volunteers accused of harboring the suspect later said that he had come into their office from the roof, frightened and dripping wet, and that they didn’t know he was being chased.

“I’m a mainstream American. I’m not an activist,” said Jennifer, who is one of the ISM volunteers accused of protecting the wanted man and who asked that only her first name be used.

Around the corner from where she spoke, Palestinian militants in black hoods discharged automatic rifles into the sky and waved Palestinian flags to commemorate the first anniversary of a deadly Israeli incursion into the Jenin refugee camp.

“There was a curfew. There was gunfire. Knowing that it’s dangerous for anyone to be in the street during curfew, we indicated he could stay,” said Jennifer. “Harboring a terrorist? It’s not even something I thought about.”

As far as ISM’s future is concerned, there doesn’t seem to be any immediate threat. Despite the controversy, risk and living conditions, new recruits are signing up at a record pace, Andoni said.

ISM Rafah Statement on the Shooting of Thomas Hurndall

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On 11 April 2003, 10 members of the International Solidarity Movement in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine, were planning to set up a tent in an area that an Israeli tank often uses to shoot into the houses and streets of a refugee camp called Yibna. Several Palestinian community members had initiated the project, gathered the supplies, and accompanied us to the area at around 4:30PM.

When we arrived to the area, the tank was already there and had been shooting into the street. A nearby Israeli security tower had also joined in and was firing repeated, single, sniper shots. An American international was accompanied by two Palestinians to go closer and get a better look at the area, and was wearing our trademarked fluorescent orange jacket with reflective stripes.

The tank and tower fired live rounds at the ground and buildings on both sides of her, making her movement difficult. She quickly returned to the rest of the group, that was positioned behind a large roadblock, but in view of the security tower. We made a consensus decision to call off the action and return the next day, as the Palestinians were uncomfortable with the gunfire.

At about 4:45PM, shots began to hit the buildings and street around us, and we became concerned for some children who were playing on the roadblock near us. Many had scattered, but a few were left. Thomas Hurndall, a 21-year-old activist from London, UK noticed that one small boy was still on the mound and under fire. He quickly lifted the boy and moved him behind the roadblock.

Tom was about to leave, when he noticed two small girls still in front of the roadblock and in the line of fire. He was moving to help them when an Israeli soldier in the tower, about 300 meters in front of him, shot a high calibre sniper bullet directly into his head. He was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes, and was in full body view of the tower. The British Embassy had been informed of his presence, who had in turn informed the Israeli military.

Palestinians lifted his body and moved him to the pavement about 5 meters behind the roadblock. Two trained medics administered first-responder medical treatment, and used safety pads to try and stop the bleeding. Palestinians then lifted him into a nearby taxi and rushed him to Al-Najjar Hospital. On the way, they took care to try and stop the bleeding.

At around 5:15PM, he was transferred in an ambulance to Europa Hospital in Khanunis. It takes about 30 minutes for an ambulance to get there as there is an Israeli road block on the main road. Without this obstruction it would only take 7 minutes.

After much negotiation with the British Embassy and the Israeli military, Tom was taken to a nearby Israeli settlement from which he was taken by helicopter to Saroka Hospital in B’er Sheva, Israel. He is currently on full life support and in a head cast. Several of his friends have joined his bedside, and his parents are on the way.

Israeli soldier shoots British ISM activist Tom Hurndall in Gaza

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Between 4:30 and 5:00 PM today Israeli snipers shot another ISM activist in the head. Tom Hurndall from Manchester Britain is currently in critical condition in a helicopter on his way from Europa Hospital in Khan Younis to a hospital in Bir Sheva. He is 22 years old.

According to Laura, the activists were being shot at while protecting some children from Israeli gunfire. Tom was in plain view of the sniper towers and was wearing a bright orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes. The nine ISM activists and many children were in the process of leaving the area. Sniper fire from the tower was hitting the wall close beside the children, who were afraid to move. Tom was attempting to bring them to safety when he was shot. There was no shooting or resistance coming from the Palestinian side at all.

According to Laura, the plan had been to put up a tent where a tank parks itself every night in front of a Mosque. The soldiers in the tank shoot down the street, terrorizing people who come to pray. The group had discovered earlier that the tank was already in place and had begun firing into the air. The Palestinian organizers felt the plan had become unworkeable, and the action was abandoned.

Laura and two Palestinians decided to go assess the situation. She soon realized that the tank had moved from where it had been. It was now possible to set up the tent. She spoke to Tom D by phone and they decided to meet at the roadblock. The Israeli snipers in the eastern tower began shooting in Laura’s path.

When they arrived at the roadblock, the rest of the group was already there. The snipers began firing again: this time at the wall of the building next to the activists. As a result, the group began the process of leaving.

Tom saw a little boy in an open space, clearly visible to the tower. Tom went to get him out of the way. He looked back and saw two more girls whom he also went to retrieve. As he went to get them, he was shot in the back of the head. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood. The ambulance arrived quickly, after about two minutes.

For years the Israeli army has killed Palestinian civilians with impunity. Now they are targeting unarmed international peace activists and human rights workers. On March 16, Rachel Corrie was run over and killed by a bulldozer operator in Rafah while trying to prevent home demolitions. On April 5, in Jenin, Brian Avery was shot in the face by an APC in an unprovoked attack on a clearly unarmed group of internationals. Six months ago in Jenin, Caoimhe Butterly was shot in the leg and UN official Ian Hook was murdered.

We ask the world community to stand up and demand that Israel honor international agreements protecting civilians, whether they are internationals or Palestinians, and hold Israel accountable for these crimes against humanity. And we demand an end to the illegal and brutal occupation that these murders defend.

For more information contact:

Allison 067 742 780;
Raf 054 389 466;
Nick 055 874 693;
Alice 067 857 069;
Tom ISM Media Coordinator Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine 02-277-4602; 067-862-439; 052-360-241