British peace activist shot in head by Israelis

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

British activist shot in head by Israeli troops

Student peace worker suffers suspected brain damage in attack while protecting Palestinian family in Gaza Strip

Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Saturday April 12, 2003
The Guardian

A British peace activist was shot in the head yesterday as he tried to help a Palestinian woman and her children flee Israeli gunfire.
Tom Hurndall was shot as he moved towards the family in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. He was wearing a fluorescent orange vest, and witnesses say that there had been no exchange of fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian gunmen that day.

According to doctors at Rafah Hospital, he is believed to have suffered brain damage.

Alice Coy, 27, a peace activist from London, said that their group had been on their way to pitch a tent by a mosque yesterday afternoon.

They planned to try to prevent an Israeli tank repeating its nightly routine of taking position at the mosque and firing down the street.

"As we approached the mosque, several shots landed in the street around us," she said. "We took cover behind a mound of earth.

"Most of the Palestinians around us had run away, but there was a woman with her two children stuck in front of us. I looked up and Tom was moving towards them in his orange vest.

"I imagine he was trying to take them to safety. Then he was shot in the head by a single bullet, I believe from an Israeli watchtower."

The Israeli army said that it could not comment because the incident was still under investigation.

Last month a US activist, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer.

She too was wearing an orange vest when she knelt in front of the vehicle, but it kept going. The Israeli army is still investigating.

Last week, Brian Avery, 24, another activist from New Mexico, was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in Jenin.

A spokesman for the International Solidarity Movement - the group which had trained Mr Hurndall in non-violent resistance - alleged that the Israeli army had embarked on a campaign against its activists.

"It now seems like it is open season on international peace activists," he said. "They just want us out so they can get on with their business without international observation."

Mr Hurndall, 21, from Tufnell Park, London, was studying photography at Manchester Metropolitan University. At the end of February he went to Iraq to join the human shields in Baghdad but left before the war.

He arrived in the West Bank on April 4 and completed a training course at ISM's headquarters near Bethlehem.

The ISM has activists operating all over the West Bank and Gaza who come to the region from around the world to try to act as a buffer between the Israeli army and settlers and Palestinians. Their activities range from protecting the olive harvest to escorting children to school. They often work with Israeli human rights groups.

Their presence is a source of annoyance to the Israeli army and they are often arrested and beaten up.

Last November an Irish activist, Ciaomhe Butterly, 23, was shot in the leg in Jenin after talking to soldiers. She was deported.

Palestinians are regularly killed by gunfire in Rafah. It is situated next to the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, through which Palestinian smugglers attempt to tunnel to import goods and weapons. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are active in the town.

The Israeli army is widening the buffer zone between homes in Rafah and the security fence, a task that has involved the demolition of hundreds of homes.

According to Tom Wallace of the ISM, Mr Hurndall was part of a group of activists on their way to set up a tent by a mosque in the Jibna area of Rafah. On Thursday morning, two brothers aged 19 and 15 had been shot by Israeli soldiers as they approached the mosque.

Mr Wallace said the activists wanted to "challenge the army's nighttime terrorism". "In addition to preventing sporadic shooting, the activists hope to help the residents of Jibna to pray in peace," he said.

Raphael Cohen, 37, a computer programmer from London who lives in Cairo, said he had met Mr Hurndall recently.

"He is a fantastic person and a very passionate photographer," Mr Cohen said.

"He was documenting the daily life of Rafah, not just the bad stuff.

"He was very excited about being in Rafah. He came here to help people and that is what he was doing every day."

>>>>>>>>>>>>

I don't even know what to think about this. I know little about the Palestinian solidarity movement, but it seems that people are trying very sincerely to both observe what's going on in the occupied territories, and to prevent the worst excesses of Israeli forces. It seems that their presence is making very little difference to the behaviour of the troops, but if they really are being targeted, and I wouldn't discount that when there's a media blackout on everything other than Iraq, then... well it beggars belief.

[Salvador Dali Lama]

Hey, chick got in the way.

[walto]

Just more gloom and doom from Nabobs of Negativism. If this guy was wearing an orange vest, he had it coming! Plus, "Hurndall" doesn't really sound like an American name to me--at least not the name of the type of American who understands that helping Islamo-facsists is a recipe for disaster.

Every place except the White House is a war zone now. You don't understand that, the terrorists have beaten you. Get a life.

[xquisit]

The White House is a war zone. Americans get picked up with weapons on the way to shoot the President all the time in DC. And there doesn't have to be a war going on either.



x

[walto]

Good point. Maybe Camp David is safe?

[Gary Sisco]

Activists like these intentionally put their bodies where their mouths are, as I have in other places and situations, and therefore sometimes they pay the price. A couple dozen Europeans from various countries, a few Americans, and many from various Latin American countries, were killed in Reagan's war in Nicaragua. Also in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala, in those years.

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

Part of the reason I posted this, is that in the course of gradually dipping my toe into activist groups, I met people who's friends were out in Palestine doing what this guy was doing, and some of whom had come back recently. Although I see the logic in doing stuff like this, it seems like people are putting themselves in the position of martyrdom, which concerns me a fair bit - there's increasing discussion in the anticapitalist movement about professional activism and how it's preventing things from moving forward, and I think a worry that people are becoming almost pathological in the way they approach protest.

[RainyDay]

I must have missed the thread about the young woman from the state of Washington who was rolled over by the Israeli military when they were bulldozing a Palestinian home. Same bat time, same bat channel.

..there's increasing discussion in the anticapitalist movement about professional activism and how it's preventing things from moving forward, and I think a worry that people are becoming almost pathological in the way they approach protest.

Gee, you think? How else do you characterize someone who slashes a fur coat off a person's back? Or sets fire to an animal research center? Or smashes windows in Starbucks, over and over and over and over...There is an element of self-righteousness in some quarters of the so-called left that's really disgusting. It's why the left can't ever really gain momentum because it is forever fighting over who's cause is just and pure. I've said this before, but I'm never going to fall on a sword to prevent someone from eating meat. Vegetarianism used to be a life style choice, now it's on the same level as insuring the rights of farm workers. Something is seriously wrong with that.

The extremists call themselves anarchists today, 35 years ago they were called agent provocateurs, or as they were known at UC Berkeley, "narcs." I've often wondered how many of these so-called anarchists are anything but paid by the government. When I see guys with black hoods breaking windows in Union Square, I have to wonder who's payroll they are on.

The protestors in SF after nearly a week figured out they were accomplishing nothing by creating a prolonged traffic jam in a city that is already profoundly anti-war, near financial bankruptcy, and not in a position to afford millions of dollars in police overtime.

But back on topic, it should be clear now that the Israeli military will kill you if you get in the way, even if you are not a threat. And the American government won't care.

Originally posted by RainyDay
...it should be clear now that the Israeli military will kill you if you get in the way, even if you are not a threat. And the American government won't care.

Sadly true.

[patricia]

Originally posted by Chris A
Sadly true.

If you are not part of the "Big Picture", as the present administration sees it, you are putting yourself in a very un-anvantageous position.

The phrase, "rule of the fist", has come into play, with regard to the U.S. and it is, IMO, a dangerous one.
I don't think that there is as much a threat of organized war, but rather random terrorism, which is impossible to defend.
By it's relative, compared to a war situation, "smallness", killing only dozens, or even hundreds, rather than thousands and thousands of people, it is still the threat it was, before the attack on Iraq.

This war, IMO, had nothing to do with fighting global terrorism. It was an opportunistic act, based on a false premise, which was that the terrorists of Sept 11's obscene act, somehow was being avenged, though proof of this has yet to be produced.
Terrorism is global, not confined to any one country, and that is why it's called terrorism. The war, still ongoing, may discourage other countries from attacking the U.S. and may even bring them into line, from an economic standpoint. So, perhaps that may, in some people's estimation, justify the death and destruction.

Terrorists operate in widely distributed small groups, not battalians, wearing uniforms. Most terrorists expect to die and don't care if they do. They are cause-motivated, however vague the cause. This danger was not eliminated, or even dented, by a war on Iraq. They are, IMO, two different things.

[jeff54]

Originally posted by Nathaniel Catchpole
British activist shot in head by Israeli troops

I don't even know what to think about this. I know little about the Palestinian solidarity movement, but it seems that people are trying very sincerely to both observe what's going on in the occupied territories, and to prevent the worst excesses of Israeli forces

My impression of the ISM is that they are an insincere group who present themselves as human rights activists but really have a very specific political agenda of acting as propagandists for the Palestinians. I have heard Adam Shapiro, who is one of the co-founders of the group, speak twice. The first was a taped broadcast of a speech he gave at a venue that was clearly sympathetic to his cause. At that time he gave accounts of IDF soldiers talking children into the basements of mosques and putting bayonets though their eyes. Whatever else the IDF maybe guilty of I have never heard of this happening and of course he provided no proof. The second time was after I had heard him being interviewed that morning on the radio saying he was speaking that night at a church where the minister had received threats because of ISM speaking there. I attended this speech and when the minister was questioned about these threats he said that there had not been any.
The ISM has provided support to Hammas gunmen in the church they were holed up in last year, and just recently a wanted Hammas member was arrested in their HQ in the West Bank.
It seems to me if ISM was really interested in protecting innocent civilians they would do something to convince Hammas not to hide among them.
Jeff

We believe what we wish to believe--that, too, is sad.

[Salvador Dali Lama]

I'm just glad I have you guys to interpret Israeli domestic affairs for me.

But what do I know?

I have an IDF t-shirt.

[jeff54]

Originally posted by Chris A
We believe what we wish to believe--that, too, is sad.

Well yes Chris if you base your beliefs on wishes then I guess that could be considered sad.

Sometimes I may even do that myself. However in this case I went to hear what these people had to say so I didn't have to base my beliefs on wishes.

[willy]

"We believe what we wish to believe--that, too, is sad."


If that is true then everyone on the planet is full of shit.

[Salvador Dali Lama]

Originally posted by willy
"We believe what we wish to believe--that, too, is sad."


If that is true then everyone on the planet is full of shit.

you're trying to imply that this isn't so?

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

One thing about the ISM - the guy who'd come back from there said that they did little more than give you a phone number to call - no real training or structure to the trip. As I said I don't know much about them, but the fact remains that an alien civilian, no matter how irritating to the authorities was shot at and killed, and that the attack wasn't a response to any violence - not only from him, but from anyone in his immediate area. Apart from some road map stuff from Bush, this was about the first news from Israel I'd seen for quite a while due to the Iraq coverage, and it isn't a good sign.

[mke]

"There is an element of self-righteousness in some quarters of the so-called left that's really disgusting"

I don't think that this element of self-righteousness (and violence) is confined to the left, real or "so-called".

[Gary Sisco]

Nat -- I have to say that I agree with the criticisms you note and have shared them for a long while now. I've had some experience with these types of activists and I've always found them to be unswervable in their thinking, which renders them, in the end, authoritarian to the same extreme. And, in the US, yes, they did hold back several movements, beginning with the antinuke. After a while, they drove off a lot of serious anti-imperialists.

There was a guy from VT who sat down in front of an armaments train back in the 80s, but didn't get up in time (you can see from the footage that he was *trying* to get up and out of the way) and lost his legs in the deal. This was after he and a few other vets decided to hunger strike (unto death, allegedly, but obviously not, cheapening the tactic, IMHO) in DC. The Starving Vets Movement, my best friend called it.

His group actually banned my friend, in Nicaragua, from a vets' march to a village where an American comrade had been assassinated by the contras (point blank execution after having been wounded in an ambush while working on a small-scale hydroelectric project, that was his purpose for being there). They told him he hadn't been "properly trained in non-violence." As if the contras gave a fuck if you'd been properly trained in non-violence or not. Fuckin' duh. He'd already agreed to go unarmed. I mean, what was he going to do to fuck up their "non-violence"? Throw rocks at the contras? Whatever.

I decided long ago that these tactics are a reflection of deep despair, not of hope, from which all real radicalism has to emerge.

Me, I don't mind fighting and dying in a cause, but I'm not going out on a suicide mission that will be forgotten by all concerned in a matter of days.

Interesting, though, to me, is how the deaths of non-Palestinians generate more discussion, actually, than the very regular killing of Palestinians in similar circumstances, almost every day, for many years now.

[Nathaniel Catchpole]

Gary, as to the discussion being centred around non-Palestinians, I think had it been an American or German activist, chances are the Guardian wouldn't have reported it. I assume there are also diplomatic things that (I hope) have to be done when foreign nationals are killed that doesn't happen if it's Palestinians - things like proper inquiry into the circumstances of the death.

[Gary Sisco]

Nat -- Your first assumption is probably true. An American woman activist was squashed by an Israeli bulldozer a few weeks back, which received some attention for a minute.

Your second assumption is the one made by the activists themselves and is entirely wrong in my experience. No one in the US govt gives a flying fuck what the circumstances were when an activist gets killed in these circumstances, nor would sitting down in front of an advancing Marine unit get one spared just because one is American or whatever. Never mind an airstrike, where the pilot's at 36,000 feet or way up close but travelling at supersonic speeds.

Some families of American activists murdered in various Latin American countries have battled for decades to find out what happened to their kids and why, only to be put off by endless bureaucratic bullshit. Never mind a proper investigation.

Hell, fairly early on in the El Salvador madness, the El Salvadoran army raped and murdered four American *nuns.* It caused a few headlines. The soldiers did some time, many years later (the officers who gave them their orders did not, and several of them are in fact enjoying a leisurely retirement in Florida, at American taxpayers' expense, in addition to the mucho dinero in American dollars that ended up in their portfolios during the war). The soldiers have since been released.

None of that in any way stopped the flow of American dollars to the Salvadoran army/death squads (no real difference, there), which amounted to a million dollars per day for many years.

What stopped it was the military standoff. The army could not, with all of the American support, defeat the guerrilla armies, and the guerrilla armies could not defeat the army. So a deal was finally brokered. 75,000 dead, mostly civilians, almost all killed or disappeared by the army. Same crew still in charge today, along with the same economic order and conditions that generated the struggle to begin with, the only thing that mattered in DC.