Israel plans no action on activist's death

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Israel plans no action on activist’s death

TEL AVIV, April 14: The Israeli army on Monday said it planned no action against the driver of an armoured bulldozer who it said inadvertently caused the death of an American peace activist from Washington last month.

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that positions activists as “human shields” around the West Bank and Gaza, was crushed to death while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian house in Gaza.

The ISM says that Corrie was run over deliberately.

A statement released after a military investigation of the March incident said the driver and other Israeli forces in the area had acted “according to procedures and without misconduct”.

The army statement called Corrie’s death a “tragic accident”, pinning some of the blame on the peace activists themselves.

“It is important to keep in mind the danger posed by the illegal, irresponsible, and dangerous behaviour of the ISM group that led to the tragic and sad results,” it said.

Since Corrie’s death, two other ISM members have been shot by Israeli forces, including Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old British citizen critically wounded by Israeli troops while helping children cross a Gazan street under fire last week.-Reuters

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http://www.dawn.com/2003/04/15/top18.htm

couldn’t find the other thread relating to this issue so i decided to open a new one :slight_smile:

what are your thoughts on this? i think isreal is in no position to take actions as it will open a whole pandora box for many to bring them to justice, including most, if not all, of isreali’s army :slight_smile:

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Sadly the benefit of doubt is always given to the IDF since that whole area ahere majority of ISM functions is officially labeled a "red" zone where all rules are thrown out the window. I am sure now the ISM is investing heavily in video cameras. Tragic nonetheless if she was indeed murdered that she will never recieve justice.

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Who told that lady to go there in the first place? Wanna play with fire, get ready to be burned.

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Israel is a rogue state, and has no real concern for the lives of innocents, especially those who oppose it's racist, illegal and expansionist plans.

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Re: Israel plans no action on activist’s death

Tom Hurndall has returned to the UK, but he is still in a coma.

UK activist returns from Israel in coma, Audrey Gillan
The Guardian, 30 May, 2003

A young British peace activist in a coma after being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier flew back to Britain yesterday. The family of Tom Hurndall, 21, do not think he will ever recover consciousness.

His parents, Anthony and Jocelyn, from north London, returned with Tom after spending six weeks in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank investigating their son’s shooting. They brought home a report by the Israeli defence force into Tom’s death, which they called a “fabrication”.

The couple claimed their investigations had been hampered at every turn. They have conducted their own interviews with witnesses and plan to publish the IDF report and their response next week.

Of the report’s 20 pages, only four refer to the shooting and these are “minimalist” in detail.

The couple said initially that they had been disappointed by the Foreign Office response to the shooting. They are still hoping for a meeting with the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and will push him to ask Israel for a full, independent inquiry.

Meanwhile, their son will undergo neurological tests at the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead, north London.

A student photographer, Tom Hurndall had been in the city of Rafah with the International Solidarity Movement, which had planned to pitch a peace tent and prevent an Israeli tank from taking its preferred daily route.

The family has learned that children had been playing in a nearby passageway when Israeli soldiers began shooting over their heads. They then lowered their range to chest height.

Most managed to run away but three younger children found themselves unable to move because they were so frightened. Wearing his bright orange ISM vest, Tom managed to help a boy to safety but when he went back to get two girls he was shot by an Israeli soldier in a nearby watchtower.

The Israelis claim that only one shot was fired, at a man who had been holding a gun.

Mr Hurndall said: “The Israeli army say they shot someone, they seem to admit this was Tom but they state this happened about 100 yards away in a different building in a different location.”

He added that he believed the Israeli army did not deliberately shoot at a peace activist, but said it was clear that his son was a civilian.

Mrs Hurndall said she would find it difficult to advise other parents not to let their children become involved in similar activities because it would “disacknowledge” their need to seek out justice and truth.

Journals written by Tom during his short time in Rafah were brought back by the family.

“They tell us about the injustices he came across daily,” his mother said. "Within his first two hours in Rafah he was shot at repeatedly, they had huge bulldozers coming at them, sand bombs thrown at them and gas.

“You can’t have it more clearly put than the fresh eyes of an intelligent 21-year-old. We are very proud of him.”

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Israel calls Corrie death ‘accident’ From BBC

The Israeli army has closed an investigation into the death of a US peace activist crushed by one of its bulldozers, saying it was an accident and that no action would be taken against the soldiers involved.

Rachel Corrie died in March during a protest against the demolition of a house in the southern Gaza Strip.

She suffered multiple injuries when an Israeli Army bulldozer ran over her and later died in hospital.

Eyewitnesses, including fellow protesters from the International Solidarity Movement for whom Corrie was a volunteer, said that the 23-year-old was clearly visible to the bulldozer operator and was deliberately killed.

However, the army said that military police investigating the incident found that Corrie was killed by earth and building rubble falling on her as she tried to climb on a pile of earth while the bulldozer was operating.

It also said that, while it expressed sorrow for any incident in which innocent people are harmed, it felt that the “illegal and irresponsible” actions of the ISM “contributed to the tragic and distressing results of this incident”.

‘Full investigation’

Corrie and her former colleagues at the ISM, a pro-Palestinian activist group comprised of international and Palestinian volunteers, were protesting against the destruction of a home in the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip when the incident occurred.

Her colleagues said that Corrie, wearing an orange fluorescent jacket to identify herself as an activist, was killed after climbing onto a mound of dirt in front of the bulldozer when it refused to stop.

However, the Israeli investigation said in a statement that the army team involved in the incident did not see the activist, because she was standing behind the mound of earth “and it was not possible to see her or to hear her voice”.

“It is clear the death of Ms Corrie was not caused as a result of a direct action by the bulldozer or by its running her over,” it said.

The army said its investigation had taken into account the interrogation of the soldiers involved, eyewitness statements, the findings of the autopsy and the collection of evidence.

Crackdown

An ISM spokesman said the group was not surprised by the findings.

“We have received so many negative signals from them,” Ghassan Andoni told the Associated Press news agency.

“Their only concern is to protect their people and not arrive at the truth.”

Shortly after Corrie’s death the Israeli army clamped down on the ISM’s activities and those of other peace groups.

It ordered all foreigners intending to enter areas under Palestinian control to sign waivers that absolve Israel from responsibility should they be killed or injured in the occupied territories.

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that was no accident. Who are they trying to fool ? The tractor was bearly going less than 5 mph, had enough time to stop, but didn't. Those people crushed that poor girl to death.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by zman: *
that was no accident. Who are they trying to fool ? The tractor was bearly going less than 5 mph, had enough time to stop, but didn't. Those people crushed that poor girl to death.
[/QUOTE]

If it was going less than 5 MPH, that "poor girl" certainly had time to get out of the way don't you think? Sounds very much like one of those super quick walls in your house that occasionally jumps out at you and hits you in the shoulder.

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Have there been any comments from her family?

myvoice, why the quotations around poor girl?

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man :rolleyes: First time i have ever heard of anyone dying because of some soil falling on them. i guess the bulldozer operator must have just conveniently not seen an adult woman standing on top of the mound, wearing the bright orange vest that most of these ISM activists are required to wear. Accident my foot. Murder more like it.

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[QUOTE]
Originally posted by underthedome: *
myvoice, why the quotations around *poor girl?
[/QUOTE]

I don't share the sentiment expressed by the previous poster that this woman should be viewed as the type of sympathetic victim that the words "poor girl" engender. I have no sympathy for volunteer activists who go into combat zones to try to act as human shields when they get killed either.

Without looking at them as victims, it is possible, I suppose, to admire some of these folks for having the courage to pay the ultimate sacrifice for standing up for their convictions. In a lot of cases, I don't think it's really courage so much as plain stupidity. I think a lot of them perceive themselves as invulnerable in a way, don't think through the risks and don't give adequate consideration to the fact that human flesh doesn't stand up well to armored vehicles, artillery shells, bullets and/or lethal fragments of various forms of weaponry.

On the other hand, I have a great deal of sympathy for the families who have lost loved ones under these circumstances. I pray that this woman's family has been given the inner strength to understand, accept and cope with their loss.