Israel: Tom Hurndall Verdict

June 27th, 2005 at 19:50 Björn Hallberg

The Israeli sniper that killed Tom Hurndall during an army operation in the Gaza Strip in April 2003 has been found guilty of manslaughter. As for the actual sentence, it will have to wait until August.

ThisisLondon – Hurndall’s sister, Sophie Hurndall, praised the verdict, but said the army must change its practices. Said there had been little contact with Israeli authorities during the trial, and claimed there had been a "systematic process" of covering up the shooting.
Hurndall, a student, was shot in the Rafah refugee camp, where he was photographing the work of the International Solidarity Movement. ISM activists often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians to try to stop the Israeli military from carrying out operations.
The defence also argued that a confession from the soldier, on which the prosecution based its case, was forced. Taysir, a member of Israel’s Bedouin Arab minority, charged the army with racism, saying he was prosecuted because he is an Arab and because his victim was a foreigner.

True. Had the soldier been a bona fide jew, I am sure the case would not have been handled so diligently. And it goes without saying that because Hurndall was British, he received both medical and legal aid that would not have been offered any Palestinian. For more info on the event, I’d recommend "The Killing Zone" by BBC Channel 4, a documentary which by chance managed to be in the right place at the right time. Also covers the death of James Miller.

Times Online – "But judging by the comments from both political and military spokesmen afterwards, it doesn’t seem as though they accept that there is a fault in the system in the way that Mr Hurndall alleged.

"In fact, a government spokesman said that the fact that someone had been prosecuted showed that the Israeli system worked. And the military prosecutor said that this wasn’t a case of an Israeli soldier following the rules of engagement, as critics of the Israelis believe: it was a case of a soldier breaking the rules of engagement and lying about it afterwards, and when he was found out, being prosecuted.

"We will have to wait until August to see whether this soldier is sentenced to more than 20 months, which we believe is the most any Israeli soldier has ever been sentenced to in similar circumstances. The maximum term available is 20 years, and the prosecution has said that they are going to ask for a very severe sentence.

AKI – In April, an Israeli soldier has been cleared by a military court of any wrongdoing in the death of a British cameraman James Miller almost two years ago, also in Rafah. Miller, 34, was shot dead while filming a documentary, ‘Death in Gaza’, on Palestinian children caught up in the intifada, or uprising. Witnesses say he was shot at close-range despite holding up a white flag and wearing markings clearly identifying him as a journalist.

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