British Family Not Satisfied with Israeli Court’s Verdict

Hurndall: Convicted Israeli Soldier ‘Scapegoat’ of Higher up Chain of Command

28/06/2005

Palestine Media Center – PMC

A verdict by an Israeli military court on Monday convicting a “sniper” of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) of manslaughter of British peace activist Tom Hurndall failed to satisfy the Hurndall family, who complained that the soldier was a “scapegoat” and had been “laid at the sacrificial altar of Israeli policy.”

Israeli Sergeant Taysir Wahid was convicted by a military court on Monday of the manslaughter of Tom Hurndall two years after he was shot in head “to teach him a lesson” while trying to pull two Palestinian children out of danger in the occupied Gaza Strip.

A sentencing hearing is to be held on July 5 for Taysir, a Bedouin scout who can neither read nor write Hebrew. He faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced in August.

Shortly before the verdict, Taysir said that he had been singled out because he is an Arab Israeli.

“I did what I was ordered to do and I’m only here because I’m a Bedouin,” he told The Times. “If I were Israeli (Jew), for sure I wouldn’t be sitting here in custody.”

A two-year campaign for justice by Tom’s British family bore fruit Monday when the Israeli army sniper was convicted by a military court of the manslaughter of the 21-year-old photography student, in 2003.

However, the verdict failed to satisfy the Hurndall family.

Vindicating Taysir’s statement, Hurndall the father, himself a lawyer, said: “The finding of manslaughter against this particular soldier is obviously very important but it is only part of the culture that we are concerned with, the culture of impunity, the lack of accountability, the freedom with which (Israeli) soldiers feel they can shoot civilians in this area, and our son was unfortunately a victim of that policy,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Furious that his younger son, Billy, was detained at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport as he flew into Israel for the hearing, Hurndall said: “We think this goes much higher up the chain of command than this soldier.”

Israeli Military Justice System Clumsy, Inefficient

Hurndall added that he was lucky with his resources and influence that enabled him to bring his son’s case to court, a luxury unaffordable to the families of hundreds of Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers in recent years, he said after the verdict.

“We are concerned that there is a policy which seems to be prevalent in Gaza among the Israeli soldiers and army that they feel able to shoot civilians really without any accountability whatsoever.

“So there are two issues here: one, the apparent tacit policy that seems to be in place that the Palestinian civilians are fair game; and that there is no accountability,” he said.

From the start he had found the Israeli military justice system clumsy and inefficient. For months it refused to accept there was a case to answer. Much of the dishonesty was contained in the first Israeli army report that cleared its soldiers of wrongdoing, he indicated.

“I think he (Taysir) is a scapegoat, a pawn in the larger system, who was laid at the sacrificial altar of Israeli policy,” said Hurndall, who accused Israel of having a policy that made it “fair game” to shoot non-combatants - a charge repeatedly denied by the Israelis.

“What this case brings out is a culture of lack of accountability within the Israeli army, and the freedom with which soldiers feel they can shoot civilians in the field. Our son was unfortunately a victim of that policy,” he said.

Sophie Hurndall: Systematic Process of Israeli Cover up

The IOF originally said it had “no case to answer” over the killing, but the tenacity of an English family - Hurndall's mother Jocelyn, a north London teacher, his father Anthony, a solicitor, and siblings Sophie and Billy - succeeded in proving that the original report was a tissue of lies, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Hurndall's sister, Sophie Hurndall, praised the verdict but said the Israeli army must change its practices.

“This kind of thing needs to stop happening. Until that has changed ... we won't really have won,” she told Sky News TV.

She said the Hurndall family had little contact with Israeli authorities during the trial and claimed there had been a “systematic process” of covering up the shooting.

“This soldier was directly responsible for shooting my brother, and not only for his death, but to the point where he was in a coma for a year,” she said. “Tom was rescuing a child - and for me that kind of action was the most despicable action you could carry out,” the sister added.

Mrs. Hurndall had to give up her job to focus full-time on the case.

“When something like this happens it takes over your life completely,” she said. “The pressure of holding down a job was too much.”

Taysir Best Sniper but Bad Liar

Palestinian medics and witnesses said Hurndall was wearing a fluorescent jacket with International Solidarity Movement (ISM) initials on it and trying to pull two Palestinian children out of danger when shots were fired from a nearby IOF watchtower in April 2003.

Taysir shot Tom in the head with a sniper rifle. Hurndall suffered horrific injuries but was still alive when he arrived in hospital. Later he was flown back to Britain for further treatment, although he was found to be in a permanent vegetative state, dying of pneumonia in January 2004, aged 22.

Taysir, the best sniper in his IOF regiment, according to his commanding officer, was manning a pillbox with the call sign Star Two when he saw Tom Hurndall among a group of refugees. He shot at the Briton to “teach him a lesson,” the proceedings made it known.

In his 75-page ruling, Israeli Col Nir Aviram, the chairman of the three-man court martial panel, found that Taysir lied repeatedly about events in the Rafah refugee camp on April 11, 2003.

Another IOF soldier, Ahmad Atawna, already was sentenced to jail for lying to protect Taysir.

The military court found that Taysir shot Hurndall with a sniper rifle using a telescopic sight. It said there was no basis for the claim of malpractice and added that Taysir gave a “confused and even pathetic” version of events to the court.

Taysir also was convicted of obstruction of justice, one count of submitting false testimony, obtaining false testimony and unbecoming behavior. He faces up to 20 years in prison when sentenced in August.

B'Tselem: Taysir’s Conviction ‘the Exception that Proves the Rule’

The case focused attention on an issue that has been a source of fierce debate in recent years. Human rights groups and Palestinians say the Israeli military has killed many unarmed Palestinians, and a number of foreigners, and that shootings are rarely investigated. Israel says it does not target civilians, and that it conducts inquiries in cases where soldiers are suspected of wrongdoing.

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says that according to its count, 1,722 Palestinians who were not taking part in the fighting have been killed since September 2000. That figure accounts for about half of all Palestinian deaths.

B'Tselem said that Taysir’s conviction over the Hurndall killing was “the exception that proves the rule,” saying that prosecutors avoided opening military police investigations in all but exceptional cases.

“The judge advocate general's policy not to open military police investigations into the killing of civilians sends IDF (Israel Defence Forces) commanders and soldiers the message that it is unlikely they will be held accountable for harming civilians,” B'Tselem said in a statement Monday.

Similarly a report last week by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that “the (Israeli) government's failure to investigate the deaths of innocent civilians has created an atmosphere that encourages soldiers to think they can literally get away with murder.”

HRW said the IOF investigated fewer than 5 per cent of the killings of Palestinian civilians since the start of the Intifada (uprising) in 2000.

Two other British citizens have been killed by the IOF. Cameraman James Miller was shot and killed in Rafah on May 2003 while filming a documentary about the impact of violence on children.

An IOF investigation into the death of 23-year-old US national and ISM activist Rachel Corrie concluded that her being crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah in March 2003 had been an accident.

Also, IOF soldiers shot and killed UN aid worker Lain Hook in November 2002 during a gun battle with armed Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp in northern West Bank.

A British pacifist and three Palestinians were shot and wounded by IOF who attacked a peace protest demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in the southern West Bank village of Yatta village, near Hebron on Monday.