PALESTINE: Sister of severely injured solidarity activist speaks

January 1, 1991
Issue 

BY SOPHIE HURNDALL

The following speech was delivered at a Palestine solidarity rally in London's Trafalgar Square on May 17. Tom Hurndall is an activist with the International Solidarity Movement.

I have been asked to speak at this rally as the sister of Tom Hurndall. As many of you may know, Tom was shot while trying to save children from Israeli army fire. While I would emphasise that my family have no political affiliation, what Tom and we discovered during our separate visits to Israel and Gaza has caused us deep concern.

I am here today to describe our experiences.

My brother Tom was a keen and talented photographer — he was also a caring human being. He travelled to Gaza because he had heard about human rights abuses taking place in the Occupied Territories and wanted see for himself the way in which Palestinians were living, and to photograph and document what he saw. Tom is now lying in hospital in Israel in a deep coma. His brain has suffered severe damage and the doctors have said he is unlikely to regain consciousness.

In the days before Tom was wounded he sent emails home detailing several incidents he had observed in which civilians had been shot by Israeli soldiers and also a helicopter attack in which 46 civilians were wounded, some of whom later died. Tom had already sent us photographs including one of a boy of about seven or eight, who posed no threat, being shot from an Israeli tank.

Tom was himself shot as he was trying to help a group of children. Waiting at the end of a street in Rafah, he saw machine-gun fire being directed at a mound of earth on which about 20 children were playing. Most of the children fled, but three young children were too scared to move, two girls and a boy aged between five and eight. Tom walked forward and picked up the little boy, named Salem Baroum. Having brought Salem back to safety, he returned for the second child. Tom was shot in the head by a single sniper bullet as he leant forward to pick up the little girl.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) reports that Tom was armed, clothed in army camouflage and firing at the soldiers when he was shot. These reports have been reflected in media around the world, especially in Israel. These reports are not true.

Many of you will have seen photographs of Tom in his fluorescent orange activist's vest. We have photographs of Tom immediately before and after the shooting — from several independent sources. There were over 10 eyewitness reports of Tom's shooting from internationals, including the accounts of journalists — all of which support the fact that Tom was fired at with no justification and that there was no cross-fire.

But what is extraordinary is that to this day, not a single one of these witnesses has been questioned by the IDF or the Israeli authorities. How can any credible inquiry be conducted without questioning them? Indeed, some of these witnesses have since been arrested and detained or unlawfully deported.

It was clear to all that Tom did not pose a threat to the Israeli army or to anyone else. He was with a humanitarian organisation which was involved in peaceful protests and which was known by the army to be present in the immediate area at the time. He acted in a way which every decent human being should have seen as natural and necessary in going to the aid of a young, helpless and desperately vulnerable group of children.

Many of us would not have had the courage to do what Tom did. In return for his courage and selfless commitment, he is likely to have paid the ultimate price. Tom is the victim of a direct and deliberate shot to the head. This will be proved by the upcoming Dispatches documentary on Channel 4 tomorrow night at 9.

Our request for an explanation about the shooting is not unreasonable. My parents, my two other brothers and myself, have spent much of the last five weeks at Tom's bedside in Israel, and also in Gaza trying to find answers. In spite of numerous repeated requests during that time, through the British embassy in Tel Aviv and through the media, we have been bluntly refused an explanation from, or any communication with, the Israeli forces. My parents have even been shot at while travelling with British embassy officials in Gaza. They have now been refused entry unless they sign a waiver absolving the Israeli army of any responsibility if the army shoots at them as well.

Is this what freedom and democracy are in Israel?

My family is campaigning for an independent, public inquiry into Tom's shooting. Not only for Tom, because every day Palestinian civilians are maimed and killed by the Israeli army. Tom showed us this through the emails he sent home. Any act of violence — whether by Israeli or by Palestinian — should be subject to the same prosecution and a fair trial. Yet clearly, this is not happening. Palestinians suspected of committing violence against Israelis are assassinated without trial as in the helicopter attack mentioned earlier. Yet an Israeli soldier is very unlikely even to be reprimanded for outrageously heavy-handed tactics.

We cannot stand by silently and allow people like Tom; Rachel Corrie, Brian Avery, Iain Hook and James Miller to become such tragic victims. If we don't make a stand to make the Israeli government accountable for its actions, then there will be no end to this terrible loss of life in Palestine.

Help us to exert pressure for proper accountability and an end to this indiscriminate loss of life. Please contact the British foreign secretary Jack Straw to reinforce our demand for an independent and public inquiry. And please look at our web site — <http://www.TomHurndall.co.uk>. Help us to make a difference. Thank you.

*******

British student, Tom Hurndall (21), was shot in the back of the head by an Israeli soldier whilst trying to save a Palestinian child, he is critically ill in hospital in Israel and his family are trying to bring him back to the UK as soon as possible (although there is little chance he will make any recovery as his brain has been damaged severely). Please help by sending donations to bring him home. Information about how to donate are at <http://www.tomhurndall.co.uk/payment.asp> or send a cheque made payable to the "Thomas Hurndall Fund" to: the Thomas Hurndall Fund, 29 Throgmorton Street, London EC2, UK.

From Green Left Weekly, June 4, 2003.
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