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Mother of shot activist accuses Israeli army of cover-up
The mother of a young British activist shot in the Gaza strip has accused the Israeli military of scapegoating a soldier charged over her son's killing, and army commanders of a cover-up, as a yearlong trial drew to an end yesterday.
Jocelyn Hurndall criticised the army's handling of the court martial of Sergeant Wahid Taysir, 20, who is charged with manslaughter and conduct unbecoming a soldier after he shot Tom Hurndall in the head as he shepherded children to safety from gunfire in Rafah refugee camp two years ago.
Mr Hurndall, 22, was flown to London in a persistent vegetative state and died of pneumonia nine months later.
Sgt Taysir is also charged with obstructing justice for falsely telling army investigators that Mr Hurndall was wearing camouflage and carrying a gun.
The defence sought to shift responsibility for Mr Hurndall's death by claiming that British doctors gave him too much morphine after he was flown to London.
Sgt Taysir faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted when the verdict is announced in a month.
As the trial ended, Mrs Hurndall accused senior army officers of creating a "trigger happy" climate and said the deaths of innocent people were covered up.
"The soldier might be convicted but the trial is not concerned with the wider justice to do with the chain of command and the culture of lies," said Mrs Hurndall outside the Kastina military court. The soldier has said himself that he has been used as a scapegoat ... I'm sure that's what happened."
Mrs Hurndall said there had only been a more thorough investigation because of her family's own efforts and pressure from the British government.
Israel also refused to cooperate with a British coroner's inquiry and barred Mr Hurndall's brother, Billy, from travelling to Israel to investigate the shooting.
"From the start it was a tremendous shock that we were not dealing with authorities who were adamant about getting to the truth," she said.
"You can only conclude that the command colluded in the soldier's original lies, and colluded in it for weeks until they couldn't sustain it any more."
Mrs Hurndall's comments came amid renewed accusations that the military leadership has created a climate of impunity for soldiers who kill civilians.
Last week, a military court sentenced a soldier who shot dead a Palestinian man as he adjusted the television aerial on his roof to 20 months in prison. Last month, the army dropped charges against a soldier who shot dead a British journalist, James Miller, in the Gaza strip.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1490144,00.html
Mr Hurndall, 22, was flown to London in a persistent vegetative state and died of pneumonia nine months later.
Sgt Taysir is also charged with obstructing justice for falsely telling army investigators that Mr Hurndall was wearing camouflage and carrying a gun.
The defence sought to shift responsibility for Mr Hurndall's death by claiming that British doctors gave him too much morphine after he was flown to London.
Sgt Taysir faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted when the verdict is announced in a month.
As the trial ended, Mrs Hurndall accused senior army officers of creating a "trigger happy" climate and said the deaths of innocent people were covered up.
"The soldier might be convicted but the trial is not concerned with the wider justice to do with the chain of command and the culture of lies," said Mrs Hurndall outside the Kastina military court. The soldier has said himself that he has been used as a scapegoat ... I'm sure that's what happened."
Mrs Hurndall said there had only been a more thorough investigation because of her family's own efforts and pressure from the British government.
Israel also refused to cooperate with a British coroner's inquiry and barred Mr Hurndall's brother, Billy, from travelling to Israel to investigate the shooting.
"From the start it was a tremendous shock that we were not dealing with authorities who were adamant about getting to the truth," she said.
"You can only conclude that the command colluded in the soldier's original lies, and colluded in it for weeks until they couldn't sustain it any more."
Mrs Hurndall's comments came amid renewed accusations that the military leadership has created a climate of impunity for soldiers who kill civilians.
Last week, a military court sentenced a soldier who shot dead a Palestinian man as he adjusted the television aerial on his roof to 20 months in prison. Last month, the army dropped charges against a soldier who shot dead a British journalist, James Miller, in the Gaza strip.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1490144,00.html
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http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=112804&Sn=WORL&IssueID=28064
A British student who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier died because of malpractice by his British doctors, a defence lawyer claimed yesterday in closing arguments in the trial of the soldier accused shooting the activist.
Wahid Taysir, who is no longer in the army, is accused of shooting Tom Hurndall during an army operation in the Gaza Strip in April 2003. Witnesses said Hurndall, 22, was helping Palestinian children avoid Israeli tanks.
The Manchester student was in a coma for nine months before he died in a London hospital.
Yariv Ronen argued that the soldier should be cleared of manslaughter because Hurndall "did not die from the wound but because the doctors, together with the family, made a very clear decision to end his life".
Ronen said the doctors denied Hurndall antibiotic treatment and gave him an overdose of morphine.
Jocelyn Hurndall, his mother, called the charges "outrageous" and said her son had the best medical treatment possible. A verdict in the case is expected on June 26.
Hurndall was shot in the Rafah refugee camp while photographing the work of the International Solidarity Movement.
Two other Britons have been killed in the Israeli-Palestinian fighting. James Miller, a cameraman, was shot dead in Rafah on May 1 while filming a documentary. Iain Hook, an aid worker, was shot dead by soldiers on November 22 during a clash with Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp. AP
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/39767-print.shtml
The mother of a British photography student who died after an Israeli soldier shot him in the head accused the Israeli authorities yesterday of a "cover-up to protect senior officers right up the chain of command".
Jocelyn Hurndall was speaking after the final statements at the court martial of the soldier who has admitted firing the bullet that hit her son, Tom, 22, two years ago.
Mrs Hurndall said that, regardless of the outcome, justice had not been done because of "a culture of lies".
She said: "From the start there has been a cover-up."
The original military report claimed that her son was in camouflage clothes and brandishing a weapon. It was only after the family interviewed civilian witnesses at the Gaza refugee camp where the shooting occurred that the army accepted another version of events.
The witnesses said Mr Hurndall was wearing a bright orange jacket and helping children to escape tanks.
Mr Hurndall died in a London hospital after spending nine months in a coma.
The defence team representing the soldier, Sgt Idier Wahid Taysir, accused the British doctors of killing Mr Hurndall through incompetence and said their client should be found not guilty of manslaughter. Judgment is expected within a month.
Taysir, a Bedouin, faces up to 20 years in jail.
A fellow soldier who lied to protect him was jailed for five and a half months at an earlier court martial.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/23/whurn23.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/23/ixworld.html
The test was in preparation for the launch of Discovery in July on the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster nearly 2½ years ago.
Discovery's external tank was filled with 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, and a countdown was simulated.
Everything went without a hitch this time, but NASA engineers evaluating the preliminary data were still unsure why the liquid hydrogen sensors gave intermittent readings and why a pressurization relief valve opened and closed more times than normal during last month's test.
The sensors act like fuel gauges that notify the shuttle's main engines to shut down when propellants reach a certain level. The valve opens and closes to ensure the liquid hydrogen stays at the correct temperature.
"We didn't find any smoking gun,'' said Bill Parsons, manager of the space shuttle program. "At this point, the conclusion that you might come to is that we had some kind of connection that wasn't exactly right ... and therefore we've cleared this up.''
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who took NASA's top job last month and was visiting the Kennedy Space Center Friday, said he did not believe there were any major hurdles to returning the shuttle to flight.
"I've seen just the normal bumps in the road that you have to get past, especially when you haven't flown in two years and several months,'' he said.
The second test came just days before Discovery will be rolled back into the hangar to replace its tank with a safer, updated model. Also, a heater will be installed on the new tank to prevent the buildup of ice once the super-cold fuel is pumped in.
Engineering tests found that ice falling off the tank could be as dangerous as the chunk of foam insulation that doomed Columbia.
The danger of ice and the sensor-and-valve problems prompted NASA to postpone Discovery's launch from late May to mid-July.
The board that investigated the Columbia accident criticized NASA for stifling dissent. Griffin said the decision to postpone Discovery's launch shows that the space agency is changing its culture and becoming more open to different opinions.
"Everybody wanted to fly. I wanted to fly,'' Griffin said. "But the team made the right choice.''
A large chunk of foam insulation broke off Columbia's fuel tank during launch and gashed the left wing, dooming the spacecraft and its crew during re-entry in 2003. All seven astronauts were
Caught in the Act
IDF releases video (see it here!) of missile hitting Hamas terrorists who fired mortar shells at Israeli settlements Wednesday; Meanwhile, mortar barrage in Gaza Strip continues, Karni crossing, army base targeted
By Hanan Greenberg
TEL AVIV - The IDF has released a video documenting Hamas members caught in the act of firing mortar shells at Israeli settlements, moments before a missile fired by the Air Force hit the terror cell.
The video features several small explosions, marking the mortar shells fired by the terrorists, followed by a large blast, marking the impact of the missile fired at the terror cell.
According to Palestinian sources, the aircraft used by the IDF to fire the missile was a pilotless drone, but the Air Force has not confirmed the reports.
One of the Hamas terrorists involved in the incident, Ahmed Shauan, sustained critical injuries and later died of his wounds.
Meanwhile, the mortar barrage directed at Gaza Strip targets continued unabated. Thursday evening, two more mortar shells were fired at an IDF base in the northern Gaza Strip, while earlier two mortar shells were fired at the Karni crossing, also in northern Gaza.
No injuries or damages were reported in the attacks.
IDF uncovers explosive device in Gaza
Thursday afternoon, IDF forces spotted two unarmed Palestinians who attempted to cross a security fence near an Israeli community in Gaza. The two were taken in for interrogation.
Also in the afternoon, troops uncovered a 40-kilogram (88 pounds) explosive device near a security fence surrounding the Gush Katif communities in the southern Gaza Strip.
Border Guard sappers subsequently defused the explosive charge.
Earlier Thursday, Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra warned that the IDF would respond to the growing violence should the mortar attacks persist.
“First and foremost, such attacks harm the Palestinians and if Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) doesn’t come to his senses, eventually they will harm him too,” Ezra said.
Mofaz warns
Thursday morning, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with army officers at his office to discuss the growing violence in Gaza.
“The (Palestinian) Authority’s leadership is not using its full weight and is not undertaking the required acts to establish its hold on the area,” he said. “As of today, some of the new security chiefs have not been active for a long time.”
Mofaz says he views the latest development with severity and stressed the government would not accept Israeli citizens being harmed.
“We’ll know to exact the price from them,” he said, referring to Palestinian terror groups.
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