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Posting: November 27, 2003
BBC documentary proves
Israeli army murdered Rachel Corrie
by Christopher Bollyn
The BBC has released a
remarkable film about the killing of three international peace activists
by the Israeli army in the occupied Gaza Strip. Documentary evidence provided
in the film strongly suggests that the American Rachel Corrie - and two
British activists - were murdered.
Last spring, within a period of seven weeks, one British and one American
peace activist were killed by the Israeli army in Rafah, a Palestinian town at
the southern end of the occupied Gaza Strip. A second Briton was shot in the
head leaving him brain-dead. In two of the cases the Israeli army is being
blamed for murder; the third is considered "attempted murder."
An Israeli
military bulldozer crushed the 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel
Corrie, who was the first to die on March 16, as she tried to prevent it from
demolishing a Palestinian doctor's home.
British photographer Tom Hurndall, 22, was left brain dead after being shot in
the head by an Israeli soldier on April 11. British cameraman James Miller,
34, was shot by an Israeli sniper as he left a house with two other
journalists on May 2.
A recently released 50-minute "hard-hitting" program produced by the
British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) investigated the three killings and provides
crucial video evidence. "That's murder," an Israeli soldier said
after viewing footage from the film, When Killing is Easy.
When Killing is Easy was shown 4 times to a worldwide audience on the
commercial BBC World television network on November 22 and 23. Some cable
television viewers in the United States would have been able to view the
program.
The three international observers died, or nearly died, at the hands of the
Israeli military between the middle of March and the first week of May.
Hurndall was shot in the head as he took a Palestinian toddler, who had frozen
under Israeli fire, into his arms. Today, Hurndall is brain-dead and is kept
alive on life-support equipment.
Tom's father, Anthony, is a lawyer in the City of London. After six weeks of
investigation, Hurndall has come to the conclusion that the shooting of his
son by Israeli forces is "a case of attempted murder. If Tom dies, and
that is a likelihood, then it will be murder," he said.
Jocelyn Hurndall wrote to The Guardian after an Israeli government check for
about $12,000, sent to the Hurndall family to pay for "a fraction of the
expenses incurred," bounced. When the check finally arrived after five
months of negotiations with the Hurndall family, the Israeli government check
was not "honored" by the Bank of Israel, Hurndall wrote.
"Insufficient funds' was the reason given.
According to evidence provided in Sweeney's film, the IDF report on the
shooting of Hurndall is completely wrong about where he was, what he was
wearing, and what he was doing when an Israeli soldier shot him in the head.
"It is a mind-numbing task to understand the morality and to use the
logic of the Israeli government," Hurndall wrote. "What hope do
Palestinians have when such profound disregard and disrespect is shown to
humanity, collectively and individually?"
SILENCED WITNESSES
The BBC film was
produced by John Sweeney, whose article on the killings, "Silenced
Witnesses," was published in The Independent (UK) on Oct. 30.
"Making our film, When Killing is Easy, has been the most
harrowing ordeal of my professional life," Sweeney wrote. "But it is
vital that it is evidential - and that is really tough when the Israeli
government and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) have refused to speak to
us."
Rachel Corrie, the first of the three to die, was using her body to defend the
home of Dr. Samir Nasser Allah from an American-made bulldozer used by the
Israeli army to demolish the homes of Palestinians. Corrie was a member of the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM). ISM members stand between the Israeli
bulldozers and the homes that the IDF wants to flatten.
Israeli bulldozers have razed thousands of Palestinian homes in the occupied
Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The bulldozers are primarily made by the
Illinois-based Caterpillar company.
Tom Dale, an ISM eyewitness, had a clear view of the incident: "He [the
driver] knew absolutely she was there. The bulldozer waited for a few seconds
over her body and it then reversed, leaving its scoop down so that if she had
been under the bulldozer, it would have crushed her a second time. Only later
when it was much more clear of her body did it raise its scoop."
"MY BACK IS BROKEN"
"My back is
broken," Rachel told Alice Coy, a fellow ISM activist who was with
her.
An
Israeli pathologist, Dr. Yehudah Hiss, noted that Rachel appeared to have been
run over by the bulldozer, Sweeney wrote. Hiss found the cause of death to be
"pressure to the chest." Her shoulder blades had been crushed; her
spine was broken in five places and six ribs broken. Her face was apparently
slashed by the bulldozer blade.
The IDF produced a report that says, "Corrie was not run over by an
engineering vehicle." It added, "for good measure" Sweeney
says, that Corrie was "hidden from view of the vehicle's operator."
The footage seen in the BBC film proves these statements to be false. The
family of Rachel Corrie believes the IDF report to "be a blatant
fabrication," Sweeney wrote.
The British cameraman James Miller was shot dead by an Israeli sniper as he
left a house in Rafah with two other journalists on the night of May 2. An
Associated Press TV News (APTN) cameraman filmed the entire scene.
One of the three journalists held a white flag; Miller was shining a light on
the flag and a third journalist held up her British passport. There was no
shooting and the area was quiet as the audio track of the film clearly proves.
The three had walked about 60 feet toward an Israeli armed personnel carrier
to request safe passage to leave the area when the first shot was fired.
"We are British journalists," Saira Shah cried out into the
darkness.
"Then comes the second shot, which killed James," Sweeney wrote.
"He was shot in the front of his neck. The bullet was Israeli issue,
fired, according to a forensic expert, from less than 200 meters [600 feet]
away."
The IDF maintains that Miller was shot during crossfire, although no shooting
is heard on the APTN tape apart from the two shots fired from the Israeli
military vehicle.
When the APTN tape was shown to an Israeli soldier, who is shown in the film,
he said the television team did not look like Islamic terrorists and
concluded: "That's murder."
Finis
Links of related interest:
"Silenced witnesses," an article by John Sweeney
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=458515
BBC-TV (The documentary When Killing is Easy
is not presently listed on the BBC's website—has Israel pressured the
network to drop it? We are looking into this matter and ask anyone with
information to please contact us at our e-mail address: realnews247@fuse.net)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/
International Solidarity Movement:
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Israeli Defense Force:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/
Concerning Rachel Corrie:
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/
http://www.rachelcorriefoundation.org/
Concerning Tom Hurndall:
http://www.tomhurndall.co.uk/
Concerning James Miller:
http://www.justice4jamesmiller.com/
Concerning Brian Avery (a fourth victim of the
Israeli army):
The Brian Avery
shooting: When will we realize that there can't be this many
"accidents"?
Other concerned groups:
http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.html
Jews for Justice for Palestinians
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/index.html