Topics in this digest:

1. Tom Hurndall Update from Joe and Lora
From: Huwaida Arraf
2. OUTRAGE, Nablus

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 09:58:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Huwaida Arraf
Subject: Tom Hurndall Update from Joe and Lora

The following account was written by Lora Gordon and Joe Smith, two ISM
volunteers and Tom's colleagues. Please note that there is naturally
overwhelming emotion expressed both by Lora and Joe and also by Tom's
brother, Billy, who is quoted in the account below. Billy's quote, "he
[Tom] is being treated by the same bastards that shot him" is a
reflection of understandable anger and sadness, though it does not reflect the
views of the ISM. We would, however like to highlight a concern that
incomplete or less than accurate information is being given to Tom's
friends and family about his condition.

For media inquiries, please write to  ism-alerts@palsolidarity.org or
call:
+972-2-277-4602
====================
Tom Hurndall Update
Lora Gordon and Joe Smith

I am too strong and normal here in Be'er Sheva Soroka Medical Center,
which is far away from Rafah and where visiting hours are scattered and
fleeting and we only see Tom for a few minutes, only have to deal with
reality for a few minutes every day. Outside of those few minutes it's
hospital halls and fluorescent lights, counting the tiles laid out in
floor patterns and making frequent trips to the cafeteria and the lawn
outside, which makes the whole thing look like a college campus.
Yesterday, some college student reporters came to interview me and Joe,
videotaped me writing in my journal from four angles and I don't know how
many of Joe smoking a cigarette just so, I hate journalists. I really
don't want to deal with this vulgarity, where my friend Tom gets a bullet
through the head and then lies in a coma for days, his whole
body swollen and white. It is too easy to look at pictures of him from
before and fold them up into some dark corner where people sleep for
ages as they were, or keep traveling while you stay where you are.

We have been staying in a house in Kibbutz Shuval, a little north of
Be'er Sheva, with an amazing family who has laid out for us a room full
of
mattresses and blankets and a space heater and a computer, and drives
us to and from the hospital and feeds us loads of tea and hummus and
cheese made fresh on the kibbutz. The kibbutz is beautiful with curved
paths to get lost on and great expanses of green and flowers and the most
adorable apartments that feel safe like strong arms rocking... it is
really disorienting to commute between the hospital and here, this is my
only view of Be'er Sheva ever and mostly I am so used to Rafah, where
beauty is harder to find and precious like rare stones. In Hebron, in
Jerusalem, there is beauty in the hills and the homes scattered like a
monopoly board and the sun setting, and it's easy to let your eyes
settle on the surface... the Gaza Strip resembles a wasteland to those who
have never seen it before and it takes longer to find the beauty but you
find it in the core of things, some deeper reality.

We barely knew Tom. He was here a few days only, which is nothing at
all when everyone is scattered doing projects in all corners of the Gaza
Strip. Only now we are piecing together some kind of coherent
impression of who he was. He spent two weeks in Iraq doing some human shield
work but mainly documentation, working closely with Michelle, who is a
documentary maker and came with him to the middle east and was working
with ISM Nablus until now and is spending most nights in the hospital,
sleepless. Nathan is there with him as well; he had been working in
Jenin until he heard the news and bolted to
the hospital with Michelle. The three had wanted to work as human
shields in Iraqi hospitals, but Iraqi officials wouldn't let them in, so
they went to Jordan to do some refugee work for a week before coming to
work with ISM here in Palestine. Tom has been everywhere, speaks all
kinds of bits of languages... we look through pictures his brother Billy
has brought of him and his eyes shine like to burn the paper. We
remember him with a half smile all the time chuckling at the kids and taking
pictures... oh god could he take pictures.

It is unspeakably wrong to see him in the hospital, his life monitor
beeping while he breathes on a machine. They taped his one eye closed, as
it was horribly disturbing to see it half open, glaring at nothing, no
life in it whatsoever. The swelling of his face has gone down and he is
more recognizable now, but his bandages hide most of his head. I ask
Michelle if there is any notion of his presence, if she can feel any part
of his spirit still with us, and she says no. I must admit I can feel
nothing, but I hold onto the false hope that comes with seeing his body
still alive. Of course it is illusion only; the bullet was of the
variety that explodes upon hitting its target, so not only did it crash
through his head but it exploded inside, and he is now missing a large bit
of physical brain matter. All we can do is pray for the miracle it
will take to bring him back

The doctors have been ridiculously evasive. Even his family has had a
hard time receiving updates on his condition. A rabbi from Rabbis for
Human Rights came and visited yesterday, and he was able to corner a
doctor and speak to him in Hebrew. He reported that only the very basics of
his brain are still functioning. His reflexes work enough to allow the
machines to keep his lungs and heart working, but there is no other
activity besides that. I believe that this is the definition of brain
dead. The doctor was not hopeful and neither am I. I suppose his family
and friends have to be, they have nothing else to be. Michelle and
Nathan say they'll stay as long as he stays, and go wherever he goes, until
he leaves for the place to which no one can follow him.

The Israeli military have yet to come up with a decent story. Most
articles I read say, "IDF refuses to comment." Some imply that he may have
been armed, and there are rumors that they meant to assassinate our
Palestinian coordinator, as though a Palestinian involved in non-violent
civil disobedience is a more legitimate target. A Jerusalem Post article
quoted some IDF commander who said Tom was a member of some made-up
Egyptian terrorist group that uses internationals as fighters, and that he
was attacking the soldiers when they shot him in self-defense. I
suppose this "armed militia" finds it intelligent to dress fighters in
high-visibility fluorescent gear. Indeed, the weapon Tom had was much more
dangerous to the IDF than a gun - a camera.

One doctor is trying to cast doubt on whether it was really a bullet
that so severely injured him. One doctor came out positively that it
was, but was quickly pulled into a private room with two other doctors,
and came out saying that it's possible the wound was inflicted by a harsh
blow to the head, like that of a baseball bat. That the doctors would
lie so shamelessly and blatantly shouldn't be surprising; as Billy puts
it, "He's being treated by the same bastards that shot him".

Outside the respiratory ward currently keeping Tom alive, we hang out
mostly with Palestinians. Israeli Palestinians mainly, but there is also
a lovely fellow named Sahd, who's actually from Gaza City. His brother
was shot in the shoulder, chest and side over a month ago, and is now
in a similar condition as Tom, deteriorating as time goes by. It took
tons of negotiating to allow him and his brother to be at this Israeli
hospital, and costs the Palestinian Authority 3500 NIS (about $700) a
day to keep him there. Sahd is forbidden to leave the ward of the
hospital where his brother is staying; an armed guard reprimands him if he
should venture beyond that space. He's been there for 44 days, and lives
in what is officially the smoking room, a partially enclosed public
corner of the hall. Friends he has made in the hospital - mostly Israeli
Palestinians, but also a few Israeli Jews - bring him food and other
necessities. He is truly a Palestinian, and has treated us with the
hospitality of a Gazan. He lets us sit and sleep on his mattresses, makes
us tea and coffee, and always tries to share his limited food supply.
The room
is a microcosm of Gaza: hard, small, cramped, enclosed and chocked of
its resources. We joke that the situation is all too representative: in
the middle of this beautiful, western hospital constructed to care for
Israelis, the Palestinian is given a tiny little box with no resources
and placed under strict control.

Tom's mother and father went to visit the Gaza Strip yesterday. They
drove down to Rafah, armed with a convoy of bulletproof jeeps and armed
guards from the PA and the British embassy and were back by evening.
His parents look tired mostly but not distraught, all of us do our own
compartmentalizing. They went to the place where it happened, they saw
the stream of his blood tracing the street and the bullet holes in the
door of the next building. As for his brother, Billy, he is withdrawn
and angry at the world and has it in for journalists and Israeli
soldiers who pass by. His face is a mirror of Tom's face, but he wears his
hair long, in a ponytail, and hides in the shadow of his cap. Before
this, he was working in carpentry to save up some money to go traveling,
like his brother.

Anyhow, I feel really disconnected all the time, not only now, and I
wonder how much of it has to do with living in Rafah. Everyday there is
tragedy and you come frighteningly close to death and if you want to be
productive you have to dissociate, to swallow your grief in
teaspoonfuls and not watch Al Jazeera too closely. And now Tom is wavering on the
line between life and death and it all kind of accumulates, his
hospital bed underlines the experience of his many weeks in Palestine, affirms
the question in all of our heads... this can't be happening? This
happened. It was. This happens. It is.

Today we are staying here on the kibbutz almost all day after sitting
straight through midnight yesterday in the hospital corridors. It is
our last day, we will say goodbye to Tom and then leave tomorrow morning
for Jerusalem for Pesach (Passover). Do you ever understand the
meaning? Once we were slaves, now we are free? What does it mean for
someone who has never wanted for choices or freedom, but a glimpse into some
foreign meaning in history of my own roots... I don't know, maybe it's
something you understand better as you age and acquire the scars of
past pains.


"Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned."
- Edna St. Vincent Millay



INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
www.palsolidarity.org

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human
history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to
improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can
sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert F.
Kennedy




[This message contained attachments]



________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 01:36:12 +0200
From: "ISM Media Alerts"
Subject: OUTRAGE, Nablus

1. OUTRAGE! A Call to Action, please distribute widely.
2. Nablus: Another Palestinian Taken

OUTRAGE!

On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie was murdered by an Israeli soldier
driving an American made bulldozer. She was killed by the Israeli Army,
she was killed by the state of Israel, she was killed by the United
States, she was killed by Caterpillar. But mostly she was killed by
Silence!! Our governments are not responding to our cry!

Now on the heels of the attempted murders of two other activists
working
with the International Solidarity Movement, the Israeli army has
cleared
itself and the driver of all responsibility for Rachel's death. We
fully
expected this. The Israeli army has almost never acknowledged any
responsibility for any of its crimes against humanity. The innumerable
breaches of International agreements like the Geneva Conventions are
dismissed as "necessary for security of the State of Israel" WE ARE
OUTRAGED!

No, our outrage is not due to the findings of the Israeli army. It is
due to the lack of response and the lack of outrage from our
governments. Why was there no outrage at the killing of Ian Hook and
the
shooting of Caoimhe Butterly? Why was there no outrage at the killing
of
Rachel Corrie? Where is the outrage at the shooting of Brian Avery and
Tom Hurndall? Just as importantly; where is the outrage at the daily
terror inflicted on the people of Palestine by a brutal occupation
built
on murder, terror, torture, humiliation and starvation.

We are calling upon you to continue to express your outrage at the
inaction of your governments. Stop the killing of unarmed civilians by
the Israeli army. Stop the killing of children. Stop the house
demolitions and the blowing up of UN food warehouses. Stop the shooting
of unarmed international peace activists and human rights workers! Stop
the insanity!! END THE SILENCE!!

For US, Please continue to demand passage of the Rachel Corrie
Resolution 111. Contact your congressperson, the State Department and
the White House using this link.
 http://www.cflweb.org/congress_merge_.htm. Also call the State
Department and demand action. STATE DEPARTMENT 1-202-647-5150

For UK, Please call THE FOREIGN OFFICE 020 7008 1500, Also Contact your
MP and Prime Minister
For Israel Contact Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres Fax:
+972-2-5303704 e-mail:  sar@mofa.gov.il
Israeli Defense Minister, Benyamin Ben Eliezer Fax:
+972-3-6916940, 6976990 e-mail:  sar@mod.gov.il
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fax: (+972-2) 566-4838 or 651-3955 or
651-2631
For Canada: Minister of Foreign Affairs Bill Graham, House of Commons,
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
Fax 613-996-3443
Everyone, Contact the Israeli embassy in your country
For ALL of Europe, Japan, South America, and Austrailia, WE NEED YOUR
HELP! Put in your country contact info and forward.
Another Palestinian Taken
Monday 14th April 2003
The Old City, Nablus, The Occupied Palestinian Territories:

3.20 am, shouting and shooting started in the Old City, Nablus.
Approximately 25 Israeli soldiers banged on the house next door to Abu
Hussein's family home and took Ahmed from the building as a human
shield
to the Abu-Hussein house. Ahmed is no stranger to such war crimes
committed by the Israeli army as two months prior he had been used as a
human shield by the Israeli Army when in the early hours they rampaged
the Abu-Hussein house to take Sami, 21 years of age. This time, the
soldiers took Yasser, 16 years old. In the attack, the Israeli army
fired several shots into the top floor of the Abu-Hussein home, three
into the reception area and two into a living room where ISM volunteer
Angie was sleeping. It hit the ceiling causing plaster to fall from
the
ceiling onto her. Angie crawled out of the room into the back section
of the house where the Nasser, Fatima, Yasser and Camilla were
sleeping.


Meanwhile, the Israeli soldiers attempted to enter the Abu-Hussein home
from a closed entrance. Upon realizing this was not in use, the
soldiers proceeded to the functional entrance. Maria and Hussein were
sleeping in a room on the ground floor and upon hearing the shouting,
shots and banging on the door from the soldiers, Hussein opened the
door
in fear they would detonate the door to enter, damaging the building a
possibly themselves. As Hussein opened the door, he witnessed the
soldiers using Ahmed as a human shield. The soldiers made Hussein lift
up his top, show his ID card and leave the building. Maria asked after
Hussein, telling the soldiers he is her husband and is concerned for
his
well-being.

The soldiers told them it was not Hussein for whom they were searching
and told Maria two times that they would kill everyone in the house if
she didn't get everyone in the house outside in the next 2 minutes.
Maria went upstairs to tell the family and ISM peace activists, who
came
down.

By this point, it was clear that the soldiers were not finished.
Camilla, Fatima, Nasser, Yasser and Angie followed Maria down the
stairs. As Yasser approached, the soldiers took him to the side,
checked his ID card and told everyone else to leave the house whilst
holding Nasser aside. Following questions why he was being kept back,
to which no explanation was given, they took Nasser, again with no
explanation. Camilla asked the soldiers why they were taking him,
where
he would be taken and when they would return him, none of these
questions were answered before they left.

Normally the soldiers would ransack the house when it's inhabitants
were
waiting outside. The Abu-Hussein family have once again been subjected
to terror, humiliation and grieving for another son, to be taken
inhumanly. Yet again, an innocent Palestinian civilian has been taken
without trial, by a group of heavily armed, and terrifyingly nervous
and
young Israeli soldiers without either legal or moral justification for
their actions.

For more information call: Camilla 00 972 67459208





Tom
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine
 ism-alert@palsolidarity.org
02 277 4602
052 360 241
067 862 439