HELP BRING TOM HOME TO DIE
THE family of 21-year old Tom Hurndall who was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper a month ago have said he will not survive and are raising money so he can be brought home to die.

Tom’s sister Sophie, 23, speaking from the family home in Tufnell Park yesterday (Wednesday) said: “We are trying to raise funds so that we can bring Tom home. Most of his brain is dead, the tissue has died and he is not going to wake up.

“At some point we are going to have to turn off the life support machine and there are a lot of friends and family who need to say goodbye before that happens.”

Tom was hit on April 11 as he attempted to lead three Palestinian children to safety in Rafah, southern Gaza, after gunfire broke out. He remains in a deep coma in the Saroka Hospital in Bir Shiva, Israel.
It will cost up to £25,000 to bring Tom home in a special air ambulance complete with medical equipment and staff to care for him on the five-hour flight.

The family are currently finalising details of two charities; one to raise money to bring Tom home called the Thomas Hurndall Fund and one longer term charity – The Tom Hurndall Trust Fund – concerned with working to relieve poverty in Palestine.

Sophie added: “We are thinking about using the second fund to build a children’s playground near where Tom was shot or set up some sort of bravery award because ultimately bravery was what was driving Tom when he was shot. I really cannot believe how brave he was, it takes my breath away.”

If, as the family still hope, the Israeli Government agrees to pay for Tom’s journey back to Camden then the money from the Thomas Hurndall Fund will roll into The Tom Hurndall Trust Fund.

“The idea of Tom dying out there where all this has happened is unthinkable and we also want an independent British medical opinion, just to make sure that there has been an medical examination of him which is unswayed by any sort of political pressure.”

On Tuesday Anthony Hurndall, 52, accused the British Foreign Office of failing to do enough to investigate the injury of his son. “Dad has become increasingly angry,” says Sophie, “the British Government has made such a big issue over the recent suicide bombings in Israel yet has taken no action over the shooting of Tom and other Britons.”
In November UN worker Iain Hook was killed in the Jenin refugee camp and last week James Miller, an award-winning cameraman was shot dead in the Gaza Strip.

A meeting with the foreign secretary Jack Straw has been organised where the family will press for an independent inquiry into the shooting of Tom.

The Israeli Defence Forces who are carrying out their own internal inquiry into Tom’s injury have so far offered the Hurndall family little explanation as to why he was shot.

On Saturday afternoon Tom’s parents Anthony, a property lawyer, and Jocelyn, head of Learning Support at Argyle School in Kings Cross, were travelling with their 12-year old son Freddie when they too were shot at by Israeli troops.

The family were in a diplomatic convoy consisting of two armoured Range Rovers, on a visit to see members of the International Solidarity Movement, the organisation for which Tom was working.

Sophie said: “The Israeli Army have since come up with three excuses, they say the convoy was asked to slow down, yet no-one asked them to, that they were supposed to stop, yet no-one told them to, and that they had not got their documents checked, yet no-one approached them to do this.

“It is a complete cock-up, they change their story the more pressure they are put under, they did the same with Tom – first they said he was a Palestinian terrorist who was dressed in camouflage and firing at them, then after they realised how much coverage his shooting was getting in the world’s press they said he had been caught in the cross-fire.”

Any readers wishing to contribute to either of the funds set up by the family should send a check to Lloyds Bank, 273-275 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2LP made payable to the Thomas Hurndall Fund, to bring Tom home, or The Tom Hurndall Trust Fund.