Richard H. Curtiss, Special to Arab News

WASHINGTON, 26 January 2004 — Tom Hurndall, 22, died in a hospital in England on Jan. 18. He was mortally wounded in April 2003 while volunteering in the West Bank as a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the pro-Palestinian peace group that serves as buffers between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.

Hurndall’s American colleague in the ISM, Rachel Corrie, of Olympia, WA was killed on March 16, 2003. She was trying to stop an Israeli Defense Forces Caterpillar tractor from demolishing the home of a Palestinian. Eyewitnesses vary on the details, but everyone agrees that the bulldozer driver refused to stop destroying the building. The Israeli operator later said he did not know that Corrie was standing in the way when he moved forward. Photographs taken of her murder make that story hard to believe.

On May 2, 2003 a third Westerner was killed in Rafah. He was British cameraman James Miller. A colleague from the Associated Press Television News (APTN) who was nearby recorded all of the circumstances of his death on film. Miller had completed filming in Rafah and wanted to depart. But he wanted to be sure that the Israeli military unit nearby would not shoot at him and his crew.

Miller was shining a flashlight on a white flag that he was carrying in front of him and was advancing very carefully toward the Israeli unit until he was only 500 feet away. At that point one of the Israelis fired at Miller but missed. Only 13 seconds later, the Israeli fired again and this time killed Miller instantly.

John Sweeney of BBC London, a long-time colleague, said: “It seemed incredible that he had been killed in some stupid accident of war.” In fact, said Sweeney, “the evidence suggests that this did not happen. The Israeli Army, thanks to the United States, has some of the best night vision technology in the world. Their kit turns nights into day.” When the APTN film was shown to one serving Israeli soldier, he said, “That’s murder!”

Internationals are in grave danger when they work in the occupied territories. There is no question that by their very presence they have saved the lives of many Palestinians over the years. It is also clear that when international volunteers, who often include Israelis, are not around, a large number of Palestinians are killed often quite deliberately. When Palestinians die the Israelis often attribute the deaths to “accidental fire” or even claim that they fired only when Palestinians fired first.

That is one of the reasons for the horrendous death toll in this intifada. From Sept. 28, 2000 to Jan. 5, 2004, Israeli troops have killed 2,782 Palestinians. There were far fewer deaths, 1,283, in the first Palestinian intifada which lasted six years, from December 1987 to 1993.

Despite the tragic deaths of their coworkers, Israelis, Americans and other volunteers of different nationalities continue to try to save the lives of Palestinians in Rafah. Having learned that Palestinians are shot quite casually when they are seen in the vicinity of the so-called “Security Fence,” the volunteers have shifted tactics.

On Dec. 26, 2003 demonstrators put Israeli protesters in front of Palestinians to try to halt the construction of the “Apartheid Wall.” While they were doing that Israeli troops requested permission from their commander to fire live ammunition “at the legs of the protesters,” instead of rubber-coated bullets. The Israeli commander gave his authorization and one person, Gil Na’aman, was badly injured. He was an Israeli off-duty soldier in civilian clothes. At the same time two other demonstrators were shot as they cut some wires of the Apartheid Wall. Shrapnel hit an American woman. It was only then, supposedly, that the Israeli troops realized that they had badly wounded an Israeli demonstrator.

Palestinians in the group were able to take Na’aman to a hospital. Eventually a high-ranking Israeli official went to Na’aman’s hospital bed. This occurred only after Israeli newspapers picked up the story. Again, it was not clear whether the officials thought Na’aman had been hit accidentally and therefore were apologizing or whether it was Israeli public relations damage control. The Israeli public was shocked that an Israeli had been hit.

It is difficult to see why Na’aman’s near-fatal injuries have made such a difference in Israeli reaction. After all, Rachel Corrie was killed and there was virtually no interest or follow-up on her death. Hurndall’s death has received more coverage, of course, in Britain than in the United States. Members of Hurndall’s family have kept the story alive.

Miller’s father is a London attorney.

In Israel Na’aman’s encounter seems to have shocked the Israeli public. It’s almost as if an invisible line has been crossed. Killing foreigners is something Israelis can live with but nearly killing one of their own countrymen seems to have shaken Israelis to the core.

This writer recalls conversations with the late Dr. Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor and a professor of chemistry at Hebrew University. When the subject of his vociferous support for human rights arose, I expressed my concern that he probably was in physical danger because of his stands.

Dr. Shahak said, astonishingly, “I do not have to worry because I am Jewish.” Then he said, “But you should worry because you are not Jewish.” That conversation was interrupted because I was moving him from one lecture to another during his visit to Washington, DC. I brought up the subject again subsequently but again he said that he was not in danger and repeated that I was in danger. I could never understand that until I read his book, “Jewish History, Jewish Religion”. That bookshelf now includes a second book by Dr. Shahak and a joint collaboration between Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, a professor at Central Connecticut State University. Their books describe how Jewish fundamentalists justify the murder of 29 Muslims at prayer by Jewish fundamentalist Baruch Goldstein. Similarly they explain how Yigal Amir justified his assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

There is a lot more in the Shahak books that explains why the Gush Emunim movement exists, why Israeli settlers and soldiers will not back down, and why they continue provoking bloodshed with Jews and non-Jews alike. At some point Americans will have to take heed.

— Richard H. Curtiss is the executive editor of the “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs” magazine.