567
10-31-03, 12:24 PM
'When Killing is Easy' by John Sweeney
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=458515
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James was not the first international witness to fall silent in Rafah. He was the third. This spring, in less than seven weeks, and within a radius of less than three miles, the American human-shield activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer; the British photographer and peace activist Tom Hurndall was shot in the head and rendered brain-dead; and James Miller was shot dead.
To understand what happened to James, it made sense to investigate the killing of Rachel and the maiming of Tom, whose family are currently discussing with doctors whether or not his life-support machine should be switched off. One day we filmed Tom lying in his hospital bed at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in Putney, south-west London. On the wall was a battery of photographs showing Tom with a whole life ahead of him. The bleep-bleep of the monitor was the only sound. That afternoon, we has travelled to a Devon village to film Sophy Miller, James's widow, and their children, Alexander, three, and Lotte, not yet one.
Making our film, When Killing Is Easy, has been the most harrowing ordeal of my professional life. But it is vital that it isevidential - and that is really tough when the Israeli government and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) have refused to speak to us. From mid-August we faxed and telephoned the Israelis repeatedly, asking them to explain their actions. All we got was a series of old press releases.
Rachel Corrie was the first of the three victims. She was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). They are young idealists, mainly European and American, who offer themselves as human shields. You could call them naive, even foolish. There is no doubting their guts. They stand between the Israeli bulldozers and their targets, the Palestinians' homes that the IDF wants to flatten.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good Read
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=458515
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James was not the first international witness to fall silent in Rafah. He was the third. This spring, in less than seven weeks, and within a radius of less than three miles, the American human-shield activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer; the British photographer and peace activist Tom Hurndall was shot in the head and rendered brain-dead; and James Miller was shot dead.
To understand what happened to James, it made sense to investigate the killing of Rachel and the maiming of Tom, whose family are currently discussing with doctors whether or not his life-support machine should be switched off. One day we filmed Tom lying in his hospital bed at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in Putney, south-west London. On the wall was a battery of photographs showing Tom with a whole life ahead of him. The bleep-bleep of the monitor was the only sound. That afternoon, we has travelled to a Devon village to film Sophy Miller, James's widow, and their children, Alexander, three, and Lotte, not yet one.
Making our film, When Killing Is Easy, has been the most harrowing ordeal of my professional life. But it is vital that it isevidential - and that is really tough when the Israeli government and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) have refused to speak to us. From mid-August we faxed and telephoned the Israelis repeatedly, asking them to explain their actions. All we got was a series of old press releases.
Rachel Corrie was the first of the three victims. She was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). They are young idealists, mainly European and American, who offer themselves as human shields. You could call them naive, even foolish. There is no doubting their guts. They stand between the Israeli bulldozers and their targets, the Palestinians' homes that the IDF wants to flatten.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good Read