October 12, 2008

Murder: Israel's UK supported policy in Gaza

According to this Guardian article by Kate Kellaway, Channel 4 is to show a drama tomorrow night (13/10/2008) dealing with the murder of Tom Hurndall by the Israeli state together with its aftermath. It only took one soldier one bullet to kill Hurndall but the way the State of Israel handled the murder suggested that murder, the premeditated killing of innocent people, is Israeli state policy in Gaza. And the way the UK government handled the case suggests that the UK is in cahoots with these racist war criminals.

Here's Tom Hurndall's dad's take on the C4 film, the killing of Tom Hurndall itself and the UK government's attitude to it:
what matters most to him is that audiences should understand that what happened was 'not a freak accident, but a product of a policy that the Israeli armed forces were adopting in Gaza'. There is barely suppressed outrage in his voice as he remembers the British government's failure to protest when Tom was shot: 'The government viewed Israel as a close ally who they did not want to put out in any way.'

It was only when a Tel Aviv bar was bombed by two British Muslims three weeks after the shooting of Tom in 2003 that Anthony became aware of how skewed the British government's attitude could be. 'Jack Straw expressed deep sympathy to the Israelis and promised to put all the resources of the British government at their disposal. This was our government taking responsibility for two people who were not employees of the British government, merely two citizens of Britain who happened to be in Israel.'

But when their own British citizens (Tom, along with Iain Hook, a UN worker shot by an Israeli sniper in November 2002, and James Miller, a documentary-maker shot by an IDF patrol in May 2003) were attacked by Israeli soldiers, there was no outcry (no ministerial interest at all, beyond a standard request, from a junior level, for a proper inquiry). 'They were shot not by people for whom the Israeli government had no responsibility but by their own soldiers. That, for me, was outrageous.'
Let's not forget that Tom Hurndall was shot whilst sheilding one of Israel's favourite targets: Palestinian children.

So that's The Shooting of Tom Hurndall on the UK's Channel 4, Monday 13 October 2008 at 9 pm.

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