Strength of Conviction
Aussie Dave | Jun 28, 2005 | 10 comments
A court has convicted a former IDF soldier who killed an ISM terror-enabler, of manslaughter.
A court convicted a former Israeli soldier of manslaughter Monday in the shooting death of a pro-Palestinian British activist, the first time a soldier has been found guilty of killing a foreign citizen during more than four years of Palestinian-Israeli violence.
Wahid Taysir, a member of the Bedouin Arab minority, was accused of shooting Tom Hurndall in the head during an army operation in the Gaza Strip in April 2003. Witnesses said Hurndall, 22, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, was helping Palestinian children avoid Israeli tanks.—-Taysir also was convicted of obstruction of justice, submitting false testimony, obtaining false testimony and unbecoming behavior. Taysir, who is to be sentenced in mid-August, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Despite the fact that the soldier was convicted and will be put in jail, this is not enough for some. Like the terror-enabler’s sister.
Hurndall’s sister, Sophie, praised the verdict, but said the army must change its practices. “This kind of thing needs to stop happening. Until that has changed … we won’t really have won,” she told Sky News TV.
How about groups like the ISM changing their practices of constantly entering closed military zones, hampering IDF operations, assisting terrorists, and endangering their own lives?
Furthermore, I wonder what Hurndall’s sister would have to say about the “justice” of the PA, which involves terrorists being put in jail at the insistence of the US and Israel, only to be released again. Probably nothing.
Of course, others, like ”I-hate-Israel-but-some-of-my-best-friends-are-Jewish” blogger dAWK go on a predictable rant.
While one youth killing another youth and then getting sent to jail for it is not really something to celebrate, at least there is the recognition of wrong-doing present. As Tom’s father noted, Taysir’s actions were just symptoms of a larger issue – that is the Israeli army’s practice of targeting and killing civilians with impunity.Had Tom been a Palestinian, rest assured his death would not have been investigated. A recent Human Rights Watch report found that Israel has looked into less that five percent of Palestinian civilian deaths that it was responsible for.Since the current Palestinian uprising began in 2000, Israeli forces have killed or seriously injured thousands of Palestinians who were not taking part in the hostilities. However, the Israeli authorities have investigated fewer than five percent of the fatal incidents to determine whether soldiers were responsible for using force unlawfully. The investigations they did conduct fell far short of international standards for independent and impartial inquiries.Like the torture at Abu Ghraib, the main responsibility and culpability falls on those who implement and approve of the actions carried out by their foot soldiers. Taysir is guilty, sure, but the real blame rests with Sharon and company who create the atmosphere where such actions are permitted.
I have to make a number of points, all of which dAWK will undoubtedly brush off, since he has no answers, and facts don’t interest him.
Firstly, dAWK talks of an “Israeli army’s practice of targeting and killing civilians with impunity.” I think the falsehood inherent in this statement is manifest (for a start, if the IDF did adopt this practice, we would be dropping bombs on the PA areas, rather than entering them on foot, at great risk to our own soldiers). But furthermore, isn’t it interesting how dAWK has nothing to say about incidents like the recent murders of Avichai Levi and Aviad Mantzur.
Innocent young men, deliberately targeted by murderers – just for being Jews. Yet dAWK, and indeed the mainstream media, prefer to focus on the death of a terror enabler who put his own life at risk.
Admit it, dAWK. You do not value the blood of Jews like the blood of those who kill them. How else do you explain your fixation on PLO Arab and ISM deaths, and no mention of the cold-blooded murder of innocent kids?
Secondly, dAWK’s statement that “Had Tom been a Palestinian, rest assured his death would not have been investigated” is palpably false. The IDF is known for investigating the deaths of PLO Arabs at the hands of the IDF. It just so happens that in many cases, the investigations reveal that either the soldiers’ actions were justified in the circumstances, or that the PLO Arab was actually killed at the hands of their own people.
Furthermore, the Human Rights Watch report that he quotes does not distinguish between the deaths of PLO Arab terrorists and the deaths of civilians. The IDF investigates those deaths which warrant investigation, and not the deaths of every PLO Arab, the majority of which were either combatants, or used as human shields by combatants (I previously posted more on this issue here).
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
One last time
http://strategypage.com/dls/articles/20031128.asp
The fact is that those who are responsible are the terrorists who hide in civilian areas.
The ISM jerkoff put himself in a situation knowingly endangering himself. Every time I read a story about the guy it changes.
You know, if there’s one thing that frustrates me most about consistently being featured here is that you really don’t send me very much traffic. That’s a shame. But at least I guess we can’t say it’s from a lack of trying.
It always amuses me that people will make false, rude, and disgusting statements about me and then complain that I don’t respond, or I have “no answers.” It’s not that I have no answers, it’s simply that I see no point in wasting time trying to correct your warped version of me, what I stand for, believe, etc.
What is there to say to someone who calls Palestinians “PLO Arabs” and who labels someone who was murdered while trying to move children out of the way of gun fire a “terror enabler”? Really David, what can I possibly say to you that would mean anything, that would make any difference? I hold sincere beliefs and have sincere responses to what you write – but I know you won’t listen and you’ll just come at me with garbage similar to the type exhibited above. Since we have these reunions every couple of weeks or so, I’ve just stopped trying.
Undoubtedly you’ll call my attempt at an explanation a cop-out and I’ll be attacked yet again. Say what you will, I’ve come to expect nothing but the basest from you.
As for the HRW report, you really are proving yourself to be quite the selective reader:
The word civilian is all over the report.
scott
Angry White Kid
Yea check out these civilians
Scott,
It is you who are the selective reader, since you chose to answer one of my questions and not the others.
Regarding the report, I read the extract you provided, and not the whole thing. But I will say this: a report by Human Rights Watch is not the final say on anything. For a start, they get alot of their information from PLO Arab “eyewitness” accounts, which prove as reliable as a Fiat Multipla.
Now please explain your fixation on PLO Arab deaths, most of which either concern terrorists, or, in the case of civilians, which are not deliberate, and your lack of fixation on the deliberate slaying of innocent Israelis.
I need not call you any names, Scott. Your views paint you in the worst light possible.
I’m not going to voice my opinion about the disengagement and the fact that Jewish soldiers are going to (and already are) evacuate Jews from their homes, simply because I’m not sure I have a valid opinion. I don’t hink I’m politically aware enough to understand all the implications this has on peace negotiations, discouraging or encouragnig terrorism, etc.
One thing I know, is that my heart goes out to those families who will have to move, who will see their houses being demolished. I don’t care wether the settlements are right or wrong, wether the disengagement should or shouldn’t be happening. I just wish all these people whose lives are totally changing didn’t have to go through this. I was only two when the evacuation of Yamit took place, but my mother often told me it was horrible to watch. You couldn’t blame the Israeli soldiers for following their orders, you couldn’t blame the people who didn’t want to leave…
Where are the ISMers who will protect THESE houses from being demolished? Where are the Rachel Corries to stand in front of the same army, the same bulldozers, the same house demolitions?
Of course there aren’t any. Because these houses belong to Jews. Because these houses never smuggled arms to kill hordes of Muslim children waiting at a bus stop. Because for ISMers, being a settler is worse than being a suicide bomber.
Well articulated.
That’s because your blog is dead end.
Actually, that would make me a selective responder!
And you jumped to a conclusion. And that’s not selective reading?
I don’t have a fixation on the murder of Palestinians by the IOF. Do I post every time one is killed? My most recent post was about Tom and a HRW report. And yet this constitutes a fixation? Am I supposed to put up a post any time someone gets killed, just to appease you?
Of course it’s awful those kids were killed. It’s heartbreaking. No one deserves that. Just because I don’t post on it doesn’t mean I don’t lament the loss of life. I’m sure any post you put about murdered Palestinian kids, you would either call them terrorists or say it wasn’t deliberate, that it was somehow their fault. You qualify those deaths, because to you, Palestinians aren’t worth as much as Jewish Israelis. You don’t even have the humanity to call them Palestinians.
You had to qualify Tom as a terror enabler. You couldn’t see him as a 22 year old kid, just as an enemy whose death was justifiable. That is disgusting and sad. You have children…do you want them to been seen as enemies or human beings? Will you infect them with your virulent racism, much like kids in the South were infected by their parents to believe whites were superior to blacks. Do you teach them that Jews are superior to Arabs? I wouldn’t be surprised.
In my perspective the root of this violence is the occupation and that is what I am fighting to end. That perspective forms the basis for my posts. Whereas you simply see every Palestinian who doesn’t roll over and die at your request as a terrorist and that forms the basis of your posts.
Scott
Angry White Kid
Please confirm whether the following distinction registers with you:
-The IDF does not target civilians in the sense that they get suited up for a well planned mission in which the goal is to kill innocent palestinians, i.e. men, woman or children minding their own business, without any history or indication of prior or future plans to participate in terrorist activities, in places far from the front lines of conflict.
-Multiple palestinian groups do go on well planned missions where their target goal is to kill innocent civilians risking life and limb to reach them far from the front lines of battle like at bus stops or restaurants.
One interesting addendum: polls show that well over 50% of the palestinian population approves of such murderous tactics employed by these terror groups.
People like David and I do not believe the palestinians are genetically programmed to be evil but there is no question that their society has tried and succeeded to nurture such evil in many of them beginning from the songs they learn to sing in kindergarten and continuing through out their education. Further exposure to lies and propaganda from their various media outlets ensures the process is ongoing through out their life.
The IDF is doing as good a job as can be expected in the face of such an enemy with no moral rectitude. Coping with the terrorist face of the palestinians has been a job of the IDF long before those Arabs were even called palestinians and certainly long before the so called occupation began. Additionally, given that these palestinian terrorist groups openly state their goal as removing all Jews from all of Israel, attributing all the problems of Arab murder and terror tactics to the so called occupation is def, ignorant and naive.
(pre 1948 the name ‘palestinian’ was used to describe Jews, as a typical headline in 1929 would read ’4 palestinian Jews were murdered today by local Arabs in continuing riots’)
Avi,
Well articulated. I was not going to bother answering dAWK’s latest comment, given that I have addressed his contentions on many an occasion (and yet he still doesn’t “get it”).
It may be worthwhile to post your comment on his site, so people who stumble upon his site can get a dose of common sense after reading his garbage.