Tom Hurndall

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Thomas "Tom" Hurndall (born November 27, 1981 in London ; † January 13, 2004 ibid) was a British photojournalism student and ISM activist who was killed by an Israeli soldier in the southern Gaza Strip .

School and study time

Tom Hurndall was the second oldest son and one of four children of lawyer Anthony Hurndall and his wife Jocelyn Hurndall. He attended Hall School in Hampshire and Winchester College . He later attended the Camden School in London. He then studied criminology and philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University , but then switched to photojournalism.

activism

At a demonstration against the Iraq war in London in early 2003, Hurndall came into contact with groups that were planning to deploy human shields and accompanied such groups in Iraq from February 2003 . He then worked as a refugee and aid worker in Jordan , where he joined the Palestinian lobby organization International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which is carrying out protest actions against the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank . Hurndall arrived in the border town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on April 6, 2003 . He planned to stay for a month.

Circumstances of death

On April 11, 2003, Hurndall and other activists wanted to erect a “protest tent” on a street in order to prevent the passage of Israeli bulldozers and tanks through this blockade. When shots rang out, Hurndall, unarmed and clad in a bright orange vest, was trying to get three children on the street to safety. He was hit in the head by a single shot. After a two-hour delay at the border, he was admitted to a specialist clinic in Beersheba . As a result of his severe head injuries, Hurndall was in a coma for nine months and died on January 13, 2004 in a London clinic.

An investigation found that the fatal shot was fired by Israeli sniper Taysir Hayb. Hayb, a member of the Arab minority , was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Israeli military tribunal for manslaughter and evasion of punishment. Hayb initially claimed that Hurndall was armed, but had to admit during interrogations by the Israeli military that Hurndall was unarmed. During the trial, Hayb then claimed that there was a military order ordering unarmed civilians to be fired. Hayb's defense also alleged that medical malpractice by British doctors eventually led to Hurndall's death.

A British commission of inquiry ruled in 2006 that Hundall and three weeks after his James Miller "unlawfully killed" (English. Unlawfully killed ) were. It was investigated whether the UK judiciary could initiate further proceedings despite the Israeli verdict.

Reception in drama and music

In October 2008, the television drama The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall was released . Directed by Rowan Joffé . Simon Block wrote the script. The film deals with the struggle of Hurndall's parents for truth and justice. The family, who on the basis of several eyewitness reports, do not believe the official report of the Israeli army, are trying to find out the details of the death of their son through their own investigations. The film was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2009 for Best Drama , with Stephen Dillane winning Best Actor for his portrayal of Anthony Hurndall.

The American composer Philip Munger devoted Tom Hurndall the second set of his 2003 Rachel Corrie composed cantata "The Skies are Weeping". The sentence is called "Dance for Tom Hurndall" . The piece premiered in London in 2005.

Tom Hurndall's mother processed the events in her book My Son Tom: The Life and Tragic Death of Tom Hurndall , which was published in 2008 by Bloomsbury Publishing .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International peace activists under fire
  2. ↑ a b www.guardian.co.uk Detailed description including biography of Thomas Hurndall
  3. ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/news/british-peace-activist-shot-by-idf-troops-in-gaza-strip-1.13141
  4. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2940515.stm
  5. ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/news/british-peace-activist-shot-by-idf-dies-in-london-hospital-1.110977
  6. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4625355.stm
  7. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4140586.stm
  8. ↑ British peace activist was 'intentionally killed'
  9. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3360149.stm
  10. ↑ Mark Townsend: Parents fight to learn why Israeli sniper shot their son . In: The Observer , January 30, 2005 , January 30, 2005. Retrieved May 27, 2007. 
  11. ↑ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article520211.ece
  12. ↑ 'Unlawful killing' of Gaza Briton , on BBC News, April 10, 2006, accessed May 2, 2016
  13. ↑ The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall on Channel.14.com
  14. ↑ www.guardian.co.uk They shot our son but they can't kill his spirit
  15. ↑ Television Awards Winners in 2009 ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.bafta.org @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bafta.org
  16. ^ The Guardian on November 1, 2005. "The Skies are Weeping" - A report by Katherine Viner

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hurndall, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hurndall, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British photojournalism student and ISM activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2004
Place of death London