Dying For Palestine
June 2003 28 mins 20 secs
REPORTER: Ginny Stein:
This is Rafah in the occupied territories. For the past year, this has been the front line of Israel's war on terror.
FEMALE PROTESTER: We do not want to be here. We know it sucks for you to be here, too.
These international activists are here trying to prevent the Israeli military from razing the family homes of alleged Palestinian militants.
CHARLOTTE CARSON, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT: We don't stop them from doing all the terrible things they do all the time, we can't. A few internationals can't stop the army from continuing its ritual humiliation, its murder, destruction on a daily basis. But we believe that when we are there, this is minimised.
Israel claims it's trying to deter would-be suicide bombers.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD, ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCE: The situation on the ground is that Israel has been facing a campaign of terror for the last 2.5 years and we've been battling that terror in the Palestinian cities and towns.
To the activists, this is nothing short of collective punishment, deliberately designed to destroy homes and the spirit of the Palestinian people.
RACHEL CORRIE: These are homes that don't have any connection necessarily with suicide bombers. These are homes that just happen to be in a place that the Israeli military finds strategically important to them.
Two months ago, an American human shield, Rachel Corrie, was killed as she defied this Israeli bulldozer in Rafah.
RACHEL'S FRIEND: The bulldozer drove up and it kept going, and she tried to move back, but she couldn't move back and she got caught underneath. She got caught underneath the bulldozer and it drove, and it kept going.
The bulldozer ran right over her, crushing the 23-year-old under its tracks. It was all too much for this activist who witnessed her death. But Rachel Corrie isn't the only foreigner killed or injured in Rafah by the Israeli military in recent months. In April, 21-year-old British photography student Tom Hurndall came to Rafah to document life and death here for his university course, while lending his support as well. Four days after these images were filmed by the activists, he was shot. He'd been trying to guide children away from gunfire. Hurndall believed his passport was his protection. He was wrong.
RAPHAEL COHEN, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT: Hello, I'm calling you from Rafah. A British citizen called Tom Hurndall, H-u-r-n-d-a-l-l, passport number 038839930, has just been shot in the head by the Israelis. We would like you to inform the Israeli army to stop shooting in the Yebna area. He was not in any line of fire.
Tom is now brain-dead and in a coma. Witnesses say a single bullet, fired from an Israeli military watchtower, sliced through the back of his skull and out his forehead. Raphael Cohen was with Tom that day. It was he who called on the military to stop firing.
RAPHAEL COHEN: We were clearly visible. I mean, Tom himself was certainly clearly visible in that he was wearing a fluorescent jacket. And there are two security towers which overlook the area that we were in. As we came towards the end of the street there would be no doubt that we would be visible.
REPORTER: So, to have shot him, they would have known who he was, they would have had to have taken careful aim?
RAPHAEL COHEN: It was absolutely definitely careful aim. I mean, the snipes, you know, right through the head and above the left eye. It was target practice.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: I don't feel I have to answer the accusations - I think they're ridiculous. The Israeli army does not target civilians - everybody knows that - not intentionally, and not otherwise, and the injury or the death of civilians during this conflict is inevitable. This is a war, people get hurt in a war, especially when you knowingly place yourself in that situation.
Tom's family are not convinced by the Israeli army response.
ANTHONY HURNDALL, VICTIM'S FATHER: Excuse me, could you move back please? Thank you.
Anthony Hurndall, a London property lawyer, and his wife Jocelyn, head of a school learning support team, have come with their children to see where their son was shot and to find the truth.
MOHAMMED: Then he want to turn back, get the two little girls. Then suddenly he was looking in this direction, suddenly he fall on his knees here.
Both Anthony and Jocelyn have put their jobs on hold and, since Tom was shot, the family is in limbo.
JOCELYN HURNDALL, VICTIM'S MOTHER: We felt the children needed to be here, needed to see where Tom was hurt in order to understand it for themselves. It feels distressing today, but it feels real.
For 12-year-old Fred, who idolises his brother, this is a tough day.
FRED, VICTIMS BROTHER:I feel angry at the two towers, like they were shooting at someone that was trying to help little children, the small children, that they were endangering in the first place and then they shoot - they shot my brother.
The military's first response was to suggest that one of their soldiers had fired at a Palestinian gunman who had been sighted in the area.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: A commander of the outpost identified that man and he fired a single shot in his direction. Unfortunately the next thing we know is that Tom was hurt, was hit. How did this happen? We are not certain. Was he the one with the pistol? I don't know. Very unlikely. Was he standing next to the guy with the pistol? Perhaps. Was it a ricochet flying off the wall and hitting him because he was in the vicinity? Maybe.
The Hurndalls say they have come here with an open mind.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: Where do you think Tom was standing when he was hit?
They would like to speak to the military about who shot their son, but the military won't speak to the Hurndalls. They would only speak with Dateline once strict guidelines were set. The military refused to be questioned about the International Solidarity Movement itself, agreeing only to discuss the specifics of the incidents in which the foreign activists were harmed.
REPORTER: The family wants to meet with the military to ask what happened. No-one will meet with them. Where is the humanity in that?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: No, we don't, we don't talk to Israeli civilians, we don't talk to Palestinians and we don't talk to foreign nationals.
REPORTER: So you only ask the military what it did?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: This is a military investigation. This is the point of a military investigation.
REPORTER: If a soldier has done something wrong, why would he tell you?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: Again, our history and our previous experience has proved that the best way to look into the matter is for the army to investigate and the soldiers can come out and say what really happened there.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: May not have been possible to see that more than the top part of his body.
But the Hurndalls aren't giving up so easily.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: Well, he was wearing the orange jacket there.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: In the shots that you see of Tom after he was shot, you still see him wearing that.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: That's a typical sort of stance of Tom's, slightly shy, you know, not used to the publicity, smiling at the situation.
Each day brings greater knowledge about what happened.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: You go on getting deeper and deeper in developing understandings because, personally, you have to, you have to find a reason for what's happened, you know. I'm Tom's mother, I have to find a reason.
And there's also admiration for a son who may just have paid the ultimate price for his belief in humanity.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: It's very difficult to talk about Tom in the present tense because he's not going to be back with us as Tom was, so we do talk about him in the past.
You're very proud of him?
ANTHONY HURNDALL: Very proud. One of my first reactions, after the initial shock and anger, which I felt straight away, was, Gosh, Tom, if you're going to go, we could not think of a better way for you to go - an act of great bravery and compassion for humanity. We couldn't be more proud of him.
In Rafah, there is acknowledgment and strong support for the activists, but a sense of weariness at a situation no-one appears able to change.
MAN (Translation): It makes us feel that there are people in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Their presence reduces the suffering caused by these Jewish pigs.
This is 5-year-old Salamah. He was one of three children Tom was attempting to rescue. He'd frozen in fear when soldiers began firing into the ground in front of him. His mother knows the price Tom paid to save her son. She also knows there is little comfort she can offer the Hurndalls.
THAGIA, SALAMAHS MOTHER: We felt sad for him when the incident happened. But what could we do?
Anthony Hurndall has already paid two visits to the site where his son was shot. He would like to return once more.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: We would like to know obviously whether this was deliberate, whether it was an accident or whether it was just reckless.
But the Hurndalls won't be returning to Gaza. After this visit, they tried to return once more to visit witnesses to their son's shooting. Travelling in a British embassy vehicle, the Israeli army fired a warning shot over their car.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: I mean, it was a ludicrous situation. I mean, what kind of government, defence force can act in such a grossly inhuman way as to not just deprive us of our son in the way that we knew him, but then to fire over his parents' head.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: I'm not familiar with the incident you're talking about. This is the first time I'm hearing about this so I would rather not go into it. But again, as I say, we have very strict procedures and we do not shoot, we do not target, specially not diplomatic cars, or any other cars for that matter. But, we're talking about the Gaza Strip. We're talking about a very tight security situation there.
The military has since acknowledged that a shot was fired. No apology has been given. Just days after that incident, new procedures were implemented at the Erez crossing into the Gaza Strip. Only foreign aid workers willing to sign an indemnity form absolving the Israeli military in the event of being shot or killed were now being allowed to cross. The form states: "I am aware of the risks involved and accept that the Government of the State of Israel and its organs cannot be held responsible for death, injury and/or damage/loss of property which may be incurred as a result of military activity." And to ensure there is no doubt about who this form is really directed at, there's this: "...and declare that I have no association with the organisation known as ISM (International Solidarity Movement)." A team of Norwegian health care workers who had come to work as ambulance drivers were turned away.
TRUIS ANDERSEN, HUMANITARIAN VOLUNTEER: All the NGOs say don't sign this, there were some people from Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders all saying "Never sign this."
REPORTER: Why?
TRUIS ANDERSEN: Because it's licence to kill. It means the Israeli forces have no - they can shoot you, they can hurt you. They won't take the responsibility for anything.
REPORTER: They've got a training exercise going on behind us.
TRUIS ANDERSEN: Yeah, you never know, training or real.
Israeli authorities say the indemnity form is there for one reason.
EFFI BEN MATIYAHU, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY: We don't want anyone to be in a position of danger, but if someone chooses to do so by taking personal risk, I mean, we first and foremost want to emphasise what he is doing is reckless, what he might do is unnecessary and to reconsider many times before he does it, I mean. I believe this is one of the elements, as I say, it's a warning element.
In an attempt to block the movement of suicide bombers, Israel closed the Gaza Strip while I was there. Amidst the latest attempts to find peace, the most severe crackdown in years has been declared. It began after two suicide bombers from Britain blew up this bar in Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities accused the International Solidarity Movement of having connections with the two men, an accusation strongly denied by the ISM.
HUWAIDA ARRAF, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT: The ISM views it reprehensible that Israeli officials are exaggerating the connection of these two attackers to ISM to serve its own interests.
Raphael Cohen admits he met the two men briefly when they showed up uninvited to the movement's Rafah office just days before the blast.
RAPHAEL COHEN: They were completely unknown to us, I would like the emphasise that. They were people who came in without invitation and we were holding a small ceremony and we invited the people who were there. They came.
One week later, Israeli authorities took further action against the International Solidarity Movement. They raided the ISM headquarters in Bethlehem. Three activists were arrested. Commuter, camera equipment and the organisation's archives were seized.
EFFI BEN MATIYAHU: They are not adding to any solution. They are not adding to any purpose other than, I mean, they're risking, endangering, recklessly their lives and our lives.
In the West Bank, activists here fear the authorities could move against them at any time. Charlotte Carson has been working as a human shield in the village of Tulkarm for the past few months. Despite the risk, she believes that now more than ever, ISM activists must maintain their presence.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Maybe things are getting dangerous and maybe now since Tom, Rachel and Brian were targeted, I will retreat quicker, more quickly, from the scene of shooting, because I wonder when are they going to turn their guns on us.
This Irish graduate student readily defends accusations the International Solidarity Movement is biased towards Palestinians.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: We're partisans for human rights and that if anyone witnesses a crime against a weaker person, they will take sides with the weaker person and is it wrong then to take sides with that person? Is taking sides always wrong or is sometimes we have to take sides?
She maintains the presence of international activists can save lives, and an incident the previous week proved the point.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: For eight hours we took turns to stand there and, to watch, and to document what was happening and the soldiers pointed their guns, many times, to which we spoke to them and said "What are you doing pointing your guns at children?" And no child was killed that day, and then the following day, it was the same situation again except that we weren't there, we had to be somewhere else, and a child was shot dead.
CHARLOTTE CARSON (IN STREET): OK, so we just have had information that there is hummer, an APC and a jeep down in an area at the entrance to the camp and they have been tear-gasing children and there is a kind of post-funeral ceremony going on there at the minute, a mourning ceremony, and people are trying to... ..and they're using an unusual, a different kind of gas, a yellow gas. We don't know what it is so we'd kind of like to go down there and document that.
For the past six months, this is what these activists have been doing. Acting on information relayed through the town, they descend quickly on trouble spots, hoping their presence will offer protection.
REPORTER: So, I mean, going to something like this now, do you actually feel nervous that something could happen?
CHARLOTTE CARSON: No, it's very routine.
It may be routine, but answering these calls in this war zone can be lethal.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Can we talk about what we're doing? The kids seem to be off the streets. But we can see better from there what's going up in that area. So that's an announcement of curfew.
Here in Tulkarm on the West Bank, the curfew has entered its seventh day. The people know they risk arrest if caught on the street, but shops still remain open for as long as the military remains out of sight. But the curfew is a problem for these children who somehow have to get home from school safely. That means walking past this armoured vehicle. The soldiers taunt the children who retaliate by throwing stones. The first warning shot is fired, straight up the street to where I'm standing.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: They're calling the children to come over. "Come over, son-of-a-bitch" - hmmm. I mean, when soldiers come in like this, they are provoking the children to throw stones. What are these young boys meant to do?
SOLDIER: We shoot little children, yes.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Yes, you do. I have seen it myself. You have a conscience. You have a mind of your own. You can choose not to shoot children.
SOLDIER: OK just go away, because we are going to shoot.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: You're going to shoot, why are you going to shoot? Tell me why.
SOLDIER (Sings): Tell me why?
CHARLOTTE CARSON: What would your mother say if she could see you shooting children?
A Palestinian mother asks the activists to walk with her past the soldiers. The human shields are put to work.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: She wants to go and get him. Shall I go? Yeah, but... Shall we all go? You want to go with her? OK.
SOLDIER (Sings): I can be your hero, baby
The soldiers mock them as they walk past.
REPORTER: Is that acceptable behaviour?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: No, I don't think it is, I don't think it is. And yet, I don't think it's such a serious accusation either. One of the soldiers thought it was funny, I don't think it's funny, and yet I don't think this goes to say that the Israeli army is not professional.
As I was leaving Tulkarm, the authorities moved in and arrested Charlotte and her fellow activists. They are threatened with deportation. For Palestinians, there is no way out and now there's no-one to see what's happening. 24-year-old American peace activist Brian Avery is lucky to be alive. Like Charlotte, he was responding to an Israeli military action, this time in Jenin. There was a tank in the street, gun shots, and he and his fellow activists moved quickly out onto the street. Before them was an armoured vehicle. A burst of machine gun fire into the ground in front of them and Brian Avery was felled, half his face ripped off by the burst of bullets.
REPORTER: When you were shot, what were you doing? Were you clearly visible? Did they know who you were?
BRIAN AVERY, PEACE ACTIVIST: Yes, we were clearly visible. We were a group of internationals standing in a wide open street, with plenty of visibility, and we were wearing reflective fluorescent vests.
REPORTER: So there was no way they could have mistaken you for anything but who you were?
BRIAN AVERY: Not at all.
REPORTER: In that sense it makes you feel that you were targeted?
BRIAN AVERY: Yes.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: Usually most people, when they hear shots, they run away. In that case, these people were going towards the sound of the shots. This is what these people do.
The Israeli army is conducting an inquiry into his shooting but Brian Avery has no doubts about the result.
BRIAN AVERY I think that they will do everything in their power not to take any responsibility.
REPORTER: They will blame you?
BRIAN AVERY Yes.
On this night, in this deeply divided land, there are the first signs of support for the activists. Here in Jerusalem, Israel's opposition movement has asked the ISM to join them at their annual alternative national day event.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Tonight, we light this candle for some of the recent victims of Israeli army brutality. We light this candle for the memory of Rachel Corrie. And we light this candle for Tom Hurndall and his family, and for Brian Avery and his family and for all the victims - Israeli and Palestinian - of this cycle of violence which is the result of this occupation.
Amongst this gathering are Israel's refuseniks - men and women who refuse military service. They share a common aim with the human shields.
ITAI RYB, YESH-GVUL: What they're doing is taking responsibility, interfering, avoiding violence and I think they should be honoured and appreciated for that.
Brian Avery has also come to his own realisation.
BRIAN AVERY I mean there was always an element of risk, but it was never, you know, right in our faces like it is now. You know no-one had really been shot or killed. So it was like, it was out there, but it wasn't, you know, to the point where we felt like we were being terrorised. You know, which we do now.
REPORTER: Would you have come if you thought that this could have happened?
BRIAN AVERY Um, difficult to say, I might have come, but I think the actions would have been very different.
REPORTER: You wouldn't have put yourself in the firing line?
BRIAN AVERY No. I don't think I would have been as liberal with the actions I did, as I was before.
ANTHONY HYRNDALL: The whole of his back would have been seen. The whole of his back, which would have been - and that was entirely orange.
Having had some time to review photos taken at the site where his son was shot, Anthony Hurndall has also reached his own conclusion.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: In fact, it's only now being able to sit here quietly, looking up at that tower, and where Tom was shot, and seeing what was between him and that tower, that one can see that they must have been able to see him from at least waist height. I have to say that changes my view.
REPORTER: What do you now think?
ANTHONY HURNDALL: They saw him. They knew he was a peace activist when they shot him - that's my view.
The Hurndalls live in hope something good can come of something this horrific.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: It's an extract from his diary, perhaps I could read it to you. "I want to look up to myself and when I die, "I want to be smiling about the things that I've done, "not crying for what I haven't. "I guess I want to be satisfied I know the answer to this question - "everyone wants to be different, make an impact, be remembered."
MARK DAVIS: The Hurndalls hope to fly their son home to Britain tomorrow.
REPORTER: GINNY STEIN
EDITOR: BEN DEACON
June 2003 28 mins 20 secs
REPORTER: Ginny Stein:
This is Rafah in the occupied territories. For the past year, this has been the front line of Israel's war on terror.
FEMALE PROTESTER: We do not want to be here. We know it sucks for you to be here, too.
These international activists are here trying to prevent the Israeli military from razing the family homes of alleged Palestinian militants.
CHARLOTTE CARSON, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT: We don't stop them from doing all the terrible things they do all the time, we can't. A few internationals can't stop the army from continuing its ritual humiliation, its murder, destruction on a daily basis. But we believe that when we are there, this is minimised.
Israel claims it's trying to deter would-be suicide bombers.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD, ISRAELI DEFENCE FORCE: The situation on the ground is that Israel has been facing a campaign of terror for the last 2.5 years and we've been battling that terror in the Palestinian cities and towns.
To the activists, this is nothing short of collective punishment, deliberately designed to destroy homes and the spirit of the Palestinian people.
RACHEL CORRIE: These are homes that don't have any connection necessarily with suicide bombers. These are homes that just happen to be in a place that the Israeli military finds strategically important to them.
Two months ago, an American human shield, Rachel Corrie, was killed as she defied this Israeli bulldozer in Rafah.
RACHEL'S FRIEND: The bulldozer drove up and it kept going, and she tried to move back, but she couldn't move back and she got caught underneath. She got caught underneath the bulldozer and it drove, and it kept going.
The bulldozer ran right over her, crushing the 23-year-old under its tracks. It was all too much for this activist who witnessed her death. But Rachel Corrie isn't the only foreigner killed or injured in Rafah by the Israeli military in recent months. In April, 21-year-old British photography student Tom Hurndall came to Rafah to document life and death here for his university course, while lending his support as well. Four days after these images were filmed by the activists, he was shot. He'd been trying to guide children away from gunfire. Hurndall believed his passport was his protection. He was wrong.
RAPHAEL COHEN, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT: Hello, I'm calling you from Rafah. A British citizen called Tom Hurndall, H-u-r-n-d-a-l-l, passport number 038839930, has just been shot in the head by the Israelis. We would like you to inform the Israeli army to stop shooting in the Yebna area. He was not in any line of fire.
Tom is now brain-dead and in a coma. Witnesses say a single bullet, fired from an Israeli military watchtower, sliced through the back of his skull and out his forehead. Raphael Cohen was with Tom that day. It was he who called on the military to stop firing.
RAPHAEL COHEN: We were clearly visible. I mean, Tom himself was certainly clearly visible in that he was wearing a fluorescent jacket. And there are two security towers which overlook the area that we were in. As we came towards the end of the street there would be no doubt that we would be visible.
REPORTER: So, to have shot him, they would have known who he was, they would have had to have taken careful aim?
RAPHAEL COHEN: It was absolutely definitely careful aim. I mean, the snipes, you know, right through the head and above the left eye. It was target practice.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: I don't feel I have to answer the accusations - I think they're ridiculous. The Israeli army does not target civilians - everybody knows that - not intentionally, and not otherwise, and the injury or the death of civilians during this conflict is inevitable. This is a war, people get hurt in a war, especially when you knowingly place yourself in that situation.
Tom's family are not convinced by the Israeli army response.
ANTHONY HURNDALL, VICTIM'S FATHER: Excuse me, could you move back please? Thank you.
Anthony Hurndall, a London property lawyer, and his wife Jocelyn, head of a school learning support team, have come with their children to see where their son was shot and to find the truth.
MOHAMMED: Then he want to turn back, get the two little girls. Then suddenly he was looking in this direction, suddenly he fall on his knees here.
Both Anthony and Jocelyn have put their jobs on hold and, since Tom was shot, the family is in limbo.
JOCELYN HURNDALL, VICTIM'S MOTHER: We felt the children needed to be here, needed to see where Tom was hurt in order to understand it for themselves. It feels distressing today, but it feels real.
For 12-year-old Fred, who idolises his brother, this is a tough day.
FRED, VICTIMS BROTHER:I feel angry at the two towers, like they were shooting at someone that was trying to help little children, the small children, that they were endangering in the first place and then they shoot - they shot my brother.
The military's first response was to suggest that one of their soldiers had fired at a Palestinian gunman who had been sighted in the area.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: A commander of the outpost identified that man and he fired a single shot in his direction. Unfortunately the next thing we know is that Tom was hurt, was hit. How did this happen? We are not certain. Was he the one with the pistol? I don't know. Very unlikely. Was he standing next to the guy with the pistol? Perhaps. Was it a ricochet flying off the wall and hitting him because he was in the vicinity? Maybe.
The Hurndalls say they have come here with an open mind.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: Where do you think Tom was standing when he was hit?
They would like to speak to the military about who shot their son, but the military won't speak to the Hurndalls. They would only speak with Dateline once strict guidelines were set. The military refused to be questioned about the International Solidarity Movement itself, agreeing only to discuss the specifics of the incidents in which the foreign activists were harmed.
REPORTER: The family wants to meet with the military to ask what happened. No-one will meet with them. Where is the humanity in that?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: No, we don't, we don't talk to Israeli civilians, we don't talk to Palestinians and we don't talk to foreign nationals.
REPORTER: So you only ask the military what it did?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: This is a military investigation. This is the point of a military investigation.
REPORTER: If a soldier has done something wrong, why would he tell you?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: Again, our history and our previous experience has proved that the best way to look into the matter is for the army to investigate and the soldiers can come out and say what really happened there.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: May not have been possible to see that more than the top part of his body.
But the Hurndalls aren't giving up so easily.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: Well, he was wearing the orange jacket there.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: In the shots that you see of Tom after he was shot, you still see him wearing that.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: That's a typical sort of stance of Tom's, slightly shy, you know, not used to the publicity, smiling at the situation.
Each day brings greater knowledge about what happened.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: You go on getting deeper and deeper in developing understandings because, personally, you have to, you have to find a reason for what's happened, you know. I'm Tom's mother, I have to find a reason.
And there's also admiration for a son who may just have paid the ultimate price for his belief in humanity.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: It's very difficult to talk about Tom in the present tense because he's not going to be back with us as Tom was, so we do talk about him in the past.
You're very proud of him?
ANTHONY HURNDALL: Very proud. One of my first reactions, after the initial shock and anger, which I felt straight away, was, Gosh, Tom, if you're going to go, we could not think of a better way for you to go - an act of great bravery and compassion for humanity. We couldn't be more proud of him.
In Rafah, there is acknowledgment and strong support for the activists, but a sense of weariness at a situation no-one appears able to change.
MAN (Translation): It makes us feel that there are people in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Their presence reduces the suffering caused by these Jewish pigs.
This is 5-year-old Salamah. He was one of three children Tom was attempting to rescue. He'd frozen in fear when soldiers began firing into the ground in front of him. His mother knows the price Tom paid to save her son. She also knows there is little comfort she can offer the Hurndalls.
THAGIA, SALAMAHS MOTHER: We felt sad for him when the incident happened. But what could we do?
Anthony Hurndall has already paid two visits to the site where his son was shot. He would like to return once more.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: We would like to know obviously whether this was deliberate, whether it was an accident or whether it was just reckless.
But the Hurndalls won't be returning to Gaza. After this visit, they tried to return once more to visit witnesses to their son's shooting. Travelling in a British embassy vehicle, the Israeli army fired a warning shot over their car.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: I mean, it was a ludicrous situation. I mean, what kind of government, defence force can act in such a grossly inhuman way as to not just deprive us of our son in the way that we knew him, but then to fire over his parents' head.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: I'm not familiar with the incident you're talking about. This is the first time I'm hearing about this so I would rather not go into it. But again, as I say, we have very strict procedures and we do not shoot, we do not target, specially not diplomatic cars, or any other cars for that matter. But, we're talking about the Gaza Strip. We're talking about a very tight security situation there.
The military has since acknowledged that a shot was fired. No apology has been given. Just days after that incident, new procedures were implemented at the Erez crossing into the Gaza Strip. Only foreign aid workers willing to sign an indemnity form absolving the Israeli military in the event of being shot or killed were now being allowed to cross. The form states: "I am aware of the risks involved and accept that the Government of the State of Israel and its organs cannot be held responsible for death, injury and/or damage/loss of property which may be incurred as a result of military activity." And to ensure there is no doubt about who this form is really directed at, there's this: "...and declare that I have no association with the organisation known as ISM (International Solidarity Movement)." A team of Norwegian health care workers who had come to work as ambulance drivers were turned away.
TRUIS ANDERSEN, HUMANITARIAN VOLUNTEER: All the NGOs say don't sign this, there were some people from Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders all saying "Never sign this."
REPORTER: Why?
TRUIS ANDERSEN: Because it's licence to kill. It means the Israeli forces have no - they can shoot you, they can hurt you. They won't take the responsibility for anything.
REPORTER: They've got a training exercise going on behind us.
TRUIS ANDERSEN: Yeah, you never know, training or real.
Israeli authorities say the indemnity form is there for one reason.
EFFI BEN MATIYAHU, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY: We don't want anyone to be in a position of danger, but if someone chooses to do so by taking personal risk, I mean, we first and foremost want to emphasise what he is doing is reckless, what he might do is unnecessary and to reconsider many times before he does it, I mean. I believe this is one of the elements, as I say, it's a warning element.
In an attempt to block the movement of suicide bombers, Israel closed the Gaza Strip while I was there. Amidst the latest attempts to find peace, the most severe crackdown in years has been declared. It began after two suicide bombers from Britain blew up this bar in Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities accused the International Solidarity Movement of having connections with the two men, an accusation strongly denied by the ISM.
HUWAIDA ARRAF, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT: The ISM views it reprehensible that Israeli officials are exaggerating the connection of these two attackers to ISM to serve its own interests.
Raphael Cohen admits he met the two men briefly when they showed up uninvited to the movement's Rafah office just days before the blast.
RAPHAEL COHEN: They were completely unknown to us, I would like the emphasise that. They were people who came in without invitation and we were holding a small ceremony and we invited the people who were there. They came.
One week later, Israeli authorities took further action against the International Solidarity Movement. They raided the ISM headquarters in Bethlehem. Three activists were arrested. Commuter, camera equipment and the organisation's archives were seized.
EFFI BEN MATIYAHU: They are not adding to any solution. They are not adding to any purpose other than, I mean, they're risking, endangering, recklessly their lives and our lives.
In the West Bank, activists here fear the authorities could move against them at any time. Charlotte Carson has been working as a human shield in the village of Tulkarm for the past few months. Despite the risk, she believes that now more than ever, ISM activists must maintain their presence.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Maybe things are getting dangerous and maybe now since Tom, Rachel and Brian were targeted, I will retreat quicker, more quickly, from the scene of shooting, because I wonder when are they going to turn their guns on us.
This Irish graduate student readily defends accusations the International Solidarity Movement is biased towards Palestinians.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: We're partisans for human rights and that if anyone witnesses a crime against a weaker person, they will take sides with the weaker person and is it wrong then to take sides with that person? Is taking sides always wrong or is sometimes we have to take sides?
She maintains the presence of international activists can save lives, and an incident the previous week proved the point.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: For eight hours we took turns to stand there and, to watch, and to document what was happening and the soldiers pointed their guns, many times, to which we spoke to them and said "What are you doing pointing your guns at children?" And no child was killed that day, and then the following day, it was the same situation again except that we weren't there, we had to be somewhere else, and a child was shot dead.
CHARLOTTE CARSON (IN STREET): OK, so we just have had information that there is hummer, an APC and a jeep down in an area at the entrance to the camp and they have been tear-gasing children and there is a kind of post-funeral ceremony going on there at the minute, a mourning ceremony, and people are trying to... ..and they're using an unusual, a different kind of gas, a yellow gas. We don't know what it is so we'd kind of like to go down there and document that.
For the past six months, this is what these activists have been doing. Acting on information relayed through the town, they descend quickly on trouble spots, hoping their presence will offer protection.
REPORTER: So, I mean, going to something like this now, do you actually feel nervous that something could happen?
CHARLOTTE CARSON: No, it's very routine.
It may be routine, but answering these calls in this war zone can be lethal.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Can we talk about what we're doing? The kids seem to be off the streets. But we can see better from there what's going up in that area. So that's an announcement of curfew.
Here in Tulkarm on the West Bank, the curfew has entered its seventh day. The people know they risk arrest if caught on the street, but shops still remain open for as long as the military remains out of sight. But the curfew is a problem for these children who somehow have to get home from school safely. That means walking past this armoured vehicle. The soldiers taunt the children who retaliate by throwing stones. The first warning shot is fired, straight up the street to where I'm standing.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: They're calling the children to come over. "Come over, son-of-a-bitch" - hmmm. I mean, when soldiers come in like this, they are provoking the children to throw stones. What are these young boys meant to do?
SOLDIER: We shoot little children, yes.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Yes, you do. I have seen it myself. You have a conscience. You have a mind of your own. You can choose not to shoot children.
SOLDIER: OK just go away, because we are going to shoot.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: You're going to shoot, why are you going to shoot? Tell me why.
SOLDIER (Sings): Tell me why?
CHARLOTTE CARSON: What would your mother say if she could see you shooting children?
A Palestinian mother asks the activists to walk with her past the soldiers. The human shields are put to work.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: She wants to go and get him. Shall I go? Yeah, but... Shall we all go? You want to go with her? OK.
SOLDIER (Sings): I can be your hero, baby
The soldiers mock them as they walk past.
REPORTER: Is that acceptable behaviour?
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: No, I don't think it is, I don't think it is. And yet, I don't think it's such a serious accusation either. One of the soldiers thought it was funny, I don't think it's funny, and yet I don't think this goes to say that the Israeli army is not professional.
As I was leaving Tulkarm, the authorities moved in and arrested Charlotte and her fellow activists. They are threatened with deportation. For Palestinians, there is no way out and now there's no-one to see what's happening. 24-year-old American peace activist Brian Avery is lucky to be alive. Like Charlotte, he was responding to an Israeli military action, this time in Jenin. There was a tank in the street, gun shots, and he and his fellow activists moved quickly out onto the street. Before them was an armoured vehicle. A burst of machine gun fire into the ground in front of them and Brian Avery was felled, half his face ripped off by the burst of bullets.
REPORTER: When you were shot, what were you doing? Were you clearly visible? Did they know who you were?
BRIAN AVERY, PEACE ACTIVIST: Yes, we were clearly visible. We were a group of internationals standing in a wide open street, with plenty of visibility, and we were wearing reflective fluorescent vests.
REPORTER: So there was no way they could have mistaken you for anything but who you were?
BRIAN AVERY: Not at all.
REPORTER: In that sense it makes you feel that you were targeted?
BRIAN AVERY: Yes.
MAJOR SHARON FEINGOLD: Usually most people, when they hear shots, they run away. In that case, these people were going towards the sound of the shots. This is what these people do.
The Israeli army is conducting an inquiry into his shooting but Brian Avery has no doubts about the result.
BRIAN AVERY I think that they will do everything in their power not to take any responsibility.
REPORTER: They will blame you?
BRIAN AVERY Yes.
On this night, in this deeply divided land, there are the first signs of support for the activists. Here in Jerusalem, Israel's opposition movement has asked the ISM to join them at their annual alternative national day event.
CHARLOTTE CARSON: Tonight, we light this candle for some of the recent victims of Israeli army brutality. We light this candle for the memory of Rachel Corrie. And we light this candle for Tom Hurndall and his family, and for Brian Avery and his family and for all the victims - Israeli and Palestinian - of this cycle of violence which is the result of this occupation.
Amongst this gathering are Israel's refuseniks - men and women who refuse military service. They share a common aim with the human shields.
ITAI RYB, YESH-GVUL: What they're doing is taking responsibility, interfering, avoiding violence and I think they should be honoured and appreciated for that.
Brian Avery has also come to his own realisation.
BRIAN AVERY I mean there was always an element of risk, but it was never, you know, right in our faces like it is now. You know no-one had really been shot or killed. So it was like, it was out there, but it wasn't, you know, to the point where we felt like we were being terrorised. You know, which we do now.
REPORTER: Would you have come if you thought that this could have happened?
BRIAN AVERY Um, difficult to say, I might have come, but I think the actions would have been very different.
REPORTER: You wouldn't have put yourself in the firing line?
BRIAN AVERY No. I don't think I would have been as liberal with the actions I did, as I was before.
ANTHONY HYRNDALL: The whole of his back would have been seen. The whole of his back, which would have been - and that was entirely orange.
Having had some time to review photos taken at the site where his son was shot, Anthony Hurndall has also reached his own conclusion.
ANTHONY HURNDALL: In fact, it's only now being able to sit here quietly, looking up at that tower, and where Tom was shot, and seeing what was between him and that tower, that one can see that they must have been able to see him from at least waist height. I have to say that changes my view.
REPORTER: What do you now think?
ANTHONY HURNDALL: They saw him. They knew he was a peace activist when they shot him - that's my view.
The Hurndalls live in hope something good can come of something this horrific.
JOCELYN HURNDALL: It's an extract from his diary, perhaps I could read it to you. "I want to look up to myself and when I die, "I want to be smiling about the things that I've done, "not crying for what I haven't. "I guess I want to be satisfied I know the answer to this question - "everyone wants to be different, make an impact, be remembered."
MARK DAVIS: The Hurndalls hope to fly their son home to Britain tomorrow.
REPORTER: GINNY STEIN
EDITOR: BEN DEACON