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Posted on 02/28/2005 8:09:32 AM PST by Alouette
Brian Avery, a 26-year-old American, will petition the High Court of Justice on Monday for a military investigation into an April 2003 incident in which he was allegedly shot in the face by soldiers in Jenin. He was severely wounded.
The army claims the soldiers acted legally and according to orders.
Avery's case would be the first case of a non-Israeli shot by the IDF to reach the High Court, his Israeli attorney, Michael Sfard, said.
In the cases of two fatal shootings involving British citizens Tom Hurndall, 23, and James Miller, 35, full ongoing military investigations were launched after pressure from the British government.
Avery, who came here in 2003 to serve as a "human shield" for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), has not been back since the shooting. The military has not conducted a full investigation and has concluded from an internal inquiry that the soldiers acted legally.
Last year, Avery, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, met with Rep. David Price of North Carolina and staff members of Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, hoping that the US would apply diplomatic pressure on Israel in the same way the British government had. However, Avery was told that due to the sensitive nature of US-Israel relations the US government would not press his case.
Sfard said he believed Avery's case to be stronger than other similar cases in which soldiers had been cleared of guilt upon claiming that they had acted in self-defense. "Here the soldiers have not claimed they were under fire or in some danger," said Sfard. "They claim they were not involved in any incident."
Avery said he was walking down the street after curfew in Jenin when the incident occurred. Sfard said that four Scandinavian ISM activists who witnessed the shooting testify that Avery, along with another ISM activist, had stopped and was standing with his hands in the air under a street lamp on an empty street, wearing a fluorescent vest marked to indicate he was an unarmed international volunteer.
The witnesses claim that an IDF armored personnel carrier approached at less than 30 kph and, without warning, opened heavy fire from 20–30 meters and then continued driving.
Immediately after the incident the IDF conducted an internal inquiry, concluding initially that there was no evidence that shots fired by soldiers had hit Avery. However, in a statement to Sfard on Thursday, the IDF said without elaborating that the soldiers had acted legally and lawfully.
In the statement, the state attorney also said that the state would argue that because of the passage of time since the incident, it is unrealistic to open a criminal investigation.
"The army has done an internal review of the incident based entirely on its own reports," said Avery. "At the least I would like to see a full judicial process."
In the cases of Hurndall and Miller, internal IDF inquiries absolved the army but subsequent Military Police investigations uncovered incriminating evidence and serious charges of misconduct were filed.
Avery spent more than a month at Haifa's Rambam Hospital at the government's expense before returning to the United States to continue treatment. He has spent the past two years undergoing various therapies and facial reconstruction, but his face still carries massive scarring where the bullet entered and exited.
"My life since the incident has been fairly limited," said Avery. "I haven't been able to seek employment or continue my activism at the same level." He is still involved in ISM, occasionally speaking at conferences for the group.
"I'd love to return and work for ISM again," said Avery. "I may have some hesitation about being in certain situations, but on the whole I don't think there would be too much absolute fear that would cause me to stop being involved or helping people."
ISM was founded in 2001 to bring pro-Palestinian volunteers to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The group's founders view themselves as an international peacekeeping and monitoring presence, but the Israeli government views ISM activists as meddlers whose actions range from negligence to outright abetting of terrorism.
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If he volunteered to be a human shield, then he knew what was going to happen. He's got no one to blame but himself.
Not enough bulldozers?
I agree.
The West Bank is a dangerous place. The State Department advises caution when travelling in areas of the West Bank. Here's what they say:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_922.html
Nominate him for a Rachel Corrie stupidity award and tell him to shut his pie hole. (If he still has one, because, you know, getting shot in the face and all...)
He also needs a job, but jobs for radical leftist Islamics are hard to find!;) Perhaps he should send his application to Cuba or N. Korea, but they won't appreciate his Islamism...what's a radical leftist to do?;)
He might have several possible pie holes at this point...;)
Not quite the whole story. He & his human shield colleague were in an apartment, heard a gun battle, left their apartment even though it was after curfew and went out on the street and headed toward the battle. So you have two young men out after curfew in the immediate vicinity of a gunfight. Unfortunate that he was hit, but completely understandable and even foreseeable. He is fortunate he wasn't killed.
Isn't a human shield suing because he got shot a lot like a kamikazi pilot complaining that his plane didn't have enough fuel for a round trip or crashed?
"Avery who came here in 2003 to act as a human shield"Well Avery got what he wanted.That says it all imo.I believe there was another incident around that time?Same area?A young woman was crushed trying to stop a bulldozer by laying down in front of it!These folks certainly fit the definition of useful idiots.
The curfew was at night? If so the gunner on the APC was probably using thermal sights. In that case his fluorescent vest does absolutely nothing, you can't even see it on thermal sights.
Should have stayed out of the fight.
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Going to a foreign country to stir up trouble for that country, which is what they are doing, they are asking to be shot.
I wonder if they make fluorescent vests to distinguish between those of us who aren't morons, from those of us who are, i.e., the sort of individual who would join ISM.
Human shield? - mission accomplished.
I wonder if he has figured out that humans just don't make very effective shields against apc's.
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