British filmmaker was murdered by Israeli soldier in Gaza: jury

[idontwantaname]

LONDON (AFP) - A coroner's jury ruled that a British journalist was murdered when an Israeli soldier shot him three years ago as he was making a documentary titled "Death in Gaza."

The Israeli army decided in April last year to take no action against an officer implicated in the death of James Miller in May 2003 in the Gaza Strip.

"Based on the evidence laid before us, we the jury unanimously agree it was an unlawful shooting, with the intention to kill Mr James Miller," said the verdict at St Pancras Coroners Court in London.

"We can come to no other conclusion than that Mr Miller was indeed murdered," it said.

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060406/wl_uk_afp/israeljusticebritain;_ylt=AvA0Vyvl1ohXAHq976x8v8JvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

[JohnyCanuck]

1. It's not the first time this type of stuff has happened

However, when it's a Palestinian child on the receiving end of an Israeli bullet we just don't get to hear about it in the corporate news media.

AP Erases Video of Israeli
Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy

On Oct. 17, 2004 Israeli military forces invaded Balata, a dense, poverty-stricken community deep in Palestine’s West Bank (Israel frequently invades this area and others). According to witnesses, the vehicles stayed for about twenty minutes, the military asserting its power over the Palestinian population. The witnesses state that there was no Palestinian resistance – no “clash,” no “crossfire.” At one point, after most of the vehicles had finally driven away, an Israeli soldier stuck his gun out of his armored vehicle, aimed at a pre-pubescent boy nearby, and pulled the trigger.

SNIP

We discovered that an AP cameraman had filmed the entire incident. This cameraman had then followed what apparently is the usual routine. He sent his video – an extremely valuable commodity, since it contained documentary evidence of a war crime – to the AP control bureau for the region. This bureau is in Israel.

What happened next is unfathomable. Did AP broadcast it? No. Did AP place the video in safe-keeping, available for an investigation of this crime? No.

According to its cameraman, AP erased it.

SNIP

Gutkin, repeatedly looking at the camera and visibly flustered, told us that AP did not allow its journalists to give interviews. He told us that all questions must go to Corporate Communications, located in New York. He explained that they were on deadline and couldn’t talk. I said I understood deadline pressure, and sat down to wait until they were done. When he called Israeli police to arrest us, we left.

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/erasevideo.html

[pocket]

2. business as usual for that rogue state

and I don't mean Britain.

[Scurrilous]

3. U.K. jury rules filmmaker shot by IDF in Gaza Strip was 'murdered'

<snip>

"After the verdict was read, the Miller family said outside the court that they would continue to push for criminal proceedings to be brought against members of the IDF they claim are responsible for the filmmaker's death.

Louise Christian, a lawyer for the family, said the shooting was a "war crime" that contravened the Geneva Conventions, and that she would be seeking an immediate meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general.

She said the British government must demand extradition proceedings against those responsible, or that pressure be put on the Israeli authorities to bring prosecutions there.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, Sophy Miller said the jury's decision was a vindication of the family's work in uncovering the circumstances surrounding her husband's death.

"James was shot by someone who was deliberately murdering him, not by someone of a national army which was upholding the law of a national state," she said."


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/703355.html

[Poll_Blind]

4. Why don't we hear stories about the GOOD IDF soldiers?

Oh, my bad, I forgot most of them are rotting in Israeli prisons for refusal to serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Learn more about the Israeli "refusenik" movement from the following organizations:

Yesh Gvul

Courage to Refuse!

Refuser Solidarity Network

PB

[idontwantaname]

5. i think youre referring to Lt. Colonel Eli and friends

Mofaz: IAF pilots' letter of refusal benefits terror groups

<snip>

"We, both veteran and active pilots, who have served and who still serve t he State of Israel, are opposed to carrying out illegal and immoral orders to attack, of the type Israel carries out in the territories," the letter states.

"We, for whom the IDF and the Air Force are an integral part of our being, refuse to continue to hit innocent civilians... The continued occupation is critically harming the country's security," and moral fiber, it added.

<snip>

Colonel Ran said he decided to sign the letter of refusal due to feelings of bitterness and frustration that had been building up in him for many years.

"My feeling is that the many years of occupation have corrupted us as a people and have blurred the line between good and evil, right and wrong," he wrote. Ran said he had signed the refusal letter because of "the need to express these feelings and to infuse into the public consciousness the danger that the occupation poses to us."

<snip>

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=343998&contrassID=2

[Poll_Blind]

10. 1,664 refused to serve in OPT, according to Refuser Solidarity Network.n/t

PB

[barb162]

6. "...head of the IDF force ...was found not guilty"

" snip The head of the IDF force at the scene, a deputy battalion commander, was tried by a disciplinary court for illegal use of weapon and was found not guilty.

The officer who presided over the disciplinary trial, head of Southern Command headquarters Brigadier General Guy Tzur, ruled that the decision to open fire was reasonable given the circumstances at the time.

About a year ago, the military advocate general appealed Tzur's decision. However, the officer in question has not since been tried by the GOC Southern Command. snip"

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/703355.html

[idontwantaname]

7. just as a republican congress would find * not guilty. n/t

[barb162]

8. Not a good comparison

Civil action versus military court action.

Everyone should have 20-20 foresight and hindsight

[idontwantaname]

9. i want a hit of that...

is it for your glaucoma?

[barb162]

16. maybe you should be aware of your own

[Poll_Blind]

11. You seem to place so much trust in the IDF. It's endearing...

...to the IDF, anyway.

I'm sure they'd like to thank you in person but they have a little problem with being arrested for war crimes when they leave the country.

PB

[barb162]

17. you don't know what trust I place in anything and Britain should

be one of the last countries to talk re their crimes in Northern Ireland

[Englander]

18. Gerry? n/t

[Englander]

19. Actual evidence vs. made-up fantasy.

Can you tell which is which?

[Englander]

12. Which says it all, really.

That a civilian carrying a white flag, is deliberately targeted & murdered by
an Idf soldier, & the Isreali authorities decide that such an illegal act is
'reasonable', & that 'there was no basis for criminal proceedings'.

[Violet_Crumble]

14. Yeah, it does explain why civilian casualties are so common...

n/t

[Englander]

20. That it does. n/t

[Englander]

13. Briton shot by Israelis was murdered, says inquest jury

Vikram Dodd
Friday April 7, 2006
The Guardian

The shooting dead of British cameraman James Miller by an Israeli soldier in Gaza was murder, an inquest jury found yesterday. The jury also said Israeli authorities had "not been forthcoming" about how and why Miller, 34, was killed by a single shot fired by the soldier.

The verdict provides Miller's family with a springboard to seek the Israeli soldier's prosecution in Britain for intentionally shooting dead an unarmed non-combatant. The family's lawyers said the killing breached the Geneva convention and the jury's finding that the shooting was intentional put pressure on the British government to act.

They will press the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, to seek the extradition and prosecution of the soldier in Britain for the May 2003 murder if Israel continues to refuses to try him. Miller's killer was named at St Pancras coroner's court in London as Lieutenant Heib.

The coroner, Andrew Reid, said he would write to the attorney general about how similar fatalities could be prevented. A court official said this could include a request for Lord Goldsmith to examine how the soldier could be prosecuted.

The jury unanimously found that Miller, from Braunton, Devon, was unlawfully killed. Its forewoman said: "This was an unlawful shooting with the intention of killing Mr James Miller. Therefore we can come to no other conclusion than that Mr Miller was indeed murdered." At that moment the cameraman's family started to sob. The jury added: "It is a fact that from day one to this inquest the Israeli authorities have not been forthcoming in the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr Miller's death."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1748854,00.html

[Scurrilous]

15. Miller's family wants officer extradited

<snip>

"Lawyers for the family of British filmmaker James Miller, killed in Gaza three years ago, are pressuring the British government to demand the extradition of an IDF officer to stand trial for murder, after a London court last week ruled his killing a homicide.

The 10-member jury at the St. Pancras Coroner's Court in London on Thursday ruled that Miller's death was an "unlawful killing" and an "intentional act of murder", the solicitor for the Miller family, Louise Christian, told The Jerusalem Post.

Miller's death was a "breach of the Geneva Conventions" Christian said, and "we are inviting the attorney-general to institute proceedings against Lt. Haib in this country and to demand his extradition," she said.

The jury heard testimony that Haib, the leader of the IDF patrol on May 2, 2003 in Rafah, shot and killed the unarmed Miller, whom witnesses said was approaching Haib's patrol while holding a white flag at the time of his death."


http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498822884&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull