US Citizen Shot by Israeli Forces Petitions Supreme Court Demanding Criminal Investigation
On April 5, 2003 Brian Avery, along with another ISM activist, was standing under a street lamp on a quiet empty street
in Jenin. Brian was wearing a high visibility medic vest with his hands in the air, clearly indicating he was an unarmed
international when an APC approached at under 30kmph and without warning open heavy fire from a range of just tens of
meters. After shooting Brian the perpetrators carried on driving. This was witnessed by four other activists from Sweden
and Denmark who were in the vicinity.
On February 28, 2005 the Israeli Supreme Court will hear attorney Michael Sfard petitioning on Brain's behalf, demanding
that the Israeli military authorities investigate the shooting. The following is taken from the appeal that was
submitted to the court:
This petition is brought against the military judge advocate for refusing to open an inquiry into the wounding of Brian
Avery despite the existence of substantial evidence that the injury was the result of criminal behavior by Israeli
soldiers.
ISM activist Brian Avery traveled to Jenin in order to provide humanitarian assistance to its residents.
On April 5, 2003 he was wounded by a bullet that entered his face, shattering his jaw and his nose. Since the incident
he has been in rehabilitation and is having an ongoing series of surgeries to reconstruct his face.
Eyewitnesses at the scene stated immediately afterward that soldiers opened fire in circumstances where they were not
under threat.
The Israeli army conducted an internal command inquiry and concluded there was no evidence that Brian was hit by shots
fired by Israeli soldiers.
THE INQUIRY DID NOT INCLUDE TESTIMONIES FROM THE EYEWITNESSES AND RELIED ENTIRELY ON THE TESTIMONIES OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS
SERVING IN THE REGION.
All requests made on behalf of Brian for a police criminal investigation have received no response.
Internal command inquiries made by the Israeli army are not reliable. In several cases the inquiries absolved the army
when subsequent military police investigations uncovered incriminating evidence and serious charges were brought.
This was the case in the killing of another activist, Tom Hurndall, who was fatally shot in Rafah six days after Brian's
injury. The internal command inquiry ruled that Tom was shot because of the presence of a Palestinian militant in his
vicinity. The criminal investigation of the military police discovered that the soldier who fired the fatal shot and
another soldier had lied in the internal inquiry. Charges of killing and interfering with the investigative procedure
were brought.
Similarly in the recent case of confirming the killing of the girl Iman Al Hams by the Israeli army unit commander an
internal command inquiry by senior military officials absolved the commander who "confirmed the killing". Later a short
investigation by the military police exposed that the unit commander lied in denying the allegations against him when
they found that incriminating radio conversations had been taped.
Brian's request for a criminal investigation into his injury is the minimum requirement of a regime that claims to
respect the rule of law and the sanctity of human life. The complete refusal to accede to this request brings into
question the protection the military judge advocate affords to innocents civilians harmed by the illegal use of weapons.