HURNDALL KILLER RELEASED

The Israeli soldier who murdered an International Solidarity Movement activist has been released from jail three years early. Taysir Hayb shot photography student Tom Hurndall in the forehead with a high velocity bullet using a rifle with a telescopic sight in Gaza in 2003. Tom was attempting to rescue Palestinian children from Israeli gunfire. He spent nine months in a coma before dying from his injuries in a London hospital.

A long struggle by Tom’s family resulted in manslaughter charges and just an eight-year sentence for Hayb. He was also convicted of obstruction of justice, giving false testimony and soliciting false testimony.

Nurse and peace activist Alice Coy, who saw Tom get shot, said Hayb was only part of “a culture of impunity in which generations of Israelis are taught that Arabs hate them and are subhuman. They are then given guns and they know they can get away with killing Palestinians. The occupation and aggression of Zionist policy is harming ordinary Israelis as well as Palestinians.”

* See http://palsolidarity.org