(Fwd) American Peace Activist Shot by Israeli Tank

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

The following was apparently not an "accident"; nor "collateral damage" and may just be the 
result of trigger happiness.
Fortunately, Brian doesn't seem to be anymore in life danger.

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"Michael Shaik" <michaelshaik at hotmail.com>
Date sent:      	Sun, 06 Apr 2003 06:53:54 +1000
Subject:        	American Peace Activist Shot by Israeli Tank

Today at about 6.30 pm Brian Avery, 24, of New Mexico was shot in the face by a burst of 
machine gun fire from an Israeli Armoured Personnel Carrier. The circumstances surrounding 
his injury are as follows:
Today the Israeli army of occupation operating in the Jenin area imposed its second day of 
curfew on the people of the city. Groups of young men and boys continued their resistance to 
the curfew by venturing out onto the streets to throw stones at tanks and other military 
vehicles.
At about 6.30 pm Brian and another ISM activist were at the ISM’s Jenin headquarters when 
they heard the sound of gunfire coming from the centre of the city, about two blocks away. 
They left the apartment to investigate and had traveled about a hundred metres when they 
arrived at a major crossroad and saw two armoured personnel carriers advancing towards 
them at low speed. There were no Palestinians on the streets in the area, armed or otherwise.
At the sight of the armoured vehicles both activists stood still and raised their hands above 
their heads.
When the first armoured personnel carrier was 50 metres from them it fired a burst of machine 
gun fire (an estimated 15 rounds) at the ground in front of them so that they were sprayed by 
a shower of broken bullets and stones. Tobias, Brian’s companion, leapt aside. He had fled 
about three steps when he looked back to see Brian lying face down on the road in a pool of 
blood.
Tobias and Brian were then joined by four other ISM activists who had arrived at the scene of 
the shooting by a different route. All six of them rushed to help him as the two armoured 
vehicles rolled past without stopping. He was conscious but when he raised himself from the 
ground they saw that his left cheek has been almost totally shot off.
The activists then performed first aid on him and phoned for an ambulance which took him to 
the Martyr Doctor Khalil Suleiman Hospital in Jenin where he was treated for shrapnel wounds 
to his face including bone fractures below the eyes, lacerations of the tongue and lacerations 
of his left cheek. A specialist was called in to examine his injuries and recommended that he 
be transferred immediately to a hospital in Afula in Israel but his departure was delayed 
because the Israeli military refused to grant his ambulance safe passage for more than an hour.
>From Afula Brian was transported to a hospital in Haifa by helicopter.
Under the Israeli Army’s own rules of engagement soldiers are not permitted to fire warning 
shots with mounted weapons. They may fire warning shots with light hand held weapons and 
must aim away from the people they are warning
When he was shot Brian was wearing a fluorescent red vest with a reflective white cross on 
its back and front.
For further information contact:
Tobiason: 057 836 527 or 067 437 690 or
Lasseon: 059 386 896