Last Straw

This is a photo of the man who killed Tom Hurn­dall with a shot to the fore­head while Tom was res­cuing two Palestinian chil­dren from gun­fire. It feels strange to look on the face of a per­son who has killed someone you know. After a long battle by Tom’s fam­ily Tay­sir Hayb was con­victed yes­ter­day for killing Tom. Taysir’s mil­it­ary and polit­ical mas­ters have yet to take any respons­ib­il­ity for their part in what is a com­mon occur­ance as part of the gen­eral oppres­sion of Palestinians.

Reminds me of some­thing Bansky is quoted to have said:

People who fol­low author­ity are dan­ger­ous mother­fuck­ers. More crimes are com­mit­ted in the name of obed­i­ence than dis­obedi­ence. It’s always the people who do what they’re told who end up car­ry­ing out gen­o­cides and gas attacks.

So just to be on the safe side I’ve stopped doing what I’m told, ever. That way you can always be sure.

I met and got to know Tom a little in Iraq as part of the human shield action. Not sur­pris­ingly he was one of the good guys. He left Iraq and ended up in Israel, as far as I know because he wasn’t sure about our strategy in Iraq. This is what Tom wrote in his diary in Novem­ber, 2001:

What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that sat­isfy our instincts only sat­isfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done.

Update (26 May 2007): Killers name cor­rec­ted from Wahid Tay­sir to Tay­sir Hayb