The IDF found guilty of murder

A UK coroner has ruled on the death of British journalist and documentary maker James Miller, 34 from Devon, who was shot in the head by a soldier of the IDF whilst shooting a documentary on the conflicts in Gaza in 2003. James had been wearing a clearly identifiable flak jacket and helmet marked "Journalist" when he approached an IDF armored personnel carrier waving a white flag and shouting "I'm a British journalist" in May 2003. He was attempting to gain their permission for safe passage from the area at the time, having spent the day shooting footage for his documentary into the lives of children in the Gaza Strip. He was shot once with a high-powered assault rifle clean between the eyes. Despite a soldier from the IDF admitting to firing the shot, an Israeli investigation in April 2005 cleared the soldier of misusing firearms. Mr Millers family, like those of Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie, received no help from the Israeli authorities whatsoever, and have claimed that the Israeli authorities willfully and deliberately hampered the official investigation into the death.

This week saw the UK coroners investigation into James' death. Having heard evidence from senior Metropolitan Police Det Insp Robert Anderson that Israel had been "uncooperative" during their own investigations into the shooting and had refused access to interview soldiers and witnesses, Coroner Andrew Reid had told the jury at St Pancras Coroner's Court, London, on Thursday to return a verdict of unlawful killing. He said they had to decide in the context of the case whether he had been murdered or was a victim of manslaughter. After around an hour of deliberation, the jury decided that Mr Miller had been deliberately shot on the night of 2 May 2003. A jury spokeswoman said: "We, the jury, unanimously agree 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."

Whilst this ruling can't ease the grief of Mr Miller's family, nor bring justice to the IDF and the soldier responsible for his death, it is important in so far as it is further proof of the cold calculated nature of the IDF and its operations on illegally occupied Palestinian land. Which makes you wonder why the hell licences for British arms sales to Israel last year amounted to nearly £25m, almost double the previous year (the licences covered the export of armoured vehicles and missile components). Israel was one of 11 countries described by the UK Foreign Office in its 2005 annual human rights report as "major countries of concern" and yet still gained government licensed military equipment. The sales cleared for Israel are the highest since 1999. This was before Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, sought assurances from Israel that equipment supplied by the UK was not being used against civilians and in the occupied territories. In 2002 the government said it was tightening controls on arms exports to the country after it found that assurances had been breached. So, it seems, nothing changes, and despite the evidence of abuse, despite the deaths of British and American journalists and activists, despite the unnumbered and unrecorded deaths of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, we continue to sell them arms, to let them act with impunity, and to maintain their charade of being humane, moral, and civiliased upholders of democracy, justice and human rights.