The ISM has not been linked to any terrorism or violence. There are rumors and unsubstantiated claims, but believe me, the Israeli government has investigated all of these and come up with nothing. This is because the ISM is not a criminal organization, but a group of peace activists.
In reality, the violence has been directed at the ISM. Rachel Corrie was run over by an Israeli bulldozer driver, as she tried to prevent the demolition of a doctor and his family's home. As the bulldozer driver advanced at her, witnesses ran forward shouting and gesturing at him to stop. Their shouts and pleas were ignored. According to witnesses, Rachel managed to scramble to the top of the pile of dirt that the bulldozer had raised beneath her and look into the cab of the bulldozer, before he proceeded forward, crushing her to death. After the soldier ran her over, he backed up over her. Then he offered no help to the witnesses in securing medical treatment for her. All the witnesses agreed that this was no accident. The Israeli troops were well aware of the ISM presence, because they had been dealing with the activists blocking their bulldozers for hours that day and for many days before this incident. In fact, a driver had pinned an activist to a fence earlier in the day with their bulldozer.
Tom Hurndall was working with the ISM in the same area, when he was shot in the back of the head by an Israeli army sniper, while trying to get Palestinian children to safety. The children and the ISM activists had been trying to put up a peace tent at the time. The Israeli army initially claimed that there had been a Palestinian gunmen there, but later admitted there was none. All the witnesses stated that there was no gunfire, except from the Israeli sniper.
Also in Rafah, James Miller, a British cameraman, was shot and killed although he and his colleague were shouting in Hebrew and English that they were journalists, were totally unarmed and he was carrying a white flag. James died.
Brian Avery was shot by an Israeli soldier in an APC, while he stood in the street, with his hands in the air and was clearly identified by his ISM vest. Witnesses say that there was no provocation.
The ISM activists who stand in front of bulldozers are not the first to do so. Because Palestinians are usually shot for doing so, Israelis like Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions www.icahd.org have repeatedly blocked bulldozers and rebuilt Palestinian homes. Rabbis from the group, Rabbis for Human Rights,(www.rhr.net) have stood before Israeli army bulldozers. Of the tens of thousands of Palestinian homes demolished in the occupied territories since 1967, 94% were homes of people who had no connection to terrorism. Most were those that were in the way of a road or settlement that the Israeli government wanted to build or homes of people that had not been granted a permit by the Israeli government to build a home on property that they owned. Again see www.icahd.org
These examples are but a fraction of the daily violence perpetrated upon Palestinian civilians in their own towns by Israeli soldiers. Between Sept. 28, 2000 and March 1st, 2004, there have been 2,859 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army. At least 82% of those were civilians and 19% were children.
If you want to know what is really going on in the West Bank and Gaza, see the Israeli human rights group Betselem's website www.btselem.org.
Also see www.gush-shalom.org and www.palestinemonitor.org For history and current articles on the Middle East see The Middle East Research and Information Center website at www.merip.org