I attended the Brian Avery event at the RCNV and saw the movie, "The Killing Zone". Here are some highlights. The movie, a documentary of ISM activity in Gaza showed the destruction of a row of houses, one of which Rachel Corrie died defending.

The narrator mentioned the tunnels, very briefly, and without explanation as to why the Israelis were so intent on destroying them. The tunnels were the reason the IDF was destroying the row of houses on the border of Gaza and Egypt. Through those tunnels, the Palestinians smuggle guns, ammo, rockets, bombs, and explosives to be used against Israeli citizens. The Israeli government was faced with the dilemna of what to do. They could 1. Declare war on Egypt and break the peace treaty or 2. They could try to monitor the tunnels and kill people who try to bring munitions though them. 3. They could do nothing and allow the weapons to be used to kill Israeli citizens or 4. They could find and destroy the tunnels with no loss of life. Obviously they chose the last option, and if Rachel Corrie hadn't stood in front of the bulldozer, no one would have died. The driver of the bulldozer thought he was saving lives by destroying the tunnels.

The documentary film crew got a call that a little girl had been shot while sitting at her desk while in school. The film crew raced to the hospital and were lucky enough to be filming just as she emerged from her coma and gleefully greeted her brothers and sisters and her mother.
What a Hallmark moment! But in a bittersweet turn of events, they discover that she is completely blind.

How extremely lucky (as filmmakers) they were to be there just as she came out of the coma!!

The film crew visits the UN school where she was shot. The narrator shows the bullet hole still in the glass and points to the hill nearby which she says is "an Israeli position." Could it have been a bullet from someone other than an Israeli? The narrator does not ask this question. In fact, every bullet is from the IDF according to "The Killing Zone."

Do Palestinians ever fire shots in the air? Do Palestinians ever hit civilians in the crossfire of their gun battles with the IDF? This film does not consider this possibility.

The film shows the account Alice Cox who witnessed Rachel Corrie's death. She said that Rachel was "eyelevel with the bulldozer driver. Her head could be seen above the blade." With her head visible above the blade, how could the driver see her bright orange vest which the ISM has repeatedly maintained is proof the driver purposely ran her over?

The film shows footage of another encounter the ISM has with a bulldozer. Four or five ISM protesters with orange vests virtually surround it, pushing physically at the blade and running right in front of it. One man nearly gets crushed and only at the last second sprints away. If this is a typical ISM bulldozer confrontation, its surprising no one else has gotten killed yet. The film shows how very dangerous this form of protest is.

The filmmaker's interview IDF member Pinky Zoaez at an Israeli outpost in Gaza. While the filmmakers are there, their cameras record images of rocket fire on Israeli positions. Zoaez describes the area as "a combat zone" and the film provides the evidence of this. Poofs of smoke appear on the screens from the surveillance cameras.

The filmmakers move on to document the shooting of Tom Hearndahl who one witness painfully recalls was rescuing children when he was shot.

The film shows an Israeli armored personal carrier drive by and 8 or 10 boys pelt it with rocks. The narrator's voice talks of "children trapped in violence" but the picture shows teenage boys acting violently. No mention was made of their parent's role. Do they not know what these boys are doing? Do they encourage them to engage in this dangerous activity? We don't get a clue from this film except that Israel is to blame for everything. Blame the Jews.

As for Brian Avery, he and his Swedish co-worker with the ISM heard bullets firing outside their office. They went out at night, in a combat zone and during curfew to "see if anyone had been hit or needed medical care." He claims the IDF shot 230 rounds at him and his co-worker. He was hit once and the other worker was not hit at all. That's some pretty poor shooting. One hit and 229 misses?

Avery complains he had to wait one and half hours for an ambulance to cross into a combat zone at night during a gunbattle and during curfew to transfer him to a better equipped and better staffed Israeli hospital. He claims that the Israelis would not do this for him if he were Palestinian. There he has two surgeries which, since medicine is socialized in Israel, was paid for him by Israel. Avery gives no credit to the Israeli doctors and nurses nor does he express his appreciation for the medical bills they paid for. Instead, now that he is better, he is going on tour to spread the word of how bad the Israelis are and how warm and generous the Palestinian people are.

As for Observer's comments that Palestinian violence is only done by a small group of people. The Palestinian Authority (the PA not the PLO)has an armed police force of 40,000 men who are one and the same members of groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Fatah, Hizzbollah, the PLO, etc. Recent opinion polls show that 75% of the Palestinians support the suicide bombings. Even more chilling is a poll of Palestinian mothers which found that one in five want their children to become a suicide bomber. Observer hasn't seen the incitement the PA promotes to hate the Jews, kill the Jews, and the glory of martyrdom even for children.

Avery scoffs at those who claim the Arabs "want to drive the Jews into the sea." For the Israelis, it is not mere paranoia. The Nazi holocaust in the 1940's, four Arab wars of annihilation since 1948 against Israel, two intifadas and 107 suicide bombers coming from the West Bank (or Samaria and Judea if you want to use the non-Jordanian name for the region)are more than enough reason for the Israelis to believe that their very existance is at stake.
For more articles on this topic please visit www.dafka.org www.memri.org (for English translations of Arab newspapers)and for anti-Israeli bias in the press visit www.honestreporting.org