Brian Avery

Brian Avery (born 1979) is a former American volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), who was shot in the face and seriously disfigured on April 5, 2003 while working for the ISM in the West Bank town of Jenin.
==Shooting incident==
In a February 2005 interview, he said:
:[W]e weren't two blocks from our apartment when an Israeli convoy of two vehicles, a tank and an armored personnel carrier, drove up the street from the direction that we were walking from. And so as we heard them coming closer, we stepped off to the side of the road to let them pass by, which was again, you know, a very, very typical situation for us to encounter the soldiers, even during the curfew, and for them just to pass on by ... And so we stood to the side of the road, we put our hands out to show we didn't have any weapons and weren't, you know, threatening them in any way. And I was wearing a fluorescent vest to, you know, try to make ourselves as visible as possible. And once they drove within about 30 meters of where we were standing, they opened fire with their machine guns and continued shooting for a very long time, probably shooting about, you know, 30 rounds of ammunition, which is quite a lot when you see them in action. And I was struck in the face with one of the bullets and, you know, was knocked to the ground immediately. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/25/1455249
According to the Jerusalem Post (9/20/07; 11/19/08), Brian and his associates were "wearing red reflector vests with the word "doctor" in English and Arabic." Avery was hit in the face, his cheek was torn and his eye socket and jaw bones were smashed. The army refused to order a formal investigation of the incident, since that their probe found that no soldiers on patrol in the area that night reported such an incident as it was described by the four witnesses."Wounded activist testifies against IDF". Jerusalem Post, 20th Sept 2007.
==Israeli Supreme Court hearing==
Avery appeared before the Israeli Supreme Court on February 28, 2005 to request a criminal investigation into his shooting. He accused Israeli troops of shooting him without provocation. The court responded by ordering the military to reopen Avery's case. Avery's attorney, Michael Sfard, said that the ruling "shows the military that even internal inquiries should be managed professionally and with care to get testimony from all sides, not just from military," and that it "coerces the military to change its stand on things. This is definitely not usual." http://www.kcchronicle.com/MainSection/other/5539180852183.php
==Out-of-court settlement==
In November 2008, Avery accepted a settlement for NIS 600,000 (USD $150,000) from the state of Israel in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. According to Shlomo Lecker, his Israeli lawyer, "The sum does not reflect the injuries Avery suffered... On the other hand, it's one of the very few times the state has awarded damages to anyone hurt by the IDF during the Second Intifada." Lecker said that Avery was willing to settle because of the need to defray some of the costs of the reconstructive operations he must still undergo, in addition to skepticism that the 15-month-long investigation would ever reach a satisfactory conclusion.
==See also==
*James Miller (filmmaker)
*Tom Hurndall
*Rachel Corrie
==References==
* Goodman, Amy. U.S. Peace Activist Brian Avery Returns to Israel Two Years After Being Shot in the Face. DemocracyNow.org, February 25th, 2005
* Lori, Aviva. Who Shot Brian Avery?, Ha'aretz International, March 18, 2005
* Nessan, Lisa. Brian Avery's day in Israel's Supreme Court, The Electronic Intifada, 28 February 2005
* Stevens, Kristen. Israeli Supreme Court orders military to reopen case of wounded U.S. activist, The Associated Press, March 1, 2005
* Carl in Jerusalem "Protecting soldiers from outside challenges"
==Further reading==
* Broili, Susan. Brian Avery's life altered after being shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in Jenin, Al-Jazeerah.info, 26 June, 2003
* Schmidt, Lasse Jeppesen. The Shooting of Brian Avery, and the Israeli Cover Up, PalestineChronicle.com, 19 November, 2008
* Schmidt, Lasse Jeppesen. One year after the shooting of Brian Avery, IfAmericansKnew.org, 6 April, 2004
* Schmidt, Lasse Jeppesen. Westerners Killed to Suppress Palestinian Perspective?, CriticalConcern.com, 19 March, 2008
Category:American anti-war activists
Category:Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Category:1979 births
Category:Living people
Category:Second Intifada casualties
Category:Human rights in the West Bank