(pic: Tom Hurndall, pictured centre, was killed by Israeli occupation forces in January 2004) Jerusalem - A Palestinian photographer who was shot on Sunday while covering protests in the Gaza Strip may have been "deliberately targeted" by an Israeli soldier, a media rights group said on Tuesday. " Reporters Without Borders was told that (Mohammed) Othman was clearly identifiable as a journalist at the time of the shooting and was deliberately targeted," Reporters Sans Frontieres said. Othman was critically wounded as he covered demonstrations near the Erez crossing in northern Gaza. more

pic: David Bachar Another day and another Israeli 'soldier' murderer goes free - a present for Muslims around the world as Ramadan comes to an end. An Israel Defense Forces soldier found guilty of manslaughter in the 2003 death of a British peace activist was released Wednesday, after serving three quarters of his sentence. Sgt. Taysir Hayb's early release was secured last month, after a military committee overruled the Military Advocate General's opinion and ordered the soldier's release. He has served six years of the eight-year sentence he received in 2005. Thomas Hurndall, then 22, was shot in April 2003 while photographing an International Solidarity Movement protest in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where Hayb was stationed in a watchtower as part of the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion. Hurndall died the following year after a nine-month coma. more

Israel is a democracy with an independent and fair-minded judiciary didn't you know? In another blow to Israel's carefully cultivated image as an outpost of 'western values' in a sea of Arab/Muslim backwardness, the soldier who murdered British activist Tom Hurndall is to be released from prison after only six years - he was only sentenced to eight in the first place. Naturally the conservative-liberal UK government, stuffed as it is with friends of Israel , despite Clegg's supposed Palestinian sympathies, will say and do nothing by way of protest. The family of British activist Tom Hurndall have said they are angry that the Israeli soldier who killed him is to be released early from prison. Taysir Hayb will be freed next month after serving six years of his eight-year sentence, after a ruling yesterday by the Kastina military court in southern Israel. Hurndall was shot in the head in April 2003 as he was helping Palestinian children to cross a street in the Rafah a...