Peace activist to return after tragedy

Richard, 32, from Brighton, remains haunted by the tragedy, which happened a year ago today and which he recorded in harrowing photographs.

Rachel, a 23-year-old American, was pulled under the bulldozer's blades as she protested against the demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Purssell could be forgiven for never wanting to return to the troubled region but he remains committed to fighting for Palestinian human rights.

He said: "I want to go back to see what has happened since I left.

"People are dying there every day. To stop trying to help because a killing directly affected me would be wrong. I came to realise my actions can have a big impact."

Mr Purssell became heavily involved with the peace movement during the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

He said: "There was a lot more public disquiet over the war against Iraq, which there hadn't been with previous interventions such as Afghanistan and Kosovo.

"Suddenly there was this big public identification that the war against Iraq was a war for oil, a war for profit. It was with this change in public mood I began getting more and more involved with activist work."

He decided to travel to the Middle East as an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) volunteer.

ISM is a Palestinian-led organisation which recruits international volunteers to participate in non-violent acts of resistance against the Israeli army.

Mr Purssell said: "People had developed a very effective form of activism based around the fact you were an international citizen and could act as a human shield. It really seemed to be working.

"I had the feeling something big might happen in the run-up to war.

"I thought the Israelis might utilise the distraction of world attention to launch a big offensive, maybe a reoccupation of Gaza. I wanted to be there."

He left in February last year and travelled to Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, where he met Rachel a week before her death.

He said: "She was absolutely dedicated to her work and very brave.

"The main thrust of what she did was working with kids. She worked with a local youth organisation and had really built up a rapport with them."

The pair spent a day and a half together protecting Palestinian workers as they rebuilt a well that had been bulldozed by the Israelis, cutting off a primary water supply.

He said: "We became closer than most people who are only together for a week. She had an amazingly dry sense of humour for an American and, ironically, she was optimistic."

There were eight ISM volunteers in Rafah accompanying Palestinians as they went about their daily lives.

He said: "We would stand around machines and workers as they carried out repairs, for instance, and shout through megaphones at the Israeli army not to shoot, that we were unarmed international citizens.

"It worked as a form of protection. We would also stay with families whose houses were due to be destroyed and let it be known to the Israelis that we were inside."

On the day of Rachel's death, the volunteers received a call about bulldozers operating in the Hay Salaam area of Rafah, making way for the Israeli separation wall.

The houses of two families the volunteers had been staying with were at risk.

Mr Purssell said: "We went straight there. There were two bulldozers and an armoured personnel carrier. The bulldozers were absolutely gigantic.

"For the next three hours, we tried to hinder what they were doing. We sat in front of them, obstructed them, tried to persuade the drivers to back off.

"It seemed to be working. We were definitely holding up and frustrating what they were doing."

He was standing about eight metres away when the protest went terribly wrong.

He said: "One of the bulldozers had lined itself up to try to bulldoze a house.

"Rachel had stepped out to confront it, as all of us had been doing all day.

"As the bulldozers move forward their blades are slightly in the earth, which pushes a big pile of earth up in front of them.

"Rachel climbed on top of that, wearing her fluorescent orange jacket. She would have been at least head and shoulders visible to the cab.

"The bulldozer just kept coming forward with her standing on this pile of earth and she turned to slide down the pile. When she got to the bottom, something happened. I saw a look of panic flash across her face.

"I don't know whether her foot got caught or what happened but she fell face down and then this pile of earth just engulfed her.

"We all ran over and were shouting and gesturing at the driver to stop but the bulldozer just went straight over the top of her with the blade still dipped down.

"It went about another ten yards and then just backed up.

"It reversed over her again without raising the blade so she was crushed twice."

Mr Purssell had a camera and despite his shock he knew the scenes had to be recorded.

At first he thought Rachel might survive but she was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at hospital, having suffered massive internal injuries.

According to the Israeli army, the volunteers were acting irresponsibly and her death was a "regrettable accident". According to the ISM, it was a brutal murder.

Conspiracy theories suggesting the Israeli army was being framed by the ISM began to circulate, fuelled by the internet. Mr Purssell remains certain of what he saw.

He said: "I witnessed a murder. I just know it couldn't have been an accident. Not only did the driver keep going but he then reversed back over her.

"These things are only moving at three or four miles an hour. He could have stopped at any point."

Claims Rachel's death was part of an anti-Israeli plot came as no surprise to the ISM, which is frequently labelled anti-Semitic.

Mr Purssell said: "A third of the ISM group in Rafah were Jewish. One of ISM's founders is Jewish.

"What the ISM does is nothing to do with anti-Semitism. My feelings for the army members as soldiers are very different to my feelings for them as human beings."

He returned to Brighton three weeks after Rachel's death and continued to work with the ISM, along with Brighton Palestine Solidarity and Sussex Action for Peace.

He has enrolled on a journalism course at City College and now plans a return trip to Gaza.

He said: "I want to see what has happened to the family I stayed with and the friends I made there.

"If it had been one of the other activists killed, Rachel certainly would have stayed and continued the work.

"Thousands of people there have to live with death day in, day out. If they lose a family member they have to carry on. I had the option to come back to my comfortable life. The people there don't."