The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall

by Tom Hurndall, Robert Fisk

The unfolding events in the run up to the Iraq war had given Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old British photojournalist, an increased curiosity and desire to journey to the Middle East. In February 2003, initially as an observer alongside the Human Shields, he left with a passion to make a difference, to record and photograph the truth for himself. We follow his journey first from Baghdad, then to Amman and the Al-Rweished refugee camp in Jordan, and finally on to the town of Rafah in Gaza close to the Egyptian border, where US peaceworker Rachel Corrie had been killed just weeks previously. On April 11th, unarmed and wearing an internationally recognizable orange peacekeeper jacket, he was shot in the head by an IDF sniper while carrying Palestinian children to safety. He died nine months later in a London hospital. The book follows Tom's life and thoughts in the final weeks leading up to the shooting. Motivated by a sense of injustice and striving to remain objective we are drawn into his increasingly serious photographs and words, through extracts from his diary, emails and poems. It is realised through collaboration with the Hurndall family on the eighth anniversary of that fateful day, and follows the 2008 BAFTA nominated Channel 4 film 'The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall'."

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2010

Reviews

[Teresa Bisset · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely heartbreaking! This is a book of photos of Tom Hurndall a young man from England who went to Jordan to help and photograph displaced refugees in a camp. From there he decided to go on to Gaza, Palestine where he photographed the daily lives of Gazans under occupation from israel. One day he came across a group of children playing on a mound of dirt being shot at by an israeli sniper. All the children ran in fear but 3 small kids were so scared they froze to the spot and no amount of coaxing could get them to run from the danger. Tom Hurndall, seeing the children were in dire need of help from a caring adult, ran over and grabbed one kid and carried her to safety. He went back for a 2nd child and just as he got to the child the sniper shot Tom in his head. His mother retrieved his camera while Tom was in hospital being operated on. Sadly Tom didn’t make it and passed away in hospital. After his death his mother used the photos still sitting in his camera to make this book. It shows the great compassion that Tom had for other less fortunate than himself. R.I.P Tom Hurndall

[Xenia Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Only House Left Standing is a collection of photographs, journal entries and poems by Tom Hurndall, a British photojournalism student who took a year out from University to travel to Baghdad, Amman and later to Gaza, where he was fatally injured by an Israeli sniper when he tried to save two small Palestinian children who were being shot at. It is a heart-breaking read and his photographs tell an even more heart-breaking story. He arrived in Gaza three weeks after Rachel Corrie, an American peace volunteer, had been killed by an Israeli bulldozer when she was peacefully demonstrating against the demolition of a Palestinian family's home. His photographs of the destruction in Gaza, the bullet-riddled homes in which families are trying to survive and the sheer size of the bulldozers which often begin their demolition of Palestinian homes in the middle of the night with families inside provide the visuals alongside Rachel Corrie's detailed reports and dispatches from Gaza. It is beyond my comprehension why this has been allowed to continue for so long, with all the world's western leaders turning a blind eye.

In Tom we lost another beautiful soul and a very talented photographer. I am grateful to the many people who helped put this book together in his memory.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photographs and writings of Tom Hurndall, 21-year-old British national shot in the head by an Israeli sniper in April 2003 while rescuing children from Israeli fire in Rafah, Gaza. He was on leave from university, learning to be a photojournalist. These are the photographs he took in Baghdad, where he'd gone to be a human shield during the Iraq-American War; in Amman, Jordan; and in Gaza. He never recovered consciousness and died nine months later in London after his parents had managed to take him home. His assassin was eventually convicted and sentenced to 8 years, one of the very few IDF murderers ever brought to book. Tom was killed three weeks after American Rachel Corrie was run over by an Israeli bulldozer while defending Palestinian houses the Israelis were trying to destroy. Ten days after Tom's death, BBC filmmaker James Miller was shot by the Israelis.

[Sabina Belim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative especially in light of recent events in the region, disgusting how the snipers sentence was reduced. The photographs are brilliant and overall such a sad story, Tom was murdered for helping children.

[Sam Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going to review this on my site this week as it’s going to take some digesting before I write.

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