James Henry Dominic Miller (18 December 1968 – 2 May 2003) was a Welsh cameraman, producer, and director, and recipient of numerous awards, including five Emmy Awards. He was killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gunfire while filming a documentary in the Gaza Strip. Miller worked regularly with Saira Shah for several years, and they formed a business partnership to operate an independent production company called Frostbite Productions in 2001.
The Israeli Military Police investigation into Miller's death closed on 9 March 2005 with an announcement that the soldier suspected of firing the shot would not be indicted as they could not establish that his shot was responsible, though he would be disciplined for violating the rules of engagement and for changing his account of the incident. On 6 April 2006, the inquest jury at St Pancras Coroner's Court in London returned a verdict of unlawful killing, finding that Miller had been "murdered." Forensic experts from London Metropolitan Police concluded that the bullets were consistent with those used by the IDF. After meetings with the Miller family, the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, sent a formal request to his Israeli counterpart in June 2007 for prosecution proceedings to be enacted within six weeks against the soldier responsible for firing the shot. The requests were ignored by the Israeli government and prosecution proceedings have never been held.
Early life and family James Miller was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the younger son of Geoffrey Miller, an army officer who later rose to the rank of colonel, and his wife, Eileen, a headmistress. He grew up in the West Country, but from ages six to eight lived in the Outer Hebrides, where his father was posted. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he maintained that faith for the whole of his life. He was educated at Downside and later at the London College of Printing, where within a few weeks his tutors promoted him to the postgraduate course in photo-journalism. He worked as a photographer before moving to television.
In 1997, he married Sophy Warren-Knott, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Charlotte.
Career Miller started his working life as a freelance cameraman, and in 1995 joined the Frontline News collective as cameraman, producer, and director. He reported from the civil war in Algeria and from most of the world's major trouble spots from 1995 onwards, working for CNN, and for all the leading news broadcasters in Britain.
In 1999 he made his first film for Hardcash Productions, Prime Suspects, about a massacre in Kosovo for Channel 4's Dispatches programme. This film won the Royal Television Society (RTS) award for International Current Affairs in 1999. Almost every film he made for Hardcash won major awards. Prime Suspects was followed by Dying for the President about the Second Chechen War and Children of the Secret State about Korea, both also for Dispatches.
Miller then formed a professional association with television reporter Saira Shah, to make Beneath the Veil, about the life of women in Taliban-run Afghanistan. This film, shown on Dispatches and CNN, repeated the success of Prime Suspects by again winning the RTS International Current Affairs award. It also won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA, and the RTS "Programme of the Year" award. In addition, Miller won the RTS craft award for his outstanding photography. Miller and Shah's second film, Unholy War, shot at the height of the Afghanistan war in 2001, won Miller his first Emmy as director and (together with Beneath the Veil) also the prestigious Peabody award. Miller and Shah almost died of sub-zero temperatures while crossing the Hindu Kush during the making of this film. Frostbite Films was the name of the independent film production company set up by Miller and Shah in 2001 after this experience.
Miller and Shah were working on a documentary for the US cable network HBO at the time of his death. The resulting film, Death in Gaza, was released in 2004, and won three Emmys and one BAFTA TV award in 2005. Miller received posthumously the Rory Peck Award for Features in 2004 for Death in Gaza, having been a finalist on three previous occasions.
After Miller's death, his friend Fergal Keane wrote: "James Miller was one of the finest journalistic talents I have ever known. Had he lived he would undoubtedly have come to be recognised as one of the greatest documentary makers of his generation. As it is he leaves a journalistic legacy of immense worth."
Death The documentary which Miller was making on the day of his death (Death in Gaza, released by HBO in 2004) depicts Miller and his colleagues leaving the home of a Palestinian family in the Rafah refugee camp after dark, carrying a white flag, towards two IDF armoured personnel carriers manned by nine soldiers of the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion, a unit of Bedouin Arab-Israeli soldiers. They had walked about 20 metres from the veranda when the first shot rang out. For 13 seconds, there was silence broken only by Shah's cry: "We are British journalists." Then came the second shot, which killed Miller. He was shot in the front of his neck. The soldier who shot him was identified as First Lieutenant Hib al-Heib. According to a forensic expert, the fatal shot was fired from less than 200 metres away. Immediately after the shooting, the IDF said that Miller had been shot in the back during crossfire. It later retracted the assertion that he had been shot in the back. According to witnesses there was no crossfire and none can be heard on the APTN tape.
An IDF spokesperson made the following statement after Miller's death: "The IDF expresses sorrow at the death of the cameraman who entered a combat zone. Cameramen who knowingly enter a combat zone endanger themselves as well as the troops, and clearly run the risk of being caught in the crossfire." An IDF spokesperson described the circumstances of his death as occurring during "an operation taking place at night, in which the [Israeli] force was under fire and in which the force returned fire with light weapons."
IDF spokesman, Captain Jacob Dallal said, "Our forces found a tunnel at the house in question, when an anti-tank missile was fired on them. They shot back at the source of the attack ... James Miller was apparently hit during that exchange. The Israeli military expresses sorrow at a civilian death, but it must be stressed that a cameraman who knowingly enters a combat zone, especially at night, endangers himself."
Aftermath On 9 March 2005, the IDF closed the Miller case, announcing that the soldier believed responsible for the shooting would not be indicted. Military Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. The army said Military Police had carefully investigated the incident but had been unable to establish the soldier's guilt. "The findings of the military police show that an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) lieutenant, the commanding officer of the IDF force at the site, allegedly fired his weapon in breach of IDF Rules of engagement," a statement said. "However, it is not legally possible to link this shooting to the gunshot sustained by Mr. Miller." The army did say that the soldier would be disciplined for violating the rules of engagement and for changing his account of the incident. It did not elaborate. Heib was subjected to a disciplinary hearing before Brigadier General Guy Tzur, head of the IDF Southern Command. Despite advice from the Israeli Military Advocate General that he be disciplined for breaching the rules of engagement, illegal use of weapons, and misconduct during the investigation, he was cleared of wrongdoing. Military prosecutors appealed the acquittal, but he was cleared in a second hearing as well. Heib was subsequently promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain.
Miller's family expressed disappointment at the decision. His widow Sophy said, "Nothing can express our outrage that, waiting for two years and putting our faith in a system which has now failed to deliver, we still have prosecutors who suspect and continue to suspect a commanding officer and who will only bring disciplinary measures because of an initial flawed investigative process. The truth will come out and we hope the Israeli judicial system will mete out justice. This investigation does not serve the IDF, decent Israeli citizens, us, his family, and, above all, James."
British Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons said she was "dismayed" by the decision. "I deeply sympathise with James' family, who have worked so hard to secure justice for James. The British government will continue to raise James's case with the government of Israel."
The Metropolitan Police opened an investigation into Miller's death which was led by Detective Rob Anderson of the Specialist Crime Directorate. Anderson later told the inquest that the investigation was hampered by Israel's unwillingness to cooperate. The Metropolitan Police was refused permission to send officers to Israel and the Gaza Strip in order to visit the site of the shooting and interview soldiers and witnesses to the incident and the Israeli government did not release vital documents to the Coroner. Based on the evidence available to the investigation, Anderson concluded that Miller could only have been killed by gunfire from Israeli soldiers.
Legal action against Israeli government On 2 May 2005, the second anniversary of Miller's death, his family initiated a lawsuit against the Israeli government. The family charge that the Israeli army did not act with reasonable caution when troops opened fire on Miller, who was holding a white flag. Miller's widow Sophy said the family was determined to find justice and put an end to the "culture of impunity" within the Israeli army. "It is our hope that as well as accountability for James' death a successful civil case will go some way towards changing this and in doing so may make Israeli soldiers think twice about shooting innocent civilians," she told The Guardian.
More than two years later, on 5 August 2007, the family's lawyer, Michael Sfard, said, "The family demands justice, both criminal and civil. They deserve that the man who shot their loved one for no reason whatsoever should be indicted and get what he deserves. As he left a widow and two children, they deserve to be compensated by the State of Israel. This is something the political and military echelons have promised time and again, but they have not fulfilled their promise so far."
On 1 February 2009 it was reported that James Miller's family had accepted a £1.5 million payout from Israel. In a statement, the family did not confirm the amount paid but did say that it was "probably the closest we'll get to an admission of guilt on the part of the Israelis".
Coroner's inquest The inquest into Miller's death opened at the St Pancras Coroner's Court in London on 3 April 2006.
Giving evidence at the inquest, Miller's wife Sophy named the Israeli soldier who shot her husband as First Lieutenant Heib from the Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion, who was commanding a unit at the time of the killing on 2 May 2003. She said that the IDF had given out misleading information from the moment her husband was shot, and that Lt. Heib had given six testimonies, all of which were conflicting.
Footage of Miller's death was shown to an unnamed Israeli soldier who was quoted as saying that members of the IDF should not fire unless they felt they were under threat. He was quoted as saying: "There is no chance that it was an accident – the soldier could clearly see him, it was a perfect shot. I do not know what to say, it looks like murder, it looks like he wants to kill him."