by Trauma_Hound 90 Replies latest members adult
The point was made the other day that the world mourned on Sept 11, but hoped that the US would learn and become more human toward the rest of the world. They added that people in other countries live through 9/11 everyday of their lives. Take for example the Palestinian situation. Instead it seems like the US administration is becoming more arrogant than ever.
Will
Why don't the US invade and bomb Israel, as they are also guilty of killing innocent lives to?
If Israel attacked the USS Liberty in 1967, killed 34 Americans and wounded 171 and caused millions of $$ in damage, and the US did nothing, I find it easy to believe the US does nothing with what's going on now.
When free speech crosses the line of responsibility (libel/slander)...
Palestinian human shield cartoon prompts protest
The Associated Press COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - A college newspaper cartoon describing the actions of an American peace activist, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer, as the definition of stupidity prompted a two-day student sit-in.
The cartoon depicts a woman sitting in front of a bulldozer with the dictionary definition of the word stupidity listed below, along with an additional definition: "3. Sitting in front of a bulldozer to protect a gang of terrorists."
Rachel Corrie, 23, a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., was killed Sunday as she tried to stop an Israeli bulldozer from destroying the home of a Palestinian physician. Witnesses said Corrie, whose parents live in Charlotte, N.C., knelt in front of the machine, which kept coming and crushed her. The Israeli military said the driver didn't see her in time.More than 60 students began a sit-in Wednesday after the cartoon appeared in The Diamondback, the student newspaper at the University of Maryland's College Park campus.
Setareh Ghandehari, an organizer of anti-war protests at the University of Maryland, said she and about 10 people remained outside the offices of the newspaper overnight Wednesday. They planned to intermittently protest the cartoon and the war in Iraq throughout the day, she said.
The newspaper printed an editorial Thursday saying it would not apologize for the cartoon, as demanded by protesters.
"Though many staff members objected to the cartoon's viewpoint, the editors unanimously determined that by apologizing for the cartoon, we would call into question the First Amendment - a blessing from our forefathers every newspaper and every protester in America lives by," the editorial said.
A telephone call and e-mail by The Associated Press seeking comment on the cartoon from the newspaper's editorial staff and cartoonist Daniel Friedman were not immediately returned on Thursday.
Ghandehari said the cartoon showed a double standard in the coverage of the issue.
"Every newspaper has a standard of decency... You wouldn't see cartoon in the newspaper making fund of 9-11 victims, you wouldn't see a cartoon making fun of a suicide-bombing victim," Ghandehari said.
In a letter published Thursday, Jay Parsons, the editor in chief of The Diamondback, said the newspaper had received thousands of e-mails and hundreds of telephone calls protesting the cartoon. Parsons said he objected to the cartoon when submitted, but decided Friedman's right to free speech outweighed his concerns.
"Friedman's cartoons are often jarring and controversial, but clearly this one went further than any other. When he submitted his cartoon Tuesday evening, several editors and I had a brief discussion and some voiced disagreement with Mr. Friedman's viewpoint. But ultimately, this decision was not about a viewpoint. The decision was about freedom of speech, and that made the decision easy," Parsons said. "Though the cartoon represents a radical view, The Diamondback's editorial board believes wholeheartedly in freedom of speech. We would be hypocritical to revoke any speech on the grounds of radicalism."
No comment from me...this says it all:
February 7 2003
Hi friends and family, and others,
I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me - Ali - or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me, "Kaif Sharon?" "Kaif Bush?" and they laugh when I say, "Bush Majnoon", "Sharon Majnoon" back in my limited arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) Of course this isn't quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: "Bush mish Majnoon" ... Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say, "Bush is a tool", but I don't think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago.
Nevertheless, no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it - and even then you are always well aware that your experience of it is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and the fact, of course, that I have the option of leaving. Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting halfway between Mud Bay and downtown Olympia at a checkpoint with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I'm done. As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah: a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are refugees - many of whom are twice or three times refugees. Today, as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, "Go! Go!" because a tank was coming. And then waving and "What's your name?". Something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously - occasionally shouting and also occasionally waving - many forced to be here, many just agressive - shooting into the houses as we wander away.
I've been having trouble accessing news about the outside world here, but I hear an escalation of war on Iraq is inevitable. There is a great deal of concern here about the "reoccupation of Gaza". Gaza is reoccupied every day to various extents but I think the fear is that the tanks will enter all the streets and remain here instead of entering some of the streets and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and shoot from the edges of the communities. If people aren't already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope you will start.
My love to everyone. My love to my mom. My love to smooch. My love to fg and barnhair and sesamees and Lincoln School. My love to Olympia.
Rachel
February 20 2003
Mama,
Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university can't. People can't get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can't get home; and internationals, who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, won't make it. We could probably make it through if we made serious use of our international white person privilege, but that would also mean some risk of arrest and deportation, even though none of us has done anything illegal.
The Gaza Strip is divided in thirds now. There is some talk about the "reoccupation of Gaza", but I seriously doubt this will happen, because I think it would be a geopolitically stupid move for Israel right now. I think the more likely thing is an increase in smaller below-the-international-outcry-radar incursions and possibly the oft-hinted "population transfer".
I am staying put in Rafah for now, no plans to head north. I still feel like I'm relatively safe and think that my most likely risk in case of a larger-scale incursion is arrest. A move to reoccupy Gaza would generate a much larger outcry than Sharon's assassination-during-peace-negotiations/land grab strategy, which is working very well now to create settlements all over, slowly but surely eliminating any meaningful possibility for Palestinian self-determination. Know that I have a lot of very nice Palestinians looking after me. I have a small flu bug, and got some very nice lemony drinks to cure me. Also, the woman who keeps the key for the well where we still sleep keeps asking me about you. She doesn't speak a bit of English, but she asks about my mom pretty frequently - wants to make sure I'm calling you.
Love to you and Dad and Sarah and Chris and everybody.
Rachel
February 27 2003
(To her mother)
Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again - a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here. Yesterday, I watched a father lead his two tiny children, holding his hands, out into the sight of tanks and a sniper tower and bulldozers and Jeeps because he thought his house was going to be exploded. Jenny and I stayed in the house with several women and two small babies. It was our mistake in translation that caused him to think it was his house that was being exploded. In fact, the Israeli army was in the process of detonating an explosive in the ground nearby - one that appears to have been planted by Palestinian resistance.
This is in the area where Sunday about 150 men were rounded up and contained outside the settlement with gunfire over their heads and around them, while tanks and bulldozers destroyed 25 greenhouses - the livelihoods for 300 people. The explosive was right in front of the greenhouses - right in the point of entry for tanks that might come back again. I was terrified to think that this man felt it was less of a risk to walk out in view of the tanks with his kids than to stay in his house. I was really scared that they were all going to be shot and I tried to stand between them and the tank. This happens every day, but just this father walking out with his two little kids just looking very sad, just happened to get my attention more at this particular moment, probably because I felt it was our translation problems that made him leave.
I thought a lot about what you said on the phone about Palestinian violence not helping the situation. Sixty thousand workers from Rafah worked in Israel two years ago. Now only 600 can go to Israel for jobs. Of these 600, many have moved, because the three checkpoints between here and Ashkelon (the closest city in Israel) make what used to be a 40-minute drive, now a 12-hour or impassible journey. In addition, what Rafah identified in 1999 as sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed - the Gaza international airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a giant Israeli sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years by a checkpoint and the Gush Katif settlement). The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around 600, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. I think it is maybe official now that Rafah is the poorest place in the world. There used to be a middle class here - recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people's vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can't.
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours - do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? I think about this especially when I see orchards and greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed - just years of care and cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a labour of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.
You asked me about non-violent resistance.
When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family's house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I'm having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be. I felt after talking to you that maybe you didn't completely believe me. I think it's actually good if you don't, because I do believe pretty much above all else in the importance of independent critical thinking. And I also realise that with you I'm much less careful than usual about trying to source every assertion that I make. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. But it makes me worry about the job I'm doing. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above - and a lot of other things - constitutes a somewhat gradual - often hidden, but nevertheless massive - removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive. This is what I am seeing here. The assassinations, rocket attacks and shooting of children are atrocities - but in focusing on them I'm terrified of missing their context. The vast majority of people here - even if they had the economic means to escape, even if they actually wanted to give up resisting on their land and just leave (which appears to be maybe the less nefarious of Sharon's possible goals), can't leave. Because they can't even get into Israel to apply for visas, and because their destination countries won't let them in (both our country and Arab countries). So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can't get out of, I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. I don't remember it right now. I'm going to get better at illustrating this, hopefully. I don't like to use those charged words. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I'm witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I'm really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not what I meant when I looked at Capital Lake and said: "This is the wide world and I'm coming to it." I did not mean that I was coming into a world where I could live a comfortable life and possibly, with no effort at all, exist in complete unawareness of my participation in genocide. More big explosions somewhere in the distance outside.
When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I've ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.
I love you and Dad. Sorry for the diatribe. OK, some strange men next to me just gave me some peas, so I need to eat and thank them.
Rachel
February 28 2003
(To her mother)
Thanks, Mom, for your response to my email. It really helps me to get word from you, and from other people who care about me.
After I wrote to you I went incommunicado from the affinity group for about 10 hours which I spent with a family on the front line in Hi Salam - who fixed me dinner - and have cable TV. The two front rooms of their house are unusable because gunshots have been fired through the walls, so the whole family - three kids and two parents - sleep in the parent's bedroom. I sleep on the floor next to the youngest daughter, Iman, and we all shared blankets. I helped the son with his English homework a little, and we all watched Pet Semetery, which is a horrifying movie. I think they all thought it was pretty funny how much trouble I had watching it. Friday is the holiday, and when I woke up they were watching Gummy Bears dubbed into Arabic. So I ate breakfast with them and sat there for a while and just enjoyed being in this big puddle of blankets with this family watching what for me seemed like Saturday morning cartoons. Then I walked some way to B'razil, which is where Nidal and Mansur and Grandmother and Rafat and all the rest of the big family that has really wholeheartedly adopted me live. (The other day, by the way, Grandmother gave me a pantomimed lecture in Arabic that involved a lot of blowing and pointing to her black shawl. I got Nidal to tell her that my mother would appreciate knowing that someone here was giving me a lecture about smoking turning my lungs black.) I met their sister-in-law, who is visiting from Nusserat camp, and played with her small baby.
Nidal's English gets better every day. He's the one who calls me, "My sister". He started teaching Grandmother how to say, "Hello. How are you?" In English. You can always hear the tanks and bulldozers passing by, but all of these people are genuinely cheerful with each other, and with me. When I am with Palestinian friends I tend to be somewhat less horrified than when I am trying to act in a role of human rights observer, documenter, or direct-action resister. They are a good example of how to be in it for the long haul. I know that the situation gets to them - and may ultimately get them - on all kinds of levels, but I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity - laughter, generosity, family-time - against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and against the constant presence of death. I felt much better after this morning. I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances - which I also haven't seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will.
Rachel
| Thu Mar 20, 3:34 PM ET |
| Eric Williams Howanietz, 21 from Chicago, Ill., is treated for wounds at the hospital in the West Bank town of Nablus, Thursday March 20, 2003. Howanietz was lightly injured Thursday by rubber-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli army as he watched Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli army jeeps near Nablus' Old City. (AP Photo/ Nasser Ishtayeh) |
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030320/168/3kos4.html
Mar. 21, 2003
Administration blasts Diamondback cartoon
By Jason Flanagan
Senior staff writer
University officials, student leaders and a U.S. congressman blasted The Diamondback yesterday for publishing an editorial cartoon about the death of American pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie, calling the cartoon tasteless and the newspaper an embarrassment to the university.
Related items: News: Administration blasts Diamondback cartoon (March 21) Cartoon incites all-night protest (March 20) Close to 2,000 e-mails pour in from across globe (March 20) Opinion: Staff Editorial: Administrative hypocrisy (March 21) Letters to the editor (March 21) Staff Editorial: To reject cartoon is to reject free speech (March 20) Letters to the Editor (March 20) Mark Hiew: Martyr for peace (March 20) FROM THE EDITOR: Response to controversy over yesterday's editorial cartoon (March 19) The cartoon: Editorial cartoon (March 18) |
Their opinions reflect most of the approximately 2,000 e-mails and hundreds of phone calls The Diamondback received in the last three days. Students staged an overnight sit-in protest Wednesday and returned yesterday to demand a printed apology, as well as an article honoring Corrie, before they moved to Washington to protest the war in Iraq.
Ann Wylie, chief of staff for university President Dan Mote, called the cartoon "tasteless" and "crude." She called the newspaper an embarrassment and questioned the reasoning behind publishing the cartoon.
"Mote feels exactly like I do," Wylie said. "We're embarrassed. The Diamondback embarrassed the university. People across the world think the University of Maryland is supporting this. [The Diamondback has] damaged me by publishing something as distasteful as this.
"I believe [The Diamondback] has the right do it. The issue is, why did they do it?"
Jay Parsons, editor in chief of The Diamondback, defended editorial cartoonist Daniel J. Friedman and the newspaper's decision Wednesday, saying the cartoon is an expression of freedom of speech. He said he would not apologize for publishing the cartoon because it would deny First Amendment liberties.
Parsons called the administration's criticism contradictory after Mote supported freedom of speech in a letter regarding the war in Iraq.
"What is an embarrassment is that we have university administrators who do not practice what they preach," Parsons said. "The entire university community received an e-mail from Mote promoting tolerance of differing viewpoints. But not one day later, does he and other administrators retreat to pressures that are coming in from the outside. I think it's hypocritical and goes against everything that higher education is all about."
Mote could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.
Journalism school Dean Thomas Kunkel said the cartoon was "offensive," and he would not have run the cartoon if he were a Diamondback editor. While stressing that the paper had the legal right to publish the cartoon, he said the freedom to publish did not make it the right decision.
"I think everyone needs to understand, it doesn't mean that an organization has an obligation to publish anything," Kunkel said.
Journalism school Associate Dean Chris Callahan followed Kunkel's lead.
"It was cruel, hurtful, racist and not something I would want in my publication," he said. "But does The Diamondback have the right? Yes. 100 percent, yes."
Parsons said editorial policy only prohibits material that is libelous or incites violence - attributes not in the cartoon, he said. Parsons said the newspaper's lawyer found nothing libelous about the cartoon.
But Callahan and Provost William Destler disagreed with the policy; Callahan said no major newspaper would have such flimsy standards, and Destler condemned the editors for making a heartless decision.
"That is a dangerously low standard, which is precisely what led to the publication of this offensive, insensitive and hurtful cartoon," Destler said in a written statement. "Are editors not also responsible for ensuring a degree of fairness, good taste and sensitivity?"
Jackie Jeter-Hunter, assistant director of undergraduate admissions, said the department has not received any negative feedback concerning the cartoon, and no incoming freshmen have retracted their applications because of the cartoon.
Corrie, who worked with the Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement, was killed while attempting to stop an armored Israeli bulldozer from razing a house in Gaza. News reports are conflicting; some say the driver purposely ran over her, while others say Corrie was caught in some debris when trying to flee. Israeli officials told the Associated Press the death was an accident and they would conduct an investigation.
The cartoon has also received criticism from U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn (D-4th District), who represents central Prince George's County and northern Montgomery County. Wynn talked to an outraged constituent and shared that person's concerns with the cartoon's statement.
"This cartoon has ignited somewhat of a firestorm of controversy," Wynn said. "I can get a good laugh at tasteless cartoons as much as the next person, and I'm not trying to be heavy handed ... [but The Diamondback has] a responsibility to act responsibly."
Dozen of students continued to protest outside The Diamondback's newsroom yesterday, some saying they would continue to protest at the newspaper's office even if no one is there until an apology is made.
"We're getting the message out, even if they're not here - it's symbolic," said Justin Valanzola, a junior special education major. "We're here to do something. We can't be apathetic anymore."
University Police spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Atwell said there were no arrests or serious problems involving the protesters, though they did not apply for a permit. Several officers were needed to quell and maintain the group, which created temporary voids in the police coverage, Atwell said.
Student Government Association President Brandon DeFrehn said the cartoon was done in "very poor taste" and "unnecessary." He applauded the students' mobilization and encouraged similar student movements on equally important issues. The protests were far larger than movements against tuition and fee hikes.
"I think it was great for students to protest," DeFrehn said. "I would like to see more kinds of protests and activism on issues. Those kind of things send a message. When people don't show up for tuition task force meetings, it sends a message that it's not an issue important for students."
Annapolis Bureau Chief Mark Davis contributed to this report.
Counter Punch
March 18, 2003
By MORGAN GUYTON
T he Israeli bulldozer driver who killed Evergreen State University student Rachel Corrie in Rafah, Gaza was probably not a public relations expert. Still he could not have picked a better time to commit a war crime when the US media as well as peace movement have geared up to focus all their attention on a war two countries away from Palestine. Perhaps it is with callous words that I must cope with the death of someone I did not know who made me cry when I saw her picture.
As I think of everything we must do to make Rachel's tragedy provoke a positive, permanent change in the shape of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict forever, I am haunted by the realization that she did not go to Palestine to be a martyr. Consider these words from her March 3rd International Solidarity Movement report:
"Internationals here can walk in front of tanks on Palestinian land without being killed. We can only imagine what it is like for Palestinians living here for whom this is not a nightmare, but a continuous reality from which international privilege cannot protect them."
Rachel took it as self-evident that no Israeli soldier or bulldozer driver would dare kill the citizen of a country from whom Israel was requesting a $11 billion aid package. She did not relish her 'international privilege'--she tried her best to share it. Her duty as she saw it was not to become a poster child but to fulfill the obligations of international peacekeepers under Articles 140, 142, and 143 of the Geneva Convention to gather information about military attacks against civilians in war zones as well as protect civilians from these attacks. She followed in the footsteps of thousands of US citizens who have gone abroad to prevent civilian loss of life with their bodies since the time of the Reagan years in Central America and even before then.
Rachel's two primary pursuits as an International Solidarity Movement volunteer in Rafah, Gaza were to prevent unlawful housing demolitions and protect Rafah's water supply. On several occasions, she and other ISM volunteers successfully prevented Israeli tanks from killing Rafah water officials as they repaired the Tel e-Sultan wells which the Israeli military has repeatedly tried to destroy. On March 4th, she was actually able to convince the US military attaché to stop Israeli gunfire within minutes against a house where she slept in a rare showing of support for US citizens by the Tel Aviv Embassy.
Rachel saved many lives and many houses in the month and a half she got to spend alive in Rafah. Still she has died and the precedent a lukewarm response by the United States government would set could have enormous repercussions for all future US peacekeepers as well as the future of Palestine and Israel.
What should the peace movement do to honor Rachel Corrie? First, we must not let our government fork over the $11 billion Israel has requested in supplemental aid without fundamental changes in Israeli policy. Second, we must ensure that our State Department makes definitive changes in its policy towards US peacekeepers who put their lives on the line just as courageously and for more noble reasons than the troops flag-waving patriots scream for us to support. Third, we must work to root out the racism in our own communities which require the death of a white girl to notice the thousands of dark-skinned Palestinians who have died in similar circumstances. Fourth, we absolutely cannot get washed away in protesting the war with Iraq to the point of abandoning the tragedy faced by the immigrant people of Israel and the indigenous people of Palestine and caused by the cowboy sheiks who use Christian and Islamic fundamentalism and tragically misguided gladiators to distract their populations from domestic problems and whet their own Apocalyptic fantasies.
Those of us who call ourselves nonviolent will lose political credibility if we hesitate to take action in Rachel's honor for the justice of Palestine. If we do rise up and compel permanent change to take place in US and Israeli policy, then Rachel Corrie will be remembered as a witness to the world for the triumph of nonviolence over tragedy.
Morgan Guyton works with Tri-City Action for Peace in Saginaw, Michigan. Email: [email protected]
Howanietz was lightly injured Thursday by rubber-coated steel bullets fired by the Israeli army as he watched Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli army jeeps near Nablus' Old City
Another hero here. Imagine that, watching youths throwing stones and then getting hit by a rubber bullet. My heart swells with pride.
she wasn't murdered. she was too damn stupid to get out of the way. i don't honor stupidity.
lol @ LB
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Freedom from War and Strife is a Human Right The plight of those so affected Coverage by BBSNews | |
Rachel Corrie: Solidarity Movement Differs With Washington Post BBSNews - 2003-03-21 -- The International Solidarity Movement has made a statement in response to international news coverage in the death of Rachel Corrie. Twenty three year old Corrie was in the Gaza Strip engaging in non-violent protest action against bulldozers intent upon tearing down a Palestinian home. Corrie, pictured with day-glo red and a bullhorn was "accidentally" run over by the bulldozer after what witnesses say was a two hour confrontation with two bulldozers and other ISM volunteers on the scene. The statement from ISM is as follows: "Our friend and fellow activist for peace, Rachel Corrie, was murdered on Sunday March 16, when she was deliberately run over by an Israeli-driven, US-made (Caterpillar D9) bulldozer, while trying to prevent a Palestinian civilian home from being demolished by the Israeli military in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip. A direct result of the international community’s failure to offer Palestinians an international protection force, Rachel Corrie and other ISM activists have actively confronted Israel’s policy of home demolition and international apathy towards this policy by living with families under threat and by refusing to leave homes or areas threatened with demolition. The ISM believes that its presence slows the process of destruction and hopes that the international community will ultimately act to support the daily nonviolent struggle of normal Palestinian families to exist. Demolishing civilian homes is an atrocious act of violence that violates Articles 12 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 33, 53, and 54 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Despite this clear international prohibition, the Israeli military government has carried out thousands of these home demolitions with impunity; resulting in thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians left without basic shelter and experiencing a cataclysmic blow to their lives, some becoming refugees for the second or third time in their lives. Deaths during home demolitions are far too common. On 2 December 2002, 68-year-old Ashur Salem, deaf, was crushed to death when the Israeli army dynamited his home while he was sleeping. On 6 February 2003, 65-year-old Kamla Abu Said, partially deaf, was also crushed to death when the Israeli army razed her home in Gaza. And less than two weeks before Rachel’s killing, on 3 March 2003, 33-year-old Nuha Sweidan -- 9 months into her pregnancy -- was crushed to death when the Israeli military dynamited an adjacent home to her own, causing Nuha’s house to collapse on top of her. None of the governments or international bodies that criticize Israel’s destruction of Palestinian homes has taken any concrete actions to stop it, despite universal condemnation by human rights organizations. Words of criticism are empty when they come at the very moment an additional $1 billion in supplemental military aid to Israel and an extra $9 billion in loan guarantees are under consideration by the US Congress. Rachel's death should at least give them pause. Instead, news of her death was juxtaposed in one newspaper with two articles detailing wide bipartisan support for further aid to Israel. On Sunday 16 March 2003, Rachel and her fellow ISM volunteers were confronting the drivers of two bulldozers who were in the process of razing Palestinian civilian land and homes. For two hours, Rachel and other ISM activists followed the bulldozers, trying to block their passage and hamper their efforts at destruction. Rachel was clearly identifiable in a bright fluorescent orange jacket and was speaking through a bullhorn when she was brutally run over. In its attempts to sweep responsibility for the incident under the carpet, the Israeli government has undertaken efforts to discredit Rachel, and to blame her and her colleagues for her death. Reports from the other seven ISM volunteers who witnessed the event and what is plainly obvious from photographs taken at the scene -- before and after -- make it incredible to assert that Rachel’s death was an “accident”. Following her crushing by the bulldozer, an Israeli tank came near the fallen activist and her friends, and then backed off. At no point did the Israeli forces offer any assistance. The Israeli government typically blames its victims for their fate. In the pages of the international media Palestinians whose homes are destroyed or who die trying to protect them are reflexively called “terrorists” or “terrorist supporters”. Rachel was not Palestinian and therefore was hard to label a “terrorist”, but nevertheless, Rachel was blamed for her own death. In addition, Rachel was accused of “protecting terrorists”, even though the home she died protecting was that of a Palestinian medical doctor. NOTES ON THE EVENTS AND AFTERMATH - When she was killed, Rachel was engaging in what is typically a relatively low-risk action, serving as an international monitor to an ongoing, blatant abuse of international human rights law and confronting a soldier in the process of committing an act of violence against an unarmed, nonviolent Palestinian family. - Rachel was clearly identifiable and non-threatening in both her nature and approach. Rather, Rachel did put her life on the line to stand up against a policy that is inhumane. Thousands of people do this every single day around the globe, in an effort to stop violence and atrocities against land, people, animals and crops. In this case, the bulldozer driver decided not to stop when Rachel nonviolently confronted him, instead choosing to run her over with a 9-ton bulldozer. Rachel is guilty only of assuming that another human being into whose eyes she was looking would not take her life. - A picture has been circulated that shows Rachel burning a drawing of the American flag. Trying to use this picture to somehow indicate that Rachel deserved to be run over by a bulldozer is an appalling act of demonization that infers that forms of protest which include flag burning are capital offences. In the words of Rachel’s parents: “The act, while we may disagree with it, must be put into context. Rachel was partaking in a demonstration in Gaza opposing the war on Iraq. She was working with children who drew two pictures, one of the American flag, and one of the Israeli flag, for burning. Rachel said that she could not bring herself to burn the picture of the Israeli flag with the Star of David on it, but under such circumstances, in protest over a drive towards war and her government’s foreign policy that was responsible for much of the devastation that she was witness to in Gaza, she felt it OK to burn the picture of the American flag.” - Eyewitness testimony to Rachel’s killing is clear and consistent. However, some journalists chose to selectively quote Rachel’s colleagues, leading to different reports of the events that led to Rachel’s death. For example, some media outlets reported that Rachel “slipped and fell”, leaving out the additional detail her colleagues reported -- that she fell under the weight of the dirt and rubble that was heaped on top of her. - Some journalists reported that Rachel sat, crouched, and/or lay in front of the bulldozer, implying she could not be seen. Witnesses report that first she sat down in front of the bulldozer when it was still at least 10 meters away and she was in plain sight. Then as the bulldozer kept advancing, she got up, climbed up on a mound of dirt and rubble, in order to look the bulldozer driver in the eye. It is not credible to assert that the bulldozer driver could have missed her. - The photographs taken on the day of the incident and at the scene show various angles of Rachel engaging the bulldozer drivers and show two different bulldozers. Again, reading the eyewitness testimonies will clarify that Rachel and the other ISM volunteers were in the area engaging two bulldozer drivers for approximately two hours before Rachel was crushed. The photos are 100% consistent with the eyewitness accounts and offer clear evidence that the bulldozer drivers were aware of the presence of the ISM volunteers and their efforts. - The Israeli Embassy in Washington DC has been using quotes by Thom Saffold in the Washington Post (Monday March 17, 2003), to try to advance their claim that Rachel bears sole responsibility for her death. Thom Saffold, while a previous volunteer with the ISM, is not a spokesperson for the ISM, he was not present at the incident, nor is he currently in Palestine with the ISM. Washington Post correspondent Molly Moore distorted the plain meaning of Saffold’s words when she irresponsibly composited three separate and unrelated statements into a single quote that any intelligent person can see does not reflect the philosophy of ISM or Saffold’s original meaning. CONCLUDING STATEMENT Rachel Corrie was acting in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King when her life was snuffed out. Many justice and human rights defenders before Rachel have lost their lives in their struggle for righteousness and in their attempts to make this world a better place and, sadly, others will follow after her. Rachel was a mature, conscientious human being who worked to bring people together and did wonders as an ambassador of the true face of the American people in a different part of the world -- an American people that does not turn up outside Palestinian homes and give their occupants 5 minutes to gather what possessions they can, before bulldozing into dust the fruits of a life spent working to provide for a family. In a very direct way, Rachel stood up for family values and for those who were too poor and powerless to be able to protect themselves. She was a true American hero. The United States government has a particular responsibility to investigate Rachel’s death, not only because she was a US citizen killed by a foreign government, but also because the US government actively supplies Israel with the military hardware and funds that enabled and continue to enable Israel to carry out these illegal and immoral acts. The world cannot go on ignoring the violence that continues daily to claim the lives and livelihoods of many other unarmed, nonviolent Palestinian civilians. Rachel Corrie offers us an opportunity to look through a window into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and see things as they are. Let us not close the curtains and go about our business. She and the Palestinian people deserve better." ### From an ISM press release see: http://www.palsolidarity.org. Michael Hess is the Editor of BBSNews in Charlotte, NC. Write to the editor here. Not all submissions are published. Or visit the completely new discussion forum at nugod.net. | ||
