Anniversary of Rachel Corrie Killing

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday April 14, 2004 15:56

by BBF

In memorary of the brutal killing of Rachel Corrie Killing

Anniversary of Rachel Corrie Killing
Activists Tackle Bulldozer Maker, US Aid to Israel

Still angered by the death of Rachel Corrie, a U.S. peace activist who was run over and crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer, peace campaigners are urging U.S. legislators to investigate the death of the 23-year-old activist.

Corrie was killed in Rafah, Palestine while trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip on Mar. 16, 2003.

The U.S. company Caterpillar Inc, based in Illinois, built the nine-ton bulldozer that ran over Corrie, a college student from Olympia in Washington State. Her death made international headlines.

Dozens of non-governmental groups and peace activists, including Jewish groups and individuals, are taking part in a series of activities to honor her death, including protests outside Caterpillar offices.

They say they are particularly concerned because the bulldozer was made in the United States and sent to Israel as part of the regular U.S. aid package to that country, which amounts to $3-to-$4 billion annually; all of it, point out the activists, U.S. taxpayers' money.

Along with Corrie's family, the activists say using Caterpillar bulldozers to destroy civilian homes--not to mention to run over unarmed human rights activists--also violates U.S. law, including the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits the use of military aid against civilians.

Caterpillar, a company with annual sales of more than $22.8 billion, more than half of which comes from overseas business, has been reluctant to divulge how much money it makes from its dealings with Israel.

Caterpillar did not return phone calls from IPS.

More than 30 vigils and educational events marking the one-year anniversary of Corrie's death are taking place in 30 cities in 19 U.S. states. Activists also held a ceremony at the Erez crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Speaking outside the Caterpillar office in Washington D.C., Adam Shapiro, an American Jewish activist who was deported by Israel for his humanitarian work, said the groups want the company to stop selling machinery to the Israeli military.

"Our message to Caterpillar is to stop selling bulldozers to Israel and to demand that the Israeli military cease and desist from using the Caterpillar bulldozers in its occupation of Palestinian land," said Shapiro, a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to which Corrie belonged.

"It looks really bad when Caterpillar's bulldozers destroy somebody's home," added Shapiro.

The City of Santa Cruz, California, population 55,633, proclaimed March 16 'Rachel Corrie Day.'

"It is a very sad commentary on the state of political affairs in the United States that our national government has done virtually nothing to find out what happened and to insist that those responsible for her death be held accountable," said Santa Cruz Mayor Scott Kennedy in a statement.

An Israeli army investigation concluded last year that the Israeli driver of the bulldozer did not see Corrie and did not deliberately run over her, despite repeated eyewitness accounts to the contrary.

The contradiction between the Israeli and eyewitness accounts "makes an independent U.S. investigation into Rachel's death even more imperative", said several groups from the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, in a statement.

Amnesty International USA also renewed its call for an independent investigation of her death.

A current resolution in the U.S. Congress urging a probe has only 56 co-sponsors, and needs many more before the body orders a formal investigation.

Earlier this month, Elizabeth Corrie, Rachel's cousin, wrote in the International Herald Tribune that a year of silence has passed since her cousin's death, revealing "immoral and criminal truths."

Rachel Corrie died attempting to prevent the demolition of a home, a common practice under the Israeli Army's ''collective punishment'' code, which has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising against Israel's occupation of parts of the Palestine territories in September 2000, Elizabeth added.

The demolitions violate international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Elizabeth Corrie said the Bush administration acted with ''cowardice."

"Citizens of the United States should ask themselves how it is that an unarmed U.S. citizen can be killed with impunity by a soldier from an allied nation receiving massive U.S. aid, using a product manufactured in the United States by a U.S. corporation, and paid for with U.S. tax dollars," she wrote.

Peace activists are also angered because Corrie's death was the first in a number of Israeli attacks on foreign citizens and peace activists in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Israeli army has cracked down particularly hard on activists from the International Solidarity Movement, saying they have hampered military operations in the occupied territories.

British citizen Tom Hurndall was shot in the head Apr. 11, 2003 and died Jan. 13, 2004.

U.S. national Brian Avery was shot in the face Apr. 5, 2003 and seriously injured, despite the fact he reportedly had his hands up and was wearing a vest that identified him as an international worker.

British journalist James Miller was also shot and killed in April 2003.

The groups contrast the treatment of the injured and slain activists with the killing of three U.S. citizens, presumably by Palestinian gunmen, in an explosion Oct. 15, 2003 as they traveled through Gaza. Within 25 hours, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrived to investigate their deaths.

"While the U.S. government has assisted in the investigations into cases of U.S. citizens killed by Palestinian armed groups, it has failed to do so in Corrie's case, raising the appearance of a double standard," said AIUSA in a statement.

"After one year, neither the FBI nor any other U.S.-led team has done anything to investigate the death of an American killed by an Israeli," said Elizabeth Corrie. "Why the double standard? Perhaps this reveals the most disturbing truth of all."

Elizabeth Corrie herself has become the subject of hate mail and incitement on right-wing websites. The "Right Thinking" homepage wrote: "one more Corrie, somewhere there is a bulldozer waiting for this girl."

The activists say their congressional resolution is not anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.

"On the contrary, this resolution strengthens the U.S.-Israel relationship by encouraging the two countries to work together to ensure the protection of the lives of American citizens engaged in human rights and humanitarian work," they said in their statement.

"I think her death brought home to a lot of people that the cause that we are working for is serious and takes lives, and is a reminder to us why we have an obligation to keep working for justice and peace," said Josh Ruebner of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel.

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Rachel Corrie, One Year Later

by The Truth

Wed Apr 14, 2004 16:18

Rachel Corrie, One Year Later

By Steven Plaut
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 13, 2004

The one-year anniversary of Rachel Corrie's demise has arrived.

For those whose memories fail them in this matter, let me refresh things.
Rachel Corrie was a young fanatic college student from Washington State,
who decided she could make the world a better place by showing her
solidarity with Middle East terrorism and Palestinian mass murderers. She
joined the International Solidarity Movement, a communist-anarchist group
who openly support Palestinian terrorism.

Corrie set up shop in the Gaza Strip, where she and her ISM comrades spent
their days trying to harass and provoke Israeli troops and interfere with
Israel's anti-terrorist
military operations. They would set up obstacles on roads to prevent
Israeli troops and vehicles using them and otherwise assist and defend the
terrorists.

In one such confrontation, Corrie was trying to block an Israeli army
bulldozer that was knocking down homes of terrorists and buildings hiding
tunnels through which weapons and explosives were being smuggled into the
Gaza city of Rafiah from Egypt to Palestinian mass murderers.

Corrie and her ISM comrades wanted to help protect the Gaza tunnels, and to
protect
the "right" of Palestinians to continue to mass murder Israeli civilians.

In the confrontation, Corrie put herself in a position where the bulldozer
driver could not see her, and she was dragged under the heavy machine.
She died in a PLO ambulance or hospital shortly thereafter.

The ISM then issued a host of "eyewitness" reports about the accident,
claiming it was
in fact cold-blooded murder, which turned out to be fabrications.

The simple fact of the matter was that Corrie had figured the Israeli
bulldozer driver could be cowed into backing off if he saw her blocking
his access to the terrorist house, and she probably even figured the
operator correctly, except he did not see her from his limited-visibility
window on the rig.

Ever since her stupidity led to her death, Rachel Corrie has become the
matron martyr saint for the pro-terrorism Left around the world, the Jean
D'Arc of Palestinian terrorism.

Her ISM friends declared she was "murdered" intentionally by Israel. Her
death has been exploited by the Bash-Israel movement and by anti-Semites all
over
the world, as a means to delegitimize Israel. The PLO adopted her as
mascot,
declaring that she
died "fighting Israel's security fence", and never mind that the building
of the security fence was begun only well after she was dead.

After Corries demise, other ISM pro-terrorists were also injured when they
put themselves in the middle of firefights, triggered by PLO assault
teams. Like Corrie, they were injured and one died trying to protect those
terrorists from Israelis shooting back.

In another fatal incident involving an ISM member (Tom Hurndall), the ISM
led
a world-wide campaign to demonize the soldier who shot the pro-terrorist
interfering with a
military operation. The soldier was an Israel Arab Bedouin patriot serving
in
the Israeli military.

Corrie's own parents have gone on their own revenge-jihad against Israel,
touring the world to fan the demonization of Israel, and representing
daughter Rachel as a "victim of Israel's illegal occupation."

They and other ISM supporters have been organizing a boycott of the
Caterpiller Corporation because it sells machines to Israel, including the
one with which Corrie chose to play "chicken" a year ago.

All this reminds me of those people who sue McDonald's because they are
obese.

In their anniversary statement, Rachel Corrie's parents declared that Rachel
"believed that the nonviolent activism that she was doing and supporting
would make not only Palestinians but also Israelis and Americans more
secure-- by supporting Palestinians who practice nonviolent rather than
armed
resistance."

But Rachel and her ISM friends believed in nothing of the sort and were
doing nothing of the sort. The ISM should probably stand for "I Support
Murderers."

The official ISM web site endorses "armed struggle" by Palestinians, which
means random mass murders of Israeli children and other living things.

Corrie died as a result of her own obtuseness. She was in Gaza to help
promote Palestinian terrorism and to prevent Israel from protecting its
own citizens. She died protecting the illegal tunnels into Gaza from
Egypt, through which the suicide bombers obtained their materials. The
most lasting images of Corrie was of her face contorted with rage as she
burned an American flag.

When Reuters reported that Palestinians "honored" her after her death in a
"symbolic funeral" by flying US flags, James Taranto from the Wall Street
Journal remarked that if Corrie were still alive, no doubt she'd have burned
the
flags.

Even the Far-Leftist Mother Jones magazine considered her a dangerous and
deluded little twit .

The Israeli army investigated the death and concluded that Corrie had
effectively committed suicide. Taranto also suggested that Corrie be
awarded the "Idiotarian of the Year Award". A Darwin Award is in order.

The ISM is not simply an innocent, if evil, fringe debating society.
Within Israeli territories, its members have actively collaborated with
terrorists.

They hid weapons and wanted terrorists in their offices.

The local ISM offices hosted two Moslem suicide bombers from the UK, who had
entered Israel as "peace activists", and who then blew a Tel Aviv bar to
smithereens the next day. The ISM is so closely coordinated with the PLO
that it is for all intents and purposes a PLO front group. More recently,
ISM trouble makers have been trying to sabotage Israel's security fence,
lest the fence prevent some Palestinian mass murderers from conducting
atrocities and blowing up Israeli children and other civilians.

Yet despite the open endorsement of terror by ISM, it continues to enjoy
US tax-exempt status as a "charity" and continues to enjoy gifts of
megabucks from the usual culprits who fund the hate-America left.

The liberal press continues to coo over the ISM as if it were a "peace
group".

The Israeli government has been too pusillanimous and cowed by its fear of
bad press to send the ISM pro-terrorists a-packing.

While the ISM demonizes Israel, the very fact that it has been allowed to
continue to
operate its provocations within Israeli-controlled territory attests to how
liberal and tolerant Israel has been.

It is no coincidence that the same ISM people protecting homes of suicide
bombers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank would never dare place themselves in
jeopardy by blocking, say, US troops arresting Saddam Hussein in his Tikrit
rat-hole or by protecting al-Qaeda or Taliban facilities in Afghanistan, or
the
terrorist
headquarters in Fallujah, Iraq.

The Corrie parents are not urging other deluded young undergraduates to rush
to Fallujah to defend the homes of Iraqi terrorists under siege by American
GIs to protest American "occupation" of Iraq.

The ISM designer-jean "revolutionaries" and mall-Marxists would be mowed
down
mercilessly if they tried interfering with anti-terrorism operations
anywhere
in the world but in Israel.

In the past year Corrie and the other ISM supporters of terror who got
themselves injured fighting for Palestinian terror were beatified constantly
by the
Western media.

The Europeans and the American liberal newspapers continue to commemorate
Rachel Corrie through attacking Israel every time it tries to deter terror
by
knocking down the home of a suicide bomber or by tearing down houses
protecting
smuggling tunnels or Gaza rocket production workshops. (Over 200
Palestinian
rockets were fired
into Israeli civilian areas from the Gaza Strip last year alone.)

Shortly after Rachel Corries death, columnist Dennis Prager wrote: "So,
Olympia, grieve for Rachel Corrie's parents, but spare us the hagiography.

Rachel Corrie died fighting for the International Solidarity Movement, a
Palestinian group dedicated, in its own words, to armed struggle against
Israel. She ended up being a useful idiot for, and one more victim of,
Palestinian terror." Nothing could sum things up better.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&
cid=1081577937778&p=1006953079865

Apr 17 2003 - Rachel Corrie Vigil & March to Israeli Embassy

by redjade

Wed Apr 14, 2004 17:00

Photo Reports:

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=43899

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=43898

Caterkiller products on sale in Dublin - DON'T BUY THEM

by concerned citizen against Caterpillars

Thu Apr 15, 2004 00:49

Caterpillar produce and sell to the Israeli army the huge D9 bulldozers which are used to demolish Palestinian homes.

One of these killed Rachel Corrie on 16 March 2003.

Another killed Jamal Fayid in Jenin on 6 April 2002. A 37-year old Palestinian man disabled from birth and unable to speak, eat or move without assistance, he was crushed to death when his house was demolished by a Caterpillar bulldozer during the Israeli army occupation of Jenin refugee camp.

More than 20 Palestinian civilians have been killed in home demolitions in the current intifada and thousands have been left homeless or have seen farmland they depend on for survival destroyed by Israeli "Defence" Forces Caterpillars.

The American human rights organisation Human Rights Watch has asked the US Government to prevent sale of these machines to the Israeli army because of their use in large-scale and serious human rights abuses.

Caterpillar shoes - the fashion sideline of the bulldozer makers - are on sale in Dublin in Arnott's on Henry Street, Schuh on O'Connell Street, Korky's on Grafton Street, Graham Shoes on Exchequer Street and China Blue in Merchant's Arch.

Why not tell your friends about what Caterpillar is up to and ask them to spread the word - DON'T BUY THEM!

You can also ring up the shops (or email or write to them) and politely ask them if they know what Caterpillar is up to, and do they really think it is right to sell such a company's products - here are contact details for the biggest ones:

Mr. Bill Kelly, Operations Director, Arnott's,12 Henry Street, Dublin 1 tel. 8050400
or email arnottsm@arnotts.ie

Mr. Colin Temple, Managing Director, Schuh Ltd
1 Neilson Square
Deans Industrial Estate
LIVINGSTON
EH54 8RQ
Scotland
0044 1506 468 762 or 0044 1506 460 250
or email schuhstore@schuh.co.uk

More information on Caterpillar on the excellent website www.catdestroyshomes.org maintained by Jewish Voice for Peace.

Dem boots are made for boycotting

by concerned citizen

Thu Apr 15, 2004 01:40

Yes they do - see my post above. certainly you shouldn't buy them - if you do you'll be sending money to a company which helps the Israeli army kill people and destroy homes in Palestine.

Incidentally, the Irish distributors for Caterpillar machinery sponsor Old Wesley Rugby Club in Donnybrook.

Corrie

by Warrior Against Terrorism

Thu Apr 15, 2004 12:40

Rachel Corrie wasn't an apologist. She was duped by the PLO into becoming a martyr for their horrific campaign to destroy the state of Isreal.

Western Communists now use this campaign of terror in their ludicrous efforts to foist their evil political agenda on the Democracies of Europe and North America, much as they were in collusion with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.

Now, as then, only the United States has the will and decency to stand up to this totalitarian threat. Thankfully Bush has endorsed Isreal's new plan for peace in the Middle East. Long live democracy! Down with terrorism and their apologists int he West!

Only sad bastards

by kokomero

Thu Apr 15, 2004 15:30

think that the so-called war on terror is anything but an oxymoron. Terrorism is after all merely war by other means. There is a readily amenable method of fighting terror which will not lead to the death of anyone. It is called peace, and peaceful dialogue with respect for the soverignty and culture of the third world is the only path which will assure us permanent freedom from terror.

For those wlike Bush, Blair, Bertie and Berlusconi who want to bring it on (the heads of their own people) this is not a viable solution. There is only one solution ... replace them!

Berlusconi, Blair and Bertie can be given their walking papers during the European elections )and UK elections next year and Bush's turn will come later this year.

Use your vote and get rid of them before their enemies decide to take it out on YOU!

A Tribute to Rachel Corrie

by RUHAMA SHATTAN - Thanks for showing us what "peace" really means.

Thu Apr 22, 2004 17:45

Today is the first anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death. I want to thank Corrie for the explosives that flow freely from Egypt to Gaza, via the smuggling tunnels under the Gaza homes that she died defending.

Perhaps it was these explosives that in the year since her martyrdom--oops, death--have been strapped around suicide bombers to blow up city buses and restaurants in Israeli cities, particularly in Jerusalem, killing men, women and schoolchildren (two of them classmates of my daughter and her friend in the February 22, 2004 bombing) and leaving hundreds more widows, orphans and bereaved parents.

On the first anniversary of her death, I want to thank Rachel Corrie for showing Palestinian children how to despise America as she snarled, burned an American flag, and led them in chanting slogans, and as she gave "evidence" at a Young Palestinian Parliament mock trial finding President Bush guilty of crimes against humanity.

Perhaps her help in fanning the flames of violent anti-American sentiment led to the October 2003 bombing of the Fulbright delegation to Gaza to interview scholarship candidates, killing three. There will be no new crop of Palestinian Fulbright scholars this fall.

On the first anniversary of her death, I wanted to thank Rachel Corrie for providing her organization, the Palestinian-sponsored International Solidarity Movement, with the opportunity to release a manipulated photo sequence "showing" an Israeli military bulldozer deliberately crushing her. (I would also like to thank the Associated Press and the Christian Science Monitor for taking up the baton and immortalizing this cynical ISM stunt.)
On the first anniversary of her death, I want to thank Rachel Corrie for showing the way to all those who seek peace in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Corrie's peace, as anyone familiar with the Palestine Liberation Organization, Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah organizations that she defended with her life knows--or as anyone familiar with the weekly rants of the Friday preachers in the Palestinian mosques is aware--means not peaceful coexistence but the elimination of the state of Israel, and death to those they call "the usurping Jews, the sons of apes and pigs."

Thank you, Rachel Corrie, of Evergreen State University, where the profs wear khakis and kaffiyehs at graduation ceremonies, for showing us what peace really means

ffaafaaf

by faffaaa

Thu Apr 22, 2004 17:59

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/989667/posts

Funny picture

by Sayful Islam

Thu Apr 22, 2004 18:01

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