A theatre near me is putting on a production of the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie. As elsewhere, the local production has drawn vigorous hassle from those who dedicate themselves to trying to punish any criticism in the U.S. of human rights abuses committed by the Israeli government.
Tonight there is a "talkback" after the performance. Some people are bringing handouts, and I was asked to write something.
In 1996, I was a volunteer for Christian Peacemaker Teams in the Palestinian city of Hebron. Shortly after I arrived in Hebron, 2 of us were arrested and threatened with deportation when members of the CPT sat on the roof of a Palestinian home that the Israeli army intended to demolish. In addition, friends of mine teach at Evergreen and had Rachel as a student. So when I was asked to write something, of course I said yes. Rachel's story is close to my heart, not just as a symbol of human rights abuses carried out by the Israeli government with the acquiescence of the United States, but as a symbol of Americans putting themselves on the line for international solidarity. John Reed is buried in Red Square; veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade have been granted Spanish citizenship. When the Palestinians regain sovereignty over Al-Aqsa, I hope they do something there for Rachel.
Rachel's Death
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year old student at Evergreen State College and volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed in 2003 by a bulldozer operated by the Israeli army while attempting to prevent Israeli forces from demolishing the home of Palestinian pharmacist Samir Nasrallah in the Rafah area of Gaza near the border with Egypt.
On March 16, 2003, an IDF operation in the land between the Rafah refugee camp and the border with Egypt was demolishing Palestinian houses. Rachel was part of a group of seven US and British ISM activists attempting to disrupt the actions of Israeli bulldozers.
ISM eyewitnesses say the Israeli soldier driving the bulldozer deliberately ran over Rachel, who was wearing a fluorescent jacket and waving and shouting as the bulldozer approached. The driver of the bulldozer and an Israeli military report claimed that the driver did not see her.
Two years later, Human Rights Watch reported that Rachel:
... had undoubtedly placed herself in a dangerous situation, but the incident did not take place in the context of active hostilities, and did not threaten the safety of IDF personnel or other persons at the site. Under pressure from the U.S. government and the media, Israel conducted operational and Military Police investigations into Corrie's killing. But the investigations fell far short of the transparency, impartiality, and thoroughness required by international law.
Human Rights Watch also stated that:
Eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, other human rights organizations, and the media stated that the bulldozer crew could and did see Corrie. They noted that two other incidents had taken place on the same afternoon in which ISM members had been at the point of serious injury, but the bulldozer drivers had stopped at the last moment -- indicating they could see the activists even when in close proximity, balancing on the rising earth that the bulldozers pushed before them. They said that the activists had regularly had eye contact with the bulldozer driver in the last moments before jumping off the earth mound.
Demolitions of Palestinian Houses by the Israeli Military
Unfortunately, demolition of Palestinian homes has been a longstanding practice of the Israeli military going back to the 1948 war. In a 2004 report, Human Rights Watch noted:
While Israel's punitive and administrative house demolition policies have targeted individual homes, Israel has also in the past undertaken widespread destruction of neighborhoods, camps, and villages for putative security or military purposes. The apparent rationales for much of the destruction in Rafah since 2000 namely, the need for "clear" borders and, to a lesser extent, to facilitate maneuverability of forces in densely populated areas are not new. Such demolitions have also been linked to demographic changes.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Haganah (the pre-state Zionist military) issued orders to clear all Arab villages within five kilometers of the Lebanese border after a local cease-fire had begun. As part of this policy, the Haganah depopulated and later destroyed a dozen border villages in the north in late 1948 and early 1949, pushing the inhabitants either across the border or to other areas of what became Israel. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris: "the political desire to have as few Arabs as possible in the Jewish State and the need for empty villages to house new immigrants meshed with the strategic desire to achieve 'Arab-clear' frontiers and secure internal lines of communication.It was the IDF that set the policy in motion, with the civil and political authorities often giving approval after the fact."
Property Destruction Under International Law
Under international law, Israel was the Occupying Power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch noted in its 2004 report. As such, it was bound by agreements that deal specifically with occupation, codified primarily in two legal instruments: the 1907 Hague Regulations and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.
According to Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, "Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations". General security measures not connected to actual fighting are not included in this exception. For this reason, the ICRC [Red Cross] stated during the May incursions in Rafah that "the destruction of property as a general security measure is prohibited."
Palestinians Need an Independent State in the West Bank and Gaza
Rachel's death illustrates the lawless behavior by Israeli authorities experienced every day by Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. While people in Gaza today are suffering from an Israeli blockade, the events that killed Rachel wouldn't happen in Gaza today, because the Israeli military is not there. The institutions of the Israeli government -- including its Supreme Court -- have refused to accept that the obligations of international law apply to Israel's occupation of the West Bank. To protect the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank from the Israeli military authorities, the Israeli military must be removed from the West Bank. This is likely to happen only as a result of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, and that's a key reason that achieving such an agreement is so urgent.
The Responsibility of Americans
The United States government is not an innocent bystander in this dispute. The United States gives the Israeli government billions of dollars in military and economic aid each year; it also protects the Israeli government politically and diplomatically, for example, by using its veto in the United Nations Security Council to block Security Council action in response to Israeli repression of Palestinian human rights. Determined efforts by the Obama Administration to help bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict and the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza are not an altruistic gesture, but the minimum necessary for the U.S. to comply with the responsibilities it incurs by its military, economic, and political backing of the Israeli government.
Follow Robert Naiman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/naiman
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Calbears,
Your students are lucky to have such a teacher. The vested interests force the American public to condone the oppression of one people by another people because they belong to different religions. I can't think of anything more difficult for our students or any other Americans of any age to understand
She is not the only one. There are other US and internatio
They recently shot an Irish Nobel Laureate Peace activist as she nonviolent
An american peace activist was shot in the head with a high speed tear gas canister which has cause sever brain damage.
There is a list of other deaths as well. That is not mentioning the HUGE number of deaths of Palestinia
News Camera men in the occupied territory have a pact that if one is shot, the others will film continue to film it, as this happens VERY often.
She admits in her writings “the difficulti
At the time of her death Corrie was demonstrat
Rachel Corrie was no martyr. She was there with her fellow ISM activists to confront the Israeli military. She was a pawn of the ISM, an organizati
http://www
Thank you Robert . . . the very least US can do is to not veto the Goldstone Report . .. The Goldstone Report must be enacted by the UN . . . it is a step towards peace in the Middle East . . .
The peaceniks attacking Israel are misguided at best and are, in fact, collaborat
The claim not to have seen somebody in the way is not good enough, there is a positive duty to make sure nobody is the way.
Thank you for writing one of the best statements I have read in a long time that really lays out the responsibi
Didn't her parents try to sue the bulldozer manufactur
Dont forget rachels parents had to leave Gaza for fear of being Kidnapped when hamass
was on a kidnapping thingy, too funny
The case itself has hardly been laughed out of court. Here is a link:
http://ccr
But with your response, you probably think IBM immune for WWII damages, don't you? Yet IBM in Germany paid into the German Holocaust fund, on just these grounds.
The root of the word Idiot are people so dishonorab
By calling her an idiot, you actually revealed yourself as one.
Yawn.
Rachel is gone.
the Palestinia
ask me she wated her life for nothing,Bu
Her death should be ruled suicide by dumbness.
So, she was dumb for not out-runnin
Did your mother not tell you to keep your mouth shut, child, lest you transmit your dumbness for every one else to see?
Moroccan-I
It is simple, impartial and ultimately very sad, but it is well worth watching for anyone who wants a true insight into what happened in Rachel Corrie's death.
These serpents slay men, and they eat them weepingly, chewing with their upper jaw and not their lower jaw while crying their crocodile tears.
Since the Gaza invasion last December, and the use of the white phos, we have been really disappoint
So many reckless, willful, decisions. So many lives lost. And no Peace in sight still.
We are familiar with Benny Morris and the founding of the State of Israel, and yes, we had heard of Rachel before this and were deeply troubled by her death.
This is not the Israel we know. Israelis are not like that.
And yet, your friend died so brutally.
We are sorry and wish things were not so.
Moms in Canada
Nope you stood by like other palestinia
when Israel defends herself and only then thats when paestinian supporters gets excited.
you know in responce to rockets England killed 500,000 in 1 night in dresden.
nobody said a word not 1 .
ps
Canada uses white phosphorus in afghanasta
so does the usa /british forces .
why not try Canada, USA and the British in the UN and the Hague?
Dont forget 3 weeks ago germany bombed 2 tankers killing 90 woman and children , no war crimes trial for them , hell not even a mention about in in the UN .
because Israel is the only country in the world that is not allowed to defend themseves.
Dont forget to write Prime mister Harper and accuse him and our soldiers of war crimes lets see how far it goes.
It shows what a sorry, cowardly, treasonous venal and sordid lot the American congress (with those few noble exceptions
On April 30, 2003 Asif Muhammad Hanif murdered three people and wounded more than 50 in a suicide bombing at Mike’s Place, a Tel Aviv tavern. Five days earlier, he and his collaborat
ISM claims it had no knowledge of the two Britons’ intentions
On ISM’s Web site last summer, “Palestine
ISM now rhetorical
Before Corrie’s death, co-founder
On the day she died, Corrie and other ISM recruits repeatedly obstructed Israeli military bulldozers working along the Gaza-Egypt
But on March 16, 2003 ISM interferen
ISM members would sit or stand in front of the machines and, when they began to inch forward, jump to safety. The last time, Corrie apparently fell into the rubble. An ISM photo of Corrie standing with a megaphone in front of a bulldozer seems to have been taken hours earlier.