In Defense of Rachel Corrie

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

Comments

[calbears]

Rachel did not die in vain. I teach about her book and death. The students are intrigued, provoked, curious as well as critical of her as they have to study in depth the political altruism that led her to respond to a request from Palestinians that went out to international civil society for international protection. If the UN had sent in troops to provide protection for Palestinian civilians, there would be no need for Rachel Corrie to have met the fate she did. For many students it is the first time they have to encounter the gap between media representation of Israel and reality of its strange hold on US policy, the White House, the Justice Dept. etc. I think her life provides a fascinating case study into the way special interests seek to control Congress through campaign contributions thus leaving ordinary citizens at the mercy of those special interests.

[alexa07]

"For many students it is the first time they have to encounter the gap between media representation of Israel and reality of its strange hold on US policy, the White House, the Justice Dept. etc. I think her life provides a fascinating case study into the way special interests seek to control Congress through campaign contributions thus leaving ordinary citizens at the mercy of those special interests."

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, much less support. Yet our leaders tell us who are best friend is, & it isn't the one whose lives & properties are in jeopardy. Rather it is the group who benefits from the confiscations, demolitions, rampages! Please take care of yourself & all of your students.

[Justtellthetruth]

Ms Corrie is a hero. She worked to end Israeli aggression and violence against Palestinians and was killed in the process.

She is not the only one. There are other US and international peace activists who have been killed or gravely injured by the IDF while trying to nonviolently bring about justice in the occupied territories.

They recently shot an Irish Nobel Laureate Peace activist as she nonviolently (you know, Nobel laureate peace activist?) portested against the wall that is illegally snaking far into Palewstinian territory.

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 Palestinian nonviolent protesters.

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.

[SMFlatow]

Rachel Corrie has long been portrayed as an innocent participant in International Solidarity Movement actions to prevent “Israeli demolition of civilian homes.” The truth is the opposite, she was a naïve human shield to protect supplies of arms and snipers and homes that had smuggling tunnels. Palestinian terrorists have a history of using civilian homes in order to prevent Israel from acting to stop them. That was Rachel’s job. To solidify her position with her new found friends, she burns an American flag, her face contorted in anger and rage as it goes up in smoke. (http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/rachel-corrie-flag-02.jpg)

She admits in her writings “the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen.” She was willing to be a piece of propaganda if something were to happen to her while protecting terrorists.

At the time of her death Corrie was demonstrating in front of a home near a smuggling tunnel that was used to bring in weapons and rockets to be used against Israeli civilians. Sadly, she picked an active war zone in which to demonstrate.

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 organization intent on destroying the State of Israel, and the terrorists it fronts.

[Freenation]

whenever I see such long paragraphs filled with propaganda and links links moonbatter, worldnet, drudgereport only one thing comes in mind:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/09/israel-foreign-ministry-media

[messy - Huffpost Blogger]

But what s/he said was TRUE!!!! no doubt about it.

[Macready]

"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."

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 . . .

[BubbaC33]

It is a shame Ms. Corrie was killed in a terrible accident, but she put herslef in the direct path of a bulldozer. It is insulting for this writer and other to accuse the operator of deliberately running over Ms. Corrie, without any factual evidence to prove anything of the sort. Anyone who has ever operated a bulldozer knows all too well the difficulty of seeing a person standing directly in front of the machine. Ms. Corrie's vest was hardly sufficient.
The peaceniks attacking Israel are misguided at best and are, in fact, collaborators in the war to destroy Israel.

[messy - Huffpost Blogger]

It was long ago proven that the guy couldn't have seen her.

[GrahamInCanada]

In the normal course of events, the driver of a vehicle is always, always responsible for moving the vehicle if the driver is not sure that nobody is in the way.

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.

[alexa07]

"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."

Thank you for writing one of the best statements I have read in a long time that really lays out the responsibilities of the American govt. in respect to the Palestinian people. The vested interests, however, do seem to have a stranglehold on the Obama people too. Deja vu. I also want to say what I think about the fact that there is pressure NOT to allow performances of the play, "My Name is Rachel Corrie." Here we go again with what is very similar to all the reasons why the American public gets such a filtered view of events in the region as depicted by the US media. It isn't right; it isn't fair & the American public deserves better from its leaders in the govt & the media. Surely the same thing & much more can be said about the Palestinian people also.

[MyVesta]

What an idiot.

Didn't her parents try to sue the bulldozer manufacturer, Caterpillar Inc.?

[gandolf101]

yes , im not sure how to post a link ..but yah they got laughed out of court .
Dont forget rachels parents had to leave Gaza for fear of being Kidnapped when hamass
was on a kidnapping thingy, too funny

[alexa07]

You shame your teachers, coaches, parents.

[GrahamInCanada]

People who are not sure how to post a link should not mention this and the phrase laughed out of court in the same sentence.

The case itself has hardly been laughed out of court. Here is a link:

http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/corrie-et-al.-v.-caterpillar

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.

[GrahamInCanada]

Idiot?

The root of the word Idiot are people so dishonorable, so selfish, with such bad judgment that they decline to participate in democratic actions and discourage others from the same.

By calling her an idiot, you actually revealed yourself as one.

[nukemind]

Rachel didn't die in vain as she made it known to at least some of us in the world that imperialism is alive and well and can often hide behind the guise of 'fighting' terrorism. Even when that terrorism involves people living in the wrong place, meaning land their ancestors have lived on for millennia.

[MyVesta]

Yeah, because up until Corrie jumped in front of a bulldozer, the entire universe was unaware of "imperialism".

Yawn.

[nukemind]

Ha, plenty of people need something like this to make them reconsider their allegiance to a country that is clearly practicing imperialism and apartheid. Go take a nap.

[califlefty]

The ISM: When you are more useful to your friends dead than you are alive, it is time to find new friends.

[GrahamInCanada]

And how is it useful to the ISM when Israel disgraces itself like this?

[SimonNZ]

There is an excellent documentary about Rachel Corrie simply called 'Rachel' made a
Moroccan-Israeli filmmaker, Simone Bitton.

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.

[misaacm]

How sad, this poor idealistic girl lost her life protecting Hamas terrorists. The Rafah smuggling were/are used to smuggle weapons used to fire at Israeli kindergartens. Just another in a string of innocent women and children killed because Hamas terrorists hid behind her skirt. It doesn't make her a martyr, or an evil person, just a wasted life, wasted by Hamas.

[GrahamInCanada]

And in the blog and by all media are plenty of crocodiles, long serpents, as been pointed out before.

These serpents slay men, and they eat them weepingly, chewing with their upper jaw and not their lower jaw while crying their crocodile tears.

[FairuzGhowar]

Actually you have zero proof that the occupants of the house were militant. Nothing has ever been found to support your rant and PS not all Palestinians are Hamas just like not all Americans were Republicans when Bush was elected.

[HelloFunnyWorld]

Hello Robert,

Since the Gaza invasion last December, and the use of the white phos, we have been really disappointed with Jewish leadership both inside Israel and outside it.
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

[gandolf101]

since the Gaza evasion ? why did you not say a thing when over a thousand rockets hit Israel.
Nope you stood by like other palestinian supporters and hoped hamass would get lucky and Hit a school or Hospital in Israel.
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 afghanastan everyday.
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.

[mulegino]

I agree totally with the article-but it is ludicrous, absurd, maniacal, incredible that someone has to actually defend an unarmed woman crushed to death by a bulldozer in an act of civil disobedience.
It shows what a sorry, cowardly, treasonous venal and sordid lot the American congress (with those few noble exceptions), the MSM, the State Department, and the Armageddonite pseudo-christians, ADL (apostles of tolerance that from every other angle looks like ethno-centric hatred) AIPAC and any other American who, in their abject and miserable double standard world view, pontificate on human rights violations in Tianamen Square, Sudan and Tehran, yet reserve their blindness, moral cowardice and outrageous double standards for a vicious brutal act of state sponsored murder.

[FairuzGhowar]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

[eshy99]

ISM claims to emulate peacemakers like Martin Luther King Jr. But according to NGO Monitor, “the International Solidarity Movement’s blatant support for Palestinian incitement and rejectionism is the antithesis of a human rights organization.”

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 collaborator, Omar Khan Sharif, were among a group hosted by ISM members at their Gaza apartment.

ISM claims it had no knowledge of the two Britons’ intentions. But the Israeli prime minister’s office noted on June 4 that “the two terrorists were careful to base their presence in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] by forging links with foreign left-wing activists and members of the International Solidarity Movement.”

On ISM’s Web site last summer, “Palestine” was shown as including all the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel. ISM considered Hamas and Islamic Jihad–listed by the U.S. government as terrorist organizations–as “resistance groups.”

ISM now rhetorically opposes “terrorism by both sides.” Yet it refers to Hamas, which has staged numerous bus bombings and other murders of civilians, as a “political party.”

Before Corrie’s death, co-founders Adam Shapiro and his wife, Huwaida Arraf, characterized “suicide operations” as “noble” and wrote that non-violent opposition made a good public relations supplement to “armed struggle.”

[LincolnParkChicago]

NGO Monitor is a zionist creation like aipac and is just as biased.

[messy - Huffpost Blogger]

Zionism: The concept that Jews are human and have a right to rule themselves.

[eshy99]

The International Solidarity Movement recruited Corrie to be a “human shield” in Gaza.

On the day she died, Corrie and other ISM recruits repeatedly obstructed Israeli military bulldozers working along the Gaza-Egyptian border. In this area the Israel Defense Forces frequently uncover tunnels used for weapons smuggling. Bulldozers raze buildings that hide the entrances or serve as cover for snipers, and detonate explosives planted by Palestinian terrorists.

But on March 16, 2003 ISM interference in a closed military area caused the IDF repeatedly to halt its heavy machinery. According to an IDF investigation and American news reports, Corrie and others continued to hinder the work when it resumed.

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.

[Nommo]

Do you feel that it is about time, after all this time, that someone spoke for Rachel Corrie?

[gandolf101]

ill speak for rachel , when you see and hear a bulldozer move out of the way

[messy - Huffpost Blogger]

especially when the driver couldn't SEE her at all!!!!