Category: Press Releases

ISM statement on the killing of Rachel Corrie

OVERVIEW AND BACKGROUND

Our friend and fellow activist for peace, Rachel Corrie, was murdered on Sunday March 16, when she was purposely 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.

Rachel was in Rafah volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement of both Palestinians and internationals working together for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. Rachel and the ISM have chosen nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles to resist the daily brutality of Israel’s 36-year-old military occupation and its ongoing and illegal land confiscation and settlement of the West Bank and 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. On February 19, brothers Said and Ala Heloo, were crushed to death when the Israeli army blew up a nearby building causing the collapse of their home. 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. This is only a small sample.

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 her own flag. We have seen photographs of memorials held in Gaza after Rachel’s death in which Palestinian children and adults honor our daughter by carrying a mock coffin draped with the American flag. We have been told that our flag has never been treated so respectfully in Gaza in recent years. We believe Rachel brought a different face of the United States to the Palestinian people, a face of compassion. It is this image of Rachel with the American flag that we hope will be remembered most.”

– 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 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 deliberately 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 people of both Palestine and Israel deserve better.

RELATED RESOURCES

For eyewitness accounts and photos:
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
https://www.palsolidarity.org

RACHEL CORRIE MEMORIAL WEBSITES
http://www.distanceeddesign.com/rachel/
http://www.rachelcorrie.org

PHOTO STORY: ISRAELI BULLDOZER DRIVER MURDERS AMERICAN PEACE ACTIVIST
Nigel Parry and Arjan El Fassed, The Electronic Intifada, 16 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml

THE DAY AFTER: ISRAELI FORCES KILL 9 PALESTINIANS, INCLUDING 3 CHILDREN
PCHR, press release, 17 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1258.shtml

REMEMBERING RACHEL CORRIE
Peter Bohmer, The Electronic Intifada, 17 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1252.shtml

OF BROKEN BODIES AND UNBREAKABLE LAWS
Laurie King-Irani, The Electronic Intifada, 19 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1259.shtml

RACHEL CORRIE, NUHA SWEIDAN AND ISRAELI WAR CRIMES
Steve Niva, The Electronic Intifada, 17 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1250.shtml

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS KILLING OF RACHEL CORRIE
GROUP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION, SUSPENSION OF WEAPONS TRANSFERS
Amnesty International , Press Release, 17 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1265.shtml

ACTIVISTS DEMAND IMMEDIATE HALT OF CATERPILLAR
BULLDOZER SALES TO ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES
Press Release, SUSTAIN, 18 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1261.shtml

“THIS IS NOT A POEM. THIS IS A PROMISE.”
Suheir Hammad, Poetry, 20 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1272.shtml

The closest eye witness account on the murder of Rachel Corrie

by Tom Dale
March 17, 2003

Many of you will of heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie, maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went.

We’d been monitoring and occasionally obstructing the 2 bulldozers for about 2 hours when 1 of them turned toward a house we knew to be threatened with demolition. Rachel knelt down in its way. She was 10-20 metres in front of the bulldozer, clearly visible, the only object for many metres, directly in it’s view. They were in Radio contact with a tank that had a profile view of the situation. There is no way she could not have been seen by them in their elevated cabin. They knew where she was, there is no doubt.

The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it went. She knelt there, she did not move. The bulldozer reached her and she began to stand up, climbing onto the mound of earth. She appeared to be looking into the cockpit. The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went. Her faced showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed. All the activists were screaming at the bulldozer to stop and gesturing to the crew about Rachel’s presence. We were in clear view as Rachel had been,
they continued. They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did.

I ran for an ambulance, she was gasping and her face was covered in blood from a gash cutting her face from lip to cheek. She was showing signs of brain hemorrhaging. She died in the ambulance a few minutes later of massive internal injuries. She was a brilliant, bright and amazing person, immensely brave and committed. She is gone and I cannot believe it.

The group here in Rafah has decided that we will stay here and continue to oppose human rights abuses as best we can. I want to add that more than 10 palestinians have died in the Gaza strip since Rachel.

If you’re wandering about Rachel: her writings, photos of her and statements on her death are available on the below website. More photos: go to yahoo news section, search for photos by ‘rachel’.

If you’re wandering about the International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org

If you’re wandering about Rafah: in the southern Gaza strip, next to the Egyptian border. Apart from suffering in excess from the problems all over Palestine: Israeli manipulation of the water supply, economic strangulation, regular shootings and army operations, Rafah is afflicted by the building of an extra border wall. It has caused hundreds of homes to be destroyed. The house in question, that of a doctor, like dozens of others in the area is not set to be demolished because of any supposed link to militants. Only because it lies within 100 metres of the new border wall, currently in construction. Families receive no compensation from Israel, and are frequently given just a few minutes warning in the form of live ammunition being shot through the walls of their house.

Captain, Please Use The Door!

by Robin

All around the Old City of Nablus, the operations are taking place. Large groups of heavily armed soldiers with their involuntary human shields, dart around corners and down alleys. The phone rings continuously with yet more reports of occupied houses and detained medical volunteers.

Someone of one of the families who live in the building comes downstairs looking worried, “Soldiers are making a hole in the wall on the roof,” she tells us. A group of Internationals and medical volunteers climb up to the roof to investigate.

On the roof there is a chicken coop. She points at it. I peer through the mesh, and sure enough, there is a small hole in the wall, and through it I can see the knees and gun of a soldier. I yell out: “This is a medical clinic, there are Internationals and medical volunteers here”. There is no response from the hole.

Further down the wall, a window opens, and people see, briefly, a soldier on the other side, before the window is pulled shut, to obscure him again. We sit down near the window, and ask to speak to his captain. We attempt to engage him. I tell him that this is a clinic, that there are Internationals and volunteers present, that the door is wide open, and that they are welcome to come through the door. Volunteers and Internationals try various lines, but there is no response. Time ticks by, coffee arrives and we sit there, seeking to engage the soldiers, sipping the sweet black coffee out of intricately patterned tiny cups. Around the city we hear sound bombs, machine gun fire and the occasional explosion.

Fifteen minutes later, we get a response. A Palestinian man from next-door pops his head over the wall. He tells us that there are 32 people locked in a single room in the house, and the soldiers say that if we do not leave immediately, they will make an explosion in his house.

Bloody charming. We talk quickly and decide to leave the roof, as we don’t want the explosion to occur. I go and sit with the family. We can hear the chipping at the wall resume. I start making phone calls. First it’s “Physicians for Human Rights”, they listen and promise to get back to me soon. A friend is phoning Hammoked, an Israeli Human Rights Group. Then I phone the media office and ask them to start the phone banking. “Get people to phone the IDF and ask them to USE THE DOOR”, I ask.

The mother of the household, a teacher, tells me that the house has been entered three times in the last 12 months by soldiers breaking in through the wall on the roof, running down the stairs, faces painted black, locking the family in a room, and turning everything over, destroying many things. The kitchen is still being repaired after the last time in October.

I get a call from Mutaq, the Divisional Command in Tel Aviv. They are responding to the calls that have started coming in. I tell them who is in the building, what the building is, that I can hear the soldiers chipping away, that the door is open, that we know they’re coming, and that the door would be the most appropriate method of entry if they need to search the building. He “will see what he can do”. After a while the chipping sound stops. I am called away to deal with other matters, and leave for the evening.

At 7.15pm my phone rings. An Italian International is on the other end. He tells me that a group of about eight soldiers came to the clinic, knocked on the door, entered, asked if they could search the building, allowed him to accompany them, turned on a few lights, opened a few doors, checked the ID of a 10 year old boy before shaking hands with him and his brothers, thanked everyone and then left!

At 9pm another group of soldiers comes knocking at the door, they are less polite, and do not allow an International to accompany them, they check the IDs of all the Palestinians, search a few cupboards and then leave, leaving no mess behind them.

It’s a hollow victory. Hundreds of homes have been violated throughout the area, by soldiers bursting in through freshly made “entrances”, scaring the kids, locking up the families, turning the place over, exploding the insides of many homes so that hundreds are homeless, and then leaving through yet another freshly made “exit”. For many families it has almost become a routine. Many men are arrested, interrogated, tortured, released. Till the next time.

Many doors are exploded, many shops are searched and then left untended as the soldiers move on in to wreak havoc on another home, another shop, another family, another screaming two year old.

The next day they are still there, systematically wrecking, torturing, beating, and violating. Many homes are ransacked; valuables and money go missing all over. Terror has hit the streets of Nablus again.

No one is left without a tragic tale to relate. We interrupt many break-ins in progress. Sometimes the soldiers are embarrassed and behave; sometimes they are totally uncommunicative, sometimes a sound bomb tells it all.

Two Internationals end up spending hours with a family whose home is done over, at first they are detained, then they refuse to leave. It pays off, the damage is minimal in comparison to the many awful ones we witness everywhere, as distraught people call to us from the streets to witness their tragedies and losses.

I feel drained. Witnessing this level of terror, this number of attacks on these many families, is harrowing. Sleep has been hard to get.

The next morning they are gone. We debrief, we are all stretched, and shocked and disgusted.

I do a news search on the Internet; at most the story was a by-line in reports of the Gaza operation. Mostly the terror campaign in Nablus is completely ignored.

Susan Barclay says thank you to supporters

Susan issued the following statement today:

I just wanted to write a very quick note to let people know that I am indeed fre’ and beyond happy. I just wanted to say an immediat’ incredibly sincere THANK YOU to all the people who worked so very hard to support me. I can not tell you how much it means. I have been very busy and will be meeting with my lawyer tomorrow to discuss various legal possibilities and then I hope to find the time to write an account of exactly what happened. THANK YOU AGAIN.

Salaam,
Susan

At the time of writing, Susan’s story still has been conspicuous by its absence in the American press although other media concerns in the US have taken up her story. The British press has not overlooked her case as you can see if you read the following story in ISM in the Press: Foreigners bring in the harvest and the wounded

Please e-mail any American newspapers that you know of and ask them why this story is not of any interest to them? Do they wish to be complicit in human rights abuses of their own citizens? It is particularly surprising that the press in Washington state has been very quiet on the fate of one of its citizens.

Ministry of the Interior appeals Susan Barclay’s release

by Michael, ISM Media Office

Today Susan Barclay telephoned the ISM Media Office from Mikhal Detention Center where she has been held by the Israeli authorities since her arrest at Howarra Checkpoint last Thursday. She informed me that the Israeli Ministry of the Interior had appealed against her release so she was not going to be free any time soon.

Despite her ordeal she said she was OK but would appreciate some books, phone cards and cigarettes (which the ISM has had delivered to her by an Israeli volunteer).

I told her of all the messages I’d received enquiring as to how people could help her and asked her what she wanted her supporters do regarding legal representation, publicity and lobbying for her release and she said she intended to fight her deportation every step of the way. She wanted to return to work in Nablus if at all possible and wanted those who expressed their support for her to raise as big a storm as possible not for her sake but for the sake of the Free Palestine for which she was being imprisoned.