Emad Bornat, the Reuters cameraman and video-journalist who was kidnapped by Israeli forces after a demonstration in Bil’in on October 6th, has been in detention now at Ofer military prison for 10 days. Emad was due to have a hearing yesterday to determine his bail conditions after the military authorities insisted that he live outside Bil’in. This hearing never happened and today there are no judges available so Emad has to wait until tomorrow to hear where and under what conditions he will be allowed to live.
Because Emad is so ‘dangerous’ the military are also demanding that he live in a place easily accessible for the Israeli army and that someone be responsible for supervising him. Emad, a respected video-journalist whose work featured in the award-winning “Bil’in Habibti”, is accused of throwing stones at soldiers whilst simultaneously filming.
We visited the owner of the olives today, he informed us that he had called the police (at the nearby Israeli colony of Kiryat Arba) while the theft was occurring but they refused to come and investigate. Also today, we were shown an olive branch (above), belonging to a Palestinian family, that had been cut by the Israeli colonists from the Tel Rumeida caravan. The yard of a Palestinian home directly below the caravans was filled with broken glass (below) from bottles thrown by the colonists.
We were told that colonists have recently placed barbed wire around the yard of a Palestinian family to prevent them using a track below the Tel Rumeida colonists’ caravans despite a supreme court ruling (see “Report on Razor Wire closing entrance to the track leading to the Al Azzeh homes”) saying that the family should have access to the track.
Earlier this week the water pipes providing water to several families living close to the Tel Rumeida colony were cut by Israeli colonists for the fourth time this month. The Palestinian municipality was prevented from mending the pipes for several days because of the Jewish holiday (Sukkot).
Despite all this, the Palestinian families of Tel Rumeida are resisting the harassment, aimed at forcing them to leave their homes, and are trying to lead a normal life.
Olive harvesting will begin in Hebron after Eid, the Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadam (the month of fasting during daylight hours). Palestinians will face restrictions on access to their land and harassment from Israeli colonists from nearby settlements.
Palestinians have been harassed in previous years by Israeli colonists while trying to harvest their olives. However this year internationals and Palestinians plan to cooperate to facilitate Palestinian access to their lands.
Many Palestinians in Hebron have olives to harvest close to the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah and the cluster of settler caravans at Tel Rumeida. These trees are also close to an Israeli military base and a Palestinian home occupied by the Israeli army. Local farmers say that the Israeli army have refused permission for Palestinians to pick in the area close to the military base despite a Supreme Court ruling stating that olive picking should be facilitated in all areas of the West Bank.
Most Palestinians in the Tel Rumeida area have asked for an international escort when picking due to military restrictions and fears of settler violence.
Last year, prior to the olive harvesting period, Israeli colonists burnt 96 olive trees close to the Beit Hadassah and Tel Rumeida settlements. In the last months there have been three attacks on olive trees in the same area.
Problems are also expected in the area between Kiryat Arba and Kiryat Khamse, the Al-Grus Valley. In 2005 farmers in this area were prevented from picking their olives because of ‘security reasons’. Internationals plan to provide accompaniment for Palestinians picking in this area.
At about 00:25, international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) based in Tel Rumeida, Hebron heard the sound of a screaming baby on the street outside their flat. On looking outside, they saw a male adult settler carrying a baby down the street from the Tel Rumeida settlement and sit on a ledge outside Palestinian houses with the baby. The settler seemed to be making no effort to calm the child, which carried on screaming very loudly and which was obviously in some distress. After about 10 mins, a HRW, woken by the screams, approached the settler and asked if something was wrong with the baby and if she could help. The settler answered, “There’s nothing you can do here” and just kept repeating this to every question asked him by the HRW. There were two soliders stationed at the nearby guardpost but as far as the HRWs could see, they never approached the settler or asked him why the baby was crying and why he had brought it down to the Palestinian area. It was after midnight on a relatively cold night and the baby was wearing only a pair of thin cotton pyjamas with exposed hands and feet. The settler was pressing the baby, who was hysterical, to his chest to prevent the child from squirming off of his lap and the baby also appeared to be trying to suckle. However, instead of trying to deal with the screaming baby, the settler was reading the Torah. After about 20 minutes of the baby screaming, two female settlers came up the hill towards the male settler and one of them took the baby. As soon as the female took the baby and put it under her shawl, it stopped screaming, and the settlers moved off to the Tel Rumeida settlement. On being asked by the HRWs what he thought of the settler bringing a screaming baby out into the cold night, one of the soldiers on guard refused to answer. He also refused to answer the question as to whether he would have allowed a Palestinian man with a screaming baby to go and sit outside the Tel Rumeida settlement at 00.30. He also would not answer questions as to whether or not this was a form of child abuse.
At about 12 noon a procession of about 30-50 settlers was seen marching toward the Ibrahimi mosque.
A group of 5 settler boys were seen looking over the wall of the Palestinian Qurtuba school but dispersed when they saw that Human Rights Workers (HRWs) were watching.
Israeli soldiers were stationed by Abraham’s Well throughout the morning. They prevented Palestinians from washing in the well but allowed settlers to congregate there.
Religious visitors to the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah were heard telling an Israeli soldier that his job was to protect ‘only Jewish people’.
At 13.20 a procession of settlers (estimated at between 100 and 150) made its way from the Beit Hadassah settlement up Shuhada Street towards the Israeli army checkpoint. The procession was mostly made up of male settlers, some carrying Torah rolls, and they were singing loudly while walking. Two HRWs on Shuhada Street were approached by two male settlers, one carrying a bottle of vodka. The male HRW was offered vodka, and told that if he refused to accept this offer, the settler would break his video camera. The HRW refused and the settler with the vodka told the HRWs that he knew they were here to “show the Jews are occupying the Arabs”. He also added that Jesus was an “evil Jew” and that his name should not be mentioned. At one point in the conversation, the settler with the vodka picked up a stone from the street and then removed the lens cap from the video camera, presumably in order to try and break it, but was prevented by the HRWs. The second settler also at this point told his companion that he should not break the camera. These two settlers then moved on with the procession.
At 13.45 a young settler boy, aged about 9, spat at the HRWs feet, but was told off by adult settlers with him.
During this time there were many settlers on the street, and the HRWs noticed a Palestinian girl, aged about 12, peeping out of a door on Shuhada Street. Only after twice looking out of the door but both times seeing settlers on the street and withdrawing into her house did the girl dare leave the house and walk the short distance to the checkpoint, accompanied by a HRW. She was clearly scared of the settlers on the street.
At 14.30 during a procession back to the Beit Hadassah settlement, a male Orthodox Jew deliberately stamped on the foot of a female HRW. This same man had stamped on the foot of a male HRW earlier that day, but this had not been perceived at the time as being deliberate as the man appeared to have a disability and walked with a pronounced limp. However, the man came back to the male HRW and attempted to do it again, saying, “Scored the first time” when he missed the HRW’s feet. Other adult settlers however appeared to tell him off for doing this.
At about 14.40, a female HRW on Shuhada Street noticed a male settler child opening the entrance door to several Palestinian houses. She shouted at him and went over to him, only for a male adult settler to come over and also open the door. The HRW also shouted at him to go away, and a further HRW tried to close the door, which led to the settler gripping her wrist tightly in an effort to stop her. One HRW then stood in the doorway to prevent the settler entering, while two HRWs alternatively shouted at and reasoned with the settler to leave. The settler became very abusive towards one of the female HRWs, insulting her personally and calling her an anti-Semite and a Nazi. A jeep with several soldiers arrived, and soldiers from the guard post at Beit Hadassah arrived but most just observed the argument or filmed it on their mobile phones instead of intervening. At one point another male settler came up and punched one of the female HRWs in the face. Finally the settler moved off towards the Beit Hadassah settlement.
At 14.50 a HRW was informed that there was a problem at checkpoint 56 (the main entrance in and out of the Israeli controled H2 part of Hebron) and that there was a queue of Palestinians waiting to be allowed through into Tel Rumeida. On approaching one of the soldiers at the checkpoint, the HRW was told that the checkpoint was closed. When she asked why, the soldier answered, “Because I want it closed”. On further questioning, the soldier said that the commander had ordered the checkpoint closed, but that the commander was in the jeep approaching the checkpoint and the HRW could talk to him directly. When the HRW asked the commander in the jeep about the checkpoint, the commander told her that it was now open again. The two soldiers on duty at the checkpoint however were slow in reopening it, and insisted on calling each Palestinian over to have their bags checked, although the search was clearly cursory and of no real security benefit. Also, despite the queue that had built up during the closure, the soldiers insisted that the Palestinians pass through one-by-one, even sending back two young Palestinian children who had passed through the metal detector together.
At 15.35 one of three teenage settler boys walking together down Shuhada Street spat at a male HRW but missed. The same boy then spat in the face of a female HRW further down the street and all three laughed loudly. One of the same three settlers spat on a further male HRW at 16.40 and also gave him and further HRWs on the street obscene hand gestures.
New York, NY, October 14th – With the long awaited opening of the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” at the Minetta Lane Theater [1], we’d like to dispel some common myths that have often crept into media coverage regarding Rachel’s death so we can focus instead on her life. We hope to avert factual errors and unnecessary controversy so the play can speak for itself. Towards that end, and with the cooperation of Rachel’s family, we have prepared this fact sheet along with clearly referenced sources.
BACKGROUND
Rachel Corrie was a 23 year old college student and human rights activist from Olympia, Washington. On March 16, 2003, she was run over and killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza, while defending a Palestinian home from demolition. A gifted writer, Rachel left behind a series of diaries and emails from an early age which were crafted into a play by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner. While the United States government in its annual human rights report describes Rachel as “a US citizen peace activist” and designates her as a human rights observer, [2] this is often obscured by the fog of misinformation surrounding her.
MYTH: Rachel Corrie was accidentally killed by falling debris.
FACT: According to seven international eyewitnesses, though she was clearly visible, Rachel Corrie was run over by an Israeli military bulldozer [3]. The 2005 US State Department human rights report on Israel and the Occupied Territories states that “on March 16, an Israeli bulldozer clearing land in Rafah in the Gaza Strip crushed and killed Rachel Corrie.” [4]
Photos of the event show the tracks of the bulldozer tires running on either side, and in front and behind the spot where Rachel lay dying in her friends’ arms [5].
MYTH: The bulldozer driver could not see Rachel.
FACT: Eyewitnesses testified that the bulldozer blade created a large mound of earth as it advanced, and that Rachel climbed atop that mound to a level high enough to make eye contact with the bulldozer driver [6]. Earlier that same afternoon, bulldozers had driven dangerously close to international activists on the scene but stopped before harming them [7]. This time, the driver continued forward, pulling Rachel under the blade.
MYTH: The Israeli military conducted a thorough, credible and transparent investigation into Rachel Corrie’s death.
FACT: On March 17, 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon assured President Bush that the Israeli government would undertake a “thorough, credible, and transparent investigation” and would report the results to the United States. On March 19, 2003, Richard Boucher, spokesman for the State Department, noted: “When we have the death of an American citizen, we want to see it fully investigated.” [8]
In response to inquiries from the Corrie family regarding the Israeli Military Police investigation, in a letter dated June 11, 2004, Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, Lawrence B. Wilkerson, stated, “Your ultimate question, however, is a valid one, i.e., whether or not we view that report to have reflected an investigation that was ‘thorough, credible, and transparent.’ I can answer your question without equivocation. No, we do not consider it so.” [9]
Cindy Corrie, Rachel’s mother, wrote in The Boston Globe in 2004 that, “Despite promises of a transparent investigation, only two American Embassy staff members in Tel Aviv and my husband and I were allowed to ‘view’ the full document. While it refers to evidence gathered by the Israeli military police, no primary evidence is included… For our family, the report raises questions and fails to reconcile differences between Israeli soldiers who say they could not see Rachel and seven international eyewitnesses who say she was clearly visible.” [10]
Independent, third party observers like the Israeli human rights organizations B’Tselem have strongly criticized Israeli military investigations of civilian deaths [11]. Human Rights Watch said that most Israeli investigations “have been a sham” [12]. As a result of pressure by the British government, Israeli soldiers have been found responsible for the killings in Rafah of ISM activist Tom Hurndall on April 11, 2003, [13] and British reporter James Miller on May 3, 2003 [14] despite initial Israeli army investigations absolving the Israeli military of any responsibility.
MYTH: Rachel Corrie was killed while preventing the Israeli Army from destroying arms smuggling tunnels used by terrorists.
FACT: Rachel was standing in front of the home of friends – pharmacist Samir Nasrallah, his brother Khaled Nasrallah, and their wives and children. The Israeli government has never even accused Samir or Khaled Nasrallah or their wives or children of links to terrorism. The Israeli army has never even claimed that the Nasrallah home hid a weapons smuggling tunnel.
In the seven months after Rachel’s death the Israeli army demolished all the other homes in the neighborhood, with the exception of the Nasrallahs’ house, not the treatment one would accord a building concealing a weapons smuggling tunnel. The Nasrallahs finally were forced from their isolated home on October 17, 2003. It was demolished shortly thereafter [15].
Khaled Nasrallah and his wife and child came to the US in June 2005 to join Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, for a speaking tour. Reporting on the tour, the Jewish Journal explained that, “The IDF [sic] did not respond to a question about whether the Nasrallahs had ever been suspected or accused of any illegal activities. However, family members were not judged a threat by U.S. customs officials, who allowed the Nasrallahs to enter this country” [16]. The US consulate conducts a security check with Israeli intelligence before granting Palestinians visas. The Israeli Government permitted the Nasrallahs to travel unescorted to Tel Aviv for the purpose of applying for U.S. visas, a courtesy unlikely to be granted to those posing any threat.
MYTH: The Israeli army has the right and ample justification for destroying thousands of Palestinian homes in Rafah.
FACT: Respected, independent third parties state that Israel’s large-scale home demolitions in Rafah are not justified and violate international law. In October, 2004 Human Rights Watch said that, “Over the past four years, the Israeli military has demolished over 2,500 Palestinian houses in the occupied Gaza Strip. Nearly two-thirds of these homes were in Rafah… Sixteen thousand people – more than ten percent of Rafah’s population – have lost their homes, most of them refugees, many of whom were dispossessed for a second or third time… The pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat, in violation of international law.” [17] The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem [18] as well as Amnesty International [19] concur.
Human Rights Watch concludes that, “the IDF [sic] has failed to explain why non-destructive means for detecting and neutralizing tunnels employed in places like the Mexico-United States border and the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) cannot be used along the Rafah border. Moreover, it has at times dealt with tunnels in a puzzlingly ineffective manner that is inconsistent with the supposed gravity of this longstanding threat” [20].
MYTH: Rachel was a naïve young woman who was exploited by the International Solidarity Movement, an extremist group that supports terrorism. Rachel did not understand the context she was in or the dangers she was facing.
FACT: One article that has fostered this myth and others is “The Death of Rachel Corrie” by Joshua Hammer, published in Mother Jones [21]. However, Phan Nguyen proved that Hammer’s article was littered with errors, and that important parts were culled from right-wing websites with little credibility [22].
In her writing [23] and a videotaped interview [24] from Rafah, Rachel Corrie lucidly depicted the daily events in the lives of ordinary Palestinians in Rafah. Rachel’s accounts of destruction in Rafah generally correspond with the descriptions and conclusions of respected third party organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Rachel traveled to Rafah with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles [25]. ISM works with Palestinian communities that are undertaking nonviolent direct action. The ISM’s positions on Israel/Palestine correspond with international law [26].
The mandatory two day ISM training in Palestine that Rachel attended included intensive non-violence training, and discussion of the real possibility that the ISM trainees might be seriously wounded or killed [27]. During their training, all ISM volunteers, including Rachel, sign a form saying that “I realize I could be detained, imprisoned, taken hostage, injured or even killed.” An October 17, 2003 Seattle Times article reported, “She knew the risks of going, her friends said… from the beginning, the danger is never undersold, say those who have gone through the ISM training.” [28]. In 2002, nine ISM volunteers performing peaceful activities were seriously injured by Israeli settlers [29] and soldiers [30].
[27] For information on ISM’s training see: https://www.palsolidarity.org/main/join/training/
[28] Israeli bulldozer kills activist from Olympia ; Student had a life — and death — beyond belief, Florangela Davila, The Seattle Times, March 17, 2003
