International Solidarity Movement

By Jennifer Moody
Originally published in the Albany Democrat-Herald

Cindy Corrie used to think the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians had no beginning, no end and no solution — if she thought about it at all.

That was before her daughter Rachel was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as she stood in protest in front of a Palestinian home about to be razed.

Rachel Corrie was a writer who went to the Gaza Strip as a peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement. She died March 16, 2003, about three weeks shy of her 24th birthday.

Since then, her parents, Craig and Cindy of Olympia, Wash., have been accepting invitations to talk about their daughter and the conflict that led to her death.

They spoke Wednesday at Linn-Benton Community College in a talk sponsored by the Institute for Peace and Justice at LBCC, the Albany Peace Seekers, and a student group, Linn-Benton Peace Studies.

Since her death, Rachel has inspired sharply conflicting opinions. Her critics describe her as a misguided defender of Palestinian terrorists and say the house she was protecting may have been used to smuggle arms to Gaza from Egypt.

The parents’ goal, her mother said, is to remind people in the United States to “really pay attention to what’s happening in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, and to learn more about our role in it, and to find ways to actively try and take personal action on it … not to tune out on all of this.”

People are beginning to understand, Cindy added, but she thinks more people would take notice if they understood that the need to find a solution to the conflict directly affects this country.

“What the world sees is a very strong U.S. bias in support of the Israeli government. That’s viewed as being unjust,” she said. “That’s very damaging to us, in terms of world opinion.”

About 20 people attended the two-hour presentation, which centered on Rachel’s life and death and on the experiences her parents have had in the region on subsequent visits.

Rachel was in the area for about 10 weeks. She lived in Rafah, a city of about 140,000.

She wrote her parents often about the destruction she witnessed: homes bulldozed to clear the way for roads or walls, wells for drinking water destroyed by the Israeli military, an economy devastated by division and isolation. On one of her first calls home, as Israeli forces fired shells into the night, she held up the telephone and let her parents listen.

The Corries stressed they are horrified by suicide bombs and other Palestinian atrocities and in no way mean to defend them.

At the same time, however, they said they don’t believe such bombs are a threat to the very existence of the Israeli people in the same way that Israel is capable of threatening Palestinian existence.

They also question the solutions Israel has said it needs for security, such as putting walls and checkpoint terminals on Palestinian — not Israeli — property, and demolishing homes to make way for those efforts. American tax dollars, they said, are used to purchase some of the equipment for that work and may have paid for the very bulldozer that killed their daughter.

“We are motivated by Rachel to do what we can to work for a just resolution that will support all the people of this region, and I think before the whole world as well,” Cindy said.

Added her father: “We can’t do anything about Rachel, but we can do something about these children.”

Presentation on non-violence in Israel-Palestine conflict sparks conversation
By Andrew Miner
Originally published in the Oregon State Daily Barometer

Rachel Corrie sacrificed her life hoping to bring peace through non-violence in the Israeli Palestine conflict. Craig and Cindy Corrie spoke Tuesday in the MU Journey Room about their daughter’s history.

Rachel Corrie was protecting the home of a Palestinian family, the Nasrallahs, when she was crushed to death by Israeli construction workers using an American-made D-9R caterpillar bulldozer in Rafah, Palestine on March 16, 2003. The workers were building an Israeli military wall on the border between Rafah and Gaza Strip.

“I feel it’s a very systematic destruction of the very ability for people to survive,” Rachel said in a video recorded before her death. “I feel it’s obvious that this government (of Ariel Sharon) is perpetuating the cycle of violence.”

Rachel believed that through the process of constructing the walls along Rafah and the Gaza strip the Israeli military destroyed 50 percent of the water supply for those living in the area, affecting the livelihood of 300 Palestinians.

“It’s amazing people are able to hold onto their humanity as much as they have,” said Rachel, whose shaky voice was barely audible over bulldozers which ravaged the homes below.

Human Rights Watch called the obliteration of 1,700 homes, “Razing Rafah,” where the Israeli military dealt “a pattern of destruction acting regardless of whether these homes posed an actual threat,” said Cindy Corrie.

Rafah, a city located on the tip of the Palestinian border with Egypt, has a population of 140,000, 10 percent of whom became refugees from the construction of these walls, Rachel said in the video.

The Corries have since dedicated their lives to fulfilling their daughter’s dream — of bringing permanent peace between Israelis and Palestinians — by telling their daughter’s story.

“Of the six homes we stayed at in Rafah, all but one have been demolished,” said Cindy.

Rachel, 23, was a student at Evergreen State College in the International Solidarity Movement when posted in Rafah to protest the destruction of Palestinian homes.

ISM has focused on two stipulations for the conflict: the right to freedom for Palestinians using only non-violent methods, and the strength in truth for the Palestinian cause.

“Sometimes I sit down and eat with these people (those Palestinians whose homes were being bulldozed) with the Israeli military machine surrounding them … No child should ever have to live like that,” Rachel said on screen.

Rachel and the other students in ISM slept in these Palestinian homes along the border — with efforts to sleep often hindered by tank shelling near them.

“An 8-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here,” Rachel said. “I am really scared for the people here.”

Two men who have participated in this resistance along the border are Ghassan Andoni and Jeff Halper, both of whom have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Israel is the only country in the world to prevent housing based on race,” Cindy said.

The U.S. military supports Israel through U.S. tax dollars to pay for Caterpillars, used as military machines in the destruction of Rafah homes, Cindy said.

“Craig believes we paid for the Caterpillar that killed Rachel,” Cindy said.

“Rachel’s death was a call for action on our part,” said Cindy, “to not simply talk of peace, but to get our hands dirty… and Rachel got her hands dirty.”

As the emotional presentation ended, Dr. Mohamed Mohamed, a physician at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, stood up.

“I have two children of similar age, and my heart bleeds for the both of you,” Mohamed said.

As tears welled up in his eyes, Mohamed became more impassioned. “A country that bases its citizenship on religion is wrong … what is happening in Israel is apartheid,” he said, referring to the crippling racial segregation in South Africa which involved economic, political and legal discrimination against non-whites.

“We are not anti-Jewish, we are anti-Zionist,” said Mohamed.

According to the Zionist Organization of America, one of the oldest pro-Israel organizations in the United States, Zionism was founded in 1897 to support the re-establishment of a Jewish state in Israel.