19th March 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Nablus , Occupied Palestine
Team Nablus
On March 16th 2013, the International Solidarity Movement was joined by the International Women’s Peace Service and the Tanweer Center in commemorating the death of Rachel Corrie – an American peace activist and former member of the ISM. Tree planting with Rachel Corrie posters in Asira al Qibliya
Rachel was killed in 2003 in Rafah in the south Gaza strip, crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to protect a home from demolition. The group gathered in Duar Squar,e in the heart of Nablus, where powerful speeches were given by Wael, director of Tanweer Center, and Dr. Sa’ed Abu Hijlehm, a professor at An-Najah University, conveying a deep respect for Rachel as well as other internationals who have been killed while working in solidarity with Palestinians to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank; Tom Hurndall and Vittorio Arrigoini. The group released a mass of balloons with the photos of Vittorio, Tom and Rachel attached into the downtown center of Nablus.
Three days prior, ISM activists joined villagers from Asira to plant olive trees with accompanying pictures of Rachel.
Pertinent to President Obama’s impending visit to the West Bank, Rachel’s death is significant as it relates to the ongoing U.S funding of Israel’s occupation. The bulldozer that crushed Corrie was manufactured by Caterpillar Inc. and purchased through a subsidized US aid to Israel program.
Balloons carrying pictures of Rachel Corrie, Tom Hunrdnall, Vittorio Arrigoni and Arafat Jaradat are released into the sky in Nablus city centre
12 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement
Tom was 21 years old when he was shot. A photography student, he had left the UK to volunteer as a ‘human shield’ in Iraq. Here he heard about the ISM, one of whose volunteers, Rachel Corrie, had just been killed by a bulldozer whilst protesting house demolitions in Rafah. He headed there himself, arriving on the 6th April.
On the day of his shooting, Tom was with other ISM activists walking through Rafah when Israeli sniper fire started. Almost everyone ran for safety, but Tom noticed that three children, aged between four and seven, had remained motionless, paralysed with fear. Tom went back for them. He got the little boy to safety, and then went back for the two girls. He was wearing a fluorescent vest, and was clearly unarmed. An Israeli sniper shot him in the head. (Read more.)
Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein, who represented Rachel Corrie’s family in its suit against Israel, says they knew from the beginning that it would be an uphill battle to find truth and justice in an Israeli court.
On Tuesday, Judge Oded Gershon of the Haifa District Court dismissed the civil lawsuit I brought on behalf of Rachel Corrie’s family against the State of Israel for the unlawful killing of their daughter, an American peace activist and human rights defender who legally entered Gaza to live with Palestinian families in Rafah whose homes were threatened by demolition.
While not surprising, the verdict is yet another example of impunity prevailing over accountability and fairness and it flies in the face of the fundamental principle of international humanitarian law – that in a time of war, military forces are obligated to take all measures to avoid harm to both civilians and their property.
Rachel Corrie on March 16,2003
It is not the first time courts have denied victims of Israeli military actions the right to effective remedy. Just ask the many Palestinians who have faced a myriad of legal hurdles and fought for decades simply to have their day in court. Thousands of legitimate claims continue to be denied based on the controversial legal theory – which Judge Gershon adopted – that soldiers should be absolved of civil liability because they were engaged in military operational activities in a war zone.
Rachel’s case is unique because she was the first foreign national to be killed while protesting Israeli occupation, though she was hardly the last. Tom Hurndall, a British peace activist, was shot in the head and killed by an Israeli sniper less than three weeks after Rachel was killed. And less than a month after that, James Miller, a British cameraman was also shot and killed by the IDF in Rafah.
In reaching his decision in Rachel’s case, Judge Gershon accepted virtually all of the government’s legal arguments and either ignored or distorted critical facts in order to reach his decision. For example, he concluded that Rafah was a closed military zone, as declared by the Israeli military’s southern command (never mind that no such order was presented in court, and the ground unit commander testified he was unaware of the area’s designation as a closed zone). And that conclusion had implications.
When the former Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade Commander Colonel Pinhas (Pinky) Zuaretz, who was in charge in 2003, testified, he confirmed that the rules of engagement at the time Rachel was killed were to “shoot to kill any adult person on the [Philadelphi] route.” As another Israeli colonel who testified put it: “There are no civilians in a war zone.” By accepting the testimony of Zuaretz and others, Judge Gershon essentially accepted that the “shoot to kill” order was acceptable, which violates the fundamental tenets of international humanitarian law, mandating that soldiers distinguish between combatants and civilians.
We knew from the beginning that it would be an uphill battle to find truth and justice, but we are convinced that this verdict not only distorts the strong evidence presented in court, but also contradicts fundamental principles of international law with regard to protection of human rights defenders. In denying justice in Rachel Corrie’s killing, this verdict is part of a systemic failure to hold the Israeli military accountable for continuing violations of basic human rights. As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter put it: “The court’s decision confirms a climate of impunity, which facilitates Israeli human rights violations against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Territory.”
The Corrie family has always stressed that the purpose of this lawsuit was larger than compensation for their loss. For them, it was about understanding exactly what happened to Rachel and exposing the injustices their daughter and her friends in the International Solidarity Movement stood against. They filed suit on advice of Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who, on behalf of the State Department, told the family in 2004 that the United States did not consider the investigation into Rachel’s death to be “thorough, credible and transparent.”
The U.S. government has repeatedly reiterated its position regarding the failed investigation, and after nearly seven years of mounting evidence since the case was initially filed, it has become even clearer that the military conducted its investigation not to uncover the truth of what happened, but rather, to exonerate itself of any blame.
In his decision, Judge Gershon concluded that because Rachel put herself in harm’s way, she is to be blamed for her own death. That conclusion puts at serious risk the lives of human rights defenders and it creates yet another dangerous precedent regarding the protection of civilians in war. Not surprisingly, the court avoided any analysis of international law obligations.
The verdict ensures that the Israeli culture of impunity will continue unchecked. Rachel Corrie lost her life standing non-violently with those who have been subject to Israel’s systematic policy of destruction and demonization. Like the Freedom Riders in the United States who, during the civil rights movement, joined oppressed black communities in their struggle for equality, Rachel and her friends in the ISM presented a new challenge and model of non-violent activism, solidarity and resistance to the longest military occupation in modern history.
In a country in which the judicial system has enabled the occupation for almost 50 years, I suppose it’s not surprising that the judicial system blamed the victim for her own death.
Hussein Abu Hussein is a human rights lawyer and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights.He represented the Corrie family in their case against the Israeli government and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
24 March 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
On Sunday it was reported that a young boy had been shot on farmland near the Rafah crossing. The details were unclear. Several colleagues and I traveled to Rafah to find out what happened. After making several inquiries, we entered a Bedouin area several hundred meters north of Gaza’s border with Egypt and three kilometers from the Karm Abu Salem area of the Israeli border on the East. We followed a young man on a motorcycle down dusty roads with small plots of crops and olive trees on one side, and dilapidated homes made of corrugated metal, cinder block and plastic on the other.
Standing outside a rickety gate, three boys explain that we need to wait, as there are only women at home. A child runs off to summon a male family member. Someone calls from inside asking us to enter.
We pass through a dusty courtyard and are directed to a small dark room with nothing but mats on the floor. A bare light bulb hangs overhead. A plastic clock hangs on the wall. Despite all the children on the street and in the home, there are no toys. A young boy sits in the corner, playing with the fringe on a woman’s coat, shy and surprised at the strangers in his home. A woman with a child clutching her leg peeks from behind a curtain. Plastic chairs are brought in for the guests.
Faiza, the boy’s forty-four-year-old mother enters and sits on the mat next to the boy. He is six-year-old Sohaib Sultan. He is the victim of the shooting, but he looks uninjured. Faiza pulls down his pants to show the fresh bandage on his left buttock. She explains that on Saturday evening at seven o’clock, they heard gunfire from the border. Sohaib was sitting exactly where we sat, playing on the floor with his brothers, when the bullet pierced the corrugated metal roof and struck him. She points to the hole in the ceiling just above my head.
She produces his x-ray, showing a large caliber bullet lodged inches from his pelvis. If he had been sitting in a slightly altered position he could easily be dead. As it was, the bullet did little damage. His mother explains that the bullet hasn’t been removed yet. They need to schedule surgery with the hospital.
Sohaib’s father, Majd, enters the room and sits beside me. He explains the family’s circumstances. He is unemployed and his wife suffers from kidney disease. There is little income and very little support from the government. He and his wife have nine children. Sohaib is the youngest. It is the first time a family member has been injured, although there is often the sound of gunfire from the border and bullets have struck neighbor’s homes in the past.
He said, “We are often afraid, we never know when a bullet could come down.” He continued to state, “To the Israelis we say, ‘Please don’t shoot us, we are civilians here, we have no weapons, we live a civilian life. We just want to live like humans. We want to live in peace.’”
Baraka al-Morabi was not as lucky as Sohab Sultan. He lived in Zeitoun camp with his mother, father and two sisters as well as his grandmother and three aunts with their families.
I attended his funeral. I watched as a father stumbled, carrying his seven-year-old child to his grave. Baraka was wrapped in a white shroud and lowered into the ground. A short ceremony was held. A Palestinian flag was draped over the fresh mound of dirt, and a cardboard placard identifies the grave. His is the last in a line of fourteen new graves of fighters and civilians.
Several days after the funeral we visited with Baraka’s father, Mohammed Osman al-Mograbi. He led us down rutted dirty streets, past the gaggles of bare foot children, to his home in Zeitoun camp. We sat in a small, concrete enclosed courtyard adjacent to a small stable that contained a horse and a small pony. The pony was born just weeks ago, a gift for Baraka.
As the family joins us under martyr posters of the young boy and his neighbors, we learn the story of Baraka’s death.
On Saturday March 17th there was a funeral in Zeitoun for three fighters who had been killed the day before in an Israeli bombing. Baraka was walking in the funeral procession. Many people were firing pistols and Kalashnikovs into the air, as they will during both funerals and celebrations. Suddenly Baraka stumbled to the ground. He was struck in the back of the head by a bullet falling from the sky. He was hospitalized for four days before he died.
Mohammed tells us, “Baraka was a happy child. He did well in school and was always smiling.”
Now, he is gone, but not forgotten.
In Gaza, reminders of war and violence are everywhere. It is normal to hear the sound of drones and F-16’s crossing the sky. The sound of machine gun fire from Israeli gunboats often punctuates a day at the beach or disrupts one’s sleep. Building facades made of plaster and cinder block are scored with large caliber bullet holes, or even larger holes from mortars. Weeds grow around twisted metal and chunks of concrete in lots where buildings were reduced to rubble in Cast Lead, and there are the newly flattened buildings from last week’s attacks.
And often, the bullets find much softer targets. Posters of the newly dead replace martyr posters faded and torn. Then there is the one legged man in the market, the burned woman I pass on the street, the pock marked arms and faces of shrapnel victims, and the men forever bound by wheelchairs.
Now there is a new poster, of a young boy who was killed in an act of senseless violence where violence and destruction seem the norm. His death is just a footnote in the context of the larger systemic violence waged on the people here, but just last week he was not a footnote, he was a smiling vibrant seven-year-old boy who did well in school and had a new horse. He was living.
Baraka’s grandmother appears heartbroken. Baraka’s mother is less than reassured. She is pale and drawn. She is also carrying her fourth child, and on the day Baraka died, she thought she was ready to deliver and was rushed to the hospital, but the doctors sent her home to wait and grieve.
Mohammed smiled.
“Do not be sad,” he said to me, “Baraka is in paradise, it is a better place than here.” Mohammed seemed at peace. “We don’t worry,” he said, “We are a happy family.”
Johnny Bravo is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
On Saturday evening around 7pm, Israeli soldiers opened fire on the edge of Karm Abu Salem, east of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
Sohaib Sultan, 6 years old, was playing at home with his brothers when he was injured by one of the bullets on the right side of his thigh.
His parents, Majed, 45 years old, and Fayza, 44 years old, transported him to the hospital. They first went to the Najar hospital and then to the European Hospital in the Khan Younis area.
The bullet is still in the child’s body.
His parents told us that the doctor did not feel comfortable performing surgery on the child. He simply told them “it is your responsibility”.
Therefore the parents decided to turn to another hospital.
The father showed us the X-ray. The bullet was clearly visible inside the child.
We asked Sohaib, “Kif halak” (“How are you?”), and he replied “Alhamdulilah” (“Praise be to God”).
Everything is all right for Sohaib. I was astonished by his answer. Alhamdulilah, as if nothing had happened, as if his little body was not inhabited by a bullet of 215 mm.
Sohaib is a strong child.
I caressed his head smiling, and he returned my smile.
Sohaib has three brothers and 5 sisters, and he is the youngest of his family. His mother Fayza suffers from kidney problems and his father Majed is unemployed.
His father is worried. “There is nothing that can stop the bullets”, he says, with reference to the panels which constitute the ceiling of their home and part of the walls, which bullets can easily enter.
I asked if he felt like sending a message to the outside world. “Put an end to the siege of Gaza,” he said, “and let the people live a normal life. We are civilians, please do not shoot. We do not have any weapons, we live a civilian life. Let us just live a human life, in peace.”
Tomorrow we will go together to the hospital to talk to a doctor and maybe Sohaib will be operated on. We will be with them for support, to make them aware that they are not alone, despite the silence of the international community.
Rosa Schiano is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.
