RACHEL CORRIE: A SAD "SOLIDARITY" STORY
Rachel Corrie died for her sins!
RACHEL CORRIE: A SAD "SOLIDARITY" STORY!!!
By Gary Fitleberg
According to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and falsely perpetuated by the vast majority of the media, allegedly "Rachel Corrie was murdered by Israel while she was peacefully protesting against the illegal demolition of a Palestinian home."
American Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003, when she entered an area where Israeli forces were carrying out a military operation. The incident tragically and unfortunately occurred while IDF forces were removing shrubbery along the security road near the border between Israel and Egypt at Rafah to uncover explosive devices, and destroying tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to illegally smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza.
Corrie was not demonstrating for peace or trying to shield innocent civilians, she was interfering with a military operation to legally demolish an empty house used to conceal one of these tunnels.
A misleading photo published by the Associated Press gave the impression that Corrie was standing in front of the bulldozer and shouting at the driver with a megaphone, trying to prevent the driver from tearing down a building in the refugee camp. This photo, which was taken by a member of Corrie's organization, was not shot at the time of her death, however, but hours earlier. The photographer said that Corrie was actually sitting and waving her arms when she was struck (Christian Science Monitor, April 02, 2003).
Israel's Judge Advocate's Office investigated the incident and concluded that the driver of the bulldozer never saw or heard Corrie because she was standing behind debris that obstructed the view of the driver whose field of view was limited by the small armored windows of his cab. An autopsy found that the cause of Corrie's death was falling debris (Jerusalem Post, June 26, 2003).
The State Department warned Americans not to travel to Gaza, and Israel made clear that civilians who enter areas where troops are engaged in counter-terror operations put themselves unnecessarily at risk. This was not the first time protestors have tried to obstruct Israeli operations, and the IDF has made every effort to avoid harming them. This case received worldwide publicity in large measure because it was the first such incident where a protestor was killed. In fact, the army had told Corrie and other demonstrators from the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to move out of the way. "It?s possible they [the protesters] were not as disciplined as we would have liked," admitted Thom Saffold, a founder and organizer of ISM (Washington Post, March 17, 2003).
The death of an innocent civilian is always tragic, and the best way to avoid such tragedies in the future is, first and foremost, by the Palestinian Authority putting an end to violence, and stopping the smuggling operations that have brought huge quantities of illegal weapons into the Gaza Strip. Activists interested in peace should be protesting the Palestinian actions. Activists also have every right to express their views about Israel?s policies, but they should take care to avoid the appearance of siding with the terrorists or placing themselves in positions where they could be inadvertently caught in the crossfire of a counter-terror operation or otherwise endangered by entering an area where military operations are being conducted.
Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.
RACHEL CORRIE: A SAD "SOLIDARITY" STORY!!!
By Gary Fitleberg
According to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and falsely perpetuated by the vast majority of the media, allegedly "Rachel Corrie was murdered by Israel while she was peacefully protesting against the illegal demolition of a Palestinian home."
American Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003, when she entered an area where Israeli forces were carrying out a military operation. The incident tragically and unfortunately occurred while IDF forces were removing shrubbery along the security road near the border between Israel and Egypt at Rafah to uncover explosive devices, and destroying tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to illegally smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza.
Corrie was not demonstrating for peace or trying to shield innocent civilians, she was interfering with a military operation to legally demolish an empty house used to conceal one of these tunnels.
A misleading photo published by the Associated Press gave the impression that Corrie was standing in front of the bulldozer and shouting at the driver with a megaphone, trying to prevent the driver from tearing down a building in the refugee camp. This photo, which was taken by a member of Corrie's organization, was not shot at the time of her death, however, but hours earlier. The photographer said that Corrie was actually sitting and waving her arms when she was struck (Christian Science Monitor, April 02, 2003).
Israel's Judge Advocate's Office investigated the incident and concluded that the driver of the bulldozer never saw or heard Corrie because she was standing behind debris that obstructed the view of the driver whose field of view was limited by the small armored windows of his cab. An autopsy found that the cause of Corrie's death was falling debris (Jerusalem Post, June 26, 2003).
The State Department warned Americans not to travel to Gaza, and Israel made clear that civilians who enter areas where troops are engaged in counter-terror operations put themselves unnecessarily at risk. This was not the first time protestors have tried to obstruct Israeli operations, and the IDF has made every effort to avoid harming them. This case received worldwide publicity in large measure because it was the first such incident where a protestor was killed. In fact, the army had told Corrie and other demonstrators from the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to move out of the way. "It?s possible they [the protesters] were not as disciplined as we would have liked," admitted Thom Saffold, a founder and organizer of ISM (Washington Post, March 17, 2003).
The death of an innocent civilian is always tragic, and the best way to avoid such tragedies in the future is, first and foremost, by the Palestinian Authority putting an end to violence, and stopping the smuggling operations that have brought huge quantities of illegal weapons into the Gaza Strip. Activists interested in peace should be protesting the Palestinian actions. Activists also have every right to express their views about Israel?s policies, but they should take care to avoid the appearance of siding with the terrorists or placing themselves in positions where they could be inadvertently caught in the crossfire of a counter-terror operation or otherwise endangered by entering an area where military operations are being conducted.
Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.
posted by Ibrahamav | 3:13 PM
3 Comments:
The previous poster failed to note the rules. If it has nothing to do with Rachel Corrie, it gets deleted. There are other blogs I write that have room for these Islamo-fascists to practice their hate-mongering racism.
Rachel Corrie was an incredibly good person. I mourn and am very saddened by her murder earlier today, 16 March 2003. She was killed by a bulldozer as the Israeli military ran over her as she was protesting the destruction of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Rachel grew up in Olympia, Wa. I originally met her when she was a student in the options program at Lincoln school around 1989. She was a friend of my son and played on the same YMCA basketball team as my daughter. Rachel and I talked a lot the last two years and marched together at various demos. Rachel was a totally caring and gentle person who was outraged by oppression wherever it took place and had become very active working for social justice and peace.
Rachel was a very modest and responsible person who was the heart and soul of the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, a group she had originally begun working with as part of her study in the Local Knowledge program taught by Anne Fischel and Lin Nelson. Rachel was very active in opposing the U.S. "war against terror" and U.S. militarism.
One project she threw her mind and body into was a September 11th, 2002 day against the U.S. war in Afghanistan and against repression at home at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia. She got a lot of elementary school kids and classes to participate.
So it is very fitting that the vigil tonight (Sunday, March 16th at 7 P.M.) against the war in Iraq and to honor and mourn Rachel, was at Percival Landing. Close to 1000 people attended.
Rachel was a very reflective person who constantly thought about how to link together various groups working for justice, e.g., the labor movement and the peace movement. She volunteered at the Evergreen Labor Center and played a major role in organizing a conference dealing with networking and strategies for justice and peace last spring, 2002.
Another major concern of hers was to involve the local Olympia community that was not connected to Evergreen to the anti-war and economic and social justice issues and groups. Besides going to the Evergreen State College, Rachel also worked at BHR, a local mental health clinic and waas active in her union, 1199, a part of SEIU.
Justice for the Palestinian people was one of many issues Rachel felt deeply about. She strongly opposed the Israeli occupation and supported a Palestinian state. For Rachel, feeling deeply always meant also doing something about her concerns.
She had studied Arabic at Evergreen and decided to go to the Gaza Strip in occupied Palestine for winter quarter. Part of her reasoning was that it was important to have international observers there as Israeli aggression was likely to increase when the U.S. attacked, bombed and invaded Iraq. She strongly opposed the U.S. war against Iraq.
Rachel was aware of the dangers and risks of going to Gaza. She left Olympia on January 18th of this year, went to the West Bank and then Gaza, threw herself fully into human rights activism and solidarity with the Palestinian people.
She volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement, people from around the world who have been witnesses to Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. She had planned to return to Evergreen State College for spring quarter to finish her studies.
Rachel Corrie will not be coming back to Olympia but let us all take a moment to reflect on what each of us can do to carry on her legacy by doing a little more to oppose war and further justice, equality and peace in the Middle East, around the world and in the U.S. Rachel Corrie was an ordinary and an extraordinary person.
Peter Bohmer is a faculty member, professor of economics, at the Evergreen State College. He has been active in social justice movements from the late 1960's to the present.
Bruce S. Ticker spells out the blindingly obvious fact about Rachel Corrie and all the other objectively pro-terror swine of the International Solidarity Movement—they know perfectly well what they are doing: The Case Against Rachel Corrie. (Hat tip: NY Nana.)
Maybe, just maybe, Rachel Corrie knowingly aided and abetted cold-blooded murderers.
Many of you will probably call me naive and roll over having belly-laughs. It took me long enough, right? [Laugh? Who, me? —ed.]
When Corrie died more than a year ago, it was no great stretch to suspect that she and others who converged on Israel’s territories knowingly supported terrorists. There was certainly no proof and it was just as difficult to figure out any hard connection. ...
The raid on Rafah brings new facts to light indicating that Corrie and other ISM members had to know they were aiding and abetting terrorists, if they were not participating in terrorism themselves.
The 23-year-old Corrie, who traveled more than 8,000 miles from Olympia, Washington, was run over by a bulldozer when she tried to block the vehicle from demolishing a house in Rafah - a house where she had been staying. The Israeli military ruled that this was an accident and ISM members accused the driver of murder even before the military could investigate the incident.
It may pass the “reasonable person” test that these ISM’ers knew very well they were helping terrorists. What would a reasonable person conclude?
Consider: The Israeli government revealed that 90 weapons-smuggling tunnels were constructed between the Egyptian border and Rafah. At least some of these tunnels were known to end underneath the homes in Rafah.
With 90 tunnels running underneath Rafah, there must have been lots of suspicious activity. Corrie and her friends would have had to be blind not to notice.
First, there are the tunnel connections underneath the homes. ISM’ers who stayed with Gazan families might have seen the tunnels themselves, or they at least spotted people going back and forth from the basement of the home. During deliveries, people would have been hauling the goods out of the homes. Maybe Corrie herself did some heavy lifting.
The weapons then had to be transported somehow. Vehicles appear to be the natural choice. They would have had to be driven to the tunnel entrances and the weapons would need to be loaded onto the trucks.
Would you wonder about this kind of activity if you were personally on the scene?
Wherever ISM members mingled and even lived among Gaza and West Bank Arabs, it is possible that many of these Arabs were terrorists or helped the terrorists by feeding and housing them. The ISM’ers could have been at gatherings where they were introduced to suspected terrorists, heard stories about violent activities or noticed otherwise suspicious activity.
Actually, there is not only evidence, but proof of ISM aiding and abetting terrorists. When terrorists seized a church in Bethlehem, a few ISM’ers smuggled food to them.
If you put it all together, a reasonable person must conclude that the ISM members knew they were aiding and abetting terrorists.
The instant that it dawned on any of them that they might be helping terrorists was precisely the time for them to end their involvement. That’s what a sincere and honorable person would have done.
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