Sad Anniversary
Via Wikipedia:
Rachel Corrie (April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003) was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She died close to the border with Egypt while trying to obstruct a Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozer, operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The circumstances and the question of responsibility for her death remain controversial.
And:
On January 18, 2003, Corrie traveled to the Gaza Strip, where she attended two days of training in non-violent resistance and serving as human shields. Through February and March, according to ISM activists and e-mails Corrie sent to her family, she took part in a mock trial of George W. Bush; a demonstration as part of the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest against the war in Iraq, where she burned a paper U.S. flag; and helped to occupy the area around local wells, an operation designed to protect the wells and Palestinian workers from the IDF, according to the ISM.
In e-mails to her family, Corrie described what she witnessed and expressed her frustration over it.[3] On March 14, 2003 in an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, she said: “I feel like I’m witnessing the systematic destruction of a people’s ability to survive … Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I’m having dinner with.”[4]
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Billy Bragg weighs in with new lyrics, using music from Bob Dylan:
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For her two months of in-country efforts, the 23 year old was vilified by rightists, partly because of her burning the paper flag, an action that hurt noone.
A play about her life will debut in Israel today:
The play is based on Corrie’s diaries and emails edited by the actor Alan Rickman and the Guardian journalist Katharine Viner. It has been translated into Arabic and adapted by the director Riad Masarwi and the actor Lana Zreik, who most recently appeared in the film Lemon Tree, which won the audience award at last month’s Berlin Film Festival.
Other events around the world will also commemorate her quest for justice.
Here’s Rachel in fifth grade. Note the tone and charges made in the comments below the video at this link.
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Rest in peace, Rachel.
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March 16th, 2008 at 6:12 am
[…] Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza: […]
March 16th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I also posted a memorial tribute to Rachel (been doing so for the last few years) over at The Mahatma X Files. I’ll be updating that post throughout the day with other blogs that have chosen to honor her memory. Peace.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Ms. Corrie’s is one of the saddest stories of someone trying to do the right thing. What was even worse was her abysmal sense of timing, as just days after her death, “shock and awe” blew up the first wave of innocent bystanders in Iraq, to be met by the following five years of nation-un-building at American hands (which, at $3 trillion, 4,000 American lives, and countless Iraqi lives, may help un-build our nation too).
That said, the plight of the Palestinians, and of Gazans in particular, has always been sui generis, and quite frankly, attempts made to link it to any American policy (besides blank-check support of the hard-right elements of Israel, rather than general overall support of Israel, which is pretty non-negotiable) were, are and will always will be… mistaken.
Indeed, while no one thing was responsible, seeing a plethora of protestors whose issue was the Palestinians during the anti-war protests here in early 2003 was at best a distraction, and at worst, outright counter-productive.
The Palestinians have been perennially sold out, first by their nominal sovereigns in Egypt and Jordan, then by their own “leader” Arafat, and of late, by themselves… when they shifted from rocks to katyusha rockets and suicide bombers, they lost a good deal of their moral authority, and let wild Israeli overreactions of blowing up apartment blocks seem somehow justifiable.
The Israeli Palestinian issue will and can only be resolved when ALL of the relevant players– the USA and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Israelis and Palestinians themselves (and Syria, Egypt and Jordan) all share in that interest. Until then, it will be more of the same for a long, long time. And unfortunately, the occasional do-gooder like Ms. Corrie will quite literally get bulldozed.
March 16th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
[…] Corrie: April 10, 1979 – March 16, 2003 Jump to Comments Kevin Hayden has videos, and a photograph of Rachel immediately after she was killed. It’s aclose-up of her face, and it ain’t pretty. Look at it only if you’re feeling strong. […]