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Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Op-ED: Rachel Corrie

By:  Elana Kashti
Israel Coalition on Campus Grinspoon, Intern
Florida Atlantic University

 

In recent months many have speculated about the tragic and accidental death of a 23-year-old woman from Olympia, Wash. named Rachel Corrie on March 16, 2003. Ten years after the fatal accident, many ask if justice was served, or if Corrie was a victim of a misguided group’s attempt for attention.
Corrie was a young woman who, like many of us, searched for her place in the world. In that search she was introduced to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The ISM is a Palestinian group, which thrives on recruiting young men and women from nations around the world to act in favor of its causes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The ISM intentionally provides its followers with false and inflammatory information to incite them against Israelis. This misinformation is used to persuade its followers to take extreme measures and put themselves in harm’s way in order for the ISM to gain greater attention and seek international sympathy.
On March 16, 2003 Corrie was turned into a potential propaganda tool after being instructed to kneel in front of an IDF (Israel Defense Force) bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to prevent the destruction of illegally built tunnels by the Palestinians intending to smuggle thousands of weapons, bomb materials and suicide vests. Since Corrie was not visible to the bulldozer operator, she was accidentally killed.
While Corrie’s death was tragic, the real culprit in the tragedy is the ISM. Ten years after Corrie’s death her family seeks justice for the daughter they lost. However, if it’s justice they seek, they should look at the ISM and their lies. It is the ISM who is responsible for the tragic death of Rachel Corrie and no one else. When hatred is present the result is very often tragic. While we all sympathize with Rachel Corrie and her family, we cannot lose perspective on how the ISM used this young woman and eventually lead to her death.
Today on 9/11 we must all ask ourselves, is there justice when a hate group induces other like us with lies, which leave nothing but pain and sorrow. Is this justice?

 

 

Following Rachel’s Footsteps: End U.S. Funding for Israeli Apartheid
By Noor Fawzy

Last week represented a long-awaited milestone in the struggle for justice in Palestine. Palestine solidarity groups, domestic and international, mobilized to mark the historic verdict rendered by an Israeli court on the 2010 Rachel Corrie wrongful death case. My organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, followed this story intently, raised awareness about it and the larger issue behind it, and encouraged students to sign letters urging divestment from companies that profit from and contribute to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.
Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace activist, and a true American hero. At a young age, she’d developed a strong moral compass and sense for justice, the rule of law, and human rights. As an American citizen, she felt indirectly responsible for the United States’ funding of violence in the region. During her senior year at Evergreen State College, she suspended her studies to work with the International Solidarity Movement, an organization actively working to end the Israeli Occupation by non-violent means. She was killed in 2003 in the Gaza Strip as she defended a Palestinian medical doctor’s home from demolition by the Israeli army. She was crushed to death by an American-made, Israeli-operated armored Caterpillar bulldozer.
The Israeli court decided that the State of Israel was not guilty for Corrie’s death. Instead, the court placed the blame squarely on Rachel, arguing that she should not have been inside a war zone, when in fact the “war zone” is a densely populated territory the Israeli military is currently occupying. The ruling utterly ignores the overwhelming photographic and eyewitness evidence that Rachel was wrongfully killed. In accordance with ISM policy, she wore a fluorescent orange jacket, communicated through a megaphone, and stood atop a mound of dirt and rubble in order to make eye contact with the bulldozer driver. There were seven other activists with her. They had been at the residence for two hours prior, and had in fact confronted a bulldozer earlier that day, making the claim that her presence was unknown implausible.
The ruling will be subject to intense international scrutiny, considering the Israel/Palestine issue is one that threatens international peace and security. It will also serve, as has the issue at large, as a significant source of anti-American sentiment. More disappointing than the U.S. government’s response to Israel’s actions (usually limited to a few “critical” words) is the U.S. government’s tacit contributions to these crimes. For decades, successive American administrations have provided Israel with the funds and military weaponry necessary to systematically humiliate and terrorize the indigenous Palestinian population, forcing them to live without basic human rights. The U.S. is Israel’s primary weapons supplier. Israel receives the most money in U.S. foreign aid, receiving more than the entire continent of Africa.
U.S. weapons transfers to Israel are funded by our American tax dollars. Rachel Corrie’s presence in Palestine was the product of the U.S.’ failure to pressure Israel to end the brutal, 67-year-long Occupation, and her death was the result of a State emboldened by dozens of failed attempts at U.N. condemnation, consistently vetoed by the United States. Our nation possesses the political, economic, military and diplomatic capacity to hold Israel accountable for its human rights abuses. What our nation lacks is the political will and courage to do so.
If we want to end the violence, we must start by pulling our tax dollars out of Israeli military brutality. Our tax dollars should not go to aid the military of a country that commits human rights abuses, conducts collective punishments and implements apartheid policy. Rather, those dollars should be spent here at home. Our tax dollars should translate not into weaponry, but into job creation, early reading programs for children, affordable housing for low income families, and basic health care services for the 50 million of our citizens who lack it.
Rachel was not the only American to fall victim to Israeli aggression funded by her own nation. In 2009, Tristan Anderson was shot in the head by an American-provided Israeli tear gas canister while non-violently protesting the Israeli Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. American art student Emily Henochowicz lost her left eye after she was shot by a tear gas canister in the West Bank. Furkan Doghan was a dual Turkish-American citizen who was killed while on board the Gaza Freedom flotilla. He was shot in the head five times, point-blank by Israeli commandos.
To date, no justice has been served for any of these Americans. Israel has proven both its unwillingness and its incapacity to hold its military accountable for their atrocities. Its structurally flawed justice system has fanned the cruel impudence of Israeli criminals by allowing them to continue their aggression with impunity. The United States, Israel’s top ally, refuses to hold Israel accountable in the United Nations. In fact, the U.S. vetoed 43 U.N. resolutions condemning Israeli aggression in the region. As long as the U.S. shields criminals by playing Israel’s lawyer in the U.N., the international community will remain unsuccessful in pulling Israel into the law-abiding, human rights-respecting sphere. And as long as Israel is permitted to conduct its own biased and corrupt investigations in matters of violence against peaceful activists, no family of the Americans slain for Palestinian rights will see justice.

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  • M

    mploOct 8, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    As disturbing as Israel’s ruling regarding Rachel Corrie’s tragic and untimely death was/is, I firmly believe that there was plenty of responsibility for Rachel Corrie’s death to go around. The State of Israel definitely bears responsibility for Ms. Corrie’s death and should definitely be held accountable, and that the Corrie family deserves some sort of recompensation for the death of their daughter. The United States and the West, generally, were also complicit in this. Yet, there’s another thing I’ll add that people will undoubtedly disagree with; That part of the responsibility for Rachel Corrie’s horrific death also rests with the International Solidarity Movement as well. Several ISM members, including the late Ms. Corrie, had some rather narrow escapes while standing, singlely, between bulldozers and Palestinians’ homes in Gaza slated for demolition by the Israeli military. Those narrow escapes definitely should’ve been a wake-up call for the ISM to alter their strategy and protect their members a little better, by not allowing people to supplant themselves singlely in between Palestinians’ homes and the large Israeli soldier-operated bulldozers.

    Rachel’s mother, Cindy Corrie, made a more revealing statement, when she said, of her daughter, Rachel: “I don’t think she should have moved. I think that her friends should’ve stood there with her.” Having said that, I believe that, had the ISM operated in a larger arena and had a larger percentage of people standing in front of bulldozers, the likelihood of serious injury or death would’ve been reduced considerably, and Rachel Corrie would still be alive right now.

    Reply
  • I

    israelm isa apartied stateSep 13, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    i always spell israel in lower case its a purposely done insult.zionazi is my version of zionists and nazis. and the rest i can care less

    Reply
    • S

      spelling facilitatorSep 14, 2012 at 1:48 am

      Oh, then notice that you spelled “palestine” with a lower case letter, I guess you think it is worthless as well huh?
      Moreover, since that’s the way you feel you are a racist, hating, uneducated loser. Thanks for making that really clear.

      Reply
  • T

    This is a complete fabrication of realitySep 13, 2012 at 10:18 am

    If people would stop listening to anyone who throws around bold words like brutal, oppression, atrocitie, and all these other strong words that prove bias, then we would be a much more educated society.

    Incase you haven’t noticed there is no valid source to this rabid opinion article included and for good reason. Re read this article without any of it’s adjectives and it’s more than obvious this is a complete distortion of facts.
    http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/28/world/la-fg-israel-corrie-verdict-20120829
    This is the real story, it was NOT a murder, Rachel joined a radical group that kept going on dangerous missions issues by palestinian millitants and ended up stuck in a dirt mound when she ran up to a bulldozer that did not see her.

    As for the other incidents they most certainly where not “nonviolent demonstrations, rather further incidents where palestinian millitants manipulated activists into provoking israeli border patrols until a gas canister was fired at the crowd and some would not leave like her, so more where fired and in the chaos one hit her in the eye.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/world/middleeast/28israel.html

    As for the Turkish American, the marmara mavi was an incident where the whole turkish crew on camera had claimed they where seeking martyrdom. The crew violated Israels sea territory and wouldn’t dock at the israeli port the Israelis told the crew too, so the Israeli commandos borded and where attacked and almost killed. Watch the video for yourself.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LulDJh4fWI&feature=relmfu

    So if anyone intelligent is out there and smart enough to be skeptical of whatever they read on the internet (including this comment) i actively encourage them to look things up and trust valid sources, not opinion articles..

    Reply
  • I

    israel isa apartied stateSep 12, 2012 at 11:26 pm

    the zionazises believe anyone trying to help palestinians or witness israeli crimes deserve to be run over by a bulldozer. The holecaust has taught you guys nothing

    Reply
    • S

      spelling facilitatorSep 13, 2012 at 2:03 am

      Thought I would help you correct your spelling since a dictionary was not availble to you.
      1.”Zionazises” Zionists
      2.”israeli” Israeli
      3.”Holeacaust” like really there is no hole in “holocaust”.
      4. “Apatied” aparthied
      5. “isa” would that be “is a”
      Next time do us all a favor and use spell check and make youself seem educated.

      Reply
  • P

    patchesSep 12, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    c’mon trolls, is that all you got? “her facts are wrong.” was rachel corrie run over by a bulldozer in the west bank as part of an ongoing military occupation? thanks for playing.

    Reply
  • C

    Chris BerelSep 12, 2012 at 9:10 pm

    Noor Fawzy had too many faulty opinions to deal with in such a short time. However, Noor lied in her identification of the home that Corrie was supposedly defending. The home (and it was not threatened at that time) belonged to and was lived in by Samir Nasrallah, a pharmacist, not a medical doctor.

    This fact is well known and has been well known for 9 years. There is no credible reason for Noor to lie except to make the supposed victim more important. That Noor’s initial fact is wrong, is there any reason to believe any of Noor’s “facts”? I do not believe so.

    Justice will not be served by lies.

    Reply
    • W

      WrenSep 12, 2012 at 11:02 pm

      Okay, so Noor called a “pharmacist” a “doctor”. Why not call out Elana Kashti for calling that pharmacist’s home a secret bomb-smuggling tunnel of dooooooom? Free Palestine!

      Reply
  • F

    FactsSep 11, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    Really good job at neglecting to mention me Noor.

    Reply
    • P

      Pro-truthSep 12, 2012 at 4:08 am

      There was nothing to mention noor. When lies are all you offer, no one want to read, hear, or care about you or your terrorist cause. Why don’t you realize that violence, lies, and fear is you and your people know to spread. Try telling the truth and stop promoting innocent victims into your cause. If you care so much, why don’t you go stand in front of a bulldozer? You can even take your rug with you.

      Reply