[News] 1-Year anniversary of Rachel Corrie's murder

[News at freedomarchives.org]

March 16, 2004




Message from Craig and Cindy Corrie



Thank you to all who have paused today to remember our daughter Rachel 
Corrie and to call for an end to the occupationan occupation which took her 
life, as surely as it has taken the lives of thousands of Palestinians and 
Israelis.



Rachel looked for purpose and found that in Gaza when she went there in 
January 2003.  Brutally killed one year ago today, she was an unarmed, 
nonviolent, peace activist trying to prevent the demolition of the home of 
a Palestinian pharmacist, his wife, and three children.  She believed that 
the nonviolent activism that she was doing and supporting would make not 
only Palestinians but also Israelis and Americans more secure-- by 
supporting Palestinians who practice nonviolent rather than armed 
resistance and by speeding an end to this conflict that has so damaged both 
U.S. and Israeli images in the world.  Rachel stood there that day because 
the United States government and Israel rejected a proposal in the UN to 
send international human rights monitors to the region.  She and other 
activists went in their place, and they continue to go.  Rachel stood there 
that day protesting illegal home demolitions that the U.S. opposes on the 
record, yet fails to stopdevastating demolitions that we, in fact, 
contribute to with billions of U.S. tax dollars annually that fund the 
Israeli military with its bulldozers, apache helicopters, F-16s, and 
more.  In fact, the U.S. Government, with our tax dollars, surely purchased 
the Caterpillar D9R bulldozer that killed Rachel.   .

Rachels case is closed in Israel and only the Conclusionsto the military 
police report have been given to the U.S.  We have been able to view the 
report at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.  It contains 
inconsistencies and fails to satisfactorily reconcile the differences 
between the Israeli soldiers who say they did not see Rachel and the seven 
international eyewitnesses who say she was clearly visible.   We believe 
that only an independent U.S. investigation can produce a result that we 
can trust.  We continue to call for support and passage of House Concurrent 
Resolution 111 (HCR111) that calls for such an investigation and now has 
fifty-six co-sponsors.

Rachel wrote, When I am with Palestinian friends I tend to be somewhat less 
horrified than when I am trying to act in a role of human rights observer, 
documenter, or direct-action resister.  They are a good example of how to 
be in it for the long haul.  I know that the situation gets to them-- and 
may ultimately get them-- on all kinds of levels, but I am nevertheless 
amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of 
their humanity-- laughter, generosity, family-time-- against the incredible 
horror occurring in their lives and against the constant presence of 
death...I wish you could meet these people.  Maybe, hopefully, someday you 
will.

In September we traveled to Gaza and visited the families in whose homes 
Rachel had stayed.  All were threatened with demolition because of their 
location near the Egyptian border and the giant steel wall being built 
there.  We shared meals with these families and played with their 
children.  In recent months all of their homes have been demolished.

In the West Bank, we witnessed the strategy of separation taking physical 
form in the web of fences, walls, identification cards, and checkpoints 
that separate not only Palestinians from Israelis, but Palestinians from 
Palestinians, farmers from their fields, children from their classrooms, 
workers from their jobs, the sick from their healthcare, the elderly from 
their grandchildren, municipalities from their water supplies, and 
ultimately a people from their land.  In Jerusalem we met members of an 
Israeli-Palestinian organization Bereaved Parentswho have lost relatives to 
the conflict and now work together to end the occupation, and then for 
peace and reconciliation.  In Israel, we met with peace activists who asked 
us to return home and work to end U.S. funding of the occupation.

After a year spent learning more, and after experiencing so personally the 
loss that thousands of Palestinians and Israelis share with us, we echo 
once again Rachel's plea for it all to end, This has to stop.  I think it 
is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making 
this stop.  I dont think its an extremist thing to do anymore.  I still 
really want to dance around to Pat Benetar and have boyfriends and make 
comics for my coworkers.  But I also want this to stop.


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