Remembering Rachel
Rachel Corrie was murdered two years ago today.
She was 23 years old, an age when most of us have finally got an idea of who we are and what we want to do with our lives. Like most young I.S.M volunteers, Rachel was eloquent, intelligent, committed, intense, tougher than she looked, and beautiful as only young people in the prime of life are.
Two long years have passed, and the fact that Rachel is dead still sticks in the throat.
Of course some of our opponents still insist that crushing an unarmed young woman to death was a magnificent feat of arms, or simply funny. And their comments and insults and lies on the extremist sites like Little Green Fascists continue to motivate and educate us.
Equally illuminating was the ineffectual, pathetic performance from Rachel's State Representatives and Senators and the U.S. State Department itself. No other country in the world would have been allowed to kill an American with so little fuss, and allowed it to happen without so much as a question, let alone a debate.
So for anyone unfortunate enough to have a little green football in your head, or a career in U.S politics, here are a few facts:
She was 23 years old, an age when most of us have finally got an idea of who we are and what we want to do with our lives. Like most young I.S.M volunteers, Rachel was eloquent, intelligent, committed, intense, tougher than she looked, and beautiful as only young people in the prime of life are.
Two long years have passed, and the fact that Rachel is dead still sticks in the throat.
Of course some of our opponents still insist that crushing an unarmed young woman to death was a magnificent feat of arms, or simply funny. And their comments and insults and lies on the extremist sites like Little Green Fascists continue to motivate and educate us.
Equally illuminating was the ineffectual, pathetic performance from Rachel's State Representatives and Senators and the U.S. State Department itself. No other country in the world would have been allowed to kill an American with so little fuss, and allowed it to happen without so much as a question, let alone a debate.
So for anyone unfortunate enough to have a little green football in your head, or a career in U.S politics, here are a few facts:
- Rachel Corrie was unarmed and trying to protect a house from demolition.
- It was a house, not a bomb factory, or an arms depot, or the entrance to a smuggling tunnel.
- The house belonged to a pharmacist called Dr. Nasrallah, not a terrorist or a terrorist group.
- No tunnel was found in the house, before or after it was demolished, or in the vicinity of the house.
- Rachel was wearing a bright fluorescent orange jacket and a bullhorn when she was crushed.
- If in the unlikely event the initial bulldozer movement was accidental, reversing over Rachel with the blade down was murder, pure and simple.
Nothing we do or say can bring Rachel back.
But we can do two things for her:
- Ensure she is never forgotten, no matter what sort of "lets move on" or "there are casualties on both sides" or “it was a tragic accident” platitudes we hear from the other side.
- Support the Rebuilding Alliance, which has already managed to buy a plot of land for a new house for the Nasrallah family, and now needs to raise the money to build the house.
http://www.rebuildinghomes.org/start.php
There’s one other thing Rachel Corrie did – recruit myself (and many others) into the I.S.M.
For that, I’m profoundly grateful and will always remember her.
posted by roGER at 12:01 pm
4 Comments:
The Palestinian extremists have a track record of lying. So I will take LGF's word against theirs every single time. It didn't use to be like this. Once I had sympathy for the Pal cause. I still feel sorry for the Pal people, but mainly because they have been disastrously lead.
Remember 'the Jenin massacre' that lead the Independent to report huge death figures in the thousands, then the hundreds then down to about 50. What about the death of Mohammed al-Dura?
Check out:
http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_alaqsa_dura.php
When journalists in France and Germany, both countries where anti-Israel sentiment runs strong, both find that the whole thing is staged, then it has to show how much lies are being told from the Palestinian side.
I have no hate for Arabs and none for people who want an Palestinian state, but I take gross exception to people telling lies to tug at my heartstrings. Corrie was no angel. Have you seen the picture of her burning a mock US flag in front of children?
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=15078&only=yes
What kind of person teaches young children to hate like that? An odious vile person, that's who. I have no sympathy for her at all.
Israel is an oasis of freedom relative to most parts of the middle-east. The reason I'm inclined to support it is not because I'm fascist, but precisely because I'm not.
DY
Hello David,
I'll give you the opportunity to retract this statement:
"So I will take LGF's word against theirs every single time."
Every SINGLE time eh? The word of every single lunatic poster (and even you must admit that LGF has its share of lunatics).
Don't be ridiculous!
I also notice that you fail to challenge any of the specific assertions about Rachel and the house she was trying to protect.
No, I'm not claiming she was a saint and yes, I have seen the flag picture.
- roGER
I don't mean I agree with every poster! I mean the editorial contributions. LGF certainly attracts some belligerent people, but I don't think that Charles Johnson is a fascist, which you seem to be suggesting. By the way, like Johnson, I'm not jewish. I've never even been to Israel.
I'm taking LGF's word against yours on the details of the day of her death. I wasn't there, but I've read two different accounts - the 'ISM' line and the 'LGF' line. Based on past experience of reading lies from anti-Israel fanatics, I'm inclined to agree with the LGF line. It's a decision based on past form.
Like you, I thought that the middle-east problem was caused by Israeli intransigence. However I have changed my view. LGF helped in that regard. It showed me things that shocked me to the core and made me realise that the core problem of the palestinains isn't a shortage of land. It's the total lack of a civilised society. You talk of LGF readers as being fascist, yet much of went on under Arafat was totally fascist - people were executed in the streets on suspicion of being agenets for mossad. Children were taught anti-jewish propaganda in school and a cult of personality was created about a leader (yasser). That's fascism by almost any definition that you care to think of.
And giving fascist nations more land doesn't achieve anything. We learned that after Munich 1938.
I would love to see a prosperous, free and independent Palestinian state (unlike some LGF readers) but before that can happen, the lies have to stop and the victim-culture has to stop. The Palestinians are not the hapless victims of cruel circumstance they some like to claim they are. They have hand countless chances to build a society, but their leaders have in the past invariably chosen to destroy another one. Attitudes have of course hardened on the Israeli side too, but are many Israelis who want peace and most of them support the pullout from Gaza. I can't say it better than Golda Meir when she said that peace would come when the arabs loved their children more than they hated Israel.
DY
ps - I will write about a related matter to this on my own blog soon.
Hello again David,
I'm pleased you clarified some of your points in the previous comment.
Regarding your opinion that:
"I'm taking LGF's word against yours on the details of the day of her death. I wasn't there, but I've read two different accounts - the 'ISM' line and the 'LGF' line. Based on past experience of reading lies from anti-Israel fanatics, I'm inclined to agree with the LGF line. It's a decision based on past form."
My decision is based on the failure of the IDF (or anyone else for that matter) to show any evidence of a smuggling tunnel at or near that house. It's based on the fact that it was a family house, not a terrorist base or bomb factory etc. And I know one of the eye witnesses to Rachels death personally - a young Jewish lady who is entirely credible. And demolishing an innocent family house (one of over 4000 demolished since 2000) seems a very good way to induce hate into people of all ages.
Despite the above I enjoy reading your blog and look forward to reading more of your posts there.
- roGER
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