Rachel Corrie
Encyclopedia
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM). She was killed in the Gaza Strip
by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian
's home, thus acting as a human shield
, attempting to prevent the IDF from demolishing the home. The IDF stated that the death was due to the restricted angle of view of the IDF Caterpillar D9
bulldozer driver, while members of the International Solidarity Movement said "there was nothing to obscure the driver's view." A student at The Evergreen State College
, she had taken a year off to travel to the Gaza Strip
during the Second Intifada.
, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of the three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie. Cindy describes their family as "average Americans—politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class".
After graduating from Capital High School
, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College
(TESC), also in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took one year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps; other volunteer work included making weekly visits to patients with mental disorders for three years. In her senior year, she proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah
. Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between kids in Olympia and Rafah.
to participate in ISM demonstrations. During her training, Corrie studied tactics of direct action
. Basic rules about avoiding harm were given, which a later article on the Corrie incident summarized as: "Wear fluorescent jackets. Don't run. Don't frighten the army. Try to communicate by megaphone. Make your presence known." On January 27, 2003, Corrie and William Hewitt (also from Olympia), traveled to the Erez checkpoint
and entered the Gaza Strip.
While in Rafah, Corrie acted as a human shield in an attempt to impede house demolitions carried out by the IDF using armored bulldozers. On Corrie's first night there, she and two other ISM members set up camp inside Block J, often a target for Israeli gunfire. Israeli troops fired bullets over their tent and at the ground a few feet away. Deciding that their presence was provoking the Israeli soldiers, not deterring them, Corrie and her colleagues hurriedly dismantled their tent and left the area.
Qishta, a Palestinian who worked as an interpreter, noted that: "Late January and February was a very crazy time. There were house demolitions taking place all over the border strip and the activists had no time to do anything else." Qishta also stated of the ISM activists: "They were not only brave; they were crazy." The confrontations were not without harm to the activists; a British
participant was wounded by shrapnel.
Palestinian militants
expressed concern that the "internationals" staying in tents between the Israeli watchtower
s and the residential neighborhoods would get caught in crossfire
, while other residents were concerned that the young activists might be spies
. Corrie worked hard to overcome this suspicion, learning a few words of Arabic, and participating in a mock trial denouncing the "crimes of the Bush Administration
." With time, the ISM members were taken into Palestinian family homes, and provided with meals and beds. Even so, in the days before Corrie's death, a letter gained wide circulation in Rafah, casting suspicion again on the ISM members. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked. The letter caused the activists to be preoccupied and frustrated, and on the morning of Corrie's death they planned ways to counteract its effects. According to one activist, "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military."
On March 14, 2003, during an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, Corrie said:
funding, Canada Well, together with El Iskan Well, had supplied more than 50% of Rafah's water before being damaged, and the city had been under "strict rationing (only a few hours of running water on alternate days)" since. Murray writes that ISM activists were maintaining a presence there since "Israeli snipers and tanks routinely shot at civilian workers trying to repair the wells." In one of her reports, Corrie relates that despite having received permission from Israeli District Command Office, and carrying "banners and megaphone
s the activists and workers were fired upon several times over a period of about one hour. One of the bullets came within two metres of three internationals and a municipal water worker close enough to spray bits of debris in their faces as it landed at their feet." According to Murray, the Canadian government refused to "officially protest or denounce the Israeli army actions", yet "quietly agreed to help fund the estimated $450,000 repair costs".
against the invasion of Iraq
. She was photographed burning a mock US flag. Robert Spencer criticized Corrie for having burned the flag in front of children, writing that she was “fostering... hatred” of the United States.
After her death, International Solidarity Movement
("ISM") and Corrie's parents wrote about the circulated picture of the incident:
(on page 2, comments and features section, March 18, 2003) and in January 2008 in a memorial book entitled Let Me Stand Alone by W. W. Norton & Company, along with her other collected writings. Yale
Professor David Bromwich
stated, Rachel left "letters of great interest" and she had studied methods of Mahatma Gandhi
and Martin Luther King with care. Corrie wrote to her mother, "The vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaged in Gandhian
nonviolent resistance
." Her letters later formed the basis of the theatre play My Name is Rachel Corrie
, and some parts of the letters were also used in the cantata
The Skies are Weeping
.
, which the IDF says is necessary to destroy guerrilla hideouts and smuggling tunnels. Corrie was part of a group of seven ISM activists (three British and four US) attempting to disrupt the actions of Israeli bulldozers. Corrie, who had positioned herself in the path of a Caterpillar D9R
armored bulldozer
, was fatally injured. She was transported to a Palestinian hospital. Accounts vary as to whether she died at the scene, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, or at the hospital.
The events surrounding Corrie's death are disputed. ISM eyewitnesses assert that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran Corrie over while she was acting as a human shield to prevent the demolition of the home of local pharmacist Samir Nasrallah. The ISM said she was interposed between the bulldozer and a wall near Nasrallah's home, in which ISM activists had several times spent the night. The Israeli Government and the IDF denied that version of events and described Corrie's death as an accident. The official Israeli response stated that Corrie was killed by debris pushed over by the bulldozer, that the operator did not see her, and that the bulldozer was clearing brush and not engaged in a demolition when Corrie blocked its path. This was the conclusion reached in June 2003 by a military investigation by the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate’s Office. “The driver at no point saw or heard Corrie,” an army source told the Jerusalem Post. “She was standing behind debris which obstructed the view of the driver and the driver had a very limited field of vision due to the protective cage he was working in.” Other reports say the Israeli government alleged that the house being demolished contained a tunnel used for smuggling weapons from Egypt
.
The major points of dispute are whether the bulldozer operator saw Corrie, and whether her injuries were caused by being crushed under the blade or by the mound of debris the bulldozer was pushing. An IDF spokesman has acknowledged that Israeli army regulations normally require that the operators of the armored personnel carriers (APCs) that accompany bulldozers are responsible for directing the operators towards their targets, because the Caterpillar D9
bulldozer
s have a restricted field of vision with several blind spots. However, the Israeli army commander of the Gaza Strip said in an interview broadcast on Israeli television that on the day of Corrie's death, soldiers had to stay in their armored vehicles and were not able to direct the bulldozer or arrest the protesters, because of the threat of Palestinian sniper
fire. He also said that Israeli soldiers may have been handling other ISM activists instead of watching over the bulldozer. In a statement issued the day after Corrie's death, the ISM said that, "When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it... to look directly at the operator who kept on advancing."
The IDF produced a video about Corrie's death that includes footage taken from inside the cockpit of a D9
. It makes a "credible case", Joshua Hammer
wrote of this video in Mother Jones
, that "the operators, peering out through narrow, double-glazed, bulletproof windows, their view obscured behind pistons and the giant scooper, might not have seen Corrie kneeling in front of them."
In April 2011, during the trial in the civil suit brought by Corrie's parents, an IDF officer testified that Corrie and other activists had spent "hours" trying to block the bulldozers under his command. On that day, they were only clearing "vegetation and rubble", and no houses were slated for demolition. He went on to say that it was "a war zone where Palestinian militants used abandoned homes as firing positions" and exploited foreign activists for cover. He shouted over a megaphone for the activists to leave, tried to use tear gas to disperse them and moved his troops several times. "To my regret, after the eighth time, (Corrie) hid behind an earth embankment. The D9 operator didn't see her. She thought he saw her," he said. An operational log submitted to the court showed that the officer reported a grenade thrown at his troops about 40 minutes before Corrie's death.
(PCHR):
On March 18, 2003, only two days after Corrie's death, Joe (Smith) Carr was interviewed by British Channel 4
and The Observer
reporter Sandra Jordan
for a documentary that was aired June 2003 on Channel 4 titled The Killing Zone. He stated,"It was either a really gross mistake or a really brutal murder."
According to the Seattle Times, "Smith, who witnessed Sunday's incident, said it began when Corrie sat down in front of the bulldozer. He said the operator scooped her up with a pile of earth, dumped her on the ground and ran over her twice." Smith also commented: "We were horribly surprised. They had been careful not to hurt us. They'd always stopped before."
British ISM activist Tom Dale, who was standing yards away from Corrie, told journalist Joshua Hammer, Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek
:
An individual giving the name Richard, who stated that he witnessed Corrie's death, as recorded by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz
:
British ISM activist Richard Purssell gave the following account, in an affidavit made in a manner similar to Carr's:
Some eyewitness accounts indicate that when Corrie slipped and fell, the operator may have been looking behind him.
The bulldozer operator, a Russian immigrant to Israel, was interviewed on Israeli TV and insisted he had no idea she was in front of him:
Ariel Sharon
, promised President Bush a "thorough, credible, and transparent investigation." Later, Capt. Jacob Dallal, a spokesman for the Israeli army, called Corrie's death a "regrettable accident" and said that she and the other ISM activists were "a group of protesters who were acting very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger—the Palestinians, themselves and our forces—by intentionally placing themselves in a combat zone."
An autopsy was conducted on March 24 at the Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. The final report was not released publicly, but in their report on the matter Human Rights Watch
asserts a copy was provided to them by Craig Corrie, with a translation supplied by the U.S. Department of State
. In the report they quote Professor Yehuda Hiss
, who performed the autopsy, as concluding that "her death was caused by pressure on the chest (mechanical asphyxiation) with fractures
of the ribs and vertebrae of the dorsal
spinal column and scapula
s, and tear wounds in the right lung with hemorrhaging of the pleural cavities."
On June 26, 2003, the Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli military spokesman as saying that Corrie had not been run over and that the operator had not seen her:
The Israeli army's report [seen by The Guardian
], said:
Howard Blume told that IDF stated:
In later IDF operations, the house was damaged (a hole was knocked in a wall) and was later destroyed. By that time, the Nasrallah family had moved into a different house. It was reported in 2006 that the house that Corrie was trying to protect was rebuilt with funds raised by The Rebuilding Alliance
.
A spokesman for the IDF told the Guardian that, while it did not accept responsibility for Corrie's death, it intended to change its operational procedures to avoid similar incidents in the future. The level of command of similar operations would be raised, said the spokesman, and civilians in the area would be dispersed or arrested before operations began. Observers will be deployed and CCTV cameras will be installed on the bulldozers to compensate for blind spots, which may have contributed to Corrie's death.
The IDF gave copies of the report, entitled "The Death of Rachel Corrie," to members of the U.S. Congress in April 2003, and Corrie's family released the document to the media in June 2003, according to the Gannett News Service. In March 2004 the family said that the entire report had not been released, and that only they and two American staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv had been allowed to view it. The family said they were allowed to look at the report in the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco. The ISM rejected the Israeli report, stating that it contradicted their members' eyewitness reports and that the investigation had been far from credible and transparent.
introduced House Concurrent Resolution 111 in the U.S. Congress on March 25, 2003, calling on the U.S. government to "undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation" into Corrie's death. The House of Representatives took no action on the resolution. The Corrie family joined Representative Baird in calling for a U.S. investigation. Baird, though reelected in 2004, 2006, and 2008, has not reintroduced the resolution in the Congress.
Yasser Arafat
offered his condolences and gave the blessings of the Palestinian people
to Corrie. Arafat promised to name a street in Gaza after Corrie (see image at right). According to Cindy Corrie, Arafat told Craig Corrie, "She is your daughter but she is also the daughter of all Palestinians. She is ours too now.” on the phone.
On March 21, 2003, Green Party of the USA
, called an investigation for "murder of American Peace Activist Rachel Corrie by Israeli Forces".
Former New Democratic Party
Member of the Parliament of Canada
Svend Robinson
nominated ISM for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
, praising Brian Avery
, Tom Hurndall
and Rachel Corrie for their attempts.
called for an independent inquiry, with Christine Bustany, their advocacy director for the Middle East, saying that "U.S.-made bulldozers have been 'weaponized' and their transfer to Israel must be suspended."
In 2005, Human Rights Watch
published a report titled Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military's Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing, raising several issues related to the impartiality and professionalism with which the Military Police investigation was conducted. Among them were what Human Rights Watch described as the investigators' lack of preparation; "hostile," "inappropriate," "mostly accusatory" questions they asked witnesses; omitting to get witnesses to draw maps or identify locations on a map of how it occurred; and their asserted uninterest in reconciling soldiers' testimonies with those of other eyewitnesses. The report was not limited in scope to Corrie's death; it described a number of similar instances in which one-line summary findings were reported to the media after closed investigations in which neither non-military witnesses nor victims or their families were involved.
wrote that: "On the night of Corrie's death, nine Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, among them a four-year-old girl and a man aged 90. A total of 220 people have died in Rafah since the beginning of the intifada. Palestinians know the death of one American receives more attention than the killing of hundreds of Muslims."
A Hamas
activist told the newspaper: "[Corrie's] death serves me more than it served her. Going in front of the tanks was heroic. Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs."
Corrie's photograph has been carried during protests against Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank. On July 15, 2003, the Chicago Tribune
reported that: "To the people of Rafah, Rachel Corrie will always remain a very special martyr
, their American martyr."
In 2006, Haaretz
political columnist Bradley Burston
, asserted Corrie's death was accidental, yet "incidental killing is no less tragic than intentional killing", he criticized both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sides for excessive rhetoric, noting that:
, "Corrie... has been praised as a heroic martyr and denounced as a misguided, ill-informed naïf." In a review of Simone Bitton
's documentary Rachel, Salon noted that Corrie was subjected to "shocking verbal abuse" on right-wing bulletin boards and Web sites, including "grotesque sexual fantasies and elaborate conspiracy theories".
Journalist and Middle East commentator Tom Gross
has referred to "the cult of Rachel Corrie." In an article called "The Forgotten Rachels" republished on his website, Gross refers to six other women called Rachel, Jewish victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict whose deaths, he wrote, received little, if any, coverage outside Israel. Gross went on to argue that "Partly thanks to the efforts of Corrie and her fellow activists, the flow of explosives from Egypt into Gaza continued – and were later used to kill children in southern Israel." The article prompted a National Review
editorial arguing that "Corrie’s death was unfortunate, but more unfortunate is a Western media and cultural establishment that lionizes 'martyrs' for illiberal causes while ignoring the victims those causes create."
In March 2003, the University of Maryland, College Park
's campus newspaper The Diamondback
published an editorial cartoon by Daniel J. Friedman, depicting Rachel Corrie sitting in front of an approaching bulldozer, with two definitions of the word "stupidity" from the American Heritage Dictionary, along with an additional self-created third line "sitting in front of a bulldozer to protect a gang of terrorists," resulting in student sit-in
s and protests at the University of Maryland the Wednesday after the cartoon appeared. The group Palestine Media Watch
published the e-mail addresses and phone number of Diamondback editors, urging readers to contact the newspaper to secure an apology, and thousands of e-mails and hundreds of phone calls were received by the paper in protest. Describing the cartoon as "indecent and anti-American," over 60 student protesters staged a sit-in at the newspaper's offices (with 10 staying overnight), demanding that the paper apologize and "publish an article honoring Corrie's life". The newspaper refused to apologize, "though many staff members objected to the cartoon's viewpoint" while "the newspaper had received thousands of e-mails and hundreds of telephone calls protesting the cartoon", citing the First Amendment
. While Friedman did not return the telephone call and e-mail by The Associated Press
, editor-in-chief Jay Parsons (who had initially objected to the cartoon when it was first submitted) commented, "The decision was about freedom of speech
, and that made the decision easy."
, "'We knew there was a risk,' Smith said, 'but we also knew it never happened in the two years that we (the ISM) have been working here. I knew we take lots of precautions so that it doesn't happen, that if it did happen it would have to be an intentional act by a soldier, in which case it would bring a lot of publicity and significance to the cause.'" The Electronic Intifada reported that the activists continued to interact with the bulldozers despite at least one close call earlier in the day: "In the instance pictured, the bulldozer did not stop and Rachel was pinned between the scooped earth and the fence behind her. On this occasion, the driver stopped before seriously injuring her. Photo by Joseph Smith (ISM Handout)." George Rishmawi is quoted thus in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle: "“When Palestinians get shot by Israeli soldiers, no one is interested anymore,” Rishmawi said. “But if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.”" And Joseph Smith has said: "The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression."
Corries' parents have several times visited the region since their daughter's death, and have twice visited Gaza. Following their daughter's death, they visited Gaza and Israel, seeing the place where Rachel died, and meeting ISM members and Palestinians whom she had known. They also visited Ramallah
in the West Bank, where Arafat met them and presented them with a plaque in memory of their daughter. On March 28, 2008 they addressed a demonstration in Ramallah at which Craig Corrie said: "This village has become a symbol of nonviolent resistance. I call for solidarity with the people of Palestine in resisting the conditions imposed by the Israeli occupation to prevent the establishment of their state."
The Nasrallahs, the Palestinian family whose home Rachel believed she was preventing from destruction, joined the Corries on a cross-country tour in the United States in June 2005. The aim of the trip was to raise funds to rebuild the Nasrallah home, and other homes destroyed in Rafah with the cooperation of the Rebuilding Alliance. The 22-city, 7 state tour made stops in Iowa and California among other locations.
alleging liability under various Federal statutes over the death of Corrie in connection with the bulldozers, alleging Caterpillar supplied them to the Israelis despite having notice they would be used to further "a policy plaintiffs contend violates international law." The case was dismissed by a Federal judge in November 2005 for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, citing, among other things, the political question
doctrine. The judge found, alternatively, that the plaintiffs' claims failed on the merits.
The ruling was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
. On September 17, 2007, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal on political question
grounds, and did not reach the merits of the suit. The Court found that as the bulldozers were paid for by the U.S. Government as part of its aid to Israel, that the Judicial Branch could not rule on the merits of the case without ruling on whether or not the government's financing of such bulldozers was appropriate, a matter it felt was not entrusted to the Judicial Branch.
A lawsuit was also filed against the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Defense Ministry. In February 2010, after pressure from the USA, Israel gave entry visas to four ISM witnesses so that they could testify. However it refused entry permission to the Palestinian physician from Gaza who had examined Corrie's wounds on the scene, and also rejected an application for him to testify by video link. The case began in Haifa on March 10, 2010.
and her parents.
The ISM issued a statement asserting that the actual targets whose home the gunmen came to were three Americans staying nearby, and that the Corries helped talk the men out of their plan. By the ISM's account, "the Corries were never threatened with kidnapping, nor did gunmen burst into the house where the Corries were staying." The Jerusalem Post reported Craig Corrie as saying: "There was never a threat made against us and the gun was never pointed at anyone." According to the Post, Craig Corrie said that when he entered the room and saw the man with the gun, he feared it might be a kidnapping attempt, but that the situation was never described to him that way by his host. Corrie added that the media accounts over-dramatized the incident.
began as the peace activists chased the tank around", with protesters covering the tank with posters of Corrie and throwing flowers on it. In response, it is alleged that "Israeli soldiers inside threatened, in return, to run them down", a tank sprayed the mourners with tear gas and later armoured personnel carrier
s [APC] fired guns along with percussion bombs. Murray further stated that IDF fired "concussion grenades, tear gas, warning shot
s" over the protesters while they were choking on diesel smoke. The escalating danger caused the memorial service to be halted.
In 2008, Corrie's parents commemorated the fifth anniversary of her death at an event held in the West Bank
town of Nablus
. About 150 Palestinians and foreigners joined them to dedicate a memorial to Corrie on one of the city's streets.
In 2011, Iran named a street in Tehran
in Corrie's honour.
More than 30 songs were written about and dedicated to Rachel Corrie since 2003 by various musicians including Patti Smith
, Alice Shields
, Mike Stout
, Billy Bragg
, Philip Munger
, David Rovics
, Christy Moore
, Jim Page
, Dawud Wharnsby, Elizabeth Hummel
with Carl Dexter, Valerie Webb with Paul LaBrecque, Ben Ellis
with Lawrence Williams and music groups including Klimt 1918
, Ten Foot Pole
, The Can Kickers, Project Qua Project and Casa del Vento
, internationally.
In 2004, Alaska
n composer Philip Munger
wrote a cantata
about Corrie called The Skies are Weeping
, which was scheduled to premiere on April 27 at the University of Alaska Anchorage
, where Munger teaches. Some objected to the upcoming performance, including members of the Jewish community, and so a forum was held, co-chaired by Munger and a local rabbi, who described the work as bordering on anti-Semitic because Corrie was working with Palestinians and said that consequently it "romanticized terrorism." Munger later related that he had received threatening e-mails "[just] short of what you'd take to the troopers", and that some of his students had received similar communications. After the forum "disintegrate[d] ", Munger announced, "I cannot subject 16 students... to any possibility of physical harm or to the type of character assassination some of us are already undergoing. Performance of The Skies are Weeping at this time and place is withdrawn for the safety of the student performers.” The cantata was eventually performed at the Hackney Empire theatre in London, premiering on November 1, 2005.
In early 2005, My Name is Rachel Corrie
, a play composed from Corrie's journals and e-mails from Gaza and directed by British actor Alan Rickman
, was presented in London and later revived in October 2005. The play was to be transported to the New York Theatre Workshop
, but when it was postponed indefinitely, the English producers denounced the decision as "censorship" and withdrew the show. It finally opened Off-Broadway
on October 15, 2006, for an initial run of 48 performances. In the same year, "My Name is Rachel Corrie" was shown at the Pleasance (a theatre) as part of the Edinburgh (Fringe) Festival. The play has also been published as a paperback, and performed in ten countries worldwide, including Israel.
In 2006, Australia
n playwright Ben Ellis
wrote Blindingly Obvious Facts, a 10-minute fugue composed of "ugly" verbatim excerpts from right-wing blogs discussing Corrie's death. It was performed as part of the 2007 Melbourne
season of the Short and Sweet
short play competition. In early 2008, Sydney
composer Lawrence Williams mixed a recorded version of Ellis' play for the play's Sydney Short and Sweet production.
US Power Violence trio Bastard Noise
included the song "Rachel" on the full length album Skulldozer as a tribute to Corrie.
reporter Sandra Jordan
and producer Rodrigo Vasquez made a documentary that was aired June 2003 on Channel 4
titled The Killing Zone, about ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip. Jordan said: "There has been a lot of interest in Britain and around the world about what happened to Rachel, I find it highly disappointing that no serious American investigative journalist has taken Rachel's story seriously or questioned or challenged the Israeli Army version of events."
In 2005, the BBC
produced a 60 minute documentary entitled When Killing is Easy aka Shooting the Messenger, Why are foreigners suddenly under fire in Israel?, described as "a meticulous examination of" the shooting to death of James Miller
, who was "a British cameraman with considerable experience of filming in war zones", by Israeli soldiers in May 2003; the shooting of British photography student Tom Hurndall
as "he tried to rescue a terrified Palestinian child from a hail of Israeli bullets" in April 2003 and the death of "American peace activist" Rachel Corrie after "she was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer" in March 2003, while trying to find an answer to the question: "Were the attacks random acts of violence, or do they represent a culture of killing with impunity which is sanctioned by the higher echelons of the Israeli army?"
In 2005 Yahya Barakat, who lectures on TV production, cinematography
, and filmmaking
at al-Quds University
, filmed a documentary in Arabic with English subtitles
, named Rachel Corrie – An American Conscience.
In 2009, a documentary film titled Rachel is produced by Morocco
born, French-Israeli director Simone Bitton
detailing the death of Rachel Corrie from "an Israeli point of view". Its first North American public screening was at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
.
, Ireland for €70,000 by the Free Gaza Movement
. It was outfitted for use in a voyage to Gaza, named in honour of Rachel Corrie and launched 12 May 2010. It sailed to join a flotilla intended to directly confront Israel’s blockade of Gaza and take in basic supplies. The flotilla was intercepted (see Gaza flotilla raid
) however the MV Rachel Corrie had not reached the other ships and continued towards Gaza by itself. Israeli navy officers addressed the ship as "Linda"—the vessel's name before it was renamed for Rachel Corrie. The ship was intercepted by the Israeli navy on Saturday, June 5, 2010, 23 miles off the coast, and diverted to the port of Ashdod. There the cargo was to be inspected and sent over land to Gaza.
International Solidarity Movement
The International Solidarity Movement is an organization focused on assisting the Palestinian cause in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using nonviolent protests. It was founded in 2001 by Ghassan Andoni, a Palestinian activist; Neta Golan, an Israeli activist; Huwaida Arraf, a...
(ISM). She was killed in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
's home, thus acting as a human shield
Human shield
Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
, attempting to prevent the IDF from demolishing the home. The IDF stated that the death was due to the restricted angle of view of the IDF Caterpillar D9
IDF Caterpillar D9
The Israeli Armored CAT D9 — nicknamed Doobi — is a Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer that was modified by the Israel Defence Forces, Israeli Military Industries and Israel Aerospace Industries to increase the survivability of the armored bulldozer in hostile environments and enable it...
bulldozer driver, while members of the International Solidarity Movement said "there was nothing to obscure the driver's view." A student at The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is an accredited public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. It is located in Olympia, Washington, USA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college...
, she had taken a year off to travel to the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
during the Second Intifada.
Early life
Corrie was born on April 10, 1979, and raised in OlympiaOlympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
, Washington, United States. She was the youngest of the three children of Craig Corrie, an insurance executive, and Cindy Corrie. Cindy describes their family as "average Americans—politically liberal, economically conservative, middle class".
After graduating from Capital High School
Capital High School (Washington)
Capital High School , commonly referred to as Capital, is a public high school in Olympia, Washington, USA. It is one of two comprehensive high schools in the Olympia School District. Capital is located on Olympia's Westside, and serves the entire northwest corner of Thurston County...
, Corrie went on to attend The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is an accredited public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. It is located in Olympia, Washington, USA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college...
(TESC), also in Olympia, where she took a number of arts courses. She took one year off from her studies to work as a volunteer in the Washington State Conservation Corps; other volunteer work included making weekly visits to patients with mental disorders for three years. In her senior year, she proposed an independent-study program in which she would travel to Gaza, join protesters from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and initiate a "sister city" project between Olympia and Rafah
Rafah
Rafah , also known as Rafiah, is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. Located south of Gaza, Rafah's population of 71,003 is overwhelmingly made up of Palestinian refugees. Rafah camp and Tall as-Sultan form separate localities. Rafah is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate...
. Before leaving, she also organized a pen-pal program between kids in Olympia and Rafah.
Activities in the West Bank and Gaza
After flying to Israel on January 22, 2003, Corrie underwent a two-day training course at ISM West Bank headquarters, before heading to RafahRafah
Rafah , also known as Rafiah, is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. Located south of Gaza, Rafah's population of 71,003 is overwhelmingly made up of Palestinian refugees. Rafah camp and Tall as-Sultan form separate localities. Rafah is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate...
to participate in ISM demonstrations. During her training, Corrie studied tactics of direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
. Basic rules about avoiding harm were given, which a later article on the Corrie incident summarized as: "Wear fluorescent jackets. Don't run. Don't frighten the army. Try to communicate by megaphone. Make your presence known." On January 27, 2003, Corrie and William Hewitt (also from Olympia), traveled to the Erez checkpoint
Erez Crossing
The Erez Crossing is a pedestrian/cargo terminal on the Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. It is located in the northern end of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Israel.It is part of a complex formerly including the Erez Industrial Park....
and entered the Gaza Strip.
While in Rafah, Corrie acted as a human shield in an attempt to impede house demolitions carried out by the IDF using armored bulldozers. On Corrie's first night there, she and two other ISM members set up camp inside Block J, often a target for Israeli gunfire. Israeli troops fired bullets over their tent and at the ground a few feet away. Deciding that their presence was provoking the Israeli soldiers, not deterring them, Corrie and her colleagues hurriedly dismantled their tent and left the area.
Qishta, a Palestinian who worked as an interpreter, noted that: "Late January and February was a very crazy time. There were house demolitions taking place all over the border strip and the activists had no time to do anything else." Qishta also stated of the ISM activists: "They were not only brave; they were crazy." The confrontations were not without harm to the activists; a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
participant was wounded by shrapnel.
Palestinian militants
Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence undertaken to further the Palestinian cause. These political objectives include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, the liberation of Palestine and establishment of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and...
expressed concern that the "internationals" staying in tents between the Israeli watchtower
Watchtower
A watchtower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military, and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to provide a high, safe place from which a sentinel or guard may...
s and the residential neighborhoods would get caught in crossfire
Crossfire
A crossfire is a military term for the siting of weapons so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I....
, while other residents were concerned that the young activists might be spies
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. Corrie worked hard to overcome this suspicion, learning a few words of Arabic, and participating in a mock trial denouncing the "crimes of the Bush Administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
." With time, the ISM members were taken into Palestinian family homes, and provided with meals and beds. Even so, in the days before Corrie's death, a letter gained wide circulation in Rafah, casting suspicion again on the ISM members. "Who are they? Why are they here? Who asked them to come here?" it asked. The letter caused the activists to be preoccupied and frustrated, and on the morning of Corrie's death they planned ways to counteract its effects. According to one activist, "We all had a feeling that our role was too passive. We talked about how to engage the Israeli military."
On March 14, 2003, during an interview with the Middle East Broadcasting network, Corrie 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."
Water well human shielding efforts
According to a January 2003 article by Gordon Murray, in the last month of her life Rachel "spent a lot of time at the Canada Well helping protect Rafah municipal workers," who were trying to repair damages to the well incurred by Israeli bulldozers. Built in 1999 with CIDACanadian International Development Agency
The Canadian International Development Agency was formed in 1968 by the Canadian government. CIDA administers foreign aid programs in developing countries, and operates in partnership with other Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors as well as other international organizations...
funding, Canada Well, together with El Iskan Well, had supplied more than 50% of Rafah's water before being damaged, and the city had been under "strict rationing (only a few hours of running water on alternate days)" since. Murray writes that ISM activists were maintaining a presence there since "Israeli snipers and tanks routinely shot at civilian workers trying to repair the wells." In one of her reports, Corrie relates that despite having received permission from Israeli District Command Office, and carrying "banners and megaphone
Megaphone
A megaphone, speaking-trumpet, bullhorn, blowhorn, or loud hailer is a portable, usually hand-held, cone-shaped horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds towards a targeted direction. This is accomplished by channelling the sound through the megaphone, which also serves to match the...
s the activists and workers were fired upon several times over a period of about one hour. One of the bullets came within two metres of three internationals and a municipal water worker close enough to spray bits of debris in their faces as it landed at their feet." According to Murray, the Canadian government refused to "officially protest or denounce the Israeli army actions", yet "quietly agreed to help fund the estimated $450,000 repair costs".
Controversy over protest against 2003 invasion of Iraq
While in Gaza, Rachel took part in a demonstration as part of the February 15, 2003 anti-war protestFebruary 15, 2003 anti-war protest
The February 15, 2003 anti-war protest was a coordinated day of protests across the world expressing opposition to the then-imminent Iraq War. It was part of a series of protests and political events that had begun in 2002 and continued as the war took place....
against the invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
. She was photographed burning a mock US flag. Robert Spencer criticized Corrie for having burned the flag in front of children, writing that she was “fostering... hatred” of the United States.
After her death, International Solidarity Movement
International Solidarity Movement
The International Solidarity Movement is an organization focused on assisting the Palestinian cause in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using nonviolent protests. It was founded in 2001 by Ghassan Andoni, a Palestinian activist; Neta Golan, an Israeli activist; Huwaida Arraf, a...
("ISM") and Corrie's parents wrote about the circulated picture of the incident:
"Trying to use this picture to somehow indicate that Rachel deserved to be run over by a bulldozer is an appalling act of demonizationDemonizationDemonization is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as evil, lying demons by other religions, generally monotheistic and henotheistic ones...
that infers that forms of protest which include flag burning are capital offences. In the words of Rachel's parents: 'The act, while we may disagree with it, must be put into context. Rachel was partaking in a demonstration in Gaza opposing the War on Iraq. She was working with children who drew two pictures, one of the American flag, and one of the Israeli flag, for burning. Rachel said that she could not bring herself to burn the picture of the Israeli flag with the Star of DavidStar of DavidThe Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
on it, but under such circumstances, in protest over a drive towards war and her government's foreign policy that was responsible for much of the devastation that she was witness to in Gaza, she felt it OK to burn the picture of her own flag. We have seen photographs of memorials held in Gaza after Rachel's death in which Palestinian children and adults honor our daughter by carrying a mock coffin draped with the American flag. We have been told that our flag has never been treated so respectfully in Gaza in recent years. We believe Rachel brought a different face of the United States to the Palestinian people, a face of compassion. It is this image of Rachel with the American flag that we hope will be remembered most.'"
Corrie's e-mails from Gaza to her mother
Rachel Corrie sent a series of e-mails to her mother while she was in Gaza, of which four were later published by The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(on page 2, comments and features section, March 18, 2003) and in January 2008 in a memorial book entitled Let Me Stand Alone by W. W. Norton & Company, along with her other collected writings. Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
Professor David Bromwich
David Bromwich
-Career:Having graduated from Yale with a B.A. in 1973 and a Ph.D. four years later, he became an instructor at Princeton University, where he was promoted to Mellon Professor of English before returning to Yale in 1988. From 1995 he served as the Housum Professor of English at Yale...
stated, Rachel left "letters of great interest" and she had studied methods of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and Martin Luther King with care. Corrie wrote to her mother, "The vast majority of Palestinians right now, as far as I can tell, are engaged in Gandhian
Gandhism
Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....
nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
." Her letters later formed the basis of the theatre play My Name is Rachel Corrie
My Name is Rachel Corrie
My Name is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the diaries and emails of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman, who directed it, and journalist Katharine Viner. Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American Evergreen State College student and member of the International Solidarity Movement who traveled to...
, and some parts of the letters were also used in the cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
The Skies are Weeping
The Skies are Weeping
The Skies are Weeping is a cantata by composer Philip Munger. The cantata memorializes Rachel Corrie, an American member of the International Solidarity Movement, who was killed in 2003 by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces when she tried to prevent the demolition of a house in the...
.
Corrie's death and subsequent controversy
On March 16, 2003, an IDF operation in the land between the Rafah refugee camp and the border with Egypt was engaged in house demolitionHouse demolition
House demolition is primarily a military tactic which has been used in many conflicts for a variety of purposes. It has been employed as a scorched earth tactic to deprive an advancing enemy of food and shelter, or to wreck an enemy's economy and infrastructure. It has also been used for purposes...
, which the IDF says is necessary to destroy guerrilla hideouts and smuggling tunnels. Corrie was part of a group of seven ISM activists (three British and four US) attempting to disrupt the actions of Israeli bulldozers. Corrie, who had positioned herself in the path of a Caterpillar D9R
IDF Caterpillar D9
The Israeli Armored CAT D9 — nicknamed Doobi — is a Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozer that was modified by the Israel Defence Forces, Israeli Military Industries and Israel Aerospace Industries to increase the survivability of the armored bulldozer in hostile environments and enable it...
armored bulldozer
Armored bulldozer
The armored bulldozer is a basic tool of combat engineering. These combat engineering vehicles combine the earth moving capabilities of the bulldozer with armor which protects the vehicle and its operator in or near combat. Most are civilian bulldozers modified by addition of vehicle armor/military...
, was fatally injured. She was transported to a Palestinian hospital. Accounts vary as to whether she died at the scene, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, or at the hospital.
The events surrounding Corrie's death are disputed. ISM eyewitnesses assert that the Israeli soldier operating the bulldozer deliberately ran Corrie over while she was acting as a human shield to prevent the demolition of the home of local pharmacist Samir Nasrallah. The ISM said she was interposed between the bulldozer and a wall near Nasrallah's home, in which ISM activists had several times spent the night. The Israeli Government and the IDF denied that version of events and described Corrie's death as an accident. The official Israeli response stated that Corrie was killed by debris pushed over by the bulldozer, that the operator did not see her, and that the bulldozer was clearing brush and not engaged in a demolition when Corrie blocked its path. This was the conclusion reached in June 2003 by a military investigation by the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate’s Office. “The driver at no point saw or heard Corrie,” an army source told the Jerusalem Post. “She was standing behind debris which obstructed the view of the driver and the driver had a very limited field of vision due to the protective cage he was working in.” Other reports say the Israeli government alleged that the house being demolished contained a tunnel used for smuggling weapons from Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
The major points of dispute are whether the bulldozer operator saw Corrie, and whether her injuries were caused by being crushed under the blade or by the mound of debris the bulldozer was pushing. An IDF spokesman has acknowledged that Israeli army regulations normally require that the operators of the armored personnel carriers (APCs) that accompany bulldozers are responsible for directing the operators towards their targets, because the Caterpillar D9
Armored bulldozer
The armored bulldozer is a basic tool of combat engineering. These combat engineering vehicles combine the earth moving capabilities of the bulldozer with armor which protects the vehicle and its operator in or near combat. Most are civilian bulldozers modified by addition of vehicle armor/military...
bulldozer
Bulldozer
A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...
s have a restricted field of vision with several blind spots. However, the Israeli army commander of the Gaza Strip said in an interview broadcast on Israeli television that on the day of Corrie's death, soldiers had to stay in their armored vehicles and were not able to direct the bulldozer or arrest the protesters, because of the threat of Palestinian sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
fire. He also said that Israeli soldiers may have been handling other ISM activists instead of watching over the bulldozer. In a statement issued the day after Corrie's death, the ISM said that, "When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it... to look directly at the operator who kept on advancing."
The IDF produced a video about Corrie's death that includes footage taken from inside the cockpit of a D9
Armored bulldozer
The armored bulldozer is a basic tool of combat engineering. These combat engineering vehicles combine the earth moving capabilities of the bulldozer with armor which protects the vehicle and its operator in or near combat. Most are civilian bulldozers modified by addition of vehicle armor/military...
. It makes a "credible case", Joshua Hammer
Joshua Hammer
Joshua Hammer is an American journalist. He graduated from Princeton University in 1979. He was a correspondent and bureau chief for Newsweek...
wrote of this video in Mother Jones
Mother Jones (magazine)
Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, that "the operators, peering out through narrow, double-glazed, bulletproof windows, their view obscured behind pistons and the giant scooper, might not have seen Corrie kneeling in front of them."
In April 2011, during the trial in the civil suit brought by Corrie's parents, an IDF officer testified that Corrie and other activists had spent "hours" trying to block the bulldozers under his command. On that day, they were only clearing "vegetation and rubble", and no houses were slated for demolition. He went on to say that it was "a war zone where Palestinian militants used abandoned homes as firing positions" and exploited foreign activists for cover. He shouted over a megaphone for the activists to leave, tried to use tear gas to disperse them and moved his troops several times. "To my regret, after the eighth time, (Corrie) hid behind an earth embankment. The D9 operator didn't see her. She thought he saw her," he said. An operational log submitted to the court showed that the officer reported a grenade thrown at his troops about 40 minutes before Corrie's death.
ISM and other eyewitness accounts
Joe Carr, an American ISM activist who used the assumed name of Joseph Smith during his time in Gaza, gave the following account in an affidavit recorded and published by the Palestinian Centre for Human RightsPalestinian Centre for Human Rights
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is an independent Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza City, founded and directed by Raji Sourani...
(PCHR):
Still wearing her fluorescent jacket, she knelt down at least 15 meters in front of the bulldozer, and began waving her arms and shouting, just as activists had successfully done dozens of times that day... When it got so close that it was moving the earth beneath her, she climbed onto the pile of rubble being pushed by the bulldozer... Her head and upper torso were above the bulldozer’s blade, and the bulldozer operator and co-operator could clearly see her. Despite this, the operator continued forward, which caused her to fall back, out of view of the diver. He continued forward, and she tried to scoot back, but was quickly pulled underneath the bulldozer. We ran towards him, and waved our arms and shouted; one activist with the megaphone. But the bulldozer operator continued forward, until Rachel was all the way underneath the central section of the bulldozer.
On March 18, 2003, only two days after Corrie's death, Joe (Smith) Carr was interviewed by British Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
reporter Sandra Jordan
Sandra Jordan
Sandra Jordan is an Irish television journalist, best known for her investigative visits to many conflict zones around the world for the Channel 4 series Dispatches and Unreported World....
for a documentary that was aired June 2003 on Channel 4 titled The Killing Zone. He stated,"It was either a really gross mistake or a really brutal murder."
According to the Seattle Times, "Smith, who witnessed Sunday's incident, said it began when Corrie sat down in front of the bulldozer. He said the operator scooped her up with a pile of earth, dumped her on the ground and ran over her twice." Smith also commented: "We were horribly surprised. They had been careful not to hurt us. They'd always stopped before."
British ISM activist Tom Dale, who was standing yards away from Corrie, told journalist Joshua Hammer, Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
:
The bulldozer built up earth in front of it... She tried to climb on top of the earth, to avoid being overwhelmed. She climbed to the point where her shoulders were above the top lip of the blade. She was standing on this pile of earth. As the bulldozer continued, she lost her footing, and she turned and fell down from this pile of earth. Then it seemed like she got her foot caught under the blade. She was helpless, pushed prostrate, and looked absolutely panicked, with her arms out, and the earth was piling itself over her. The bulldozer continued so that the place where she fell down was directly beneath the cockpit... The whole [incident] took place in about six or seven seconds.
An individual giving the name Richard, who stated that he witnessed Corrie's death, as recorded by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
:
There's no way he didn't see her, since she was practically looking into the cabin. At one stage, he turned around toward the building. The bulldozer kept moving, and she slipped and fell off the plow. But the bulldozer kept moving, the shovel above her. I guess it was about 10 or 15 meters that it dragged her and for some reason didn't stop. We shouted like crazy to the operator through loudspeakers that he should stop, but he just kept going and didn't lift the shovel. Then it stopped and backed up. We ran to Rachel. She was still breathing.
British ISM activist Richard Purssell gave the following account, in an affidavit made in a manner similar to Carr's:
As the bulldozer reached the place where Rachel was standing, she began as many of us did on the day to climb the pile of earth. She reached the top and at this point she must have been clearly visible to the operator, especially as she was still wearing the high visibility jacket ["orange fluorescentSafety orangeSafety orange is a hue. Its deeper, more saturated shade is known as international orange...
... with reflective strips"]. She turned and faced in my direction and began to come back down the pile. The bulldozer continued to move forward at [5–6 mph]. As her feet hit the ground I saw a panicked expression on her face... The pile of earth engulfed her and she was hidden from my view.
Some eyewitness accounts indicate that when Corrie slipped and fell, the operator may have been looking behind him.
The bulldozer operator, a Russian immigrant to Israel, was interviewed on Israeli TV and insisted he had no idea she was in front of him:
You can't hear, you can't see well. You can go over something and you'll never know. I scooped up some earth, I couldn't see anything. I pushed the earth, and I didn't see her at all. Maybe she was hiding in there.
Autopsy
Prime Minister of IsraelPrime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
, promised President Bush a "thorough, credible, and transparent investigation." Later, Capt. Jacob Dallal, a spokesman for the Israeli army, called Corrie's death a "regrettable accident" and said that she and the other ISM activists were "a group of protesters who were acting very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger—the Palestinians, themselves and our forces—by intentionally placing themselves in a combat zone."
An autopsy was conducted on March 24 at the Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. The final report was not released publicly, but in their report on the matter Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
asserts a copy was provided to them by Craig Corrie, with a translation supplied by the U.S. Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
. In the report they quote Professor Yehuda Hiss
Yehuda Hiss
Yehuda Hiss is the chief pathologist at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine and has held this position since 1988...
, who performed the autopsy, as concluding that "her death was caused by pressure on the chest (mechanical asphyxiation) with fractures
Bone fracture
A bone fracture is a medical condition in which there is a break in the continuity of the bone...
of the ribs and vertebrae of the dorsal
Anatomical terms of location
Standard anatomical terms of location are designations employed in science that deal with the anatomy of animals to avoid ambiguities that might otherwise arise. They are not language-specific, and thus require no translation...
spinal column and scapula
Scapula
In anatomy, the scapula , omo, or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....
s, and tear wounds in the right lung with hemorrhaging of the pleural cavities."
Military investigation
According to a correspondent for Gannett News Service, the IDF document, "The Death of Rachel Corrie" made no mention of the pathologist's conclusion, though, according to Corrie's parents, the entire document has not been released.On June 26, 2003, the Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli military spokesman as saying that Corrie had not been run over and that the operator had not seen her:
"The driver at no point saw or heard Corrie. She was standing behind debris which obstructed the view of the driver and the driver had a very limited field of vision due to the protective cage he was working in... The driver and his commanders were interrogated extensively over a long period of time with the use of polygraph tests and video evidence. They had no knowledge that she was standing in the path of the tractor. An autopsy of Corrie's body revealed that the cause of death was from falling debris and not from the tractor physically rolling over her. It was a tragic accident that never should have happened."
"The International Solidarity Movement, to which Corrie belonged, was directly responsible for illegal behavior and conduct in the area of Corrie's death and their actions directly led to this tragedy."
The Israeli army's report [seen by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
], said:
The army was searching for explosives in the border zone when Corrie was "struck as she stood behind a mound of earth that was created by an engineering vehicle operating in the area and she was hidden from the view of the vehicle's operator who continued with his work. Corrie was struck by dirt and a slab of concrete resulting in her death ... The finding of the operational investigations shows that Rachel Corrie was not run over by an engineering vehicle but rather was struck by a hard object, most probably a slab of concrete which was moved or slid down while the mound of earth which she was standing behind was moved," (The Guardian, April 14, 2003).
Howard Blume told that IDF stated:
"[a bulldozer with 2 crews] was engaged in "routine terrain leveling and debris clearing," not building demolition. Quoting from the IDF report, Corrie died "as a result of injuries sustained when earth and debris accidentally fell on her ... Ms. Corrie was not run over by the bulldozer", he added, IDF also claimed she was possibly "in a blindspot for the bulldozer operators and "behind an earth mound," so they did not see that she was in harm's way."
In later IDF operations, the house was damaged (a hole was knocked in a wall) and was later destroyed. By that time, the Nasrallah family had moved into a different house. It was reported in 2006 that the house that Corrie was trying to protect was rebuilt with funds raised by The Rebuilding Alliance
The Rebuilding Alliance
The Rebuilding Alliance is a non-profit organization that rebuilds homes and communities in regions of war and occupation.TRA advocates for government policies towards these regions based on human rights and international law...
.
A spokesman for the IDF told the Guardian that, while it did not accept responsibility for Corrie's death, it intended to change its operational procedures to avoid similar incidents in the future. The level of command of similar operations would be raised, said the spokesman, and civilians in the area would be dispersed or arrested before operations began. Observers will be deployed and CCTV cameras will be installed on the bulldozers to compensate for blind spots, which may have contributed to Corrie's death.
The IDF gave copies of the report, entitled "The Death of Rachel Corrie," to members of the U.S. Congress in April 2003, and Corrie's family released the document to the media in June 2003, according to the Gannett News Service. In March 2004 the family said that the entire report had not been released, and that only they and two American staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv had been allowed to view it. The family said they were allowed to look at the report in the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco. The ISM rejected the Israeli report, stating that it contradicted their members' eyewitness reports and that the investigation had been far from credible and transparent.
Reactions and subsequent events
Corrie's death sparked controversy and led to international media coverage, in part because she was an American, and in part because of the highly politicized nature of the conflict itself.Political reactions
U.S. Representative Brian BairdBrian Baird
Brian Norton Baird is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1999 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district comprises the counties of Thurston, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania....
introduced House Concurrent Resolution 111 in the U.S. Congress on March 25, 2003, calling on the U.S. government to "undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation" into Corrie's death. The House of Representatives took no action on the resolution. The Corrie family joined Representative Baird in calling for a U.S. investigation. Baird, though reelected in 2004, 2006, and 2008, has not reintroduced the resolution in the Congress.
Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
offered his condolences and gave the blessings of the Palestinian people
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
to Corrie. Arafat promised to name a street in Gaza after Corrie (see image at right). According to Cindy Corrie, Arafat told Craig Corrie, "She is your daughter but she is also the daughter of all Palestinians. She is ours too now.” on the phone.
On March 21, 2003, Green Party of the USA
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
, called an investigation for "murder of American Peace Activist Rachel Corrie by Israeli Forces".
Former New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
Member of the Parliament of Canada
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party...
nominated ISM for 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
, praising Brian Avery
Brian Avery
Brian Avery is an American who, while volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank town of Jenin, was shot in the face by Israeli Defense Forces on April 5, 2003...
, Tom Hurndall
Tom Hurndall
Thomas "Tom" Hurndall was a British photography student, a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement , and an activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. On 11 April 2003, he was shot in the head in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defense Forces sniper, Taysir Hayb...
and Rachel Corrie for their attempts.
Human rights organisations' reactions
Amnesty International USAAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
called for an independent inquiry, with Christine Bustany, their advocacy director for the Middle East, saying that "U.S.-made bulldozers have been 'weaponized' and their transfer to Israel must be suspended."
In 2005, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
published a report titled Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military's Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing, raising several issues related to the impartiality and professionalism with which the Military Police investigation was conducted. Among them were what Human Rights Watch described as the investigators' lack of preparation; "hostile," "inappropriate," "mostly accusatory" questions they asked witnesses; omitting to get witnesses to draw maps or identify locations on a map of how it occurred; and their asserted uninterest in reconciling soldiers' testimonies with those of other eyewitnesses. The report was not limited in scope to Corrie's death; it described a number of similar instances in which one-line summary findings were reported to the media after closed investigations in which neither non-military witnesses nor victims or their families were involved.
In the news
There were reports that because she was an American, her death attracted the kind of attention that the deaths of Palestinians fail to garner. The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
wrote that: "On the night of Corrie's death, nine Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, among them a four-year-old girl and a man aged 90. A total of 220 people have died in Rafah since the beginning of the intifada. Palestinians know the death of one American receives more attention than the killing of hundreds of Muslims."
A Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
activist told the newspaper: "[Corrie's] death serves me more than it served her. Going in front of the tanks was heroic. Her death will bring more attention than the other 2,000 martyrs."
Corrie's photograph has been carried during protests against Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank. On July 15, 2003, the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
reported that: "To the people of Rafah, Rachel Corrie will always remain a very special martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
, their American martyr."
In 2006, Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
political columnist Bradley Burston
Bradley Burston
Bradley Burston is an American-born Israeli journalist, a columnist for Haaretz, and Senior Editor of Haaretz.com, which publishes his blog, "A Special Place in Hell"....
, asserted Corrie's death was accidental, yet "incidental killing is no less tragic than intentional killing", he criticized both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sides for excessive rhetoric, noting that:
"Of all of the tragedies and casualties of the intifada, in which more than 4,000 people were killed over five years, the case of Rachel Corrie still stands apart, the subject of intense world interest and fierce debate. ... Part of it starts with us. "They had no business being there" is no excuse for what the PentagonThe PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
long ago christened collateral damageCollateral damageCollateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
. We've learned much. But we're still not there. We should have saved Rachel Corrie's life that day, either by sending out a spotter or delaying the bulldozer's work. Right now, somewhere in the West Bank, there's an eight-year-old whose life could be saved next week, if we've managed to learn the lesson and are resourceful enough to know how to apply it."
Criticism of Corrie's actions
According to The Boston GlobeThe Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, "Corrie... has been praised as a heroic martyr and denounced as a misguided, ill-informed naïf." In a review of Simone Bitton
Simone Bitton
Simone Bitton is a French-Israeli documentary filmmaker. Her films have been nominated for or won the César Award, the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film Award, and the Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize ....
's documentary Rachel, Salon noted that Corrie was subjected to "shocking verbal abuse" on right-wing bulletin boards and Web sites, including "grotesque sexual fantasies and elaborate conspiracy theories".
Journalist and Middle East commentator Tom Gross
Tom Gross
Tom Gross is a British-born journalist and international affairs commentator, specializing in the Middle East. He was formerly Jerusalem correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph and for the New York Daily News...
has referred to "the cult of Rachel Corrie." In an article called "The Forgotten Rachels" republished on his website, Gross refers to six other women called Rachel, Jewish victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict whose deaths, he wrote, received little, if any, coverage outside Israel. Gross went on to argue that "Partly thanks to the efforts of Corrie and her fellow activists, the flow of explosives from Egypt into Gaza continued – and were later used to kill children in southern Israel." The article prompted a National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
editorial arguing that "Corrie’s death was unfortunate, but more unfortunate is a Western media and cultural establishment that lionizes 'martyrs' for illiberal causes while ignoring the victims those causes create."
In March 2003, the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
's campus newspaper The Diamondback
The Diamondback
The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, College Park. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin...
published an editorial cartoon by Daniel J. Friedman, depicting Rachel Corrie sitting in front of an approaching bulldozer, with two definitions of the word "stupidity" from the American Heritage Dictionary, along with an additional self-created third line "sitting in front of a bulldozer to protect a gang of terrorists," resulting in student sit-in
Sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
s and protests at the University of Maryland the Wednesday after the cartoon appeared. The group Palestine Media Watch
Palestine Media Watch
Palestine Media Watch is an organization established in October 2000 that monitors the US mainstream media's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mobilizes against what it deems to be anti-Palestinian or pro-Israel bias in the coverage of the conflict. The organization focuses mainly...
published the e-mail addresses and phone number of Diamondback editors, urging readers to contact the newspaper to secure an apology, and thousands of e-mails and hundreds of phone calls were received by the paper in protest. Describing the cartoon as "indecent and anti-American," over 60 student protesters staged a sit-in at the newspaper's offices (with 10 staying overnight), demanding that the paper apologize and "publish an article honoring Corrie's life". The newspaper refused to apologize, "though many staff members objected to the cartoon's viewpoint" while "the newspaper had received thousands of e-mails and hundreds of telephone calls protesting the cartoon", citing the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. While Friedman did not return the telephone call and e-mail by The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, editor-in-chief Jay Parsons (who had initially objected to the cartoon when it was first submitted) commented, "The decision was about freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, and that made the decision easy."
Criticism of the International Solidarity Movement's role
Joseph Smith (aka Joseph Carr) acknowledged in an interview that the International Solidarity Movement knowingly put its activists' lives at risk. Per Making of a Martyr by Sandra JordanSandra Jordan
Sandra Jordan is an Irish television journalist, best known for her investigative visits to many conflict zones around the world for the Channel 4 series Dispatches and Unreported World....
, "'We knew there was a risk,' Smith said, 'but we also knew it never happened in the two years that we (the ISM) have been working here. I knew we take lots of precautions so that it doesn't happen, that if it did happen it would have to be an intentional act by a soldier, in which case it would bring a lot of publicity and significance to the cause.'" The Electronic Intifada reported that the activists continued to interact with the bulldozers despite at least one close call earlier in the day: "In the instance pictured, the bulldozer did not stop and Rachel was pinned between the scooped earth and the fence behind her. On this occasion, the driver stopped before seriously injuring her. Photo by Joseph Smith (ISM Handout)." George Rishmawi is quoted thus in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle: "“When Palestinians get shot by Israeli soldiers, no one is interested anymore,” Rishmawi said. “But if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice.”" And Joseph Smith has said: "The spirit that she died for is worth a life. This idea of resistance, this spirit of resisting this brutal occupying force, is worth anything. And many, many, many Palestinians give their lives for it all the time. So the life of one international, I feel, is more than worth the spirit of resisting oppression."
Activities of Corrie's parents
Since their daughter's death, Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig, have spent time trying to "promote peace and raise awareness about the plight of Palestinians," and continue what they believe to be her work. The Corries have worked to set up foundations, launch projects in memory of their daughter, and advance investigation into the incident, approaching the US Congress and the courts for redress.Corries' parents have several times visited the region since their daughter's death, and have twice visited Gaza. Following their daughter's death, they visited Gaza and Israel, seeing the place where Rachel died, and meeting ISM members and Palestinians whom she had known. They also visited Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
in the West Bank, where Arafat met them and presented them with a plaque in memory of their daughter. On March 28, 2008 they addressed a demonstration in Ramallah at which Craig Corrie said: "This village has become a symbol of nonviolent resistance. I call for solidarity with the people of Palestine in resisting the conditions imposed by the Israeli occupation to prevent the establishment of their state."
The Nasrallahs, the Palestinian family whose home Rachel believed she was preventing from destruction, joined the Corries on a cross-country tour in the United States in June 2005. The aim of the trip was to raise funds to rebuild the Nasrallah home, and other homes destroyed in Rafah with the cooperation of the Rebuilding Alliance. The 22-city, 7 state tour made stops in Iowa and California among other locations.
Lawsuits
Corrie's family and several Palestinians filed a lawsuit against Caterpillar Inc.Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
alleging liability under various Federal statutes over the death of Corrie in connection with the bulldozers, alleging Caterpillar supplied them to the Israelis despite having notice they would be used to further "a policy plaintiffs contend violates international law." The case was dismissed by a Federal judge in November 2005 for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, citing, among other things, the political question
Political question
In American Constitutional law, the political question doctrine is closely linked to the concept of justiciability, as it comes down to a question of whether or not the court system is an appropriate forum in which to hear the case. This is because the court system only has authority to hear and...
doctrine. The judge found, alternatively, that the plaintiffs' claims failed on the merits.
The ruling was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
. On September 17, 2007, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal on political question
Political question
In American Constitutional law, the political question doctrine is closely linked to the concept of justiciability, as it comes down to a question of whether or not the court system is an appropriate forum in which to hear the case. This is because the court system only has authority to hear and...
grounds, and did not reach the merits of the suit. The Court found that as the bulldozers were paid for by the U.S. Government as part of its aid to Israel, that the Judicial Branch could not rule on the merits of the case without ruling on whether or not the government's financing of such bulldozers was appropriate, a matter it felt was not entrusted to the Judicial Branch.
A lawsuit was also filed against the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Defense Ministry. In February 2010, after pressure from the USA, Israel gave entry visas to four ISM witnesses so that they could testify. However it refused entry permission to the Palestinian physician from Gaza who had examined Corrie's wounds on the scene, and also rejected an application for him to testify by video link. The case began in Haifa on March 10, 2010.
Kidnapping attempt controversy
During a visit in January 2006, two Palestinians, one armed, entered the home of Samir Nasrallah, the Palestinian pharmacist whose former home Rachel Corrie had been trying to protect when she was killed. Corrie's parents were staying overnight there, and it was reported that the gunmen had tried to kidnap them, but had abandoned their plans when told who his guests were. According to Nasrallah, the gunmen were seeking Americans as bargaining chips to secure the release of Alaa al-Hams, a Palestinian militia leader arrested by Palestine intelligence on suspicion of ordering the abduction of British human-rights activist Kate BurtonKate Burton (aid worker)
Kate Burton is an English aid worker who was kidnapped together with her parents from the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on December 28, 2005....
and her parents.
The ISM issued a statement asserting that the actual targets whose home the gunmen came to were three Americans staying nearby, and that the Corries helped talk the men out of their plan. By the ISM's account, "the Corries were never threatened with kidnapping, nor did gunmen burst into the house where the Corries were staying." The Jerusalem Post reported Craig Corrie as saying: "There was never a threat made against us and the gun was never pointed at anyone." According to the Post, Craig Corrie said that when he entered the room and saw the man with the gun, he feared it might be a kidnapping attempt, but that the situation was never described to him that way by his host. Corrie added that the media accounts over-dramatized the incident.
Memorial events
Immediately after her death, posters and graffiti praising Corrie were posted in Rafah, with one graffiti tag reading, "Rachel was an American citizen with Palestinian blood." To most Palestinians, everyone killed by the Israeli army is considered a shaheed (martyr), and hundreds of local residents came to express their condolences. The day after Corrie died, about thirty American and European ISM activists with 300 Palestinians began protests during the public memorial service over the spot where she was fatally injured in Rafah, Jordan states that IDF sent a representative to the memorial as the service "got under way". However, Murray asserts that the same bulldozer that killed Corrie, identified by its army serial number 949623, suddenly appeared at the memorial. According to Jordan, "A bizarre game of cat-and-mouseCat and mouse
Cat and mouse, often expressed as cat-and-mouse game, is an English-language idiom dating back to 1675 that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes." The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mouse", who despite not being able to...
began as the peace activists chased the tank around", with protesters covering the tank with posters of Corrie and throwing flowers on it. In response, it is alleged that "Israeli soldiers inside threatened, in return, to run them down", a tank sprayed the mourners with tear gas and later armoured personnel carrier
Armoured personnel carrier
An armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...
s [APC] fired guns along with percussion bombs. Murray further stated that IDF fired "concussion grenades, tear gas, warning shot
Warning shot
A warning shot is a military term describing harmless artillery shot or gunshot intended to call attention and demand some action of compliance...
s" over the protesters while they were choking on diesel smoke. The escalating danger caused the memorial service to be halted.
In 2008, Corrie's parents commemorated the fifth anniversary of her death at an event held in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
town of Nablus
Nablus
Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...
. About 150 Palestinians and foreigners joined them to dedicate a memorial to Corrie on one of the city's streets.
In 2011, Iran named a street in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
in Corrie's honour.
Artistic tributes
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Alice Shields
Alice Shields
Alice Shields is an American composer. She is a respected electronic composer particularly known for her work in opera....
, Mike Stout
Mike Stout
Mike Stout is an American labor supporter, social activist and rock guitar player and protest singer, who lives in Pittsburgh, United States. He is also known as the "World's Grievance Man."-Music and activism:...
, Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, Philip Munger
Philip Munger
Philip Munger is an American composer, music educator, political blogger, and environmentalist living in Alaska. He is perhaps best known for "The Skies are Weeping", a seven-movement cantata written in tribute to Rachel Corrie, an American member of the International Solidarity Movement killed in...
, David Rovics
David Rovics
David Rovics is an American indie singer/songwriter. His music concerns topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization and social justice issues. Rovics has been an outspoken critic of former President George W...
, Christy Moore
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
, Jim Page
Jim Page
Jim Page born in 1949, is a folk singer-songwriter and social activist.-Early life:Page was born in Palo Alto, California in 1949 and moved to Seattle in 1971.-Music career and activism:...
, Dawud Wharnsby, Elizabeth Hummel
Elizabeth Hummel
Elizabeth Hummel is an American singer-songwriter best known for her activities in the San Diego area where she was voted “Best Acoustic Artist” in 1995 .-Background:...
with Carl Dexter, Valerie Webb with Paul LaBrecque, Ben Ellis
Ben Ellis (playwright)
Ben Ellis is a playwright from Gippsland in Australia, now based in London. His significant works include Post Felicity , Falling Petals , a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis , and more recently Poet No. 7 and The Final Shot , both premiering in London...
with Lawrence Williams and music groups including Klimt 1918
Klimt 1918
-Biography:Klimt 1918 was started in 1999 by brothers Marco and Paolo Soellner, after the split of their former band, Another Day . Marco's newly discovered love for bands like The Cure, Bauhaus and Joy Division, led him to incorporate new influences in his songwriting...
, Ten Foot Pole
Ten Foot Pole
Ten Foot Pole is an American punk rock band, formerly on Epitaph Records.-History:Ten Foot Pole was founded in 1983 as Scared Straight.Scared Straight was a Nardcore Punk band from Simi Valley, California...
, The Can Kickers, Project Qua Project and Casa del Vento
Casa del Vento
Casa Del Vento is a left wing Italian folk rock band.- History :Casa del Vento is an "extremely controversial, Italo-Celtic, Euro-socialist" folk rock band founded in Italy since 1991. Its current members are Luca Lanzi, Sauro Lanzi, Massimiliano Gregorio, Fabrizio Morganti, Andreas Petermann and...
, internationally.
In 2004, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n composer Philip Munger
Philip Munger
Philip Munger is an American composer, music educator, political blogger, and environmentalist living in Alaska. He is perhaps best known for "The Skies are Weeping", a seven-movement cantata written in tribute to Rachel Corrie, an American member of the International Solidarity Movement killed in...
wrote a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
about Corrie called The Skies are Weeping
The Skies are Weeping
The Skies are Weeping is a cantata by composer Philip Munger. The cantata memorializes Rachel Corrie, an American member of the International Solidarity Movement, who was killed in 2003 by a bulldozer operated by the Israel Defense Forces when she tried to prevent the demolition of a house in the...
, which was scheduled to premiere on April 27 at the University of Alaska Anchorage
University of Alaska Anchorage
The University of Alaska Anchorage is the largest school of the University of Alaska System, with about 16,500 students, about 14,000 of whom attend classes at Goose Lake, its main campus in Anchorage....
, where Munger teaches. Some objected to the upcoming performance, including members of the Jewish community, and so a forum was held, co-chaired by Munger and a local rabbi, who described the work as bordering on anti-Semitic because Corrie was working with Palestinians and said that consequently it "romanticized terrorism." Munger later related that he had received threatening e-mails "[just] short of what you'd take to the troopers", and that some of his students had received similar communications. After the forum "disintegrate
In early 2005, My Name is Rachel Corrie
My Name is Rachel Corrie
My Name is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the diaries and emails of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman, who directed it, and journalist Katharine Viner. Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American Evergreen State College student and member of the International Solidarity Movement who traveled to...
, a play composed from Corrie's journals and e-mails from Gaza and directed by British actor Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, was presented in London and later revived in October 2005. The play was to be transported to the New York Theatre Workshop
New York Theatre Workshop
__notoc__New York Theatre Workshop is an Off-Broadway theatre noted for its productions of new works. Located at 79 East 4th Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it houses a 198-seat theatre for its mainstage productions, and a...
, but when it was postponed indefinitely, the English producers denounced the decision as "censorship" and withdrew the show. It finally opened Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
on October 15, 2006, for an initial run of 48 performances. In the same year, "My Name is Rachel Corrie" was shown at the Pleasance (a theatre) as part of the Edinburgh (Fringe) Festival. The play has also been published as a paperback, and performed in ten countries worldwide, including Israel.
In 2006, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n playwright Ben Ellis
Ben Ellis (playwright)
Ben Ellis is a playwright from Gippsland in Australia, now based in London. His significant works include Post Felicity , Falling Petals , a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis , and more recently Poet No. 7 and The Final Shot , both premiering in London...
wrote Blindingly Obvious Facts, a 10-minute fugue composed of "ugly" verbatim excerpts from right-wing blogs discussing Corrie's death. It was performed as part of the 2007 Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
season of the Short and Sweet
Short and Sweet
Short+Sweet is a multi-form arts platform presenting festivals in theatre, dance, music-theatre and cabaret across Australia and Asia...
short play competition. In early 2008, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
composer Lawrence Williams mixed a recorded version of Ellis' play for the play's Sydney Short and Sweet production.
US Power Violence trio Bastard Noise
Bastard Noise
-History:The Bastard Noise was founded in 1991 by Henry Barnes, W. T. Nelson and Eric Wood, initially as a side project of powerviolence band Man Is The Bastard.-Project personnel and past contributors:...
included the song "Rachel" on the full length album Skulldozer as a tribute to Corrie.
Documentaries
In 2003, British Channel 4 and The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
reporter Sandra Jordan
Sandra Jordan
Sandra Jordan is an Irish television journalist, best known for her investigative visits to many conflict zones around the world for the Channel 4 series Dispatches and Unreported World....
and producer Rodrigo Vasquez made a documentary that was aired June 2003 on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
titled The Killing Zone, about ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip. Jordan said: "There has been a lot of interest in Britain and around the world about what happened to Rachel, I find it highly disappointing that no serious American investigative journalist has taken Rachel's story seriously or questioned or challenged the Israeli Army version of events."
In 2005, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
produced a 60 minute documentary entitled When Killing is Easy aka Shooting the Messenger, Why are foreigners suddenly under fire in Israel?, described as "a meticulous examination of" the shooting to death of James Miller
James Miller (filmmaker)
James Henry Dominic Miller was a Welsh cameraman, producer, and director, and recipient of numerous awards, including five Emmy Awards. He often worked with Saira Shah with whom he founded and operated an independent production company called Frostbite Productions in 2001...
, who was "a British cameraman with considerable experience of filming in war zones", by Israeli soldiers in May 2003; the shooting of British photography student Tom Hurndall
Tom Hurndall
Thomas "Tom" Hurndall was a British photography student, a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement , and an activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. On 11 April 2003, he was shot in the head in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defense Forces sniper, Taysir Hayb...
as "he tried to rescue a terrified Palestinian child from a hail of Israeli bullets" in April 2003 and the death of "American peace activist" Rachel Corrie after "she was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer" in March 2003, while trying to find an answer to the question: "Were the attacks random acts of violence, or do they represent a culture of killing with impunity which is sanctioned by the higher echelons of the Israeli army?"
In 2005 Yahya Barakat, who lectures on TV production, cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, and filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
at al-Quds University
Al-Quds University
Al-Quds University is a Palestinian university with campuses in Jerusalem, Abu Dis, and al-Bireh. It was founded in 1984, but its official constitution was written in 1993 when Mohammed Nusseibeh, its first Chancellor and Chancellor of the College of Science and Technology, announced its...
, filmed a documentary in Arabic with English subtitles
Subtitle (captioning)
Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
, named Rachel Corrie – An American Conscience.
In 2009, a documentary film titled Rachel is produced by Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
born, French-Israeli director Simone Bitton
Simone Bitton
Simone Bitton is a French-Israeli documentary filmmaker. Her films have been nominated for or won the César Award, the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film Award, and the Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize ....
detailing the death of Rachel Corrie from "an Israeli point of view". Its first North American public screening was at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
.
MV Rachel Corrie
On 30 March 2010, a 1800-tonne vessel was bought at auction in DundalkDundalk
Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...
, Ireland for €70,000 by the Free Gaza Movement
Free Gaza Movement
The Free Gaza Movement is a coalition of human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups formed to challenge the Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip by sailing humanitarian aid ships to Gaza...
. It was outfitted for use in a voyage to Gaza, named in honour of Rachel Corrie and launched 12 May 2010. It sailed to join a flotilla intended to directly confront Israel’s blockade of Gaza and take in basic supplies. The flotilla was intercepted (see Gaza flotilla raid
Gaza flotilla raid
The Gaza flotilla raid was a military operation by Israel against six ships of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" on 31 May 2010 in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea...
) however the MV Rachel Corrie had not reached the other ships and continued towards Gaza by itself. Israeli navy officers addressed the ship as "Linda"—the vessel's name before it was renamed for Rachel Corrie. The ship was intercepted by the Israeli navy on Saturday, June 5, 2010, 23 miles off the coast, and diverted to the port of Ashdod. There the cargo was to be inspected and sent over land to Gaza.
See also
- House demolition in the Israeli-Palestinian conflictHouse demolition in the Israeli-Palestinian conflictHouse demolition is a controversial tactic used by the Israeli Defence Forces and Israeli settlers in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip against Palestinians....
- Human shieldHuman shieldHuman shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
- ISM casualties in Palestine and Israel
- Iain Hook – British UNRWA project managerProject managerA project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers can have the responsibility of the planning, execution, and closing of any project, typically relating to construction industry, architecture, computer networking, telecommunications or software...
shot and killed by IDF in Jenin, November 22, 2002. - James MillerJames Miller (filmmaker)James Henry Dominic Miller was a Welsh cameraman, producer, and director, and recipient of numerous awards, including five Emmy Awards. He often worked with Saira Shah with whom he founded and operated an independent production company called Frostbite Productions in 2001...
– British film-maker shot and killed by the IDF in Gaza, May 2, 2003. - Vittorio ArrigoniVittorio ArrigoniVittorio Arrigoni was an Italian reporter, writer, pacifist and activist. Arrigoni worked with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in the Gaza Strip, from 2008 until his death...
– Italian ISM volunteer abducted and murdered in Gaza by a Palestinian militant group.
Further reading
- Corrie, Rachel. "Letter from Palestine." Voices of a People's History of the United States. Ed. Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. New York: Seven Stories PressSeven Stories PressSeven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
. pp. 609–610. ISBN 1-58322-628-1
External links
- Rachel Corrie Memorial Page
- Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
- Rachel's Words
- The Case Against Rachel Corrie
- Death of a dreamer
- Martyr with a Cause
- Rachel Corrie, One Year Later
- Rachel Corrie's diaries
- counterpunch.org criticism of mother jones article
- 7 Years After, Family of Rachel Corrie Heads to Israel for Wrongful Death Suit – video by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...