Courage to Resist : Remembering Rachel Corrie killed in Gaza by the IDF 20 years ago

Twenty years ago this week on March 16th 2003 23 year old  American Evergreen  student and human rights activist Rachel Alleyene Corrie was murdered by  Israeli Defense Force bulldozers in Gaza while bravely non violently acting as a human shield against the demolition of Palestinian homes in the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza strip.

Born on April 10, 1979, in Olympia, Washington, Rachel Corrie had dedicated her life to human rights, defending Palestinian rights, in particular.

She was the youngest of three children of Craig and Cindy Corrie, who described their family as "average American, politically liberal, economically conservative and middle class."

 From a young age, she wrote poetry and recorded her thoughts in journals. She also had an awareness of suffering and injustice in the world. As a high school student, she spent six weeks in Russia as a foreign exchange student. This experience help continue her international outlook and her realization of how privileged her own upbringing was.

We have got to understand that people in third world countries think and care and smile and cry just like us.
We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs.
We have got to understand that they are us. We are them.

-poem written by Rachel Corrie at age 10

After high school, Rachel attended The Evergreen State College. She took a year off from her studies there to volunteer with the Washington State Conservation Corps. Corrie worked with patients in a mental hospital and continued visiting with them for three years.

After September 11, 2001, Rachel became involved in political activism. In her senior year of college, she set up a study abroad program in which she traveled to Rafah, a city in Gaza, to establish a relationship between her own city of Olympi and the city of Rafah.

Rachel worked with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). This organization, founded in 2001, is a Palestinian-led group committed to non-violently resisting the oppression and occupation of Palestinians. Much of Rachel Corrie’s work with ISM involved getting to know the people in this area and working to protect them. She sat with families in houses to protect them from demolition, sat in front of wells to protect them from being destroyed, and escorted children to school to keep them safe.

Rachel  was horrified at the destruction she witnessed. Homes were destroyed and people detained and killed on a daily basis. Rachel recorded what she observed and felt in letters and emails to her family that have since been collected in  Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie. . In one email she wrote,home, and internationals who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, wont make it.

 

" Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university cant. People can't get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can't get home, and internationals who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, wont make it. ""

 
In another email she wrote,

 

"Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom... Honestly a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence off the willful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me."

 

On 16 March 2003 in the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, Rachel stood  before an Israeli bulldozer whilst wearing a bright orange fluoresent jacket and using a megaphone in hopes of stopping it from  demolishing the home of a local Palestinian  family.

Corrie believed that her foreign features and blonde hair would deter the bulldozer, but she was wrong. She was crushed to death when the bulldozer driver ran over her repeatedly, according to witnesses.

The people of Gaza received news of her murder with grief and horror, describing her as a "martyr "and staged a massive funeral for the American activist. Since then the name Rachel Corrie has become synonymous with the Palestinian cause, an icon of global solidarity withe the people of Palestine. Her name was chosen as the name for an Irish aid ship that set out to Gaza in 2010, while her story has been told in several documentary films  portraying Palestinian suffering. 

The play My name is Rachel Corrie first seen two years after her death, directed by Josh Roche and edited by the late Alan Rickman and Guardian newspaper editor Katharine Viner, gives a troubling account of an extraordinary young woman's overwhelming commitment to her cause,  the play darts through the diaries Corrie wrote from the age of 12 upwards. The form makes it potent, nothing if not honest. Diaries, being private, have no reason not to be. They're personal, not political, and whatever anyone makes of her standpoint, there's no denying what Corrie witnessed in Palestine  children growing up surrounded by shellfire, farms razed without warning, soldiers shooting at will. The play allows us to sense Rachel's solitude and sense of impending death. Yet her journal also records the beleaguered existence of people in the city of Rafah where countless homes have been bulldozed, many of those that survive have tank holes in the walls, and checkpoints that to this day prevent people getting to work or registering at university. The singer-songwriter Iris DeMent honoured her in a recent song as a 'warrior of love.' 

Near the home that Rachel was protesting to save, Palestinians launched an annual sports championship in her memory.

It was launched in 2010 by a football match between the two teams from that neighbourhood and evolved into an official championship with more than 32 competing sports teams from all parts of Gaza.

Nearly two decades on, the championship is still held every year with several sports including football, table tennis and martial arts, attended by thousands of Palestinians, according to Mohammad Gharib, the event's Information Coordinator.

Officials print and distribute posters, pictures and leaflets to tell Corrie's story, why she came to Gaza, and how she was killed, quoting her words on Palestinian rights.

These materials are put up in the streets and handed out to all the people who attend the game.

So today day I reflect upon Rachel's brave stand in Gaza and her courage to resist, and all  those who continue to live and struggle there. And all those passionate change makers across the globe who each day act with conscience and work tirelessly to try and make a difference.

Her name and memory are also present at the Return Social Centre, also known as the Rachel Corrie Centre, which serves tens of thousands of Palestinian women, children and teenagers with skills training programs, economic empowerment and psychological support, and as a safe space for victims of violation.

The Centre's administration also joins locals annually to honour the activist's bravery.

"Her family visited the Centre twice in the past several years and supported it. Now, we're keeping contact with them to make them feel how she is still in our minds," said Iyad Abu-Louli, the Director of the Centre.

It was named after her in 2004, due to her friendly relations with the Centre and its team members at the beginning of her stay in Gaza.
Justice has never been served for her, along with many others who have been killed under the Israeli occupation. In 2005 Rachel's parents filed a civil lawsuit against the the state of Israel. The lawsuit charged Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death. They sued for a symbolic one U.S dollar in damages  to make the point that that the case was about justice for her daughter and the Palestinian cause, she had been defending. Charging Israel with not conducting a full and credible investigation into the case and with responsibility for her death.  In August 2012, an Israeli court  predictably rejected their suit.

Her death they said was a " regrettable accident " for which the state of Israel was not responsible. According to Judge Oded Gershon of Haifa Court she had " put herself in a dangerous situation " whilst dressed in a bright orange jacket  and acting as a human shield,  when she was crushed to death. Israel to all intents and purpose declared itself not guilty of her murder. giving its stamp of approval to the flawed and illegal practices of the Israeli military. the verdict  failed to hold Israel's military accountable for its continuing violation  of human rights. The ruling was slammed by human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as activists.
The home Rachel died trying to protect was razed to the ground, along with hundreds of others. and today Israel still acts with impunity, 20 years on Rachels parents  are continuing to fight for justice that will one day see the  prosecution of the people responsible for her death.

Remember there  is still no justice when Israel's courts show such contempt for justice's meaning. There is no justice either, when the Gaza strip remains a sealed open prison, there is no justice when countless Palestinian families  are made homeless, their houses destroyed. Where is the justice for them or their friends after the uneccessary death of their loved ones and there is no justice for the thousands of Palestinians regularly killed by the IDF. 

Remember that what is happening in Palestine is no inexplicable cycle of violence where each side is as bad as one another.It is no more than an equal  cycle of violence than that seen in apartheid South Africa. Being against this injustice is not anti-Jewish, as is standing up to the British Government's injustices is seen as being anti- British.
Rachel Corrie understood these links and connections and would have known about an active Israeli peace movement, and of the hundreds  of Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories, many of whom have been jailed for their stance. Israel has invaded Palestinian land in breach of international law. Rachel died while attempting to prevent a demolition of a home, a common practice that the  Israeli army, uses as a collective punishment that has left more than 12,000 Palestinians homeless since the beginning of the second uprising in September 2000. A practice that violates International Law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
So here's to the memory and bravery of Rachel Corrie  a true American hero,who courageously died whilst living her dreams, staying human and showing her solidarity with her beloved friends, the Palestinians. who continues to inspire activism and compassion across the globe, her spirit lives on, challenging us to get out of our comfort zones and act with our convictions. Inspiring us that we can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong  even in the most difficult circumstances. 
Rachel's death was tragic, but  brought the world's attention to the suffering and death of thousands of Palestinians. At least 6,500 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation since 2000, so the international community must carry on fighting for their justice too, as well as that of Rachel's, the situation sadly in the West Bank and Gaza, still no different today.Years later  Palestinians are  still being killed and injured as they demand the right to return to lands that have been stolen from them.

In the years since Rachel's death Palestinian home demolitions by Israel ;have increased several fold. So  Rachel's message remains as relevant as it was then. if not more.
The world must not stay silent, while the struggle continues against the demolition and occupation of Palestinian homes and lands, restrictions of movement, detentions, arrest, collective punishment, the siege of Gaza and the aggressive military attacks that continue  on a daily basis.We must continue to hold Israel accountable for decades of oppression, displacement, land theft, occupation, and loss,

Here is a link to the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice set up in her memory

.https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/  

I conclude this post with a poem I wrote about Rachel in her memory a few years ago.Rachel continues to  represent the individual human feeling that is often not represented by governments.The kind of human feeling that makes a person refuse to normalize unjust realities, even if it’s at the expense of personal interest or even one's life.

Courage to Resist ( For Rachel Corrie 10/4/79-16/3/03 ) 

Rachel Corrie witnessed the oppression
So she bravely stood with the Palestinian
Shoulder to shoulder in a land of occupation

Her breath full of peace, no room for compliance

With firm belief in heart she stood in front of force
In act of defiant non violent resistance
To try to prevent destructive demolition

Of peoples homes and olive groves 

The world witnessed as she was crushed

By a Israeli bulldozer, and left like a rag doll 

Years later her message of solidarity still strong
Her spirit remains free. moving and inspiring
Because oppressors can never kill a thought
Defiance will always rise, wherever there is injustice
In the town of Rafah their gentle sister is not forgotten 

Her deep passion, courage and conviction honoured

We must continue her brave struggle for freedom

As the skys are still weeping, tears still raining down.