P U L S E

Rachel Corrie was killed by an IDF operated bulldozer while non-violently protesting the illegal demolition of a Palestinian home.

Years ago I attended a talk by Craig and Cindy Corrie, the parents of Rachel Corrie, the 23 year old American girl who was killed by an IDF operated bulldozer while non-violently protesting against the illegal demolition of a Palestinian home.  The Corries were modestly dressed, soft-spoken and friendly.  Craig explained that besides Rachel, no one in their family was political, and both he and Cindy have always been “average Americans.”  To make his case Craig added with a laugh that he worked as a simple insurance actuary (someone who uses statistics to calculate insurance premiums) for most of his life. 

Aside from Rachel’s interest in human rights (something which she exhibited at a very young age), excerpts from her journal reveal that she was also living the life of a normal American girl.  Almost everything about the Corries was ordinary, but ever since Rachel’s murder they have been living extraordinary lives.  Instead of resorting to bitterness or dejected withdrawal from the outside world (an understandable response to the unimaginable pain of a losing a child), the Corries have been campaigning about Rachel’s legal case.  Rather than distancing themselves from that far away and foreign world that Rachel lost her life in, they educated themselves about the plight of the Palestinians who have been enduring decades of Israeli instigated expulsion and oppression.  Ever since Rachel’s death, the Corries, once average Americans, have been devoted to Palestinian human rights. 

The story of Rachel Corrie’s death should have rattled American consciousness about the US’s special relationship with Israel.  It should have been all over the mainstream news media and discussed in the US congress.  A young American woman killed by military operated machinery on foreign soil is not an acceptable or normal occurence, but aside from an enduring presence in progressive alternative media, Rachel’s murder was only a blip in US news media, and occurences of it have been brief and infrequent, only reappearing because of Craig and Cindy’s continued advocacy work. 

March 16th marks the anniversary of Rachel’s death in 2003 (4 days later the US would begin its invasion of Iraq) and every year since I have seen concerned citizens and activists honor Rachel through various acts of activism and solidarity.  The Corrie’s legal civil case against Israel has also finally begun to move along (the Corries were attendance for the first hearing in Tel Aviv last week) but without significant MSM press coverage which will lead to increased awareness among the American public, there is little in the way of preventing the Israelis from doing this to someone else’s son or daughter again.  In fact, the lack of accountability for Rachel’s murder explains Israel’s continued violence against other American activists, not to mention Israel’s continued torture and murder of Palestinians (activists or not), and their attempted suppression and imprisonment of Israeli activists. 

On the Corrie’s official website Cindy published a letter encouraging Americans to learn more about Rachel’s case and to contact congress urging them to break Israel’s blockade of strangulated Gaza.  This is one step in the right direction, but after years of similar acts with little success, people need to go further for effective results.  There is a reason why Rachel’s story was stifled in MSM, a reason why Israel continues to walk all over the notion of human rights with little or no culpability, and a reason why the US (currently engaged in the occupation of two countries in the Middle East) is considering waging war on yet another (Iran).  That reason is the Israel lobby and it is the first thing Americans need to educate themselves about.  For far too long this topic has been treated as a taboo (despite the continued emergence of fact-based documents and documentaries proving the contrary) and the Palestinian cause has been suffering as result. 

When Rachel educated herself about Palestine, when she got on a plane and travelled to the occupied Palestinian territories, when she stood in front of that bulldozer, she proved that her actions were more than just symbolic and that she was devoted to achieving real change.  If we want to follow her example, then we must move beyond symbolic acts as well. 

I hesitated before I wrote this, not because I doubt any of the statements that I’ve made, but because I wondered if this is what Rachel would have wanted.  While I can’t speak for her, I feel that the incredibly intelligent and curious young woman that she was would have ultimately agreed with me had she have been given more time to learn about the reasons for the US’s continued support of the Israeli war machine.  In letters that she sent to her family while she was in Palestine, Rachel described the horrifying scenes that she was witnessing, including the Apartheid wall, which at that time was still in its beginning stages.  She could not anticipate the vastly deteriorated state Palestinians would be in 7 years later, with more than 80% of Gaza’s population depending on handouts for their livelihood due to Israel’s continued siege, and with new Israeli settlements continuing to be built on Palestinian land at an escalated rate. 

Prior to leaving her home in Olympia, Washington Rachel wrote: 

We are all born and someday we’ll all die. Most likely to some degree alone.What if our aloneness isn’t a tragedy? What if our aloneness is what allows us to speak the truth without being afraid? What if our aloneness is what allows us to adventure – to experience the world as a dynamic presence – as a changeable, interactive thing? 

No more hesitations.