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A Bitter Holiday Season
By Stanley Heller
I can't imagine how hard this holiday season is for the Corrie family. The men who killed their daughter have never been punished and their government refuses to take action. Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old college student from Washington State, was killed on March 16 of this year. She was run over and backed over by a Caterpillar bulldozer as she tried to protect a family's house from demolition. According to eyewitnesses, two soldiers in the bulldozer had her in direct view as they rolled over her body.
Rachel was killed in the Gaza Strip, the land Israel has occupied in defiance of the UN Security Council for 35 years. She was trying to stop the home of a Palestinian doctor from being destroyed. There has never been a claim that the doctor was a terrorist or criminal. Israel has knocked down the homes of 10,000 Palestinians since it took over the West Bank and Gaza according to Amnesty International. Danny Rubenstein in Ha'aretz states that 5% of the homes were knocked down as punishment for terrorism. The means 9,500 houses were knocked down because the Israeli government wanted the land for other purposes: settlements, roads, security features, etc. The 10,000 families were not given other housing. They were left on their own.
The Israeli government launched two investigations into Rachel's death. The first neglected to speak to witnesses or look at the photos, even the picture with the mound of Rachel's half-buried body in between two bulldozer treads. The second investigation did gather all the evidence, but ignored its own autopsy and came to the conclusion that Corrie had not been run over by the bulldozer. The report said that the bulldozer operators had not seen Rachel and that no one was to blame in any way for the "accident".
I spoke to Rachel's parents when they visited UCONN and spoke at a panel on the dangers facing human rights workers. They had just come back for the Israel and Occupied Territories. They are soft spoken people, but they are determined to get to the bottom of what happened that day. Craig Corrie said that they had gone to Rafah as kind of a "pilgrimage", to walk where she had walked and to meet the people she had known. The house Rachel tried to defend is still standing. Dr. Samir still lives in it with his wife and children. It's pock marked with bullets. The children have to sleep in the kitchen at night because of the shooting. Craig Corrie said this was not the result of fighting. He's a Vietnam vet, said that at night he could recognize the sound of machine gun fire. Only the Israelis have those weapons.
Reportedly President Bush met with the Israeli Prime Minister the day after Rachel's death and insisted on a full and transparent investigation. Instead there was a whitewash. Our political leaders have been uncharacteristically silent on the matter. Rachel Corrie's Congressman and nearly 50 cosponors have produced a resolution calling for a U.S. investigation into her death, but the bill was sent to committee where it has not been raised. CT members of Congress won't support the bill even though over 600 Connecticut residents have asked that they do so. [See http://www.corrie-ct.8k.com/Signers.html ] In letters to constituents Rosa DeLauro talks about a Rachel Corrie "tragedy", but won't explain why the U.S. shouldn't investigate. Nancy Johnson's spokesman says she has full confidence in the Israeli government investigation. Their responses are typical.
In 1994 an American who committed vandalism in Singapore was slated to be caned on his buttocks. There was a furor. Even the President made a statement. Why then the silence now about the killing of an American hero? Why aren't politicians and newspaper editors demanding punishment for the people who killed Rachel Corrie?
Stanley Heller is chairperson of the Middle East Crisis Committee founded in 1982 in New Haven.