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During War There Are No Civilians
Sitting in on the Rachel Corrie trial alarmingly reveals an open Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians.
"During War there are no civilians," that's what "Yossi," an Israeli military (IDF) training unit leader simply stated during a round of questioning on day two of the Rachel Corrie trials, held in Haifa's District Court earlier this week. "When you write a [protocol] manual, that manual is for war," he added.
The Corries' lawsuit charges the State with recklessness and a failure to take appropriate measures to protect human life, actions that violate both Israeli and international laws. (Photograph: Denny Sternstein/AP) For the human rights activists and friends and family of Rachel
Corrie sitting in the courtroom, this open admission of an Israeli
policy of indiscrimination towards civilians -- Palestinian or foreign
-- created an audible gasp.
Yet, put into context, this policy comes as no surprise. The Israeli military's track record of insouciance towards the killings of Palestinians, from the 1948 massacre of Deir Yassin in Jerusalem to the 2008-2009 attacks on Gaza that killed upwards of 1400 men, women and children, has illustrated that not only is this an entrenched operational framework but rarely has it been challenged until recently.
Rachel Corrie, the young American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by a Caterpillar D9-R bulldozer, as she and other members of the nonviolent International Solidarity Movement attempted to protect a Palestinian home from imminent demolition on March 16, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Corrie has since become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity as her family continues to fight for justice in her name.
Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, filed a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel for Rachel's unlawful killing -- what they allege was an intentional act -- and this round of testimonies called by the State's defense team follows the Corries' witness testimonies last March. The Corries' lawsuit charges the State with recklessness and a failure to take appropriate measures to protect human life, actions that violate both Israeli and international laws.
Witnesses insisted that the bulldozer driver couldn't see Rachel Corrie from his perch. The State attorneys called three witnesses to the stand on Sunday and Monday to prove that the killing was unintentional and took place in an area designated as a "closed military zone." Falling under the definition of an Act of War, their argument sought to absolve the soldiers of liability under Israeli law. The Rachel Corrie trials focus on one incident, one moment, one death, one family's grief. However it's important to include the context within which the Israeli military operated on that day in March of 2003 in order to properly understand the gravity of the trial and the reverberations seven and a half years later.
Yossi, the military training leader, described the area where Corrie was killed as an "active war zone." The State's defense argues the same. Yet what was happening in Rafah that was so important to Corrie that she confronted a 4-meter high armored bulldozer in the first place?
According to statistics from Human Rights Watch, Israel had been expanding its so-called "buffer zone" at the southern Gaza border after the breakout of the second Palestinian intifada in late 2000. "By late 2002," reports HRW, "after the destruction of several hundred houses in Rafah, the IDF began building an eight meter high metal wall along the border."
The area that Israel designates as its buffer zone has since enveloped nearly 35% of agricultural land, according to an August 2010 report published by the United Nation's Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA says that this policy has affected 113,000 Palestinians inside the Gaza strip over the last ten years as their farms, homes, and villages were intentionally erased from the map.
Rachel Corrie's nonviolent action -- standing in front of the bulldozer in direct confrontation to this project -- cost her her life.
The home Rachel Corrie died trying to protect was razed, along with hundreds of others. The Gaza Strip remains a sealed ghetto. And countless Palestinian families have not seen justice waged in their favor after the deaths of their loved ones.
In 2005, an arrest warrant was issued against Major General Doron Almog -- a senior soldier in charge of Israel's Southern Command -- by a British court related to the destruction of 59 homes in Rafah in 2002 under his authority. He was warned before boarding a flight to the UK that he could be arrested upon arrival, and canceled his trip.
Related to the Rachel Corrie case, Maj. Almog gave a direct order to the team of internal investigators to cut the investigations short, according to Israeli army documents obtained by Israeli daily Haaretz.
This indicates that the impunity of Israeli soldiers and policy-makers can -- and will -- be challenged in a court of law. And when the trials continue next month, the Corries will be back in the courtroom in anticipation of a long-sought justice for their daughter.
Comments
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75 Comments so far
Show AllOk, now I get it, the Jewish Holocaust was just an act of war. No harm done.
Well said.
Another post taken down by a gutless wonder.Drag and drop a famous persons quote here.X
plunk....
...peace...
it's cloudy and rainy here today, i don't necessarily believe in heaven - but if such a place exists - i hope you are witnessing your parents efforts to bring justice to the palestinian people. rachel you are missed, we haven't forgotten - thank you cindy and craig corrie for continuing your daughters work, for standing up for justice and peace.
http://fnewsmagazine.com/2006-apr/rachelcorrie_1.html
{While attending Evergreen State College in Washington, Rachel’s political inclinations really began to surface. In addition to being a vocal activist, Viner assessed Rachel as a “messy, skinny, Dali-loving, list-making chain smoker, with a passion for the music of Pat Benatar.”}
http://rachelswords.org/rachels-emails/
{Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. Ostensibly it is still quite difficult for me to be held for months or years on end without a trial (this because I am a white US citizen, as opposed to so many others). When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting halfway between Mud Bay and downtown Olympia at a checkpoint with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I’m done. So, if I feel outrage at arriving and entering briefly and incompletely into the world in which these children exist, I wonder conversely about how it would be for them to arrive in my world.
They know that children in the United States don‚t usually have their parents shot and they know they sometimes get to see the ocean. But once you have seen the ocean and lived in a silent place, where water is taken for granted and not stolen in the night by bulldozers, and once you have spent an evening when you haven‚t wondered if the walls of your home might suddenly fall inward waking you from your sleep, and once you‚ve met people who have never lost anyone˜once you have experienced the reality of a world that isn‚t surrounded by murderous towers, tanks, armed “settlements” and now a giant metal wall, I wonder if you can forgive the world for all the years of your childhood spent existing—just existing—in resistance to the constant stranglehold of the world‚s fourth largest military—backed by the world’s only superpower—in it‚s attempt to erase you from your home. That is something I wonder about these children. I wonder what would happen if they really knew. As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah: a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are refugees – many of whom are twice or three times refugees. Rafah existed prior to 1948, but most of the people here are themselves or are descendants of people who were relocated here from their homes in historic Palestine—now Israel.}
ps... rachel if you're listening, you'd want to know the co-op has just decided to boycott israeli goods... pps - say hi to albert einstein and emma goldman for me, if they're around...
http://www.olympiabds.org/
...peace...
iowablackbird:
Wonderful post. Very touching....thanks!
Inside the Pentagon, growl hideous incantations of great power.
Conjuring up new demons to let loose apon this world.
Blood is spilled by war sacrifice during every hour.
Victims screams of pain and anguish to hell are hurled.
From books of despair the evil spells of war are invoked,
spreading poison through the ether, taking hold by mind seizure.
Unreasoned hatreds multiply and war industry fires are stoked,
while failures of war policy become cases of Amnesia.
War is ready made for murder and dispossession.
Both Israel and the United States are in love.
Infatuated with a goddess of destruction.
Craven with desires for conquest, push and shove.
Only losers in war are made into unforgivable sinners,
and the blind balance of justice is not tried.
War crimes tribunals are always run by the winners,
who pretend that their laws are universally applied.
Losers are made to pay the reparations and damages.
Crimes of the winners can never have happened.
If winners had to pay costs for their ravages,
They might not afford a next war already planned.
Even though wounds of the winners are plain
The devil has made them blind to damage sown.
As zombies that cannot feel their victims pain,
they also cannot know the extent of their own.
Like, wow! That was deep!
your comments get more inane. did you lose the hasbara handbook?
"peggyforpeace September 10th, 2010 2:06 am
Go away...."
"peggyforpeace September 10th, 2010 2:12 am
your comments get more inane. did you lose the hasbara handbook?"
Why the attempt at sarcasm? The things being spoken of do not call for sarcastic one-liners...
~sc
""peggyforpeace September 10th, 2010 2:06 am
Go away...."
"peggyforpeace September 10th, 2010 2:12 am
your comments get more inane. did you lose the hasbara handbook?"
Why the attempt at sarcasm? The things being spoken of do not call for sarcastic one-liners...
~sc
ptips only comments in a sarcastic manner and on cue from the hasbara handbook. if you are so unaware of same, do a little research as there is plenty out there on the net.Tthe things he/she says have no basis in fact and are meant only to distract from the serious reality faced by the people of Palestine each and every day at the hands of the IDF and settlers. I am sorry if you prefer his/her form of posting.
"Ptips September 10th, 2010 12:43 am
It's more of a Darwin Award thing. She repeatedly tried to go under bulldozers. After trying to avoid her all day, she eventually got her suicidal fantasy wish."
I really have to agree with you.
~sc
raine,
you really need to watch the film 'rachel' (created by simone bitton), for you don't know what you're talking about. the fact is that there's missing video footage from inside the tractor (that would be footage erased by the israeli government, footage that would demonstrate that israeli officers outside the cab were aware of the presence of the activists). she was not suicidal.
she was wearing a very visible orange jacket and was using a bullhorn. also there were other activists around the tractor - the driver clearly knew what was happening and was completely indifferent to the fact that there was a human being sitting in front of the proposed house demolition. this fact was highlighted when he backed over her limp body a second time with the tractor - despite people screaming at him, alerting him to the facts.
the israeli IDF forces are cold blooded murderers. it's really that simple their callous murder of rachel and their gutless attacks on nonviolent activists in the west bank and in gaza demonstrates how indifferent they are to human life (palestinian, american, turkish or english). rachel's case is not set in isolation from other israeli acts of violence against demonstrators. anyone standing for peace, will be ridiculed, imprisoned and even murdered. the fact apologists for israel can't see this truth really speaks to their own embedded racism against the palestinian people.
i met the other american activists (ISM) who were on the ground that day and spoke w/ the corries last fall after the release of this film (as i participated in peace demos in WA w/ rachel), and i can assure you this person was not suicidal. she was determined and fearless,
http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/blog/tag/simone-bitton
{"The Olympia Film Festival proudly presents the Northwest premiere of Simone Bitton’s (Wall) documentary Rachel, about Olympia native and Evergreen State College senior Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while attempting to prevent a Palestinian family’s home in the Gaza Strip from being bulldozed by the Israeli Defense Force. The film is a meticulous and rigorous investigation into the circumstances of Rachel’s death, which remains officially unresolved to this day, and features interviews with members of the International Solidarity Movement, the group with which Rachel was working at the time of her death, and current and former members of the Israeli Defense Force. In addition, the film illustrates the complexities of peace activism, through conversations both with those from whom Rachel drew inspiration and those who have made peace activism their life’s work. Howard Feinstein of ScreenDaily.com says, “Simone Bitton again proves that she is one of the finest contemporary documentarians with Rachel.”
In attendance at the screening will be many current and former Olympians who knew, loved, and worked with Rachel Corrie, including her parents."}
also, raine - did you catch the quote from the article above -
"The area that Israel designates as its buffer zone has since enveloped nearly 35% of agricultural land, according to an August 2010 report published by the United Nation's Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA says that this policy has affected 113,000 Palestinians inside the Gaza strip over the last ten years as their farms, homes, and villages were intentionally erased from the map."
the israelis are intentionally starving the people who live in gaza by confiscating the farmland. this coupled w/ a siege that has prevented essential material for rebuilding their devastated land.
what is it that makes you so indifferent to other people's suffering ?
...peace...
"Witnesses insisted that the bulldozer driver couldn't see Rachel Corrie from his perch"
Of course not. The idiots at Caterpillar have been putting the cockpit in the rear of the friggin machines, instead of in the front, for many decades. All tractors are built that way in the west. Compare that design to a van/bus where the driver is in the very front.
The design of the caterpillar absolutely resembles the design of the empire: The engine is placed out front to both hide the destruction from the operator and to feed the ego of the operator. To distance his from the nature he destroys/conquers.
What's coming out of the IDF now could have come out a gang of Nazis back after and during the Second World War.
AD
Tiny is as tiny does; take down all intelligent opinions that conflict with your version of the truth.
""quickstepper September 9th, 2010 10:40 am
It doesn't matter whether or not these people are Jewish. It does matter if they are zionists."
>>>>>
It doesn't matter whether or not these people are Christians. It does matter if they are fundamentalists.
In other words : Vicious, mindless people.
~sc
"iowa"
""what is it that makes you so indifferent to other people's suffering ?
...peace..."
You really don't see the hypocrisy contained in your 'peace' ! You are fuming.
>>>>>>>>>>
regarding : "the israelis are intentionally starving the people who live in gaza by confiscating the farmland. this coupled w/ a siege that has prevented essential material for rebuilding their devastated land."
>>>>>
I hope you are not trying to 'educate' me on matters much of the world knows! I think much of the world is fully aware of what is happening in Gaza... as they are fully aware of what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan as the invading hordes (the 'allies'!) destroy a people and their land.
But then, WE are causing the untold, the horrific and for years and years to come the suffering due to the death we are leaving in their air, water and soil - so that's okay?
I simply repeat, my view...which you condemed roundly because you don't agree with it : which was, simply :
""Ptips September 10th, 2010 12:43 am
It's more of a Darwin Award thing. She repeatedly tried to go under bulldozers. After trying to avoid her all day, she eventually got her suicidal fantasy wish."
I really have to agree with you."
~sc
you'd be surprised how indifferent people are to the circumstances unfolding on the ground in palestine, iraq and afghanastan
i agree w/ you that 'we' as americans are collectively responsible for what is occurring in israel and that as individuals and in small/large groups of people 'we' need to address these moral responsibilities that we seem to have forgotten (caring for other people around the world and dismantling the war machines we've created).
your correct i was fuming, and we do disagree (i don't believe she committed suicide) - if your interested in a broader perspective from non idf/MSM sources please watch the film 'rachel' (created by simone bitton).
...peace...
When Rachel Corrie or anyone else is killed by the Israeli government in anything that they can openly call a military circumstance - truly or, as in this instance, falsely - that person is killed with the active approval and complicity of the United States government, in principal if not in detail.
This is no reason to not criticise the Israelis, but let's not leave out the godfather, Uncle Sam.
Those of us who live in the Don's backyard have marginally more access to the Don himself than to the Israelis, whose participation, albeit clearly willing, is paid for in Washington.
As long as the American government receives no pressure for actions done by its eager Israeli proxy, it will find little reason to stop prosecuting its interests incognito, through the Israeli government and, in much popular discourse, through "the Jews."
And many who might otherwise include all the guilty in criticism will stop with "the Jews," with the pleasure and relief of scratching an old itch.
And when Israel stops sowing what it so deservedly should reap, there won't be any Israeli 'civilians' either. What is good for the gander is also good for the goose.
Thank you Nora for another insightful, important article.