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TechnoratiIn Memory of Rachel Corrie
Rachel Corrie was killed in the Gaza Strip in Palestine on March 16, 2003, trying to prevent the demolition of the home of a Palestinian family.
I was not present in Rafah that terrible day, 16 March 2003, but I have frequently replayed in my mind the events leading up to the moment when a bulldozer rolled over Rachel Corrie. I think to myself: What compelled this young woman, neither Jewish nor Palestinian, to travel 10,000 miles from home, throw in her lot with a family not her own, a people not her own, and ultimately meet a death that came suddenly, swiftly, in an instant of shocked comprehension.
In the biblical book of Ruth, we read of Naomi whose two sons have died, leaving two young widows. Naomi encourages her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab, their own land. One daughter-in-law kisses Naomi and bids her farewell. The other, Ruth, chooses to accompany Naomi to the distant climes of Judah. Why does Ruth go? “Entreat me not to leave thee,” says Ruth, “for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God.” And she continues, “Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.”
The biblical figure of Ruth journeys to her new people, expecting never to return, but to be buried in foreign soil.
The modern figure of Rachel journeyed to her new people, expecting to return for the start of the school year, and never to be buried, or to be buried at some vastly distant unimaginable future, but never to find her death in the soil of her chosen destination. She journeyed to her new people expecting to find another culture, another language, another way of interacting, but never to find another attitude toward the taking of life. She journeyed expecting to see death, but never to be embraced by it herself.
In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard recounts the story of Abraham as he takes his son Isaac to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah. The story is so unfathomable – how could Abraham take his son, his only son, and prepare to slay him for no apparent reason other than God’s inscrutable request? Kierkegaard constructs several scenarios of what may have been coursing through Abraham’s heart as he walked his son to Moriah to kill him.
Writes Kierkegaard: “It was early in the morning, Abraham rose betimes, he embraced Sarah, the bride of his old age, and Sarah kissed Isaac, who had taken away her reproach, who was her pride, her hope for all time. So they rode on in silence along the way, and Abraham’s glance was fixed upon the ground until the fourth day when he lifted up his eyes and saw afar off Mount Moriah, but his glance turned again to the ground. Silently he laid the wood in order, he bound Isaac, in silence he drew the knife – then he saw the ram which God had prepared. Then he offered that and returned home…From that time on Abraham became old, he could not forget that God had required this of him. Isaac throve as before, but Abraham’s eyes were darkened, and he knew joy no more.”
In my mind’s eye when I see Rachel standing on that mound of earth and facing the bulldozer, I envision a young woman looking at the small window fast approaching her in the brow of the bulldozer, peering into that dark space to find the eyes of the soldier who was driving, perhaps someone her own age, someone who also loved to dance and joke with a younger sister, someone who was thinking about how long it would take until he could finish this job and get back to the base where he didn’t have to face the anger of people who don’t understand what he’s doing, thinking about his weekend pass and his own future, maybe he would go back to school and finish that course, or about his own loneliness, and how it is to be out here alone at the gears every day, and then there’s this girl out there, and why doesn’t she get out of the way. What was his next thought – “Shall I kill her?” or “I’ll scare her – she’ll move” or “Still time to brake!” – as he hurtles forward.
In this land where blood pours down like lemon drops and sticks to all the senses, to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, we cannot know what thought compelled this young man to push on. Later that day, he may have wept and found comfort among his friends. He may have shrugged it off – a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it. But we do know one thing: He will live with the death of Rachel for the rest of his life. He may not read every article about her, he may agree only with those that justify his deed, but we know that he reads some of what is written, and we know that he thinks about that day, and wonders if things, somehow, could have ended differently. How do we know this? We know because we agree with Rachel, who risked her life in the belief that whoever was driving that vehicle would stop before he harmed her. We know because we believe, like Rachel, in the fundamental decency of every human being, and that even those who kill, harbor pain in their hearts for that death. We do not have to forgive this man or this system that led him to kill in order to understand that the trauma of Rachel’s death, which affected millions of people throughout the world, also affected the man who took her life.
On that blindingly sunny day in Rafah, when optimism glints irrationally from every tank, every M16, every dogtag on the necks of 18-year-olds in uniform, photos of loved ones in their pockets, Rachel stood her ground with ease, waiting for his eyes to meet hers, waiting for decency to slow the grinding treads, waiting for the moment of sanity to kick in, to interrupt the flow of tension swelling toward collision, waiting for the inevitable to happen – that reason would prevail.
Today we are some distance from that moment, we have had time to think about it, and still we are no more capable of fathoming what transpired: That until the moment of impact, Rachel never lost her faith in the decency of the bulldozer driver; that until the moment of impact, the driver never understood that he was capable of this terrible crime.
Writes Kierkegaard, “It was a quiet evening when Abraham rode out alone, and he rode to Mount Moriah; he threw himself upon his face, he prayed God to forgive him his sin, that he had been willing to offer Isaac, that the father had forgotten his duty toward the son.”
In my own efforts to understand these terrible deeds, the one on Mount Moriah and the one in Rafah, I ask myself: At Moriah, what was the more terrible – that Abraham had been willing to sacrifice his son? Or that God had demanded this of him?
And in Rafah, who is the real sinner – the soldier who ended the life of a girl on a mound of earth in a land not his and not hers – a land where Rachel, like Ruth, was invited and welcomed, but he was an interloper and resented? Or, in Rafah, too, is the real sinner the God who had demanded this of him – God the army officers, God the brutal policies, God the society of those willing to inflict pain on others to still their own fears and traumas?
And whose gaze turned from one of trust to astonished alarm? The driver, who trusted that Rachel would leap away before it was too late? Or Rachel, who trusted that the driver would halt the vehicle one tread sooner?
Ever more relevant is “Season of the Camomile” by the late Palestinian poet Samir Rantisi, written in 1988, soon after the killing of an Israeli and a Palestinian near the village of Beita. An excerpt:
How many more ordinary mornings
will fill us with horror
and transform our day to another sky;
who chose us
to be the victim and the symbol
to be the beginning of the beginnings,
the moment of historical trial;
we, the two dreamers,
the routine, the ordinary,
who chose us
to be the heart of the conflict
and the crossroads of time
…why didn't you find someone besides me to be a symbol?
why didn't they find someone besides you to be a victim?
why could they only find Beita in the spring.
Our hearts in grief, we ask: Why didn’t they find someone besides you to be a victim? why didn’t they find someone besides you to be a symbol? Ah, Rachel, ah, unknown soldier, why could you only find Rafah in the spring?
63 Comments so far
Show AllRachel Corrie's murder put a face and a date on what I call my loss of innocence/ignorance as to the honorable intentions of the Israeli government toward its Palestinians. Gone was the 99% support I had held inside myself since the 1950s for the people who had endured the Nazi holocaust.
I see a sickening parallel between the callousness of Olmert's policies and those expounded by the criminal Bush administration. Would Israel have followed such a vicious path towards its Palestinian 'problem' if the U.S. had not given a yellow, if not green, light to its increasing militarism?
The U.S. has a moral obligation to call Israel on the carpet when it wreaks death and destruction upon innocent civilians and when it continues to do so by
blockading relief efforts. Israel, in its present state, does not deserve the
unquestioning loyalty of Americans and their government.
I am an American, and today, I am a Palestinian at heart.
the word turn, in my post, translates into old hebrew as teshuvah, an idea central to martin buber's thought....
As the author of this piece, I have found these comments interesting. I would like to provide several clarifications:
1. I wrote this in my own name, not in the name of B'Tselem.
2. I am far from a fundamentalist. In fact, I am an atheist Jew, meaning that I do not believe in God, but identify as a Jew. I treat the stories from the Bible as myths, metaphors.
3. I have a long record of peace and human rights activism, including standing in front of bulldozers. However, I also submit that we will not get to peace without believing in the humanity of the other, however much we disagree with his/her views or actions. This view was also intrinsic to the philosophy of Gandhi, who inspires much of our work.
Finally, I note with a heavy heart the wounding of Tristan Anderson by the IDF on Friday in the weekly Na'alin protest against the Separation Barrier. Almost exactly on the memorial day for Rachel Corrie. I pray (figuratively) that he will recover.
Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem
G I L A _ S V I R S K Y,
Thank you for the provocative and moving article.
I'm curious how Israelis are responding to the 'breaking news', as seen in this article :
CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years, see URL :
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12706
"A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years.
The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."
Blessings,
Namaste
I have not yet seen any report of this in the Israeli press. My guess is that the report will get minimal coverage and dismissed as nonsense, as Israelis are completely unwilling to consider one state as a viable option, nor do they think the state of Israel is in jeopardy of failing.
My personal feeling is that two states remain viable. All the obstacles can be overcome. Then, hopefully, when the occupation is over, we can get back to the business of healing the soul of what has become quite a sorry nation.
Gila
Maybe there is hope after all in the bottom of Pandora's box.
A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years. (PressTV)
In the mean time the genocidal slaughter of Israel's neighbors continues.
United Nation Resolutions and American peace workers like Rachael Corrie and Tristan Anderson make absolutely no difference to the terrorist state of Israel. Just ask any Palestinean or the survivors of the USS Liberty.
Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement said Tristan Anderson, of the Oakland, Calif., area, was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops. "He had a large hole in the front of his head, and his brain was visible."
In 2003, another ISM activist, 23-year-old American Rachel Corrie, was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to block it from demolishing a Palestinian home. (AP)
I understand that our Zionist controlled government gives full support and standing ovations to these IDF killers. Israel might be gone in 20 years but the USA might beat them to self destruction!
I wonder how Caterpillar stock is doing these days...
Walk in peace.
"Strange...how many times US media have shown the brave Chinese dissident who stood in front of a tank at Tianamin Square...but how often do they show Rachel Corrie and the Israeli(American)bulldozer? Something is awry, odd, askew, twisted. Is it our perspective?"
The answer to the above previous post is simple: The USA is run by maladjusted freaks, perverts, religious/political quislings, and all around 'educated' greedy FOOLS.
The day will come when Israel will become too expensive, unrecognizable, and utterly useless to us and the world. You're talking about people who have never been told "NO" ever in their lives-Because of the holocaust, they can do as they please. As a result, they have become like a pack of wild Baboons-Especially the settlers. A primitive little savage tribe with a lot of high-tech gadgetry and weapons.
The Zionists HATE us, they HATE our Constitution, our plurality and multiculturalism. The Zionists Hate Arabs, Christians, Jews, and everyone else as well. They hate the USA, but the love us. They NEED us, but they don't Want us. And when they're done with us, they will show us that special brand of bald-faced hatred that would make Hitler himself cringe-Mark My Words people...
I'm sorry but this post is too confrontational. Surely there's a better path to resolving the problems in the Middle East than blaming one group. The US is an interventionist outsider, now two Muslim states have ongoing occupations not by Israel but the US.We have no place being there, yet we kill Muslims on a daily basis. Corrie would protest our militarism, as evidenced by the timing of her death, so near the start of Gulf II.
Israel has gone way past defending herself. Zionism is the tag used to describe extreme expansionistic Jews and non-Jews who advocate a mass migration to the Holy Land. Incidentally, the holocaust perpetuated upon Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem during the Crusades makes more recent interventions by the Israelis pall in comparison, although it in no way excuses them.
Now I think there is a side of Zionism is racist, but the philosophy is more Old Worldy, driven by longstanding antagonism, although the philosophy of Zionism is only a hundred years old or so. Of course there's hatred by the Jews but there's hatred of them as well. It just seems to go on forever, although in many spots of the Middle East, Jew and Muslim, Jew and Arab have been able to live together in peace.
Now if anyone is a primitive savage tribe it is the United States of America. We spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined. In the past century we've decimated the Phillipines, Cuba, Nicaraqua, Iraq, Vietnam, and set up revolutions in Iran, Chile, and countless other places. We have a pattern of genocide against indigenous people here. We are not in a position to judge. Let's look to our own problems before we blame the Israelis for our perpetual war state.
Israel might be the tail, but it's not the dog, even if the Zionists do wag the dog and shape US policy in the Mideast.
JB Peebles, no argument on your points about the usa!
Donate to the Rachel Corrie Memorial Soccer Tournament in Rafah:
http://www.palestinereview.org/Rachel_Corrie_Soccer_Tournament/Welcome.html
(it ends with /Welcome.html)
Why don't we all just cease the bickering over who is right, who is wrong etc, etc and take a few minutes to remember a remarkable woman that looked beyond herself and tried to bring comfort and support for an oppressed people. Are we remembering a person of great courage and human compassion or just fighting unwinnable battles. What has happened to the people of this country?
occasionally a crossroads appears where we can turn to the right and walk the easy path, or we can turn to the left and travel the more difficult path that leads to meaningful action.
rachel reached a threshold and (as 10,000's of activists do every day) dedicated her time and energy to a just cause (one of the greatest tragedies of recent times financed by or tax dollars) helping the exploited.
in the process she was murdered by idf forces that were completely indifferent to killing an activist - as they are indifferent to killing palestinians at will daily. r corrie embodied the spirit and the will to change the world in a positive way, putting everything in her life (including her life) on the line to help those suffering as a direct result of our policies and tax dollars.
groups like the international solidarity movement, voices in the wilderness, war tax resisters league are documenting the atrocities and participating in resistance.
the more americans emulate rachel's spirit - active resistance, civil disobedience
the sooner the people of this world can reclaim the planet.
-------
on a personal note..
rachel corrie was/is my comrade, literally. it's difficult for me to describe the reaction to rachels death in the commnity of people/activists devoted to social change in olympia wa. rachel is a person i encountered at vigils, demonstrations, rallies, educational forums. her determination to create change effected our community in a very deep way, and it's impossible to describe the emptiness felt in the community after her death. i especially remember the intense sadness and determination amongst the profs at evergreen (rachel's mentors) as they now understood/saw the depravity of the idf from a very personal vantage point. although i always have felt an affinity w/ the oppressed - after r corries death, i understood the concept -'we are all palestinians'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Brigade
participate as you can...
http://palsolidarity.org/
{It Is Apartheid - 3/13/09
The first week in March is International Apartheid Awareness Week. There are now activities in 40 cities around the world. In solidarity, itisapartheid.org is making March Blog Against Apartheid Month.
The main stream media does not print what is going on in Israel and Palestine.
Blogging can be a very effective way to get around this blockade of the truth. If many people are blogging on many different sites on a similar subject and point of view, it can have a ripple effect.}
or stop paying tax...
http://www.warresisters.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_tax_resistance
--------
thank you cindy and craig corrie for continuing to speak out the truth.
'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need (or needs)' - marx
ya basta...
...peace...
Thank you for taking the time to write this humbling and beautiful message.
Some day her name will be remembered not just by us, but by everyone.
Some day, this day will be a day of honor and tribute.
Some day, peace will come, and Rachel's part in bringing it will be recognized.
Some day, Rachel and all the restless spirits of courage and hope will come from the shadows.
Until then, we must share her name whenever we demonstrate.
Rachel Corrie: Presente!
Also in memory of Tom Hurndall...
.----only when the peoples of the world, and especially the jewish people, can turn and say to the palestinians with rachel corrie, "you are our brothers and our sisters," will the monstrous devouring entity which is the state which hides behind the name "israel" disappear, and finally return to the abyss in the human spirit from which it arose,,..... ,
Strange...how many times US media have shown the brave Chinese dissident who stood in front of a tank at Tianamin Square...but how often do they show Rachel Corrie and the Israeli(American)bulldozer? Something is awry, odd, askew, twisted. Is it our perspective?
It ain't so strange when you look at the surnames most prevalent on Wall Street. Somebody owns the US media and they don't want you thinking too hard. Friends of Bernie Maddoff, people he met at religious gatherings. Those people.
Never thought of that before. Well done.
It's the difference of fighting against vastly different unrelenting ideologies :
[ _____ COMMUNISM _____ ]
verses unrelenting
[ _______ ZIONISM _______ ]
At some point the "invisible" framing and outright slanted upside-down bias of jacka$$ $ewer main $tream media becomes apparent.
[ _____ In the first case, our sworn "enemy" _____ ]
which the media loves to scapegoat and demonize, while
[ _______ In the second case, our sworn "friend" _______ ]
..Listen to the words of Professor!!! Arnon Sofer, the government consultant who did so much to help plan the isolation and imprisonment of Gaza, in a interview with the Jerusalem Post in 2004: “When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe,” Sofer predicted. “Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam*. The pressure on the border is going to be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.” Sofer admitted only one worry with all the killing, which will, he says, be the necessary outcome of a policy that he himself helped to invent. “The only thing that concerns me,” he says, “is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.”...
No one who kills comes away the same.
There are many words here about humanity and forgiveness and peace, but the saddest thing is the loss of humanity that the person who killed Rachel Corrie suffered. They may or may not know it, they may or may not feel it, but the reality is, when you kill you change. Rachel was killed in cold blood. I say this, because the person who visited agonizing death upon her person, for nothing, offered no assist after the fact. Had this been a mistake while trying to frighten her, or an accident because they did not see her (which I believe was the official story...and ridiculous considering she had a bullhorn and an orange vest on), any sane human being would have offered help. None was offered, and the armored bulldozer just went on about it's "business" as if nothing had happened.
Since the murderer has never been identified, it can be supposed that this was not the first time this person had killed another, likely a Palestinian who might have stood in the bulldozers way, trying to protect their land and belongings. No one can say, because the one who did this was truly a coward. One unwilling to reveal himself, or herself (since the IDF is an equal opportunity force) out of fear, for being revealed to the world as a killer of innocent women. This is par for the course for the IDF...there was another (of uncounted incidents) like this in it's wanton disregard for the humanity of victim and perpetrator alike. That was the murder of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams on Oct. 6, 2004, on her way to school. She wandered into a military kill zone, and the "brave" IDF murdered her. First they shot her at a distance, gravely injuring her, then, instead of going to her and trying to help, after it was clear she was no threat, the company commander instead went to her, and in cold blood, verified the kill...emptying his clip into her helpless body. Cold blooded murder. And the coward has never been identified, just like the killer of Rachel Corrie.
There is no honor in the IDF. This is standard operating procedure. They deny medical help to victims they have neutralized, and in so doing, seal their own fates as bloodthirsty killers. In wars of necessity, wars that must be fought to save whole populations, in the midst of chaos, is the stated goal that no need die if they either give up, or are neutralized as a threat. Once this is done, if they are alive, assistance is offered, and help provided if possible. The IDF does not do this. They did not do it for Rachel, and they did not do it for Iman. They killed with impunity, then moved on, and Israel protected their identities, claiming they were innocent of wrongdoing. If this is the case, their identities should not be a secret. Only the guilty need hide their faces. If these were accidents, or explainable actions, let them explain. Never gonna happen...because the "brave" IDF is anything but. I'm certain, as in all human endeavors, there are good people in the IDF, but the overall picture is of a force that is inhuman and bestial in their intent...virtual tigers showing no mercy, and actively choosing to end people's lives without any attempt to address their humanity, and thus, their own.
This is tragic in all directions. For all involved.
The people of Israel sanction and approve of these kinds of killings. They do not protest. They do not vote for parties promoting withdrawal to the '67 borders and evacuation of Palestinian territories. Every year they send a new batch of young men and women and wash their hands in the blood of their neighbors.
If you had neighbors that shot and killed little girls what would you do? I don't think there is time to worry about Israeli suffering. Can't they leave? Isn't it troue that Israeli's have the privilege of easy travel to the US and Europe where peoples of other nations do not?
Israel is a failed state.
I would be willing to guess that the Israeli people have been subjected to a 'fear'
campaign similar to that thrown at us by those great American heroes, Bush, Cheney and the neo-cons. And if you have media complicit with the policies of the current powers-that-be, you are going to have frightened citizens, certain that their enemies are about to perpetrate Armageddon upon them at any moment. Fear campaigns are a big thing and won't lose their influence upon the citizenry until that citizenry begins to recognize that they have been manipulated for political reasons.
Let's hope that that happens in Israel sooner than later.
"They do not protest. They do not vote for parties promoting withdrawal to the '67 borders and evacuation of Palestinian territories."
Yes, they do. But unfortunately, not enough, same as in this country.
Sorry...no need to repeat.
I had heard, on some History Channel segment on biblical wars, that it was some ancient Israelite law (back during tribal times), that required anyone who had killed to be separate from the rest of the tribe for a few days after the act, or something like that. Early form of PTSD treatment I suppose.
Great piece. Thank you for writing it.
Ray Berthiaume
This was the best meditation I've had all month. It will stay with me for a while. Thank you.
From the only perspective I personally know; from my own family history. I am convinced of one thing.
Life in any form is cheap to those who are foolish enough to believe in a "higher authority" than their own perspective and their own relationship to the world. When you believe that YOU are chosen; all others, human and all other life forms are doomed at your hand.
Whether you are an American and have God and manifest destiny; or a Jew of the 'chosen ones'; or a Muslim treating the 'infidel' as the prophet demands; or one from another "tribe from over on the other side of the mountain ", sea, desert or another time zone, place or space.
When one human decides that they have the authority to kill, except in self defense or for food; death and destruction is the only result.
Long ago human beings were capable of living in harmony with the rest of life.
Then they created the "higher authority", and fell to their knees, and extinctions began at the hands of those humans----and they continue to this day.
The untold extinctions of animals and other human beings, caused by humanity here on earth will continue as long as human beings fail to live in harmony or to recognize the absolute value of life; or they become extinct themselves.
There is no God coming to the rescue of humanity. Only humanity has the power to rescue themselves from themselves.
Exactly, NativeSon. The story of Rachel Corrie is about people, not gods. Sure, they want to make it about gods, but THEY need to stop it. The world needs to heal from all the craziness religion has caused. Rachel died tragically, no matter what. Stop with the bible comparisons. They just do not matter.
Sioux Rose
Native Son: Much-inspired post, (one of my favorites of yours!) I would only add that the belief in ONE SINGLE GOD has distorted spirituality immeasurably because each tribe fights over a narrow interpretation/extrapolation of what that Deity represents. While the elites aimed at economic control use religion to turn a people against a people, a great many really believe THEIR 'god' is superior to that of the other "team." This is the most tragic falacy of all, and why I often relate this concept of "Mars rules," for it presupposes might over right, and uses force to dominate others. It only sees its own way and punishes all those who choose to live differently, or know the inspiration of more unifying belief systems. This interpretation explains what is TRULY being worshipped.
Yes, S I O U X
the conflating of Spirituality into Religion fronting for the rich
I love that bumper sticker :
[ ____ Religion was invented ____ ]
[ _________ by the rich _________ ]
[ _____ to prevent the poor _____ ]
[ ______ from killing them ______ ]
What a charming coincidence-- a brand-new report (AP wires) of another sinner who foolishly put himself in harm's way by being where he didn't belong and associating with Evildoers opposing the professional and circumspect IDF:
__________________________________________________
American badly hurt in clash with Israeli military
By AMY TEIBEL Associated Press Writer
Mar 13th, 2009 | JERUSALEM -- An American demonstrator was critically wounded Friday in a clash between protesters and Israeli troops over Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement said Tristan Anderson, of the Oakland, Calif., area, was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops. The military and the Tel Aviv hospital where Anderson was taken had no details on how he was hurt.
"He's in critical condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator and undergoing imaging tests," said Orly Levi, a spokeswoman at the Tel Hashomer hospital. She described Anderson's condition as "life-threatening."
The protest took place in the West Bank town of Naalin, where Palestinians and international backers frequently gather to demonstrate against the barrier. Israel says the barrier is necessary to keep Palestinian attackers from infiltrating into Israel. But Palestinians view it as a thinly veiled land grab because it juts into the West Bank at multiple points.
The military says the area where the protests take place is a closed military zone off-limits to demonstrations.
About 400 protesters turned out in Naalin on Friday, the military said. Some of them hurled rocks at troops, who used riot gear to quell the unrest, it added, without elaborating.
Ulrika Jenson, an International Solidarity Movement activist, said troops fired tear gas canisters into the crowd from a hill above.
"Tristan was hit and fell to the ground," Jenson was quoted as saying in an ISM statement. "He had a large hole in the front of his head, and his brain was visible."
· Yr Obd't Servant
Sioux Rose
O.S. If the global economy's implosion should hit you personally, may I recommend sending your resume and/or a comedy skit to Saturday Night Live or the Jon Stewart show? Your acerbic wit deserves greater exposure!
Well, bless your pea-pickin' heart, Sioux Rose! ♥
· Yr Obd't Servant
"And in Rafah, who is the real sinner – the soldier who ended the life of a girl on a mound of earth in a land not his and not hers – a land where Rachel, like Ruth, was invited and welcomed, but he was an interloper and resented? Or, in Rafah, too, is the real sinner the God who had demanded this of him – God the army officers, God the brutal policies, God the society of those willing to inflict pain on others to still their own fears and traumas?"
Or was the real sinner Rachel, who held herself hostage, demanding that the driver care more for her well-being than she did, and that he turn away from his duty to protect the life she intentionally threatened? Rachel who naively traveled 10,00 miles to stand with those whose policy is to kill innocent noncombatants, against those whose policy is to aim for specific legitimate targets and sometimes kill innocents nearby? (And, yes, some soldiers kill noncombatants intentionally- no army is made up entirely of innocent men.)
And quickstepper, I am neither a stooge nor "employed to make the blogosphere appear to be more right-wing that it really is", but a lunchbreaking lawyer educated by, among others, Bill Quigley, a frequent author on this site. Not knowing what you mean by "Rovite", I cannot say whether I am one or not.
Let the name-calling and "troll" accusations begin. I know y'all hate it when someone dares disagree with you.
Yeah, How DARE that tiny little woman attack that helpless Israeli bulldozer driver armed with a mere Caterpiller bulldozer and backed up by at least a squad of heavily armed IDF troops. The poor man was helpless to do anything but crush her with the blade of his dozer in the face of such a wicked attack.
NOT!!!
Excusing this in any way pretty much makes you a monster. Climb into the pit with concentration camp guards, torturers and pedophiles everywhere; you are one sick waste of human genetics.
All they had to do was turn the machine off and wait a few minutes while the IDF arrested her. Not a big deal if you're already destroying somebody's house. Instead they just HAD to demonstrate exactly how sick Israel is.
The Romans had the right idea. Too bad they left that damn wall and fort standing. If they had ground both to gravel would we still be having this discussion?
The IDF does NOT "aim for legitimate targets and sometimes kill innocents nearby." IDF policy is simply to kill Palestinians, as many as possible.
"And quickstepper, I am neither a stooge nor "employed to make the blogosphere appear to be more right-wing that it really is", but a lunchbreaking lawyer educated by, among others, Bill Quigley, a frequent author on this site. Not knowing what you mean by "Rovite", I cannot say whether I am one or not."
The real sinners are people such as yourself who try to defend murder. Your "blame the victim" attitude certainly puts you in Rove's camp.
I hate it when someone uses falsehoods to try to support an unsupportable position.
q
Somehow I suspect you weren't Quigley's star pupil.
To answer your rhetorical question: the former.
By the inverted morality embedded in your tendentious premises, even that 14 year old girl who was deliberately sighted and shot multiple times like a rabid dog by an IDF officer some time ago would be the "real" sinner. Her "sin" was being in the wrong place at the wrong time-- I'm sure the Hasbarists also have an explanation for why her brutal death was also everyone's fault BUT the IDF monsters who murdered her.
The self-serving and preposterous reliance on "policies" that exist in name only is specious at best. No authoritarian dictator has ever outdone the government of Israel for perpetrating atrocity after atrocity, and afterwards disclaiming guilt or liability by blowing them off as mere Merry Mixups, and occasionally offering utterly insincere and offensive faux-apologies and regrets.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I don't know, China under Mao certainly killed a shitload more people. Did the Chinese leadership back then ever express guilt?
Well, that is a good point....I suppose they weren't religious based so they didn't feel the need to look good. Honestly, that is the truth.
Yr Obd't. Very well stated points, i must say...
IT IS RATIONAL, TO BE AN ANTI-SEMITE, AND TO DESPISE THE MAJORITY OF THE JEWISH POPULATION, BECAUSE MOST ISRAELI JEWS SUPPORT THEIR GENOCIDAL STATE !!
The state of Israel, a Jewish state is murdering innocent people in the name of Jewish people. And what is the reaction that we get from the Jewish community? It's either silence or the garbage spread by jewish people loyal to the Zionist genocidal agenda. Do we see them protesting against these crimes? Are they constantly on the talk shows condemning these atrocities? Hardly.
I know there are a lot of respectable Jews and Jewish organizations who voice their opposition to these crimes, but they are a minority: a very small minority indeed. The jewish citizens who are supporting the atrocities committed in their name by the Israel state even have a pejorative label for these anti-fascism, anti-racism, anti-zionism activist jews: "self-hating Jews."
We should hold anyone who supports these atrocities accountable, no matter their affiliations. But do you really think if the majority of Jews in North America or Europe were against the Zionist entity, it could survive for even one day?
Jews have suffered so much throughout history. Unfortunately they suffer still by their actions and by the support they throw behind Israel. They’re brainwashed. And they’re constantly brainwashed to paranoically think that the whole world is plotting against them. We should end this suffering by telling them that as long as they support the Zionist entity, and as long as they don't wake up and overthrow their own Israeli rogue failed-state and military fascist government, the conscientious people of the world will be anti-semite and against most jews.
So, what should most of the world say about the activities of Christian peoples for the last five hundred years?
How true, how true!!!!!
Not to mention the actions of this country, especially recently.
No, it is not rational. You would be condemning a religious community for the actions of a political movement popularly identified with it.
Most of the hardcore zionist leaders have not been religious Jews.
The sins are being committed by zionist extremists using a religion as cover.
q
Sioux Rose
QUICK: Excellent response!
Sioux Rose
I am uncomfortable with the piece trying to segue into the heart & mind of the Biblical Abraham. I mean presuming the Biblical accounts are accurate, why could he not have been suffering from a psychological ailment where he, like Bush, heard voices... in both instances the voice encourages them to kill something or some land. And what God would ask for the death of other, what God but that which the Ancients understood as the prototype of warrior Mars?
I think of Rachel Corrie often. Hers was a supreme act of sacrifice, she was martyred in the "holy" land, and perhaps on some subliminal soul level, that was her destiny. (As a believer in reincarnation, I do not see this as the END of this brave young entity.)
Hey there Sioux--I haven't been here for a while. And it is great to see you again!
I personally think the abraham story is about the fact that human sacrifice is not warranted. Blind obedience, which would be natural at that time in evolution, is not what the Creative Source would wish for.
Of course, humanity still doesn't get it. That is my revisionist take on it, anyway.
I don't believe in sacrifice, personally. I agree about multidimensionality, which you can call reincarnation. She definitely had her destiny. That doesn't make it alright, as far as crimes of murder are concerned. But in the larger scheme of things, you can read her writings or see the play, and you know there was a foreshadowing there. I see her as possibly an aspect of Anna Frank.
As Ghandi said about an eye for an eye making the whole world blind...Regarding the abraham story and sacrifice---A world of human sacrifice makes the whole world dead.
I think the story is about how killing isn't what the Creative Source wants (Universe) whatever...Even if it is supposedly *for* 'God'...
Sioux Rose
READY: I like your take on the Abraham story's symbolism. Well-said. Glad to see YOU back, too!
And irony of ALL tragic ironies, that the "Abrahamic" religions only GOT the part about "killing = God's will." I so much prefer YOUR metaphorical take on it!
Gila,
Beautifully said. I often think of Rachel. I find those who condemn her, her beliefs, her zest for true life, already dead. Is there really any hope for those hearts and souls? Really.
"Is there really any hope for those hearts and souls?"
I seriously doubt that the people at whom you've directed this comment have either hearts or souls.
I remember when this event happened and I especially remember blogs of all types being flooded with the criticism and condemnation of Corrie that you mention. Of course, those posters were all Rovite stooges employed to make the blogosphere appear to be more right-wing that it really is, but the sheer coldness and heartlessness of their efforts made me realize how much trouble our society was in.
q
In light of the recent reports that at least twenty Gazan women carrying white flags (some also carrying babies) were murdered by sociopathic IDF scum, I very much doubt that the IDF encourages introspection and regret.
Got a link to this?
While I appreciate the author's kind words about Rachel Corrie and appluad the subject's courage, this piece makes me sick.
From some sort of poet's reverie, Svirsky attempts to humanize an individual for whom there is no evidence whatsoever of remorse or even reflection about what he did. I have neither read nor seen any discussion which suggested that the driver intended to do anything other than kill the brave young woman who was trying to do something right. If anyone has seen such information then please share it with me.
I believe that B'Tselem is an honorable organization trying sincerely to mitigate the horror and brutality perpetrated by a populaiton that has clearly gone mad. Perhaps it is their irrepressible desire to find some good in any human being - even this murderer - that motivates them to stand in front of the bulldozer of zionist depravity. Perhaps it is my own failure that prevents me from seeing any of that humanity in the driver of that bulldozer.
Let's not kid ourselves about the nature of present-day zionism.
q
My thoughts exactly, quickstepper. Not to mention that she seems to take the story of Abraham and Isaac literally when she refers to "these terrible deeds, the one on Mount Moriah and the one in Rafah," as if it were not a myth but had actually happened. And however well-intentioned, anyone who takes ancient myths literally, whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, is just one step away from fundamentalism. The story of Abraham has nothing to do with the nihilism of the soldier driving that bulldozer. It is a myth personifying the ancient transition from human to animal sacrifice.
I share your reservations.
This quote from the original post REALLY gives me pause:
"even those who kill, harbor pain in their hearts for that death"
I just cannot believe that is true.
There is no remorse within the majority of IDF for their actions.
It's not just "present-day Zionism". It was always a racially exclusivist ideology based on pogroms and ethnic cleansing of the native people. Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism in the 19'th century, wanted his dream state to be "a protecting enclave of Europe against Asia, a civilization against Asiatic barbarism". He also confided in his diary his dream of "spiriting the penniless population" across the border "discreetly and circumspectly". This was in 1865, decades before Hitler was born.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/666/6774
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-134884394.html
I believe it was when Rachel Corrie died that I really began to rethink my being pro-Israel all my life.
It's one thing to be pro-Israel. It's another to support the zionists running and ruining Israel. The zionists are the culprits. Most Israelis would gladly work peacefully with the Arabs if only they weren't persecuted by the zionists for doing so. Fear and brainwashing are ruining them in addition to slaughtering the innocent Palestinians.
Thank you for clarifying my statement, JWVerez. Yes, I at one time was a "Christian Zionist", I'm ashamed to say.