Rachel's Page

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="057285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>TurnTheTide</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>  <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Background Archives"><U>Background Archives</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Key Resources"><U>Key Resources</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Einsteins Page"><U>Einstein's Page</U></A>   |   <B>Rachel's Page</B>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Perceptions of 9/11"><U>Perceptions of "9/11"</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="World Religion Statements"><U>World Religion Statements</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Congress Connect"><U>Congress Connect</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="056d2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index_site_map.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>LINK TO SITE MAP</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="0a9a8d80.gif" border=0 width="168" height="216" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Rachel on cover of Summer 2003 Yes! a journal of positive futures</B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.yesmagazine.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.yesmagazine.org"><U><B>www.yesmagazine.org </B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <I><B><U>What is Genocide?</U></B></I></div> <div> <B>In one of Rachel's last e-mails she asked her mother to look up the meaning of the word GENOCIDE for her.</B><B> </B></div> <div> <B><U>HERE IS THE DEFINITION</U></B></div> <div> <B>The United Nations Convention on Genocide states the following: </B></div> <div> <B>GENOCIDE means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:</B></div> <div> <B>(a) Killing members of the group;</B></div> <div> <B>(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;</B></div> <div> <B>(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or part;</B></div> <div> <B>(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;</B></div> <div> <B>(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Rachel's Page</I></div> <div>  <A NAME="1__rachel_s_e_mail_diary_from_the_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <I><B>1  Rachel's Diary:</B></I><I><B> </B></I><I><B>e-mail messages from Rachel Corrie</B></I><I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="#2__honor_rachel_end_house_demolitions" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>2. </B></I></U></A><A HREF="#2__honor_rachel_end_house_demolitions" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>The Israeli Committee</B></I></U></A><A HREF="#2__honor_rachel_end_house_demolitions" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B> Against House Demolitions</B></I></U></A><I><B> honors Rachel</B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="#3___the_machinery_of_the_occupation" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>3.</B></I></U></A><A HREF="#3___the_machinery_of_the_occupation" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B> </B></I></U></A><A HREF="#3___the_machinery_of_the_occupation" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>The machinery</B></I></U></A><A HREF="#3___the_machinery_of_the_occupation" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B> </B></U></A><A HREF="#3___the_machinery_of_the_occupation" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B>of the Occupation</B></U></A><B> ran Rachel over & will pay no price</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#4__revenge_of_a_child" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>4.</B></I></U></A><A HREF="#4__revenge_of_a_child" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B> </B></U></A><A HREF="#4__revenge_of_a_child" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>Revenge of a Child</B></I></U></A><A HREF="#4__revenge_of_a_child" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>:</B></I></U></A><I><B> </B></I><B>reflections by Uri Avnery</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#5__teachers_greet_the_enemy" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>5. Teachers Greet the Enemy:</B></I></U></A><I><B> </B></I><B>hope from</B><B> the Israel/Palestine Center for Research & Information. </B></div> <div> <A HREF="#6__congressional_resolution_to" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><I><B>6. Congressional Resolution</B></I></U></A><B> to investigate Rachel's death</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#7__two_books_recommended_for_a" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B>7. </B></U></A><A HREF="#7__two_books_recommended_for_a" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B>Two books </B></U></A><A HREF="#7__two_books_recommended_for_a" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B>recommended</B></U></A><B> for a trustworthy historical perspective. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>1  Rachel's E-Mail Diary</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Forwarded by Amy J. Iannone on 03/20/2003</B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <B><U>Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,916246,00.html</U></B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>. </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>The 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the Israeli army from destroying homes in the Gaza Strip. In a remarkable series of emails to her family, she explained why she was risking her life </B></I></div> <div> <B>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4627222,00.html</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <B>Published Tuesday March 18, 2003 in:</B><B> </B></div> <div> <I><B>The Guardian</B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> <I><B>RACHEL'S  E-MAIL DIARY:</B></I></div> <div> <B>February 7, 2003</B>  </div> <div> Hi friends and family, and others, </div> <div> I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. </div> <div> An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me - Ali - or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me, "Kaif  Sharon?" "Kaif Bush?" and they laugh when I say, "Bush Majnoon", "Sharon Majnoon" back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) </div> <div> Of course this isn't quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: "Bush mish Majnoon" ... Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say, "Bush is a tool", but I don't think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago.  </div> <div> Nevertheless, no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it - and even then you are always well aware that your experience of it is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and the fact, of course, that I have the option of leaving. 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. 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. </div> <div> 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. Today, as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, "Go! Go!" because a tank was coming. And then waving and "What's your name?" Something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously - occasionally shouting and also occasionally waving - many forced to be here, many just aggressive - shooting into the houses as we wander away.  </div> <div> I've been having trouble accessing news about the outside world here, but I hear an escalation of war on Iraq is inevitable. There is a great deal of concern here about the "reoccupation of Gaza". Gaza is reoccupied every day to various extents but I think the fear is that the tanks will enter all the streets and remain here instead of entering some of the streets and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and shoot from the edges of the communities. If people aren't already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope you will start. </div> <div> My love to everyone. My love to my mom. My love to smooch. My love to for and barnhair and sesamees and Lincoln School. My love to Olympia.  </div> <div> Rachel </div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>February 20 2003 </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT></div> <div> <B>Mama,</B> </div> <div> 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 can't. 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, won't make it. We could probably make it through if we made serious use of our international white person privilege, but that would also mean some risk of arrest and deportation, even though none of us has done anything illegal. </div> <div> The Gaza Strip is divided in thirds now. There is some talk about the "reoccupation of Gaza", but I seriously doubt this will happen, because I think it would be a geopolitically stupid move for Israel right now. I think the more likely thing is an increase in smaller below-the-international-outcry-radar incursions and possibly the oft-hinted "population transfer". </div> <div> I am staying put in Rafah for now, no plans to head north. I still feel like I'm relatively safe and think that my most likely risk in case of a larger-scale incursion is arrest. A move to reoccupy Gaza would generate a much larger outcry than Sharon's assassination-during-peace-negotiations/land grab strategy, which is working very well now to create settlements all over, slowly but surely eliminating any meaningful possibility for Palestinian self-determination. Know that I have a lot of very nice Palestinians looking after me. I have a small flu bug, and got some very nice lemony drinks to cure me. Also, the woman who keeps the key for the well where we still sleep keeps asking me about you. She doesn't speak a bit of English, but she asks about my mom pretty frequently - wants to make sure I'm calling you. </div> <div> Love to you and Dad and Sarah and Chris and everybody.  </div> <div> Rachel </div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>February 27 2003</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT></div> <div> (To her mother) </div> <div> Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again - a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here. Yesterday, I watched a father lead his two tiny children, holding his hands, out into the sight of tanks and a sniper tower and bulldozers and Jeeps because he thought his house was going to be exploded. Jenny and I stayed in the house with several women and two small babies. It was our mistake in translation that caused him to think it was his house that was being exploded. In fact, the Israeli army was in the process of detonating an explosive in the ground nearby - one that appears to have been planted by Palestinian resistance.  </div> <div> This is in the area where Sunday about 150 men were rounded up and contained outside the settlement with gunfire over their heads and around them, while tanks and bulldozers destroyed 25 greenhouses - the livelihoods for 300 people. The explosive was right in front of the greenhouses - right in the point of entry for tanks that might come back again. I was terrified to think that this man felt it was less of a risk to walk out in view of the tanks with his kids than to stay in his house. I was really scared that they were all going to be shot and I tried to stand between them and the tank. This happens every day, but just this father walking out with his two little kids just looking very sad, just happened to get my attention more at this particular moment, probably because I felt it was our translation problems that made him leave.  </div> <div> I thought a lot about what you said on the phone about Palestinian violence not helping the situation. Sixty thousand workers from Rafah worked in Israel two years ago. Now only 600 can go to Israel for jobs. Of these 600, many have moved, because the three checkpoints between here and Ashkelon (the closest city in Israel) make what used to be a 40-minute drive, now a 12-hour or impassible journey. In addition, what Rafah identified in 1999 as sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed - the Gaza international airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a giant Israeli sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years by a checkpoint and the Gush Katif settlement). The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around 600, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. I think it is maybe official now that Rafah is the poorest place in the world. There used to be a middle class here - recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people's vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can't. </div> <div> If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours - do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? I think about this especially when I see orchards and greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed - just years of care and cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a  labor of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.  </div> <div> You asked me about non-violent resistance.  </div> <div> When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family's house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I'm having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be. I felt after talking to you that maybe you didn't completely believe me. I think it's actually good if you don't, because I do believe pretty much above all else in the importance of independent critical thinking. And I also realize that with you I'm much less careful than usual about trying to source every assertion that I make. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. But it makes me worry about the job I'm doing. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above - and a lot of other things - constitutes a somewhat gradual - often hidden, but nevertheless massive - removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive. </div> <div> This is what I am seeing here. The assassinations, rocket attacks and shooting of children are atrocities - but in focusing on them I'm terrified of missing their context. The vast majority of people here - even if they had the economic means to escape, even if they actually wanted to give up resisting on their land and just leave (which appears to be maybe the less nefarious of Sharon's possible goals), can't leave. Because they can't even get into Israel to apply for visas, and because their destination countries won't let them in (both our country and Arab countries). </div> <div> So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can't get out of, I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. don't remember it right now. I'm going to get better at illustrating this, hopefully. I don't like to use those charged words. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.  </div> <div> Anyway, I'm rambling. <B>Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I'm witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I'm really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore.</B> I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. </div> <div> <B>I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it.</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not what I meant when I looked at Capital Lake and said: "This is the wide world and I'm coming to it." I did not mean that I was coming into a world where I could live a comfortable life and possibly, with no effort at all, exist in complete unawareness of my participation in genocide. More big explosions somewhere in the distance outside.  </FONT></div> <div> When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I've ever done.<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B> So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.  </B></FONT></div> <div> I love you and Dad. Sorry for the diatribe. OK, some strange men next to me just gave me some peas, so I need to eat and thank them.  </div> <div> Rachel </div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>February 28 2003</B> </div> <div> <B>(To her mother)</B>  </div> <div> Thanks, Mom, for your response to my email. It really helps me to get word from you, and from other people who care about me. </div> <div> After I wrote to you I went incommunicado from the affinity group for about 10 hours which I spent with a family on the front line in Hi Salam - who fixed me dinner - and have cable TV. The two front rooms of their house are unusable because gunshots have been fired through the walls, so the whole family - three kids and two parents - sleep in the parent's bedroom. I sleep on the floor next to the youngest daughter, Iman, and we all shared blankets. I helped the son with his English homework a little, and we all watched Pet Cemetery, which is a horrifying movie. I think they all thought it was pretty funny how much trouble I had watching it. </div> <div> Friday is the holiday, and when I woke up they were watching Gummy Bears dubbed into Arabic. So I ate breakfast with them and sat there for a while and just enjoyed being in this big puddle of blankets with this family watching what for me seemed like Saturday morning cartoons. Then I walked some way to B'razil, which is where Nidal and Mansur and Grandmother and Rafat and all the rest of the big family that has really wholeheartedly adopted me live. (The other day, by the way, Grandmother gave me a pantomimed lecture in Arabic that involved a lot of blowing and pointing to her black shawl. I got Nidal to tell her that my mother would appreciate knowing that someone here was giving me a lecture about smoking turning my lungs black.) I met their sister-in-law, who is visiting from Nusserat camp, and played with her small baby.  </div> <div> Nidal's English gets better every day. He's the one who calls me, "My sister". He started teaching Grandmother how to say, "Hello. How are you?" In English. You can always hear the tanks and bulldozers passing by, but all of these people are genuinely cheerful with each other, and with me. When I am with Palestinian friends I tend to be somewhat less horrified than when I am trying to act in a role of human rights observer, documenter, or direct-action resister. They are a good example of how to be in it for the long haul. I know that the situation gets to them - and may ultimately get them - on all kinds of levels, but I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity - laughter, generosity, family-time - against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and against the constant presence of death. </div> <div> I felt much better after this morning. I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances - which I also haven't seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will.  </div> <div> Rachel </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>************************************************************</U></B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="2__honor_rachel_end_house_demolitions"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>2. HONOR RACHEL, END HOUSE DEMOLITIONS</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>By Jeff Halper</B></div> <div> <B>(Jeff Halper, a professor or Anthropology at Ben Gurion University, is Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He can be reached at <</B><B><U>icahd@zahav.net.il</U></B><B>>.)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, together with the entire Israeli peace and human rights movement, mourns the death in Gaza of Rachel Corrie and extends its condolences to her family, friends and comrades in the International Solidarity Movement...</B></div> <bR> <div> ...why does Israel pursue such a heartless policy that seems tailor-made to generating hatred against it? ... House demolitions are a key mechanism to the process of displacement, of Israel's exclusive claim to the entire country. (This) is the reason that motivates us, members of the Israeli peace camp, to resist demolition as Rachel did, to block the bulldozers with our bodies, and to rebuild Palestinian homes when they are demolished. For by doing so we, as Israeli Jews, are saying to the Palestinians: We acknowledge your existence as a people and your right to be in this country. We want to share this country with you, based on the rights of both our peoples. We seek a common future based on a just peace. We refuse to be enemies.</div> <bR> <div> Rachel was not an Israeli. She was, as a member of the International Solidarity Movement, a member of the international civil society, as we all are. In her actions she affirmed her responsibility for upholding the inherent dignity and equal rights of all people, including their right to a nationality. She opposed non-violently the violence that occupation does to the Palestinians.</div> <bR> <div> The threshold of what is outrageous has reached unimaginable heights in the Occupied Territories. Little moves us anymore.  It's all mind-boggling, it's all happening before our eyes and -- who cares?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Rachel cared.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>************************************************************</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <I><B> <A NAME="3___the_machinery_of_the_occupation"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></I><I><B>3.</B></I><I><B>  </B></I><I><B>The machinery</B></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>of the occupation literally ran Rachel over and will pay no price</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> The Death of Rachel Corrie </div> <div> <I>Source: Current Thinking, The Tikkun Community</I><I><B> </B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>www.tikkun.org</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <B>By Mark Levine | 03.24.2003</B> </div> <div> <B>Mark Levine is Professor of History at the University of California at Irvine.</B></div> <div> <B>It's hard to imagine a more horrible way to die than to be crushed twice by a bulldozer. Particularly when you're just trying to protect a family whose only crime is that its land stands between the fourth most powerful army in the world and another in a seemingly endless supply of Palestinian homes marked for demolition. That is how 23 year-old Rachel Corrie died last weekend, on the wrong end of an Israeli bulldozer.</B></div> <div> I didn't know Rachel personally, but I know her spirit and courage well. In 1996 I first met up with the people that would inspire the<B> International Solidarity Movement</B> (ISM), under whose banner she stood down the huge American-made Caterpillar bulldozer. Back then it was mostly semi-retired school teachers from the mid-west and a few recent college graduates who lived their faith in Hebron as part of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Watching them practice unflinching non-violent resistance and mediation I felt embarrassed and even ashamed --  if middle-aged Methodists from Minnesota were putting their bodies on the line for real peace and justice between Palestinians and Israelis, shouldn't twenty-something progressive Jews from the Coasts be there with them?</div> <div> The initial attempts by me and a few others to start a "Jewish Peacemaker Teams" to join our Christian comrades didn't bear fruit then, but within a couple of years the increasing toxicity of the Occupation led to the creation of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, while American activists, including a significant number of Jews, were imagining what would become the ISM.</div> <div> As America's war on Iraq grows bloodier, we would do well to reflect on the meaning of Rachel's life and death, and the powerful message of the ISM. She and the other human shields, like their colleagues in Iraq, are true soldiers of peace; fighting not for the ideology or benefit of any one country or leader, but rather for the singular principle that only totally selfless and committed non-violent action can overcome the dogs of war, the enmity and injustice of occupation, and the terror it breeds on all sides.</div> <div> In fact I envy Rachel and her comrades' courage and audacity, as over the last five years I have become too wise, sedentary and committed to life's mundane tasks (wife, kid, work) to have been in Gaza risking my life with Rachel. I feel guilty, too: Suppose I had been there? A long-haired American Jew yelling at the soldiers in Hebrew would have given them pause before crushing a goy. I don't use such ethno-religious terms lightly; for it is clear that for the ever more religiously and nationalistically militant Israeli soldiery any life besides that of a Jew, and more and more, that of a right-wing, settlement-supporting Jew, is cheap, if not meaningless.</div> <div> It's not for nothing that the last Israeli Education Minister called all Palestinians, on both sides of the Green Line, a cancer to be excised from the Israeli body. That was the Education Minister. That's what Israeli children are learning. Yes, Palestinian textbooks have yet to fully erase the anti-Semitism that stained their pages for decades, although they were well on their way before last spring's invasion of Palestinian cities saw the IDF destroy the Education Ministry, its computers, and walk off with tens of thousands of dollars in cash-supposedly for terrorists; more likely for textbooks.</div> <div> What's more frightening than her killing is that Israel will pay no price for it-the IDF expresses "regret" and the White House says it will "assess the situation." But President Bush is too busy planning his war to worry about Rachel, and the IDF-which in the last year has killed ambulance drivers, journalists and senior UN personnel (not to mention hundreds of completely innocent Palestinian civilians of all ages) without reproach-will draw the obvious conclusions and step up the violence against the ISM and similar groups.</div> <div> The machinery of occupation that literally ran Rachel over is yet another reminder that the Occupation itself is one big war crime. Period. Moreover, Rachel's death is a sign of what's going to come in Iraq, as our 20,000 pound "smart" bombs are already proving unable to discriminate between Iraqi civilians and soldiers-most of whom had little choice but to fight.</div> <div> Do Americans think our Occupation of Iraq will be any less criminal that Israel's of Palestine? Will Americans care any more than Israelis about what their sons are doing to the enemy and anyone else who stands in their path? Can anyone even ask these questions of our leaders now that war has begun?</div> <div> I'm pretty sure that Rachel would not want her death mourned any more than the thirteen year old Palestinian boy killed the same day as she. How many Palestinians were killed yesterday? How many Israelis were killed in that last suicide bombing? Where was it, Haifa? Hedera? Or Jerusalem? The numbers, names and places just pile up until they seem natural, like the weather. They're not. And it's up to all of us to make sure Rachel's death --- all their deaths --- are not in vain.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>******************************************************</U></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="4__revenge_of_a_child"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>4. Revenge of a Child</B></div> <div> <B>By Uri Avnery -- November 16, 2002</B></div> <div> <B>Source: Rabbi Michael's Lerner's book, </B><I><B>Healing Israel/Palestine,</B></I><B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>page 174. Uri Avnery  is a former member of the Israeli Knesset and founder of www.Gush-Shalom.org, an Israeli NGO engaged in direct action to protect Palestinian citizens, to rebuild demolished homes, and to put into practice day-to-day peace education. </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> Since last Sunday, a question has been running around in my head and troubling my sleep: What induced the young Palestinian, who broke into Kibbutz Metzer, to aim his weapon at a mother and her two little children to kill them?</div> <div> In war one does not kill children. That is a fundamental human instinct, common to all peoples and all cultures. Even a Palestinian who wants to take revenge for the hundreds of children killed by the Israeli army should not take revenge on children. No moral commandment says, "a child for a child."</div> <div> The persons who do these things are not known as crazy killers, blood-thirsty from birth. In almost all interviews with relatives and neighbors they are described as quite ordinary, nonviolent individuals. Many of them are not religious fanatics. Indeed, Sirkhan Sirkhan, the man who committed the deed in Metzer, belonged to Fatah, a secular movement. </div> <div> These people belong to all social classes; some come from poor families who have reached the threshold of hunger, but others come from middle class families, university students, educated people. Their genes are not different from ours. </div> <div> So what makes them do these things? What makes other Palestinians justify them?</div> <div> In order to cope, one has to understand, and that does not mean to justify. Nothing in the world can justify a Palestinian who shoots at a child in his mother's embrace, just as nothing can justify an Israeli who drops a bomb on a house in which a child is sleeping in his bed. As the Hebrew poet Bialik wrote a hundred years ago, after the Kishinev pogrom: "Even Satan has not yet invented the revenge for the blood a little child."</div> <div> But without understanding, it is impossible to cope. The chiefs of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) have a simple solution: hit, hit, hit. Kill the attackers. Kill their commanders. Kill the leaders of their organizations. Demolish the homes of their families and exile their relatives. But, wonder of wonders, these methods achieve the opposite. After the huge IDF bulldozer flattens the "terrorist infrastructure," destroying-killing-uprooting everything on its way, within days a new "infrastructure" comes into being. According to the announcements of the IDF itself, since operation "Protective Shield" there have been some fifty warnings of imminent attacks every day. </div> <div> The reason for this can be summed up in one word: rage. </div> <div> Terrible rage, that fills the soul of a human being, leaving no space for anything else. Rage that dominates the person's whole life, making life itself unimportant. Rage that wipes out all limitations, eclipses all values, breaks the chains of family and responsibility. Rage that a person wakes up with in the morning, goes to sleep with in the evening, dreams about at night. Rage that tells a person: get up, take a weapon or an explosive belt, go to their homes and kill, kill, kill, no matter what the consequences. </div> <div> An ordinary Israeli, who has never been in the Palestinian territories, cannot even imagine the reasons for this rage. Our media totally ignore the events there, or describe them in small, sweetened doses. The average Israeli knows somehow that the Palestinians suffer (it's their own fault, of course), but he has no idea what's really happening there. It doesn't concern him, anyhow. </div> <div> Homes are demolished. A merchant, lawyer, ordinary craftsman, respected in his community, turns overnight into a "homeless," he and his children and grandchildren. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber. </div> <div> Fruit-trees are being uprooted in their thousands. For the officer, it's just a tree, an obstacle. For the owners, it's the blood of his heart, the heritage of his forefathers, years of toil, the livelihood of his family. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber. </div> <div> On a hill between the villages a gang of thugs has put up an "outpost." The army arrives to defend them. When the villagers come to till their fields, they are shot at. They are forbidden to work in all fields and groves within a one or two kilometers' range, so that the security of the outpost will not be endangered. The peasants see from afar, with longing eyes, how their fruit is rotting on the trees, how their fields are being covered by thorns and thistles waist high, while their children have nothing to eat. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber. </div> <div> Beyond these are the families living on the fringes of hunger, suffering from severe malnutrition. Fathers who cannot bring food to their children feel despair. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber. </div> <div> Hundreds of thousands are kept under curfew for weeks and months on end, eight persons cooped up in two or three rooms, a living hell difficult to imagine, while outside the settlers have a ball, protected by the solider's. A vicious circle: yesterday's bombers cause the curfew, the curfew creates the bombers of tomorrow. </div> <div> And beyond all these, the total humiliation which every Palestinian, without distinction of age, gender or social standing, experiences every moment of his life. Not an abstract humiliation, but an altogether concrete one. To be dependent for life and death on the whim of an 18-year-old boy in the street and at one of the innumerable checkpoints that a Palestinian has to pass wherever he goes, while gangs of settlers pass freely and "visit" their villages, damage property, pick the olives in their groves, set fire to the trees. </div> <div> An Israeli who has not seen it cannot imagine such a life, a situation of "every bastard a king" and "the slave who has become master," a situation of curses and pushes at best, threats with weapons in many cases, actual shooting in some. Not to mention the sick on the way to dialysis, the pregnant women on the way to hospitals, student who don't get to their classes, children who can't reach their schools. The youngsters who see their venerable grandfather publicly humiliated by some boy in uniform with a runny nose. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber. </div> <div> A normal Israeli cannot imagine all this. After all, the soldiers are nice boys, the sons of all of us, only yesterday they were schoolboys. But when one takes these nice boys and puts them in uniforms, pushes them through the military machine and puts them into a situation of occupation, something happens to them. Many try to keep their human face in impossible circumstances, many others become order-filling robots. And always, in every company, there are some disturbed people who flourish in this situation and do repulsive things, knowing that their officers will turn a blind eye or wink approvingly. </div> <div> All this does not justify the killing of children in the arms of their mother. But it helps to grasp why this is happening, and why this will go on happening as long as the occupation lasts. </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>******************************************************</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="5__teachers_greet_the_enemy"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>5. Teachers Greet the Enemy</B></div> <div> <B>Source: The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. The IPCRI was selected by the World Movement for Democracy to be recognized at its meeting April 23-24, 2003 at Durban, South Africa for "outstanding and courageous work on behalf of democracy while working under adverse circumstances." </B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>A meeting of minds may just lead to a better educational future </B></div> <div> <B>By Eetta Prince-Bibson</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>published in the</B></FONT><B> </B><I><B>Jerusalem Post 4/3/03</B></I></div> <div> Israeli teacher Miki didn't think she wanted to talk. Palestinian teacher Ibrahim didn't think he wanted to listen. But in spite of their mutual distrust, both agreed to be part of a group of about 80 educators that went to Turkey in February to learn how to talk to each other. </div> <div> Afterward Miki said, "I didn't know it then, but I really wasn't ready for any kind of dialogue. In my heart, I wanted to prove to the Palestinians that they are wrong, that they are terrorists, and that we, the Jews, are right." </div> <div> Ibrahim said, "As a Palestinian, I really didn't want to hear how the Jews have suffered. I didn't want to hear that people they love have died, or that they are afraid." </div> <div> Before the trip, Miki, a teacher from Israel's central region, was anxious and excited. "What will I say to them?" she asked herself. "How will I get to know them? What if this doesn't work? What the hell am I doing here?" </div> <div> Kobi stood off to the side, reading a mystery novel. Until almost the very last minute, he wasn't sure he would come. </div> <div> "I was a combat soldier, and I've done reserve duty during this intifada. Friends of mine have died fighting Palestinians. I didn't know what I wanted to say, and I didn't know what I wanted to hear." </div> <div> But his school adopted the "Pathways to Reconciliation" project, and he wanted to be part of it, so he had to come. </div> <div> Ibrahim, a Palestinian educator from a village near Jenin, stood with the other Palestinians. They have different passports and had to go through a different security check. His attitude was a mixture of angry defiance and an almost-submissive fear. </div> <div> Later, Ibrahim said he realized he was becoming angry because he didn't want to listen. "But I listened, and then we were able to stop competing over who has suffered more, begin to empathize, and think about what we could do to make things better." </div> <div> This group of Jewish Israeli, Arab Israeli, and Palestinian teachers from the West Bank spent five days in Antalya at a conference entitled "Continuing Dialogue in Times of Crisis." </div> <div> But this was not the usual academic affair. It was an emotionally demanding, intellectually challenging, and morally troubling experience for all, with each participant confronting his or her self as well as the enemy "other." </div> <div> These educators will be implementing "Pathways to Reconciliation," a peace education program now in its seventh year in 60 Jewish and Palestinian high schools, sponsored by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI). </div> <div> For many of the Jewish participants, it was the first time they had met a Palestinian who was their social and professional equal. For many Palestinians, it was the first time they had met an Israeli Jew other than a soldier. </div> <div> Some organizations avoid discussing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, or discuss it only obliquely. IPCRI's dialogue went to the heart of people's feelings and its discussions were aimed at creating a feeling of equality between the Israelis and Palestinians. </div> <div> "This is the first time I ever felt equal to Jews," said Ibrahim. "Most of the Jews I know are soldiers, and they are more powerful than me. They have guns and they rule my life. They decide if I can pass through a checkpoint or if they will shoot me. In the discussions, I felt equal, so after a while, I felt less angry." </div> <div> <B>But equality is difficult. </B></div> <div> "One of our roles as facilitators," said Fakhira Halloun, an Arab from northern Israel, "is to help the participants realize how complicated these issues are. Both sides feel powerless, and both sides have power, but it's hard for them to acknowledge this." </div> <div> Explained Michal Levin, who co-facilitates with Halloun: "Without facilitation, Israelis and Palestinians will just reproduce the usual kinds of power relations, with endless cycles of mutual blaming and attacking. I believe that people want an opportunity to experience themselves in a different way, but they are also afraid. Our job to help them, sometimes despite themselves." </div> <div> It wasn't easy. Noah Salameh, a Palestinian facilitator from Bethlehem, is director of the Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation. During the first intifada, he was arrested and spent 15 years in jail. Because of security restrictions, he is the only participant who wasn't allowed to come through Israel, so it took him three days to arrive in Antalya. </div> <div> "Facilitation is demanding, draining, and rewarding," Salameh said. "As a facilitator, I have to neutralize my own feelings and experiences in order to create an atmosphere in which the group members can express theirs. I have to be able to hear their pain, anger, frustrations, and hopes without putting my own needs into the process. It is very hard but, if in the end they have learned something, if they have grown in their ability to listen to each other and promote peace, then I feel rewarded and satisfied." </div> <div> <B>But even introductions were complicated.</B> </div> <div> "I don't know what I want to say about myself," said Nihaia Taha, from Kafr Kasim. "What do I want these strangers to know about me?" </div> <div> It didn't take long before conflict appeared, as people introduced themselves by telling about their personal pain and suffering. Jews talked about fear of terrorist attacks, their disappointment that there really isn't "anyone to talk to" on the Palestinian side. Palestinians talked about the checkpoints, the degradation and humiliation, and the disruption of all normal life in the territories. Everyone talked about death, destruction, and loss. </div> <div> Halloun observed: "There is always a paradox here. On the one hand, participants say they want to hear the truth from each other. But the truth is painful, and so they start to feel guilty, and don't want to listen. It is a struggle." </div> <div> The participants wrote questions and comments on note cards, and tacked them to the walls for all to read. "Shalom to the Jews," one Palestinian wrote. "What is the source of your feelings of suspicion and lack of trust toward Palestinians who are citizens of Israel?" </div> <div> "A question to the Palestinians," a Jew wrote. "Do you personally know the mother of a shahid who blew himself up? If you do know one, tell us what she goes through." </div> <div> At one point, half of the group were blindfolded and led around the hotel by other group members. Blindfolded participants didn't know who was leading them. One blindfolded Palestinian instinctively sat down, his legs crossed and hands behind his back, as he did when arrested not long ago by Israeli soldiers. A Jewish woman was overwhelmed by feeling responsible for a Palestinian. </div> <div> Another time, a large number of balloons were put in the middle of a room. The Jews were told they had to move all the balloons to another part of the room within five minutes. The Palestinians were told they had to do the same thing - but within seven minutes. Neither group knew what instructions had been given to the other group - but neither were they told that they couldn't ask. </div> <div> They didn't ask, so they never realized there was no contradiction between the two "missions." </div> <div> The Jews began to form barricades to prevent the Palestinians from reaching their balloons. The Palestinians responded by popping the balloons to prevent the Jews from having them. Within minutes, there were only pieces of torn balloons in the middle of the room. </div> <div> <B>They talked about this for many hours. </B></div> <div> At several points, participants formed uni-national groups. </div> <div> Explained Halloun: "The uni-national groups had two goals. On the one hand, they provided a safety net for people, a support group; on the other hand, in an environment where people feel accepted and supported, they can examine their most basic individual and collective stands." </div> <div> In such groups, each nation wrote a collective narrative, describing its understanding of how the country came to the situation it is in. In one group, the Jews couldn't even agree enough to write one narrative and had to write two: one a traditional Zionist narrative, and one a post-Zionist narrative that described Zionism as colonialism. The discussion was heated and angry. </div> <div> "I was appalled at the stances that some of my friends took," said Shiri, a teacher from the Tel Aviv area. "I told them that when I was younger, I had helped establish a settlement in Judea and Samaria and that I was proud of that. Some of the Palestinians could hear that, but some of the Israeli Jews couldn't stand it. They called me an occupier." </div> <div> Kobi said: "I always defined myself as a liberal leftist. But I never really thought about it. When I actually sat down in the uni-national group, I realized how important some things - Jerusalem, my Zionist legacy - really are to me." </div> <div> For the Arabs who are citizens of Israel, the uni-national meetings were often the most difficult. Which group should they join? The Palestinians from the West Bank? The other Israelis? Should they form a group of their own? </div> <div> They referred to themselves as "1948 Palestinians" (those who stayed in Israel) or "1967 Palestinians" (from the West Bank and Gaza). </div> <div> Nihaia said: "For the first time, I really had to face my own identity. Who am I? An Arab? A Muslim? An Israeli? I live in the State of Israel, I study in institutions run by the State of Israel. I could be killed by a terrorist, too, yet I feel my fellow Palestinians' pain." </div> <div> By the middle of the fourth day, members of the group was ready to try to solve problems. But first they had to learn to look at conflict in a different way - in terms of needs, not in terms of demands, positions, or stands. The facilitators told the teachers: </div> <div> · A state isn't a need - but a sense of identity is. </div> <div> · Sovereignty over the Western Wall isn't a need - but the right to pray there is. </div> <div> · No checkpoint is a need - but dignity is. </div> <div> Said Levin: "When you learn to restate a problem in terms of needs, not in terms of positions, it is very liberating. People learn that their position is merely one way of trying to meet their needs - and it may not be the best one." </div> <div> Some were able to reach agreements so creative they would impress official Palestinian and Israeli negotiators. Others were stymied and frustrated. Not everyone learned to be empathic, not everyone could listen, and, even after four days of dialogue, not everyone wanted to. </div> <div> Yet on the last night the mood suddenly became fun and festive, almost manic. Despite the reality that they were about to return to, many of the teachers began to dance debkas and rock together. </div> <div> But then they returned to reality. When they entered Ben-Gurion Airport, the Palestinians from the West Bank were separated from the Israelis and underwent an additional security check. The entire group stood and waited with them, even though everyone was eager to go home. </div> <div> Shiri felt confused. "I knew that we needed these security checks. I knew that our soldiers were protecting the State of Israel at the checkpoints. But in Turkey we were all together and everyone felt safe, and now they, because they're Palestinians, have to be separated. It's necessary, it's humiliating to us, it's degrading to them. It's confusing." </div> <div> Ibrahim answers her: "The bad guys make it difficult for all of us." </div> <div> <B>The day after</B></div> <div> 'The meetings changed my life. I met the Israeli enemy, and I know that we share a common humanity. I hope I will be able to pass this experience on to my students and my family," reflected Ibrahim, a Palestinian teacher, two weeks after returning from the "Continuing Dialogue in Times of Crisis" conference. </div> <div> The cost for the five-day conference came to well over $60,000, sponsored by a grant from the US State Department. While it was clearly an important emotional experience for the participants, do such meetings have any broader social significance or political importance? </div> <div> These programs are funded as part of the "People to People (P2P)" project. P2P was created under the 1995 Interim Agreement of the Oslo Accords, based on the idea that "politicians can sign the peace agreements, but the people have to make peace happen." </div> <div> According to an official in the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, P2P programs were meant to bring ordinary Israelis and Palestinians together for dialogue and cooperative ventures, thus creating "the relational infrastructure necessary to advance and increase support for the official peace process." </div> <div> The international community - in particular the United States and Norway - provided the funding for these programs. According to most estimates, this has come to over $25 million over the past seven years. </div> <div> Many of the P2P programs focus on education, including teacher training and curriculum development, in the hope that the teachers will act as agents of change within their societies. </div> <div> "Pathways into Reconciliation," IPCRI's peace-education program, is one of the larger P2P programs. Introduced seven years ago, it now operates in 60 schools (30 in Israel and 30 in the Palestinian Authority), with the participation of 300 teachers in 200 classes. Recently published research by Dr. Yifat Sassa-Biton from Haifa University found that Israeli and Palestinian participants defined "peace" more broadly and were less willing to support violent solutions than students who did not participate. </div> <div> Yet P2P programs did not prevent the current violence, and since the outbreak of violence, most P2P programs have ceased to function. </div> <div> According to Maya Kahanoff, of the Swiss Center for Conflict Research, Management, and Resolution at The Hebrew University, the Oslo process was mostly a "top-down program," involving primarily the political, diplomatic, and academic elites. </div> <div> Less than 5% of Israelis and Palestinians ever actually participated in peace-related P2P activities. Yet, she maintains, even small numbers of P2P participants can have a positive effect on the region. </div> <div> "Each year a few hundred teachers influence several hundred students. And all of them influence their families, friends, and communities. Eventually, the positive effects of these meetings will proliferate, even if it takes much longer than we had hoped." </div> <div> She concludes: "It's important to know that Israelis and Palestinians can meet together, with professional facilitation, and discuss their differences rather than kill each other."</div> <div> <B>NOTE:  March 24, 2003, Dr. Gershon Baskin, Israeli co-director of the IPCRI, received the following letter from Mahmoud Abbes, the newly elected Secretary General of the PLO Executive Committee: </B></div> <div> <B>Thank you for your letter of congratulations of March 11, 2003. </B></div> <div> <B>Your personal work, and that of the IPCRI, have always stood as an example of the kind of relationship that both the Palestinian and the Israeli people deserve: commitment to dialogue as the means for advancing joint interests and for resolving disputes. </B></div> <div> <B>I and the Palestinian Authority remain committed to a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and hope that the forces of peace in Israel will prevail.  </B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>******************************************************</U></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B> <A NAME="6__congressional_resolution_to"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></I><I><B>6. Congressional Resolution</B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B> to investigate Rachel's death</B></FONT></div> <div> <B>Source: Citizens for Fair Legislation: www.cflweb.org</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Support Rachel Corrie Congressional Resolution</B></div> <bR> <div> On April 7, 2003  the Rachel Corrie Resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 111) had 16 cosponsors and was sent to the International Relations Committee. </div> <div> The Citizens for Fair Legislation, an organization seeking to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, launched a campaign to get as many Members of Congress as possible to sign on as cosponsors.</div> <div> The CFL web site provides an e-mail link you can use to urge your Representatives in Congress to support the Rachel Corrie Resolution. This site will identify Representatives from your state and provide the option of sending the sample letter shown below, or you can compose your own letter. To access this service, go to <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.cflweb.org/congress_merge_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.cflweb.org/congress_merge_.ht"><U><U>http://www.cflweb.org/congress_merge_.htm</U></U></A></FONT>. Click the "Choose a letter" window to see the Rachel Corrie sample. To obtain fax and phone numbers for your Representative, enter your zip code at: <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.congress.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.congress.org"><U><U>http://www.congress.org</U></U></A></FONT>. </div> <div> You can call the Congressional Switchboard is either: 202-224-3121 or 800-839-5276. Faxing is considered to be the most effective way to influence Members of Congress. Phone calls are the next most effective way. Email is considered to be the least effective way.</div> <div> Rachel was a constituent of Rep. Brian Baird [WA-3], who introduced a resolution in the House calling on the United States "to undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie." (full text below.)</div> <div> <B>Text of the Rachel Corrie Resolution</B></div> <div> <B>H. CON. RES. 111</B></div> <div> Expressing sympathy for the loss of Rachel Corrie in the Palestinian village of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003.</div> <bR> <div> <B>IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES</B></div> <div> March 25, 2003 Mr. BAIRD (for himself, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. INSLEE, Mr. SMITH of Washington,  Mr. DICKS, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. WU, Mr.  HONDA, Ms. ESHOO, and Mrs. CAPPS) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations</div> <div> CONCURRENT RESOLUTION</div> <div> Expressing sympathy for the loss of Rachel Corrie in the Palestinian village of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003. Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--</div> <div> (1) expresses its sympathy to Craig and Cynthia Corrie and to their extended families, friends, and co-workers for the loss of Rachel Corrie in the Palestinian village of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on March 16, 2003;</div> <div> (2) calls on the United States Government to undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie; and</div> <div> (3) encourages the Government of the United States and the Government of Israel to work together to determine all the circumstances that led to this incident and to ensure that an incident of this kind never occurs again.</div> <div> Cosponsors are Rep Abercrombie, Neil - 3/31/2003 [HI-1], Rep Blumenauer, Earl - 4/3/2003 [OR-3], Rep Capps, Lois - 3/25/2003 [CA-23], Rep Dicks, Norman D. - 3/25/2003 [WA-6], Rep Dingell, John D. - 4/3/2003 [MI-15], Rep Dunn, Jennifer - 4/3/2003 [WA-8], Rep Eshoo, Anna G. - 3/25/2003 [CA-14], Rep Honda, Michael M. - 3/25/2003 [CA-15], Rep Inslee, Jay - 3/25/2003 [WA-1], Rep Larsen, Rick - 3/25/2003 [WA-2], Rep Lee, Barbara - 4/3/2003 [CA-9], Rep Lewis, John - 3/25/2003 [GA-5]. Rep McDermott, Jim - 3/25/2003 [WA-7]' Rep Rahall, Nick J., II - 3/31/2003 [WV-3], Rep Smith, Adam - 3/25/2003 [WA-9], Rep Wu, David - 3/25/2003 [OR-1]</div> <bR> <div> <B>Sample Letter</B></div> <bR> <div> Dear Representative __________,</div> <bR> <div> I urge you to sign on as a cosponsor to H.Con.Res. 111, the Rachel Corrie </div> <div> Resolution. Rachel Corrie was a 23 year-old American college student who was </div> <div> killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to prevent </div> <div> nonviolently the demolition of a Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip on </div> <div> March 16.  Rep. Jim McDermott stated that Rachel was acting "in the </div> <div> tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King."</div> <bR> <div> This resolution calls for a U.S. investigation which is necessary to </div> <div> determine the circumstances of her death and ensure that this type of </div> <div> incident does not happen again.</div> <bR> <div> I look forward to receiving a reply from you and will continue to follow </div> <div> developments regarding this important resolution.</div> <bR> <div> Sincerely,</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >For more information, please see: </FONT><U> </U><A HREF="http://www.endtheoccupation.org/taskforces/legislative/documents/become_a_cdc.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.endtheoccupation.org/taskforc"><U><U>http://www.endtheoccupation.org</U></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>******************************************************</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="7__two_books_recommended_for_a"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>7. Two books recommended for a trustworthy historical perspective. </B></div> <div> <B>HEALING ISRAEL/PALESTINE</B> by Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun Books ISBN 0-935933-9</div> <div> Excerpt from Introduction: "We are publishing this book at a time when there are many reasons for people to despair. But we are committed to the view that <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>tikkun</B></I></FONT> (the Hebrew word for healing and transformation) is always possible, though rarely in any simple or easy way. A major contribution to that healing can occur when people begin to tell the story of the middle East in ways that validate the truth on both sides, validate the pain and suffering that both sides have had to endure, and affirm the fundamental decency of people on both sides of this struggle. I am both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, and this book will show you haw that can be possible. </div> <div> Peace can be achieved in the Middle East. The scary news is this: it depends on ordinary people like you and me to make it happen...</div> <div> <B>BLOOD BROTHERS </B>By Father Elias Chacour, Chosen Books,  ISBN 0-8007-9096-0.</div> <div>  In Tokyo, Japan, the chairman of the Buddhist Niwano Peace Prize award ceremony introduced Chacour, an Israeli 61-year-old Palestinian Melkite Catholic priest, as a "man who has known persecution all of his life. A man who created seven educational institutions dedicated to peace where Jews, Palestinian, Muslims, Christians, Druze teach and study together…" The chairman concluded: </div> <div> "People who have experienced persecution can become embittered and often resign themselves to a course of violent revenge. But that was not the path that Chacour chose... Instead of meeting violence with violence, he chose the course of action to break the cycle of violence, suspicion and brutal hatred. He dedicated himself totally over the last 30-plus years to efforts for reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians in Israel…. He is a person who is able to shine a guiding light on the difficult problem of Israel's relations with the Palestinians." </div> <div> Blood Brothers is the autobiography of Chacour as a child and young adult following the demolition of his ancestral Palestinian Christian village in Galilee when the state of Israel was established.</div> <div> <B>G</B><A HREF="index_contents_of_turnthetide_info_1_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>o to TurnTheTide's Table of Contents </B></U></A><B>       </B><A HREF="#1__rachel_s_e_mail_diary_from_the_1" TITLE="Rachels Page"><U><B>Return to top of this page</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>