My Blog

For reasons I have as yet been unable to come to terms with, I have not made an entry into this blog for many, many weeks.

Today I am posting someone else's words for your edification and solidarity.

Yesterday was the 109th anniversary of my mother's birth and the 6th anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie. I celebrate my mother's fortitude in choosing to give birth to a fourth child in the heart of the Great Depression as I celebrate the fortitude of the young woman whom I never had the opportunity to meet and whose big heart of compassion I have come to know only after her untimely death. 

I celebrate the great heart of compassion of my mom as she caressed and molded my formation before her untimely death when I was only 30 and nurturing within my womb the seventh of my progeny. I celebrate the courage and moral integrity of Rachel who gave everything she had, everything, at the sweet age of 23, to try to prevent the willful destruction of the home of her friends. Both the home and her life were destroyed by an Israeli-driven Caterpillar tractor on March 16, 2003. 

Read below a report from Rachel's parents and read much more, if you choose, at the website provided at the end of this press release of 03/16/2009.

Then - and this is vitally important - schedule an unbreakable date with yourself and whomever you invite to join you, to watch an hour-and-a-half movie (made in 2007) by clicking here. 

Thanks so much,  joan 

March 16, 2009
12:23 PM

CONTACT: Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice 
(360) 754-3998
info@rachelcorriefoundation.org 

Statement from the Family of Rachel Corrie, March 16, 2009

OLYMPIA, Washington - March 16 - We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and  who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights,  justice and peace in the Middle East.  The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others.    

Friday, March 13th, we learned of the tragic injury to American activist Tristan Anderson. Tristan was shot in the head with a tear-gas canister in Ni'lin Village in the West Bank when Israeli forces attacked a demonstration opposing the construction of the annexation wall through the village's land.  On the same day, a Ni'lin resident was also shot in the leg with live ammunition.  Four residents of Ni'lin have been killed in the past eight months as villagers and their supporters have courageously demonstrated against the Apartheid Wall deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice-a wall that will ultimately absorb one-quarter of the village's remaining land.  Those who have died are a ten-year-old child Ahmed Mousa, shot in the forehead with live ammunition on July 29, 2008; Yousef Amira (17) shot with rubber-coated steel bullets on July 30, 2008; Arafat Rateb Khawaje (22) and Mohammed Khawaje (20), both shot and killed with live ammunition on December 8, 2008.  On this anniversary, Rachel would want us all to hold Tristan Anderson and his family and these Palestinians and their families in our thoughts and prayers, and we ask everyone to do so.

We are writing this message from Cairo where we returned after a visit to Gaza with the Code Pink Delegation from the United States.  Fifty-eight women and men successfully passed through Rafah Crossing on Saturday, March 7th to challenge the border closures and siege and to celebrate International Women's Day with the strong and courageous women of Gaza. 

Rachel would be very happy that our spirited delegation made this journey.  North to south throughout the Strip, we witnessed the sweeping destruction of  neighborhoods, municipal buildings,  police stations, mosques, and schools -casualties of the Israeli military assaults in December and January.  When we asked about the personal impact of the attacks on those we met, we heard repeatedly of the loss of mothers, fathers, children, cousins, and friends.   The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reports 1434 Palestinian dead and  over 5000 injured, among them 288  children and 121 women.   

We walked through the farming village of Khoza in the South where fifty homes were destroyed during the land invasion.  A young boy scrambled through a hole in the rubble to show us the basement he and his family crouched in as a bulldozer crushed their house upon them.  We heard of Rafiya who lead the frightened women and children of this neighborhood away from threatening Israeli military bulldozers, only to be struck down and killed by an Israeli soldier's sniper fire as she walked in the street carrying her white flag. 

Repeatedly, we were told by Palestinians, and by the internationals on the ground supporting them, that there is no ceasefire.  Indeed, bomb blasts from the border area punctuated our conversations as we arrived and departed Gaza.   On our last night, we sat  by a fire in the moonlight in the remains of a friend's farmyard and listened to him tell of how the Israeli military destroyed his home in 2004, and of how this second home was shattered on February 6th.  This time, it was Israeli rockets from Apache helicopters that struck the house. A stand of wheat remained and rustled soothingly in the breeze as we talked, but our attention shifted quickly when F-16s streaked high across the night sky. and our friend explained that  if the planes tipped to the side, they would strike.   

Everywhere, the psychological costs of the recent and ongoing attacks for all Gazans, but especially for the children, were sadly apparent. It is not only those who suffer the greatest losses that carry the scars of all that has happened. It is those, too, who witnessed from their school bodies flying in the air when police cadets were bombed across the street and those who felt and heard the terrifying blasts of missiles falling near their own homes. It is the children who each day must walk past the unexplainable and inhumane destruction that has occurred. 

In Rachel's case, though a thorough, credible and transparent investigation was promised by the Israeli Government, after six years, the position of the U.S. Government remains that such an investigation has not taken place.  In March 2008, Michele Bernier-Toff, Managing Director of the Office of Overseas Citizen Services at the Department of State wrote, "We have consistently requested that the Government of Israel conduct a full and transparent investigation into Rachel's death.  Our requests have gone unanswered or ignored."   Now, the attacks on all the people of Gaza and the recent one on Tristan Anderson in Ni'lin cry out for investigation and accountability. We call on President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and members of Congress to act with fortitude and courage to ensure that the atrocities that have occurred are addressed by the Israeli Government and through relevant international and U.S. law.  We ask them to act immediately and persistently to stop the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli military, not to encourage it.     

Despite the pain, we have once again felt privileged to enter briefly into the lives of Rachel's Palestinian friends in Gaza.  We are moved by their resilience and heartened by their song, dance, and laughter amidst the tears.  Rachel wrote in 2003,  "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.....I am also discovering a degree of strength and of the basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances...I think the word is dignity." On this sixth anniversary of Rachel's killing, we echo her sentiments.   
 
Sincerely,

Cindy and Craig Corrie

On behalf of our family
###

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice continues the work that Rachel Corrie began and hoped to accomplish, and carries out that work with her vision, spirit, and creative energy in mind. We conduct and support programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities. The foundation encourages and supports grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, which we view as pre-requisites for world peace.
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/03/16

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This and the next blog are pieces I originally wrote for my weekly column: just joan. Unfortunately, The Sonoma Sun chose not to publish them. So I post them here for you:

International City; Home of three faiths

The bus stop was an easy walk from my hostel in the Old City. It had seemed appropriate to do a test run to the Central Bus Station in anticipation of a later journey from there for an important interview. The emotions stirred up by that journey into West Jerusalem left me surprisingly depressed.

After four intense non-stop weeks of observing hardship and challenge in this land, I was unprepared for such an impact resulting from a simple bus ride. But there it was – deep sadness and a profound sense of loss.

Haven’t you, like me, always thought of Jerusalem as THE International City of the world? It doesn’t seem to be international any more. I expected the bus driver to be Jewish, and he was. But then, some 95% of the passengers boarding my bus and the people I watched through the windows were Jewish as well. Still International, as these Jewish folks have come here to live from all over the world, but what’s happened to the diversity of culture?

I’ve never been one to pay much attention to the ethnicity of individuals I see on the streets. But the ethnicity of the folks I observed on that bus trip was no secret. The orthodox Jews abounded with their notable attire, including large black hats over their long and curly sidelocks. Nearly every other man wore a Jewish kippot, while the women wore their own distinct style of hats and clothing. There were very few internationals around, and I was able to identify only one non-Jewish woman besides myself on the large, crowded bus.

At a stop where several people disembarked, I observed the bus driver staring at me in his rear-view mirror. He had often looked through the mirror at me, but now he was staring. Is that his way of telling me we had reached my stop, I wondered? As we lurched forward again, I was able to make out rather small lettering on the front of a large entrance: Jerusalem Central Bus Station.

Okay, so I had to walk back. Who knew the Central Bus Station had been moved to the other side of Jaffa Street since I used to live here? I fought the crowds as we went through metal detectors, then sent our bundles through ex-ray machines. And then, good heavens! It’s a mall! Store after store selling every kind of merchandize, every sign written in Hebrew, nothing that resembled a bus station in the least! After some bewildered roaming, a clerk with little English said, “Oh, you have to go to third floor.”

At that level, the search continued until I eventually spotted the beautiful English word: INFORMATION. Gate number in mind, timetable in hand (all Hebrew), I left the window wondering what kind of a day had caused the agent to be terribly impatient with this woman who didn’t know the Hebrew language.

My mood remained glum as I walked back to the Old City. On the previous day, an Israeli rabbi had begged our group to take action. He repeated what famed American archaeologist Dr. Jim Fleming had proclaimed when I worked with him in 1997; this entire land is a treasure trove of ancient artifacts. Every unearthing for new construction must be carefully monitored so that when anything at all turns up that has possible historical significance, the project must be frozen pending archaeological investigation. That was then. Now, Rabbi Arik Ascherman begs us to contact archaeologists who might bring influence on Israel to restore sanity to Israel’s policies and stop the widespread digging with reckless abandon for endless construction projects.

Jaffa Street itself is now one long construction project, preparing for a railway to run down the middle of the street. I watched bulldozers and jackhammers in a frenzy of destruction. I choked on dust passing one more non-Israeli building under demolition, to be replaced, I presume, by one more glass and steel structure reaching skyward. And I wanted to weep.

The famed city of three faiths is becoming modern, efficient, consumed with consumerism and purely Jewish. Now what was wrong with that? Why was I feeling depressed? Surely I understand the thrill of Jewish people to have a place rich in Hebrew and Judaism after suffering so much discrimination and oppression throughout centuries. And my personal theology cherishes the Jewish faith as the cradle of Christianity. So why the depression?

After a few days, the answer came. It’s just that these people haven’t seen what I saw morning, noon and night for 26 straight days. They don’t know what I know, as most Americans, Jewish or not, don’t know about the things I have seen and learned. A safe “cocoon” has been craftily constructed around the lives of Israelis.

I am reminded of the courageous expose of the South Bronx by Jonathon Kozol. In “Amazing Grace,” Kozol describes a wall facing the adjacent freeway. A faux scene of brightly curtained windows with brilliant blossoms in pretty flower boxes distracts the thousands of daily commuters from the devastation of a disgraceful slum on the other side of the wall, where curtains are an unaffordable luxury and hope is in very short supply.

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