Remembering Rachel Corrie
By Michael S. Ladah
March 19, 2004
Another act that the Israeli authorities
are now trying to hide in the name of Israeli security is the murder of the young American
peace activist Rachel Corrie, which they committed in broad daylight and in view of many
witnesses. It has been a year since Rachel died defending a Palestinian family's
home from demolition, and the Israeli occupation
forces in Gaza have not yet come clean about the circumstances of her death.
The senseless death of Rachel Corrie has
been the culmination of the Israeli crimes against Palestinians and their friends the
international peace activists known simply as the “internationals.” Rachel mounted a peaceful, non-violent protest
against illegal Israeli demolitions of Palestinian family homes, a common practice by the
Israeli military. Rachel was no more a threat
to Israel’s security than Israeli or other peace activists.
We should not allow Israel’s
security, a term and an excuse used to justify attacks on innocent Palestinian civilians,
to become a cover for Rachel’s murder by the Israeli military machine which
terrorizes all Palestinians. Further, we can
not allow the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza to dismiss Rachel’s death as an
“accident” like they did with the death of so many residents of Jenin, Nablus,
Ramallah and Bethlehem or the so many Palestinian “accidents” that take place
daily throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
Congress and the Bush Administration must
move swiftly to protect the US “internationals” in the Palestinian territories;
they must conduct separate and independent investigations of this “accident” and
hold as criminals those responsible. We hope such an investigation will be conducted
quickly and its results published for the American public to judge our "closest
ally." Further, we pray that such an investigation will not be botched up
like the investigation of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
Michael S. Ladah is an Arab American who lived and
worked in various parts of the Middle East. He is the author of “Quicksand, Oil
and Dreams: The Story of One of Five Million Dispossessed Palestinians.” |