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Tributes to Rachel Corrie

 

The Beautiful Face of the United States

Imad Jadaa Palestinian Ambassador to Cuba:This article was published in the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde

Rachel Corrie was never a terrorist. She never sympathized with Al Qaeda.

Her blond hair and U.S. nationality and the fact than no Arab blood ran in her veins made her stand out among the other young women in the Gaza Strip. Neither was she a follower of Islam and she was barely 23 years old.

Rachel lived in Olympia, in the state of Washington, and she had been far from home for many months. She belonged to the International Solidarity Movement and for the moment her profession was a new one for the 21st century: that of a human shield against evil and wrongdoing.

One might guess at the reasons why Rachel found herself in a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza, and why she postponed her dream of graduating from college, leaving behind for the moment the beautiful possibility of loving, of having children. She wanted now, not later to bear witness to the Palestinian tragedy and, far from home, she was learning the true meaning of U.S. justice.

Rachel was guilty. Guilty according to Israeli statements of being in the wrong country at the wrong time with the wrong people. She was guilty of not staying home to dance in the discotheques of the United States, of ceasing to be a common, ordinary citizen.

She chose to stand in front of a Palestinian home at the moment an Israeli bulldozer was trying to tear it down. In the first image captured on camera, she is challenging the driver with a megaphone in her hand. Her hair is loose around her shoulders. She places her body between the weakened wall of the house and the brutal shovel of the bulldozer. The scene takes place in Rafah, in Gaza, and her protective gesture is poignant. Never has such an undefended, fragile person challenged a vehicle transformed into a machine of death and destruction.

One cannot hear her words. Next to her in the first photograph is another young solidarity worker, perhaps of her same nationality. In the second photo, she is on the ground bleeding. According to witnesses the bulldozer, after stopping for awhile, decided to move forward. After knocking her down with the first blow, it backed up and attacked once again. With a turn of the steering wheel, the driver drove away from the scene.

He changed direction and left her there to one side, like some unimportant object: the house still standing, the young woman on the ground. The image has no sound. ¨What was she shouting at her assassin? Her cries were not in Hebrew, but in the purest English pronounced by a pure girl. The Israeli soldier could not understand why the shouts were directed at him in the same language of his godfather and protector. Maybe he thought for an instant how odd were these blond Palestinians speaking English, a second before he floored the accelerator for the final attack.

Silence. The death of a blond young woman, 23 years old, crushed to death in Gaza, deserves silence. There are no investigations. No one orders the assassin arrested because that would mean one less driver for the bulldozers, for the tanks, one less soldier to carry on the killing. And all of them are needed to keep carrying out these crimes.

No one has expressed regret to Rachel's parents. Only the Palestinian leader has expressed his condolences. Nothing important has happened because no one has to ask forgiveness in the United States or Israel. No one has begged forgiveness or even contemplated the collateral damage. It is not necessary.

Perhaps they may even think that the Palestinians were responsible, for not preventing her from standing in front of that house at the hour of the disaster. If the young woman stood together with the Arab people under attack, together with the Third World, it is a certain fact that she was not a legitimate U.S. citizen. If she were one, she would have been like the President of her country, on the side of Zionism.

Something is missing from their statistics: Rachel Corrie is the first U.S. martyr, the first U.S. blood shed on Palestinian soil in Gaza. Now her banner is raised and flies in the wind. From now on she will accompany the struggle, because she has entered into history to accompany the sadness and pain of the Palestinian nation.

Missiles and bombs will fall now on Bagdad, the mourning will spread to new homes and this image will remain as the terrible face of the United States. The United States has two faces, the contemptible face of Bush, and the sweet face of Rachel . He, arrogance, she, solidarity; he, disrespect for a sovereign people, she, admiration and love of humanity.

Unlike everything that W. Bush stands for, Rachel represents the beautiful face of the United States, and the beautifully human face is everlasting. (*Palestinian Ambassador to Cuba)

This article was published in the Cuban newspaper Juventud Rebelde

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From: Palestinianuk@aol.com [mailto:Palestinianuk@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 10:09 AM To: Palestinianuk@aol.com

Condolences to Rachel Corrie's parents

1- To those of our friends who wish to send condolences and messages of sympathy and support to the parents of Rachel Corrie American Citizen who was killed/bulldozed by the Israeli army while trying to prevent a house / home-to be demolished, their e.mail address is: rachelsmessage@the-corries.com

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Message from Afif and Christ'l Safieh

Dear Mr and Mrs Corrie,

My husband Afif Safieh, the Palestinian representative in London and the Vatican, and I, citizen of a country -Belgium- with a large contingent of internationals in Palestine, would like to express our deepest sympathy for the tragic loss of Rachel.

Her courage and profound sense of humanity and justice have deeply moved us and inspired all those who have learned about her ordeal. She truly represents the best of mankind. There is no consolation for the loss of a child. The crime that brought her beautiful life to such premature end cries out for justice. But she will live on in our grateful hearts and minds, and we are convinced that her sacrifice will not be forgotten by the world at large either.

Please accept our sincere condolences, and may our paths cross in the future.

Afif and Christ'l Safieh

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*Rafah: . When Martyrs are rapped with the American Flag*

Mohammad al-Baba (Al-Ayam daily newspaper)

Instead of burning the American flag, this time the Palestinians used it to rap the 'Shaheeda' (martyr) Rachel Corrie in Abu Youssif al-Najar hospital in Rafah.

In a symbolic funeral, her symbolic coffin was carried by Palestinians along with the coffin of Ahmad al-Najar, which took off yesterday noon from Al-Awda Mosque in Rafah. Nasser al-Hanafi (35 years old), one of those in charge of popular activities, in support of the international solidarity delegation and in condemnation of the Israeli crime committed against Corrie said the American flag represents the state and the people, pointing out that the Palestinian people are not against the American people, and Corrie is an American who sacrificed her life in defense of the rights of the Palestinian people.

Al-Hanafi considered rapping the body of Corrie with the American flag a symbolic message to the American people concerning their position vis-ΰ-vis the Palestinian cause, and their citizen Corrie, who was murdered in cold blood under the claws of the Israeli American-made bulldozer.

Hundreds took part in the symbolic funeral and carried signs in both English and Arabic, calling for the protection of the Palestinian people and an end to the double-standard policy practiced against them.

The residents of Rafah opened a house of condolences for Rachel Corrie in the center of the city, while national and Islamic factions, NGOs and popular institutions released various statements condemning the ugly crime and praising the heroism of members of the International Solidarity Movement, their positions and actions, and the role Rachel played in defending Palestinian homes in Rafah.

The Popular Committee for Rafah refugees released a poster of Rachel Corrie and distributed it throughout the Gaza Strip. Head of the committee, Ziad al-Sarafandi said that Rachel gave herself to the Palestinian cause, in defense of freedom and independence and a just peace. Dozens of children carried Rachel's symbolic coffin with sadness clear in their eyes.

Haitham Aqel said, "How can I not be sad when she joined us in our condemnation of the American President Bush for his crimes against children." He added, "She described the president of her state as a war criminal, and called for putting him in front of the international trial, so how can we not take part on her funeral today, and say farewell to her in all pride."

Following the funeral, a press conference was held in Rafah Municipality, in the presence of the Mayor Majid al-Agha and Rachel's friends who lived the moments of her death, and witnessed the Israeli army burying her and crushing her.

Al-Agha said that Rachel is a screaming symbol of humanity, a real activist for peace and human rights. He said that the sand of Rafah and its homes will always remember her after her blood was mixed with its sand grains.

He pointed out that Rachel and her colleagues managed to limit the repeated raids and attacks by the Israeli army against the Palestinians. Dr. Ali Mousa. Genera Director of al-Najar Hospital, in a medical report confirmed that Rachel was killed in cold blood after her bones were crushed and she was buried in the sand. Colleagues of Rachel's, Jose and Richard, gave their testimony for the second time in front of the residents, stressing that the soldiers of the Israeli bulldozers and tanks saw Rachel with their own eyes, and could have easily avoided her but they ran her over and buried her and did not offer her any assistance.

The women of Rafah also attended the press conference. Fatima al-Khatib, head of the General Union for Palestinian Women said that Palestinian women took part in the event to express their solidarity, gratitude and pride in their sister Rachel Corrie.

She said, "She was faster than Arab women in giving the most precious thing she has, "herself", in defense of Palestinian rights."

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