Yesterday, April 10, was the birthday of Rachel Corrie. Corrie, a 23-year old American from Olympia, in the state of Washington, was murdered by the driver/operator of a D9 Caterpillar bulldozer, in the town of Rafah, on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, on March 16, 2003. Corrie was an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, and had that day been taking part in protests seeking to prevent the illegal destruction of the home of the Nasrallah family. Corrie and her colleagues stood in front of the bulldozers. Corrie was pushed under the pile of earth gathered by one 'dozer, and then run over. Her spine was shattered and she suffered from multiple injuries to her ribcage and lungs. Terrible but vital photographs taken at the time show Rachel's young body, bent and contorted in her death agony, an image from Goya's 'Disasters of War'. Twenty minutes later, she was dead.
Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces have always denied responsibility for the killing of Rachel. Cases taken by the Corrie family to the Israeli Supreme Court have been thrown out - 'the most moral army in the world' could not possibly have wilfully murdered an unarmed youthful female civilian. But even the United States has shown, via political and diplomatic channels, some soft scepticism at the lies and hypocrisy propagated by Israel's bankrupt political and judicial system.
Had she lived, Rachel Corrie would have turned 43 yesterday. Her courage, at the limit and to the very end, stands as a beacon for the rest of us, as Israel reveals ever more openly the Gorgon face of its racism, its hollow moralism and ruthlessness.
Here is a blogpost I made in March 2016:
And here is a strong article in the London Independent:
Conor
