Klaus
Refugee
Let's hope this life wasn't wasted, because media ignors it in favour to Iraq war 
23 year old American Rachel killed by Israeli Army Bulldozer
- Thread starter Klaus
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
meegannie
Blue Crack Addict
I heard this last night. 
MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
So tragic..
verte76
Blue Crack Addict
This is horrible, just horrible.
hiphop
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Oh my God.
This picture...
This picture...
browneyedgirl
War Child
this is so wrong
Last edited:
gvox
Ghost of Love
MURDER!
THIS IS MURDER!
OF A US CITIZEN!!!!!!
Were are the troops???
Invade Israel immediately and crush their murderous regime.
And no Im not joking.
THIS IS MURDER!
OF A US CITIZEN!!!!!!
Were are the troops???
Invade Israel immediately and crush their murderous regime.
And no Im not joking.
Scarletwine
New Yorker
How tragic.
Why hasn't our gov't officially responded?
Very sad day.
Why hasn't our gov't officially responded?
Very sad day.
Lilly
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
i think today the u.s government has a lot on its hands.
hopefully at the very least a statement will be made.
hopefully at the very least a statement will be made.
deep
Blue Crack Addict
Gabriel,
Murder is a legal term and has a very specific definition.
This does not fit that definition.
I do believe it is an unlawful use of force and her demise may have even been desired.
Here is another article:
JERUSALEM
Israeli Bulldozer Crushes U.S. Activist to Death
By Laura King
Times Staff Writer
March 17, 2003
While fellow protesters screamed in horror, a 23-year-old college student and activist from Washington state was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer Sunday as her group was trying to block the demolition of Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses said.
The Israeli army called her death a "regrettable accident" but blamed the protesters for deliberately placing themselves in harm's way -- part of what it said has been a pattern of reckless behavior by foreign activists in the West Bank and Gaza.
The young woman, Rachel Corrie, was one of a group of mainly Americans and Europeans who have staged weeks of demonstrations in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, where the army has destroyed dozens of structures in a volatile border zone that is rocked by near-constant fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.
Standing in the path of an approaching military bulldozer, Corrie lost her footing as it drew close and was first hit by a massive load of sand and debris being pushed ahead by its blade, then struck by the blade itself, witnesses said.
"I saw her in front of the bulldozer, and suddenly she disappeared from view," said Palestinian physician Samir Masri, whose family had been playing host to a group of protesters that included Corrie. "I ran out to her and saw her bleeding face, her crushed skull.... I tried to treat her, but everything was broken."
Corrie was dead of massive head and chest injuries by the time she arrived at nearby Najar hospital in Rafah, said the hospital's director, Dr. Ali Moussa.
Separately, at least six Palestinians, including a 2-year-old girl, died early today when Israeli tanks and armor pushed into the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian doctors said. Two other Palestinians were killed elsewhere in Gaza on Sunday.
Corrie grew up in Olympia, Wash., where she attended school and was frequently seen at peace demonstrations. A college spokesperson said she would have been a senior at Evergreen State College, a small public liberal arts school known for activism in social causes, and had been expected to resume her studies when she returned from the Middle East.
She had told friends and professors she was traveling to the region to be a "peace witness."
"She was very strong willed in her quiet way, but she wasn't at all self-aggrandizing," said Lin Nelson, a professor at Evergreen. "It meant a lot to her to be part of an effort to observe and witness and influence the world."
Nelson said that Corrie, who took an interest in domestic causes such as the plight of local timber towns that had fallen on harsh economic times, "seemed to have done her homework" about the situation in the Palestinian territories.
"When I heard what happened, I was appalled and sickened," she said. "I have such a sense of loss."
The Israeli army expressed regret at Corrie's death, but a military spokesman also denounced the protesters, saying that over a period of many months, some activists have consistently taken actions that endangered themselves along with Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians.
The group to which Corrie belonged, the International Solidarity Movement, has held protests at the scene of many trouble spots over the course of nearly 2 1/2 years of fighting, with its members frequently placing themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers or Jewish settlers. Sunday marked the first time a member of the group has been killed.
"We are very, very sorry it ended this way," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman. "But we really have to say this is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible form of protest -- it's unsafe for everyone. We're dealing with a combat zone. This is a place where troops are in heavy armor. There's shooting there all the time. This is not a place where a protest can be held in any kind of a safe way."
Dallal said bulletproof windows are relatively small and visibility is limited in the type of armored bulldozer that killed Corrie: a super-size model known as the D-9 often used to demolish homes. He said that the Israeli troops, who were clearing ground in search of explosives, had tried to move away from the protesters but that the group followed them.
Witnesses from Corrie's group, who included four Americans and four Europeans, said she was wearing a fluorescent-orange jacket and would have been clearly visible to the bulldozer's driver.
"She was standing directly in his path -- she just didn't back down," said Nick Burrie, of Dundee, Scotland. "Then she lost her footing, and he just kept right on driving forward."
Israeli troops temporarily halted the bulldozing after Corrie was hit but continued other operations in the area later Sunday, a military source said.
Officials at the U.S. Embassy, whose staff in Israel has been sharply reduced in advance of expected war in Iraq, could not be reached for comment.
In recent weeks, Corrie had posted accounts of the group's activities on the Internet. The postings painted a picture of an idealistic young woman who believed she was helping to ease the Palestinians' plight.
"Rafah continues to witness the destruction of homes ... on a daily basis," she wrote late last month. Acknowledging that the protests were dangerous, she cited a "variable factor" in trying to block home demolitions -- "whether the driver of a particular tank cares about injuring [protesters] in the process of destroying the welfare of Palestinians living here."
Evergreen professor and family friend Peter Bohmer said that Corrie's parents were instrumental in creating an alternative education program in the Olympia public schools and that the desirability of becoming involved in the world was stressed to her from an early age.
"She grew up with the idea that it wasn't enough to talk about something -- you also had to do something," Bohmer said.
Built within a forest alongside Puget Sound, Evergreen was a product of 1960s activism and dispenses with such traditional educational concepts as grades, majors and academic departments. The 4,000-student college's reputation has prompted some conservative legislators to lobby for its closing. Former student Lynda Barry, the cartoonist and author, has described the school as a "hippie college," while the fame of fellow alum Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons," has also contributed to the school's freewheeling reputation.
Corrie, a student of international politics and art, was considered rare among the student body in that she had grown up in Olympia and bridged the divide between lifelong residents and a transient student population.
In a Feb. 14 e-mail to friends, Corrie described one episode in the Palestinian territories in which other activists -- or "internationalists," as she called them -- tried to halt a bulldozing.
"The internationalists stood in the path of the bulldozer and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house," she wrote. "The bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house with the Internationals inside. The driver then dropped a sound grenade out of the cab of the bulldozer, and continued to demolish the house, at which point the activists were able to escape, amid gunfire from the tank."
Israel has for many months had a tense relationship with the International Solidarity Movement, whose mainly Western activists have mounted a campaign of protest against a variety of Israeli military activities.
Three of its members were arrested late last year while trying to obstruct the building of a security fence between Israel and the West Bank. Israel says the fence is needed to keep out suicide bombers and other attackers; the protesters charged that Israel was appropriating Palestinian land for it.
Other activists from the group slipped past Israeli soldiers last spring to enter the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem during a monthlong standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen holed up inside.
Israel tried for a time to deny entry to the activists but drew angry protests when it turned away travelers arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport who turned out to be employed by humanitarian organizations, or who were ordinary tourists or pilgrims.
Rafah, on the Egyptian frontier at the southern tip of Gaza, has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting of recent months between Israelis and Palestinians. The border zone is rife with tunnels that Israel says are used to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into Gaza. It says demolition of structures is aimed at destroying the tunnels, securing the border and clearing areas where Palestinian militants take cover.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Rafah is a prime example of excessive Israeli force being used in a crowded civilian area whose impoverished residents have no way to escape the fighting. At least six children have been among the civilians killed in the area in recent months.
Masri, the Palestinian doctor with whose family Corrie had lived, remembered a spirited, athletic young woman who often observed local mores by wearing a head scarf over her blond hair.
"She was very brave and beautiful, a special friend to me and my family," Masri said. "She only wanted to help us, and she paid with her life."
Murder is a legal term and has a very specific definition.
This does not fit that definition.
I do believe it is an unlawful use of force and her demise may have even been desired.
Here is another article:
JERUSALEM
Israeli Bulldozer Crushes U.S. Activist to Death
By Laura King
Times Staff Writer
March 17, 2003
While fellow protesters screamed in horror, a 23-year-old college student and activist from Washington state was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer Sunday as her group was trying to block the demolition of Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses said.
The Israeli army called her death a "regrettable accident" but blamed the protesters for deliberately placing themselves in harm's way -- part of what it said has been a pattern of reckless behavior by foreign activists in the West Bank and Gaza.
The young woman, Rachel Corrie, was one of a group of mainly Americans and Europeans who have staged weeks of demonstrations in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, where the army has destroyed dozens of structures in a volatile border zone that is rocked by near-constant fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.
Standing in the path of an approaching military bulldozer, Corrie lost her footing as it drew close and was first hit by a massive load of sand and debris being pushed ahead by its blade, then struck by the blade itself, witnesses said.
"I saw her in front of the bulldozer, and suddenly she disappeared from view," said Palestinian physician Samir Masri, whose family had been playing host to a group of protesters that included Corrie. "I ran out to her and saw her bleeding face, her crushed skull.... I tried to treat her, but everything was broken."
Corrie was dead of massive head and chest injuries by the time she arrived at nearby Najar hospital in Rafah, said the hospital's director, Dr. Ali Moussa.
Separately, at least six Palestinians, including a 2-year-old girl, died early today when Israeli tanks and armor pushed into the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian doctors said. Two other Palestinians were killed elsewhere in Gaza on Sunday.
Corrie grew up in Olympia, Wash., where she attended school and was frequently seen at peace demonstrations. A college spokesperson said she would have been a senior at Evergreen State College, a small public liberal arts school known for activism in social causes, and had been expected to resume her studies when she returned from the Middle East.
She had told friends and professors she was traveling to the region to be a "peace witness."
"She was very strong willed in her quiet way, but she wasn't at all self-aggrandizing," said Lin Nelson, a professor at Evergreen. "It meant a lot to her to be part of an effort to observe and witness and influence the world."
Nelson said that Corrie, who took an interest in domestic causes such as the plight of local timber towns that had fallen on harsh economic times, "seemed to have done her homework" about the situation in the Palestinian territories.
"When I heard what happened, I was appalled and sickened," she said. "I have such a sense of loss."
The Israeli army expressed regret at Corrie's death, but a military spokesman also denounced the protesters, saying that over a period of many months, some activists have consistently taken actions that endangered themselves along with Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians.
The group to which Corrie belonged, the International Solidarity Movement, has held protests at the scene of many trouble spots over the course of nearly 2 1/2 years of fighting, with its members frequently placing themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers or Jewish settlers. Sunday marked the first time a member of the group has been killed.
"We are very, very sorry it ended this way," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman. "But we really have to say this is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible form of protest -- it's unsafe for everyone. We're dealing with a combat zone. This is a place where troops are in heavy armor. There's shooting there all the time. This is not a place where a protest can be held in any kind of a safe way."
Dallal said bulletproof windows are relatively small and visibility is limited in the type of armored bulldozer that killed Corrie: a super-size model known as the D-9 often used to demolish homes. He said that the Israeli troops, who were clearing ground in search of explosives, had tried to move away from the protesters but that the group followed them.
Witnesses from Corrie's group, who included four Americans and four Europeans, said she was wearing a fluorescent-orange jacket and would have been clearly visible to the bulldozer's driver.
"She was standing directly in his path -- she just didn't back down," said Nick Burrie, of Dundee, Scotland. "Then she lost her footing, and he just kept right on driving forward."
Israeli troops temporarily halted the bulldozing after Corrie was hit but continued other operations in the area later Sunday, a military source said.
Officials at the U.S. Embassy, whose staff in Israel has been sharply reduced in advance of expected war in Iraq, could not be reached for comment.
In recent weeks, Corrie had posted accounts of the group's activities on the Internet. The postings painted a picture of an idealistic young woman who believed she was helping to ease the Palestinians' plight.
"Rafah continues to witness the destruction of homes ... on a daily basis," she wrote late last month. Acknowledging that the protests were dangerous, she cited a "variable factor" in trying to block home demolitions -- "whether the driver of a particular tank cares about injuring [protesters] in the process of destroying the welfare of Palestinians living here."
Evergreen professor and family friend Peter Bohmer said that Corrie's parents were instrumental in creating an alternative education program in the Olympia public schools and that the desirability of becoming involved in the world was stressed to her from an early age.
"She grew up with the idea that it wasn't enough to talk about something -- you also had to do something," Bohmer said.
Built within a forest alongside Puget Sound, Evergreen was a product of 1960s activism and dispenses with such traditional educational concepts as grades, majors and academic departments. The 4,000-student college's reputation has prompted some conservative legislators to lobby for its closing. Former student Lynda Barry, the cartoonist and author, has described the school as a "hippie college," while the fame of fellow alum Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons," has also contributed to the school's freewheeling reputation.
Corrie, a student of international politics and art, was considered rare among the student body in that she had grown up in Olympia and bridged the divide between lifelong residents and a transient student population.
In a Feb. 14 e-mail to friends, Corrie described one episode in the Palestinian territories in which other activists -- or "internationalists," as she called them -- tried to halt a bulldozing.
"The internationalists stood in the path of the bulldozer and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house," she wrote. "The bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house with the Internationals inside. The driver then dropped a sound grenade out of the cab of the bulldozer, and continued to demolish the house, at which point the activists were able to escape, amid gunfire from the tank."
Israel has for many months had a tense relationship with the International Solidarity Movement, whose mainly Western activists have mounted a campaign of protest against a variety of Israeli military activities.
Three of its members were arrested late last year while trying to obstruct the building of a security fence between Israel and the West Bank. Israel says the fence is needed to keep out suicide bombers and other attackers; the protesters charged that Israel was appropriating Palestinian land for it.
Other activists from the group slipped past Israeli soldiers last spring to enter the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem during a monthlong standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen holed up inside.
Israel tried for a time to deny entry to the activists but drew angry protests when it turned away travelers arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport who turned out to be employed by humanitarian organizations, or who were ordinary tourists or pilgrims.
Rafah, on the Egyptian frontier at the southern tip of Gaza, has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting of recent months between Israelis and Palestinians. The border zone is rife with tunnels that Israel says are used to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into Gaza. It says demolition of structures is aimed at destroying the tunnels, securing the border and clearing areas where Palestinian militants take cover.
Palestinians and human rights groups say Rafah is a prime example of excessive Israeli force being used in a crowded civilian area whose impoverished residents have no way to escape the fighting. At least six children have been among the civilians killed in the area in recent months.
Masri, the Palestinian doctor with whose family Corrie had lived, remembered a spirited, athletic young woman who often observed local mores by wearing a head scarf over her blond hair.
"She was very brave and beautiful, a special friend to me and my family," Masri said. "She only wanted to help us, and she paid with her life."
gvox
Ghost of Love
deep said:
Yeah yeah...the legal term...
to be honest, I have very little respect for the legal definition of much surrounding the word 'murder'
To my morals, if you as an individual deliberately take a course of action that you know will result in another's death, you are a MURDERER. If you as an organization or a government empower someone to do this, you are also a murderer.
Thus, both the bulldozer driver and the Israeli government are murderers.
But what's one more death?
Ace Rimmer
The Fly
I cant belive this driver did not see her, she was standing in front with a bright red sweater shouting through a megaphone 
Some people may find these photos upsetting
The Story
poor girl
Some people may find these photos upsetting
The Story
poor girl
Lemonite
I'm a chauvinist leprechaun
Some Perspective Perhaps..
God Bless America,
Mr. Pink
From another Message Board.
"I live in Olympia, home of The Evergreen College, where 23-year-old Rachel Corrie was enrolled. Naturally, the local paper was full of information about yesterday's event. For those of you who may not know, Evergreen is perhaps the most liberal college in America, or if not, just a baby step behind Reed College. It is what Cal Berkeley was during the Haight-Ashbury period. They don't give grades there, it's all pass/fail. It has been a continual source of local embarrassment, since it was built sometime in the 1970's. As an example of the school's agenda, each May 1 (remember May Day, which other communists around the globe used to celebrate) a couple hundred of them march from the campus to various intersections in west Olympia, block traffic, and vandalize small businesses. Last year they blocked the major intersection leading to the one of the local hospitals. I said at the time, if my wife or one of my children needed emergency medical attention, I would gladly see how far into that crowd I could get with my 4 x 4... Many other businessmen in this town felt the same way.
Pictures in the local paper (taken just before she got flattened), showed her in a bright orange vest, screaming at the cat operator with a bullhorn. If you've never operated a piece of equipment like that, you need to know they don't have power steering and/or disc brakes. And rational people don't play "chicken" in front of one.
One of her professors was quoted in the local paper as saying "she was a very bright, clear-thinking activist at Evergreen..." Not sure about the clear-thinking part, but I'm sure the activist part is accurate.
In an earlier thread (now scrolled off the board), someone commented that this girl probably didn't know what she was doing. Based upon my knowledge of the local situation, I'd say she knew exactly what she was doing. I feel sorry for her parents and family, but sometimes in this life you reap what you sow."
God Bless America,
Mr. Pink
From another Message Board.
"I live in Olympia, home of The Evergreen College, where 23-year-old Rachel Corrie was enrolled. Naturally, the local paper was full of information about yesterday's event. For those of you who may not know, Evergreen is perhaps the most liberal college in America, or if not, just a baby step behind Reed College. It is what Cal Berkeley was during the Haight-Ashbury period. They don't give grades there, it's all pass/fail. It has been a continual source of local embarrassment, since it was built sometime in the 1970's. As an example of the school's agenda, each May 1 (remember May Day, which other communists around the globe used to celebrate) a couple hundred of them march from the campus to various intersections in west Olympia, block traffic, and vandalize small businesses. Last year they blocked the major intersection leading to the one of the local hospitals. I said at the time, if my wife or one of my children needed emergency medical attention, I would gladly see how far into that crowd I could get with my 4 x 4... Many other businessmen in this town felt the same way.
Pictures in the local paper (taken just before she got flattened), showed her in a bright orange vest, screaming at the cat operator with a bullhorn. If you've never operated a piece of equipment like that, you need to know they don't have power steering and/or disc brakes. And rational people don't play "chicken" in front of one.
One of her professors was quoted in the local paper as saying "she was a very bright, clear-thinking activist at Evergreen..." Not sure about the clear-thinking part, but I'm sure the activist part is accurate.
In an earlier thread (now scrolled off the board), someone commented that this girl probably didn't know what she was doing. Based upon my knowledge of the local situation, I'd say she knew exactly what she was doing. I feel sorry for her parents and family, but sometimes in this life you reap what you sow."
gvox
Ghost of Love
Yeah well that perspective makes me sick.
meegannie
Blue Crack Addict
Lemonite said:
Oh, okay. Now I see why she deserved to be run over by a bulldozer.
This is INCREDIBLY tasteless.
cloudimani
Acrobat
is it only a tragedy when its an American that is killed in Palestine?
hiphop
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
gabrielvox said:Yeah well that perspective makes me sick.
Me too. "You reap what you sow", yes? Kinda remembers me of the mindset of those extremists who were reported to burn American flags after 9/11, of people who said "We?re sorry for the victims in the WTC, but..."
Lemonite seems to defend that kind of mindset. The side you?re on is not as revealing as the principle one can see in those remarks.
hiphop
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
cloudimani said:
Sadly enough, it seems so. This is what the "human shield" protestors know. Needless to say I am against this concept.
In my opinion, it is also a tragedy when an American dies in the WTC, the same tragedy like when an Iraqi will be made to a "civil casuality" in the upcoming war, same tragedy like any Palestinian or Israeli killed in the conflict.
OP
OP
Klaus
Refugee
cloudimani:
Of course not, but it's sad but a fact that international media cares more about one dead american than about the 9 palestinensians killed including a 4-year-old girl! by Israel army today.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html
To quote the most intelligent man i've ever read about:
"father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing"
Klaus
Of course not, but it's sad but a fact that international media cares more about one dead american than about the 9 palestinensians killed including a 4-year-old girl! by Israel army today.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html
To quote the most intelligent man i've ever read about:
"father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing"
Klaus
OP
OP
Klaus
Refugee
whenhiphopdrovethebigcars:
I share your opinion, every life is worth the same, every human should be treated equal.
Klaus
I share your opinion, every life is worth the same, every human should be treated equal.
Klaus
MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
Of course it's not "only a tragedy when an American is killed", and anyone who thinks that all Americans have that mindset-well that's just sad, and unfair.
The circumstances of this horrible incident would still be a tragedy to me regardless of what nationality this girl was.
The circumstances of this horrible incident would still be a tragedy to me regardless of what nationality this girl was.
Scarletwine
New Yorker
MrsSpringsteen said:Of course it's not "only a tragedy when an American is killed", and anyone who thinks that all Americans have that mindset-well that's just sad, and unfair.
The circumstances of this horrible incident would still be a tragedy to me regardless of what nationality this girl was.
I agree. It would be nice if this tragedy would highlight the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. The US needs to rethink it's support of Sharon.
I have a question.
Why is Israel bulldozing hundreds (maybe even thousands) of Palestinian homes? Does anyone have an official reason for this blatantly, pointless destruction?
I don't understand how this can be a deterent to terrorism, so the logic behind this action is a mystery.
Anyone know?
Why is Israel bulldozing hundreds (maybe even thousands) of Palestinian homes? Does anyone have an official reason for this blatantly, pointless destruction?
I don't understand how this can be a deterent to terrorism, so the logic behind this action is a mystery.
Anyone know?
OP
OP
Klaus
Refugee
MrsSpringsteen:
you're right too - but i'm affraoid our media just catches atention when it hapens to our "western" people. It's a sad fact. Of course we (or at least i) saw the above mail you quoted just as a provocation to start a discussion, i don't think he realy wanted to criticize the american men, maybe the media.
Danospano:
Sharon calles it "war on terror" it's simple revenge - you send a sucide bomber to us, we bulldoze the home of you and your family.
The radical palistenensians want revenge too..
If you look back in history you see the guilt for that conflict at several places, GB, Germany, US and Israel itself (who didn't want to give back the occupied land and started to "settle" it to name a view)
At the time a great israeli politican was willing to break through this circle of violence the other side started to strike "preemptive" hardliners on both sides need that violence to legitimate their violence
Klaus
you're right too - but i'm affraoid our media just catches atention when it hapens to our "western" people. It's a sad fact. Of course we (or at least i) saw the above mail you quoted just as a provocation to start a discussion, i don't think he realy wanted to criticize the american men, maybe the media.
Danospano:
Sharon calles it "war on terror" it's simple revenge - you send a sucide bomber to us, we bulldoze the home of you and your family.
The radical palistenensians want revenge too..
If you look back in history you see the guilt for that conflict at several places, GB, Germany, US and Israel itself (who didn't want to give back the occupied land and started to "settle" it to name a view)
At the time a great israeli politican was willing to break through this circle of violence the other side started to strike "preemptive" hardliners on both sides need that violence to legitimate their violence
Klaus
OP
OP
Klaus
Refugee
You might find some answers at:
"In all, seven Palestinians were killed in Nusseirat -- four gunmen, two teenage boys ages 13 and 17, and the 4-year-old girl. Hospital officials said 25 residents were wounded.
The military said Mohammed Saafen, until a year ago a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, was involved in attacks on Israelis, including bombings, mortar fire and shooting ambushes."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html
"In all, seven Palestinians were killed in Nusseirat -- four gunmen, two teenage boys ages 13 and 17, and the 4-year-old girl. Hospital officials said 25 residents were wounded.
The military said Mohammed Saafen, until a year ago a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, was involved in attacks on Israelis, including bombings, mortar fire and shooting ambushes."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html
One Tree Still
Acrobat
This is definitely horrific, but there is a responsibility question that must be asked too.
If the driver saw her and intentionally killed her, he is responsible. From the picture, it looks as if he could see her to a point, but at the time the picture was taken, she would have been obscured by the bucket on the bulldozer. Couple that with the fact that she is said to have dropped to her knees - in which case there is no way he could have seen her. I doubt the killing was intentional.
My guess is that he assumed she would move out of the way - which is what she should have done.
While she certainly did not deserve to die, and nobody should for simply protesting, she bears a great deal of the responsibility for her own death. She put herself in harms way.
Again, let me re-state - she did not DESERVE to die, but she made choices that led to her own death.
Bottom line, it was a terrible accident.
If the driver saw her and intentionally killed her, he is responsible. From the picture, it looks as if he could see her to a point, but at the time the picture was taken, she would have been obscured by the bucket on the bulldozer. Couple that with the fact that she is said to have dropped to her knees - in which case there is no way he could have seen her. I doubt the killing was intentional.
My guess is that he assumed she would move out of the way - which is what she should have done.
While she certainly did not deserve to die, and nobody should for simply protesting, she bears a great deal of the responsibility for her own death. She put herself in harms way.
Again, let me re-state - she did not DESERVE to die, but she made choices that led to her own death.
Bottom line, it was a terrible accident.
deep
Blue Crack Addict
Collective punishment is against international law, immoral, and sadly occurring all too often.
Many, if not most Palestinians oppose suicide bombings. Many, I hope most Israelis oppose home demolitions. No legitimate government supports or condones suicide bombers. Can the same be said for collective punishment?
Because an American died we are discussing this.
I could post article after article about children, old people, all kinds of non-combatives being killed.
I read about them on an almost daily basis. In America, we (our media) are indifferent. Unless they are perceived as being ?with us?.
Elderly Woman, Palestinian Policeman Killed in Israeli Raids
"Human rights groups have slammed the Israeli practice of destroying the family homes of Palestinian activists as collective punishment and illegal .."
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian policeman in the West Bank and an elderly woman was killed by flying debris when Israeli troops blew up the house of a slain activist in overnight raids, security officials said Wednesday, February 5.
- Policeman Reda Ghanen, 20, was killed as he was leaving a police station that had been surrounded by Israeli soldiers during an Israeli incursion into Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, on the border with Israel, Palestinian officials said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A second policeman was injured in the shooting, the security officials said.
Israeli military radio said the soldiers opened fire at two Palestinians whom they wanted to arrest and who were trying to escape.
In the central Gaza Strip, a 65-year-old woman was killed when the army blew up the neighboring house of a Palestinian activist, sending debris flying.
Kamla Abu Said was hit in the head by a chunk of stone as army sappers blew up the house of her husbands late son in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, Palestinian medical and security sources said. Her body was found several hours later.
The demolition occurred during a raid lasting several hours overnight by around a dozen Israeli armored vehicles protected by two helicopters into Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
Human rights groups have slammed the Israeli practice of destroying the family homes of Palestinian activists as collective punishment and illegal. Israel has destroyed some 140 Palestinian houses till now leaving their residents homeless.
More Incursions
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security forces said a dozen Israeli armored vehicles protected by two helicopters made an incursion lasting several hours overnight into Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
During the raid into the central Gaza camp, the helicopter gunships opened fire as sappers destroyed the house of Baher Abu Said, a member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafats Fatah movement.
Initial reports said the helicopters had destroyed the house, but security forces later specified they had provided cover for the army engineers who dynamited it.
Three of the activists brothers were arrested, the sources said.
An army spokesman claimed Abu Said was behind an attack on a Jewish settlement which left two Israeli soldiers dead on November 18, 2000.
The Fatah activist was killed by soldiers in a subsequent manhunt. The army spokesman said the troops had later pulled out of Al-Maghazi.
The latest deaths took to 2,920 the number of people killed since the September 2000 Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation, including 2,177 Palestinians and 687 Israelis.
In addition, the army spokesman said 15 wanted Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of "terrorist activities" in more night raids in the West Bank, which has been almost entirely re-occupied since June 2002.
Many, if not most Palestinians oppose suicide bombings. Many, I hope most Israelis oppose home demolitions. No legitimate government supports or condones suicide bombers. Can the same be said for collective punishment?
Because an American died we are discussing this.
I could post article after article about children, old people, all kinds of non-combatives being killed.
I read about them on an almost daily basis. In America, we (our media) are indifferent. Unless they are perceived as being ?with us?.
Elderly Woman, Palestinian Policeman Killed in Israeli Raids
"Human rights groups have slammed the Israeli practice of destroying the family homes of Palestinian activists as collective punishment and illegal .."
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian policeman in the West Bank and an elderly woman was killed by flying debris when Israeli troops blew up the house of a slain activist in overnight raids, security officials said Wednesday, February 5.
- Policeman Reda Ghanen, 20, was killed as he was leaving a police station that had been surrounded by Israeli soldiers during an Israeli incursion into Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, on the border with Israel, Palestinian officials said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A second policeman was injured in the shooting, the security officials said.
Israeli military radio said the soldiers opened fire at two Palestinians whom they wanted to arrest and who were trying to escape.
In the central Gaza Strip, a 65-year-old woman was killed when the army blew up the neighboring house of a Palestinian activist, sending debris flying.
Kamla Abu Said was hit in the head by a chunk of stone as army sappers blew up the house of her husbands late son in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, Palestinian medical and security sources said. Her body was found several hours later.
The demolition occurred during a raid lasting several hours overnight by around a dozen Israeli armored vehicles protected by two helicopters into Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
Human rights groups have slammed the Israeli practice of destroying the family homes of Palestinian activists as collective punishment and illegal. Israel has destroyed some 140 Palestinian houses till now leaving their residents homeless.
More Incursions
Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security forces said a dozen Israeli armored vehicles protected by two helicopters made an incursion lasting several hours overnight into Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
During the raid into the central Gaza camp, the helicopter gunships opened fire as sappers destroyed the house of Baher Abu Said, a member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafats Fatah movement.
Initial reports said the helicopters had destroyed the house, but security forces later specified they had provided cover for the army engineers who dynamited it.
Three of the activists brothers were arrested, the sources said.
An army spokesman claimed Abu Said was behind an attack on a Jewish settlement which left two Israeli soldiers dead on November 18, 2000.
The Fatah activist was killed by soldiers in a subsequent manhunt. The army spokesman said the troops had later pulled out of Al-Maghazi.
The latest deaths took to 2,920 the number of people killed since the September 2000 Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation, including 2,177 Palestinians and 687 Israelis.
In addition, the army spokesman said 15 wanted Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of "terrorist activities" in more night raids in the West Bank, which has been almost entirely re-occupied since June 2002.
hiphop
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
One Tree Still said:
So, same goes for the massacre in Tienanmen in China some years ago? The Chinese military in the tanks must have assumed the students would move out of the way - which is what they should have done. I mean, the protesters put themselves in harms way. They didn?t deserve to die, but made choices that led to their own death.
Interesting concept.
hiphop
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
deep said:
This is terrible.
Where do those Israeli helicopters come from, by the way? Ah, the Pentagon. Yeah... there was a plane attack or something a few years ago there, if I remember that right.
deep
Blue Crack Addict
St. Patrick's Day Edition
March 17, 2003
A War Without Balance
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and Israeli War Crimes
By STEVE NIVA
The Israeli bulldozer that ran over and killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, in the Gaza Strip today had killed before. A few weeks ago, on March 3, an Israeli bulldozer killed a nine-month pregnant Palestinian woman, Nuha Sweidan, while destroying the house next door in a dilapidated Gaza refugee camp. Palestinian witnesses said that Mrs. Sweidan, 33, bled to death under the rubble as she cradled her 18-month-old daughter. Her unborn baby also died.
Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan probably never met, but they will forever be linked as victims of Israel's 35-year occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
They are both victims of Israeli war crimes. The Geneva Conventions expressly prohibits attacks on civilian populations regardless of the motivation, even if in retaliation for attacks on its own civilians. To attack civilian populations intentionally is a war crime. Both Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan were killed during military actions against a civilian population, in this case, during a house demolition.
Since June 2002, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 150 houses belonging to Palestinians allegedly involved in attacks, a policy human rights groups describe as collective punishment and which has drawn US criticism in the past.
This past month, Israel nearly set a record for killing Palestinians, mostly civilians, in a single month. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli assaults killed 82 Palestinians, of them 50 in the Gaza Strip and 32 in the West Bank, wounding an additional 616 persons. Israeli soldiers also killed several Palestinian children and 3 medical staff as they sought to attend to wounded. Now, they have killed an American peace activist. In this same period, only six Israeli's were killed, all of them soldiers.
Why so many civilian casualties?
These killings are the product of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's escalation of Israeli Army assaults on Palestinian population centers following his re-election on January 28. Since that time, Israeli forces have largely focused their wrath on Gaza. They have conducted unprecedented armored military operations in Gaza city centers, pursued suspected militants deep into refugee camps and deployed bulldozers to destroy dozens of building and homes. This latter type of operation led to Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan's deaths.
Israeli sympathizers may object that these assaults and civilians killings are justified in response to Palestinian suicide bombings but international law is clear that attacks on civilians are prohibited under any circumstance.
Palestinian suicide bombings are clearly war crimes, even though some Palestinians claim they are justified in response to Israeli massacres and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. However, Israeli military assaults that systematically result in civilian deaths are also war crimes, regardless of their justification. Both are reprehensible and must be condemned.
Moreover, few independent observers accept that Israel's assaults on Palestinian civilian centers in the past two months correlate as responses to suicide bombs. These operations began nearly a month after the January 5 suicide bomb that killed over 20 Israeli's in Tel Aviv. The only other suicide bomb this year came on March 5, well after the Israeli campaign in Gaza was underway. Furthermore, in both cases the suicide bombers came from the West Bank, not Gaza.
The reality is that Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan will also be forever linked as victims of the extremist Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's relentless war on Palestinians on behalf of Israeli settlements and his vision of a Greater Israel that seeks total control of all of historic Palestine.
The escalating assaults on Gaza over the past month indicate that Ariel Sharon is preparing the way for an invasion and reconquest of the Gaza Strip to complement his reconquest of the West Bank last April. With the West Bank now firmly under Israeli control, Gaza has become the sole remaining area of armed Palestinian resistance to Israel. It stands in the way of Sharon imposing a settlement on the Palestinians that will assign them small, disconnected Bantustans surrounded by hundreds of Israeli settlements. Ariel Sharon was the original architect of the massive expansion of settlements after 1978 and continues to be their main patron.
Sharon is well known for his cold, calculating, tactical acumen, both as a General and as a politician. He is also known as a ruthless fighter and has been accused of crimes against humanity for his role in the massacre of nearly a thousand Palestinian women, children and elderly people in Beirut in 1982.
He is well aware of the sympathy Israel has received in response to the brutal suicide bomb attacks over the past few years. He knows that the world is focused on the impending war in Iraq. Thus, he has calculated that the time is right to set in motion the reoccupation of Gaza, even if it provokes further suicide bombings because he can use them as a pretext for even larger actions.
Menachem Klein, an Israeli political scientist at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, outlined the logic of Sharon's actions in a recent Christian Science Monitor article (13 Mar 2003).
"These raids can be a kind of rehearsal, with the idea to arrest someone, but also to see how to get in and out, what tactics to use. A rehearsal on live people. And the thinking is that if the world gets used to these short-term reoccupations, it will digest the long-term one."
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan, over a hundred Palestinians and scores of Israeli civilians are the victims of this live rehearsal.
It is true that Palestinian suicide bombers have helped contribute to this cycle of violence through their own vicious acts. Indeed they have murdered women, children and innocent civilians as well.
However, this is not a symmetrical conflict. Israel dominates the lives and land of over 3 million Palestinians through massive military assaults, imprisonment of thousands, torture and systematic starvation policies that have lead to a major humanitarian crisis in many areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, Rachel had been working with other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to defend a newly dug water well from Israeli attempts to destroy it before she was killed.
Moreover, since his return to power two years ago, Ariel Sharon has systematically escalated Israeli military assaults and assassinations in search of a military solution, despite the waves of suicide bombings, in order to achieve a very clear set of political objectives. At the top of the list has been the destruction of any base of Palestinian political and military resistance to Israeli settlements and permanent control of the land Israel occupied in 1967. Gaza is his last objective.
There is no "balance" in this conflict. It is time to call Israel into account for its war crimes and time to stop Ariel Sharon from imposing his violent dream of Greater Israel on Palestinians. It is time to stop the needless deaths of Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and others, whether Palestinian or Israeli, or now, American.
Steve Niva is a Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. He teaches international politics and Middle East studies. He met with Rachel Corrie before she left for Gaza in January and is deeply saddened by her tragic and unnecessary death.
St. Patrick's Day Edition
March 17, 2003
A War Without Balance
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and Israeli War Crimes
By STEVE NIVA
The Israeli bulldozer that ran over and killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, in the Gaza Strip today had killed before. A few weeks ago, on March 3, an Israeli bulldozer killed a nine-month pregnant Palestinian woman, Nuha Sweidan, while destroying the house next door in a dilapidated Gaza refugee camp. Palestinian witnesses said that Mrs. Sweidan, 33, bled to death under the rubble as she cradled her 18-month-old daughter. Her unborn baby also died.
Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan probably never met, but they will forever be linked as victims of Israel's 35-year occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
They are both victims of Israeli war crimes. The Geneva Conventions expressly prohibits attacks on civilian populations regardless of the motivation, even if in retaliation for attacks on its own civilians. To attack civilian populations intentionally is a war crime. Both Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan were killed during military actions against a civilian population, in this case, during a house demolition.
Since June 2002, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 150 houses belonging to Palestinians allegedly involved in attacks, a policy human rights groups describe as collective punishment and which has drawn US criticism in the past.
This past month, Israel nearly set a record for killing Palestinians, mostly civilians, in a single month. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli assaults killed 82 Palestinians, of them 50 in the Gaza Strip and 32 in the West Bank, wounding an additional 616 persons. Israeli soldiers also killed several Palestinian children and 3 medical staff as they sought to attend to wounded. Now, they have killed an American peace activist. In this same period, only six Israeli's were killed, all of them soldiers.
Why so many civilian casualties?
These killings are the product of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's escalation of Israeli Army assaults on Palestinian population centers following his re-election on January 28. Since that time, Israeli forces have largely focused their wrath on Gaza. They have conducted unprecedented armored military operations in Gaza city centers, pursued suspected militants deep into refugee camps and deployed bulldozers to destroy dozens of building and homes. This latter type of operation led to Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan's deaths.
Israeli sympathizers may object that these assaults and civilians killings are justified in response to Palestinian suicide bombings but international law is clear that attacks on civilians are prohibited under any circumstance.
Palestinian suicide bombings are clearly war crimes, even though some Palestinians claim they are justified in response to Israeli massacres and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. However, Israeli military assaults that systematically result in civilian deaths are also war crimes, regardless of their justification. Both are reprehensible and must be condemned.
Moreover, few independent observers accept that Israel's assaults on Palestinian civilian centers in the past two months correlate as responses to suicide bombs. These operations began nearly a month after the January 5 suicide bomb that killed over 20 Israeli's in Tel Aviv. The only other suicide bomb this year came on March 5, well after the Israeli campaign in Gaza was underway. Furthermore, in both cases the suicide bombers came from the West Bank, not Gaza.
The reality is that Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan will also be forever linked as victims of the extremist Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's relentless war on Palestinians on behalf of Israeli settlements and his vision of a Greater Israel that seeks total control of all of historic Palestine.
The escalating assaults on Gaza over the past month indicate that Ariel Sharon is preparing the way for an invasion and reconquest of the Gaza Strip to complement his reconquest of the West Bank last April. With the West Bank now firmly under Israeli control, Gaza has become the sole remaining area of armed Palestinian resistance to Israel. It stands in the way of Sharon imposing a settlement on the Palestinians that will assign them small, disconnected Bantustans surrounded by hundreds of Israeli settlements. Ariel Sharon was the original architect of the massive expansion of settlements after 1978 and continues to be their main patron.
Sharon is well known for his cold, calculating, tactical acumen, both as a General and as a politician. He is also known as a ruthless fighter and has been accused of crimes against humanity for his role in the massacre of nearly a thousand Palestinian women, children and elderly people in Beirut in 1982.
He is well aware of the sympathy Israel has received in response to the brutal suicide bomb attacks over the past few years. He knows that the world is focused on the impending war in Iraq. Thus, he has calculated that the time is right to set in motion the reoccupation of Gaza, even if it provokes further suicide bombings because he can use them as a pretext for even larger actions.
Menachem Klein, an Israeli political scientist at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, outlined the logic of Sharon's actions in a recent Christian Science Monitor article (13 Mar 2003).
"These raids can be a kind of rehearsal, with the idea to arrest someone, but also to see how to get in and out, what tactics to use. A rehearsal on live people. And the thinking is that if the world gets used to these short-term reoccupations, it will digest the long-term one."
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan, over a hundred Palestinians and scores of Israeli civilians are the victims of this live rehearsal.
It is true that Palestinian suicide bombers have helped contribute to this cycle of violence through their own vicious acts. Indeed they have murdered women, children and innocent civilians as well.
However, this is not a symmetrical conflict. Israel dominates the lives and land of over 3 million Palestinians through massive military assaults, imprisonment of thousands, torture and systematic starvation policies that have lead to a major humanitarian crisis in many areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, Rachel had been working with other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to defend a newly dug water well from Israeli attempts to destroy it before she was killed.
Moreover, since his return to power two years ago, Ariel Sharon has systematically escalated Israeli military assaults and assassinations in search of a military solution, despite the waves of suicide bombings, in order to achieve a very clear set of political objectives. At the top of the list has been the destruction of any base of Palestinian political and military resistance to Israeli settlements and permanent control of the land Israel occupied in 1967. Gaza is his last objective.
There is no "balance" in this conflict. It is time to call Israel into account for its war crimes and time to stop Ariel Sharon from imposing his violent dream of Greater Israel on Palestinians. It is time to stop the needless deaths of Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and others, whether Palestinian or Israeli, or now, American.
Steve Niva is a Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. He teaches international politics and Middle East studies. He met with Rachel Corrie before she left for Gaza in January and is deeply saddened by her tragic and unnecessary death.
March 17, 2003
A War Without Balance
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and Israeli War Crimes
By STEVE NIVA
The Israeli bulldozer that ran over and killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, in the Gaza Strip today had killed before. A few weeks ago, on March 3, an Israeli bulldozer killed a nine-month pregnant Palestinian woman, Nuha Sweidan, while destroying the house next door in a dilapidated Gaza refugee camp. Palestinian witnesses said that Mrs. Sweidan, 33, bled to death under the rubble as she cradled her 18-month-old daughter. Her unborn baby also died.
Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan probably never met, but they will forever be linked as victims of Israel's 35-year occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
They are both victims of Israeli war crimes. The Geneva Conventions expressly prohibits attacks on civilian populations regardless of the motivation, even if in retaliation for attacks on its own civilians. To attack civilian populations intentionally is a war crime. Both Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan were killed during military actions against a civilian population, in this case, during a house demolition.
Since June 2002, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 150 houses belonging to Palestinians allegedly involved in attacks, a policy human rights groups describe as collective punishment and which has drawn US criticism in the past.
This past month, Israel nearly set a record for killing Palestinians, mostly civilians, in a single month. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli assaults killed 82 Palestinians, of them 50 in the Gaza Strip and 32 in the West Bank, wounding an additional 616 persons. Israeli soldiers also killed several Palestinian children and 3 medical staff as they sought to attend to wounded. Now, they have killed an American peace activist. In this same period, only six Israeli's were killed, all of them soldiers.
Why so many civilian casualties?
These killings are the product of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's escalation of Israeli Army assaults on Palestinian population centers following his re-election on January 28. Since that time, Israeli forces have largely focused their wrath on Gaza. They have conducted unprecedented armored military operations in Gaza city centers, pursued suspected militants deep into refugee camps and deployed bulldozers to destroy dozens of building and homes. This latter type of operation led to Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan's deaths.
Israeli sympathizers may object that these assaults and civilians killings are justified in response to Palestinian suicide bombings but international law is clear that attacks on civilians are prohibited under any circumstance.
Palestinian suicide bombings are clearly war crimes, even though some Palestinians claim they are justified in response to Israeli massacres and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. However, Israeli military assaults that systematically result in civilian deaths are also war crimes, regardless of their justification. Both are reprehensible and must be condemned.
Moreover, few independent observers accept that Israel's assaults on Palestinian civilian centers in the past two months correlate as responses to suicide bombs. These operations began nearly a month after the January 5 suicide bomb that killed over 20 Israeli's in Tel Aviv. The only other suicide bomb this year came on March 5, well after the Israeli campaign in Gaza was underway. Furthermore, in both cases the suicide bombers came from the West Bank, not Gaza.
The reality is that Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan will also be forever linked as victims of the extremist Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's relentless war on Palestinians on behalf of Israeli settlements and his vision of a Greater Israel that seeks total control of all of historic Palestine.
The escalating assaults on Gaza over the past month indicate that Ariel Sharon is preparing the way for an invasion and reconquest of the Gaza Strip to complement his reconquest of the West Bank last April. With the West Bank now firmly under Israeli control, Gaza has become the sole remaining area of armed Palestinian resistance to Israel. It stands in the way of Sharon imposing a settlement on the Palestinians that will assign them small, disconnected Bantustans surrounded by hundreds of Israeli settlements. Ariel Sharon was the original architect of the massive expansion of settlements after 1978 and continues to be their main patron.
Sharon is well known for his cold, calculating, tactical acumen, both as a General and as a politician. He is also known as a ruthless fighter and has been accused of crimes against humanity for his role in the massacre of nearly a thousand Palestinian women, children and elderly people in Beirut in 1982.
He is well aware of the sympathy Israel has received in response to the brutal suicide bomb attacks over the past few years. He knows that the world is focused on the impending war in Iraq. Thus, he has calculated that the time is right to set in motion the reoccupation of Gaza, even if it provokes further suicide bombings because he can use them as a pretext for even larger actions.
Menachem Klein, an Israeli political scientist at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, outlined the logic of Sharon's actions in a recent Christian Science Monitor article (13 Mar 2003).
"These raids can be a kind of rehearsal, with the idea to arrest someone, but also to see how to get in and out, what tactics to use. A rehearsal on live people. And the thinking is that if the world gets used to these short-term reoccupations, it will digest the long-term one."
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan, over a hundred Palestinians and scores of Israeli civilians are the victims of this live rehearsal.
It is true that Palestinian suicide bombers have helped contribute to this cycle of violence through their own vicious acts. Indeed they have murdered women, children and innocent civilians as well.
However, this is not a symmetrical conflict. Israel dominates the lives and land of over 3 million Palestinians through massive military assaults, imprisonment of thousands, torture and systematic starvation policies that have lead to a major humanitarian crisis in many areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, Rachel had been working with other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to defend a newly dug water well from Israeli attempts to destroy it before she was killed.
Moreover, since his return to power two years ago, Ariel Sharon has systematically escalated Israeli military assaults and assassinations in search of a military solution, despite the waves of suicide bombings, in order to achieve a very clear set of political objectives. At the top of the list has been the destruction of any base of Palestinian political and military resistance to Israeli settlements and permanent control of the land Israel occupied in 1967. Gaza is his last objective.
There is no "balance" in this conflict. It is time to call Israel into account for its war crimes and time to stop Ariel Sharon from imposing his violent dream of Greater Israel on Palestinians. It is time to stop the needless deaths of Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and others, whether Palestinian or Israeli, or now, American.
Steve Niva is a Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. He teaches international politics and Middle East studies. He met with Rachel Corrie before she left for Gaza in January and is deeply saddened by her tragic and unnecessary death.
St. Patrick's Day Edition
March 17, 2003
A War Without Balance
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and Israeli War Crimes
By STEVE NIVA
The Israeli bulldozer that ran over and killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, in the Gaza Strip today had killed before. A few weeks ago, on March 3, an Israeli bulldozer killed a nine-month pregnant Palestinian woman, Nuha Sweidan, while destroying the house next door in a dilapidated Gaza refugee camp. Palestinian witnesses said that Mrs. Sweidan, 33, bled to death under the rubble as she cradled her 18-month-old daughter. Her unborn baby also died.
Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan probably never met, but they will forever be linked as victims of Israel's 35-year occupation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
They are both victims of Israeli war crimes. The Geneva Conventions expressly prohibits attacks on civilian populations regardless of the motivation, even if in retaliation for attacks on its own civilians. To attack civilian populations intentionally is a war crime. Both Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan were killed during military actions against a civilian population, in this case, during a house demolition.
Since June 2002, the Israeli army has destroyed more than 150 houses belonging to Palestinians allegedly involved in attacks, a policy human rights groups describe as collective punishment and which has drawn US criticism in the past.
This past month, Israel nearly set a record for killing Palestinians, mostly civilians, in a single month. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli assaults killed 82 Palestinians, of them 50 in the Gaza Strip and 32 in the West Bank, wounding an additional 616 persons. Israeli soldiers also killed several Palestinian children and 3 medical staff as they sought to attend to wounded. Now, they have killed an American peace activist. In this same period, only six Israeli's were killed, all of them soldiers.
Why so many civilian casualties?
These killings are the product of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's escalation of Israeli Army assaults on Palestinian population centers following his re-election on January 28. Since that time, Israeli forces have largely focused their wrath on Gaza. They have conducted unprecedented armored military operations in Gaza city centers, pursued suspected militants deep into refugee camps and deployed bulldozers to destroy dozens of building and homes. This latter type of operation led to Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan's deaths.
Israeli sympathizers may object that these assaults and civilians killings are justified in response to Palestinian suicide bombings but international law is clear that attacks on civilians are prohibited under any circumstance.
Palestinian suicide bombings are clearly war crimes, even though some Palestinians claim they are justified in response to Israeli massacres and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. However, Israeli military assaults that systematically result in civilian deaths are also war crimes, regardless of their justification. Both are reprehensible and must be condemned.
Moreover, few independent observers accept that Israel's assaults on Palestinian civilian centers in the past two months correlate as responses to suicide bombs. These operations began nearly a month after the January 5 suicide bomb that killed over 20 Israeli's in Tel Aviv. The only other suicide bomb this year came on March 5, well after the Israeli campaign in Gaza was underway. Furthermore, in both cases the suicide bombers came from the West Bank, not Gaza.
The reality is that Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan will also be forever linked as victims of the extremist Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's relentless war on Palestinians on behalf of Israeli settlements and his vision of a Greater Israel that seeks total control of all of historic Palestine.
The escalating assaults on Gaza over the past month indicate that Ariel Sharon is preparing the way for an invasion and reconquest of the Gaza Strip to complement his reconquest of the West Bank last April. With the West Bank now firmly under Israeli control, Gaza has become the sole remaining area of armed Palestinian resistance to Israel. It stands in the way of Sharon imposing a settlement on the Palestinians that will assign them small, disconnected Bantustans surrounded by hundreds of Israeli settlements. Ariel Sharon was the original architect of the massive expansion of settlements after 1978 and continues to be their main patron.
Sharon is well known for his cold, calculating, tactical acumen, both as a General and as a politician. He is also known as a ruthless fighter and has been accused of crimes against humanity for his role in the massacre of nearly a thousand Palestinian women, children and elderly people in Beirut in 1982.
He is well aware of the sympathy Israel has received in response to the brutal suicide bomb attacks over the past few years. He knows that the world is focused on the impending war in Iraq. Thus, he has calculated that the time is right to set in motion the reoccupation of Gaza, even if it provokes further suicide bombings because he can use them as a pretext for even larger actions.
Menachem Klein, an Israeli political scientist at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, outlined the logic of Sharon's actions in a recent Christian Science Monitor article (13 Mar 2003).
"These raids can be a kind of rehearsal, with the idea to arrest someone, but also to see how to get in and out, what tactics to use. A rehearsal on live people. And the thinking is that if the world gets used to these short-term reoccupations, it will digest the long-term one."
Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan, over a hundred Palestinians and scores of Israeli civilians are the victims of this live rehearsal.
It is true that Palestinian suicide bombers have helped contribute to this cycle of violence through their own vicious acts. Indeed they have murdered women, children and innocent civilians as well.
However, this is not a symmetrical conflict. Israel dominates the lives and land of over 3 million Palestinians through massive military assaults, imprisonment of thousands, torture and systematic starvation policies that have lead to a major humanitarian crisis in many areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, Rachel had been working with other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to defend a newly dug water well from Israeli attempts to destroy it before she was killed.
Moreover, since his return to power two years ago, Ariel Sharon has systematically escalated Israeli military assaults and assassinations in search of a military solution, despite the waves of suicide bombings, in order to achieve a very clear set of political objectives. At the top of the list has been the destruction of any base of Palestinian political and military resistance to Israeli settlements and permanent control of the land Israel occupied in 1967. Gaza is his last objective.
There is no "balance" in this conflict. It is time to call Israel into account for its war crimes and time to stop Ariel Sharon from imposing his violent dream of Greater Israel on Palestinians. It is time to stop the needless deaths of Rachel Corrie, Nuha Sweidan and others, whether Palestinian or Israeli, or now, American.
Steve Niva is a Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. He teaches international politics and Middle East studies. He met with Rachel Corrie before she left for Gaza in January and is deeply saddened by her tragic and unnecessary death.
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