Rachel Corrie Issues

Rachel Corrie Issues

Indymedia has a story about protesters shutting down a Caterpillar plant in England for their "complicity" in the death of Rachael Corrie when she threw herself in front of a moving bulldozer in Israel last year. First is the Indymedia Article.

UK Indymedia | Caterpillar Targeted in Memory of Rachel Corrie

Caterpillar Targeted in Memory of Rachel Corrie
protester, 16.03.2004 13:45

To honour Rachel Corrie, the US activist crushed to death by a D9 Caterpillar-made Israeli military bulldozer a year ago today, protesters intend to occupy Caterpillar Defence Industries in Shrewsbury, leaflet and dialogue with workers on the impact of their work, and grind production lines to a halt for a 3 minute silence in honour of Rachel’s life and the 2,859 Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation since the 28th of September 2000.

Most of the Protestors have lived in Occupied Palestine with Palestinian families, and witnessed first hand the destruction of homes, olive trees, and lives by Caterpillar bulldozers. Some have felt the violence of the Israeli Occupation on their own bodies and seen friends, including children, shot to death by the Israeli army. Caterpillar is complicit with and aids these war crimes by supplying military equipment to the Israeli army.

Since 1967 Israel has used Caterpillar bulldozers to demolish nearly 9,000 Palestinian homes, leaving more than 50,000 people homeless. Since September 2000, Israel has razed 12,737 homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the past two years Caterpillar D9s demolished an entire neighbourhood in Jenin refugee camp and uprooted 200,000 Palestinian olive trees.

23-year-old American Peace Activist Rachel Corrie, was killed by a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer on March 16, 2003 as she nonviolently tried to prevent it from destroying a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip.

Caterpillar profits from Israel's construction of the 25 foot high Security Barrier (aka The Apartheid Wall) that will confiscate approximately 40 percent of the West Bank under the guise of enhancing Israeli security. The wall separates Palestinians from their farmlands and cuts some villages off from the rest of the West Bank, rendering as many as 100,000 people completely isolated.

Protestors will remain in occupation until they have met the Director or Caterpillar Defence Industries where they will call on Caterpillar to respect human rights and international Human Rights law by terminating its supply contract with the Israeli Government.

Secondly, we have a comment, about halfway down the page, which sums up nicely the problem with Ms. Corrie and others who wish to appease terrorists.

People like Rachel Corrie are a big part of the problem
18.03.2004 01:37

The problem in the middle east is very complex and trying to boil it down to simple stereotypes like the evil Israelis trying to oppress the peace loving Palestinians makes the problem worse.

Most of the evidence does show that the buildings Rachel Corrie was trying to prevent the Israeli Army from demolishing, were in fact being used for weapons smuggling and if I remember correctly, a terrorist leader was later captured in one of those same buildings.

Rachel Corrie took up sides with groups which include suicide bombers who specifically target civilians. I don't know if she did this knowingly or not, but facts show that people who later went on to be suicide bombers attended events at groups she frequented and protected. Rachel Corrie was no innocent. She was a willing participant in things that made the problem worse, rather than searching for a true solution.

Her final act was one of supreme abdication of responsibility. She ran in front of a moving bulldozer, assuming that if she put herself in harm's way, the driver would be forced to stop. But her didn't see her and kept going.

Now the conspiracy theorists here accuse the bulldozer driver of intentionally killing her. Where is the evidence of this? This is just more fuel for the fire of hate burning in the region. The driver said he did not see her, and reportedly needed counselling afterward to deal with the aftermath of what happened.

But all the "human rights activists" here are quick to condemn him, without a peep being said when a school bus full of children is blown up by a suicide bomber from the same types of groups Corrie supported.

You people would have more credibility if you also spoke out against the intentional targeting of Israeli civilians in suicide attacks. By not doing that, you give the impression (perhaps accurately) that you think the Israeli women and children got what they deserved.

Israel is not going to disappear. Anyone who truly wants peace has to recognize this as prerequisite for peace.

Rachel Corrie's actions did nothing to promote peace, and probably cost some lives, other than her own. Her self indulgent field trip to the west bank accomplished nothing but making her a martyr for those who want to continue to hate.

So if people want to make Rachel Corrie their patron saint of the one sided worldview, and conduct juvenile sit-ins at CAT factories, go ahead. But realize that not only was Rachel Corrie part of the problem, but now you are too. Caterpillar isn't the problem any more than a 4 year old child killed by a suicide bomber.

Rachel Corrie could have done infinitely more good by telling her Palestinian "friends" to sit down and negotiate and stop bringing in weapons and setting off bombs, than by trying to act as a human shield for their activities.

Don

Finally, there are several other comments, especially those right after Don's, which spell out in more detail the evidence against Ms. Corrie.

It should also be noted that several comments have complained about censorship of comments to this story. It seems that if Indymedia disagrees with your politics they may delete your post. (As opposed to many sites such as this blog which only delete posts for offensive language, ethnic slurs, etc.)

I don't know if that is true or not, but if Don's posts and the others disappear, I have kept a copy of the subsequent comments which I will post here.