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-- Rachel Corrie, Jessica Lynch, And The Unequal Worthiness Of Victims
Rachel Corrie, Jessica Lynch, And The Unequal Worthiness Of Victims
Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2003 by NoLogo
Saving Private Lynch, Forgetting Rachel Corrie
by Naomi Klein
Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie could have passed for sisters. Two all-American blondes, two destinies forever changed in a Middle East war zone. Private Jessica Lynch, the soldier, was born in Palestine, West Virginia. Rachel Corrie, the activist, died in Israeli-occupied Palestine.
Corrie was four years older than 19-year old Lynch. Her body was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza seven days before Lynch was taken into Iraqi custody on March 23. Before she went to Iraq, Lynch organized a pen pal program with a local kindergarten. Before Corrie left for Gaza, she organized a pen pal program between kids in her hometown of Olympia, Washington, and children in Rafah.
Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her government. In the words of West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, "she approached the prospect of combat with determination rather than fear."
Corrie went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her government. As a U.S. citizen, she believed she had a special responsibility to defend Palestinians against U.S.-built weapons, purchased with U.S. aid to Israel. In letters home, she vividly described how fresh water was being diverted from Gaza to Israeli settlements, how death was more normal than life. "This is what we pay for here," she wrote.
Unlike Lynch, Corrie did not go to Gaza to engage in combat _� she went to try to thwart it. Along with her fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), she believed that the Israeli military's incursions could be slowed by the presence of highly visible "internationals." The killing of Palestinian civilians may have become commonplace, the thinking went, but Israel doesn't want the diplomatic or media scandals that would come if it killed a U.S. college student.
In a way, Corrie was harnessing the very thing that she disliked most about her country � the belief that American lives are worth more than any others _ and trying to use it to save a few Palestinian homes from demolition.
Believing her fluorescent orange jacket would serve as armor, that her bullhorn could repel bullets, Corrie stood in front of bulldozers, slept beside water wells, and escorted children to school. If suicide bombers turn their bodies into weapons of death, Corrie turned hers into the opposite: a weapon of life, a "human shield."
When that Israeli bulldozer driver looked at Corrie's orange jacket and pressed the accelerator, her strategy failed. It turns out that the lives of some U.S. citizens _ even beautiful, young, white women � are valued more than others. And nothing demonstrates this more starkly than the opposing responses to Rachel Corrie and Private Jessica Lynch.
When the Pentagon announced Lynch's successful rescue, she became an overnight hero, complete with "America loves Jessica" fridge magnets, stickers, t-shirts, mugs, country songs, and an NBC made-for-TV movie. According to White House spokesman Ari Fleisher, President George W. Bush was "full of joy for Jessica Lynch." Lynch's rescue, we were told, was a testament to a core American value: as Senator Rockefeller put it in a speech to the Senate, "We take care of our people."
Do they? Corrie's death, which made the papers for two days and then virtually disappeared, has met with almost total official silence, despite the fact that eye-witnesses claim it was a deliberate act. President Bush has said nothing about a U.S. citizen killed by a U.S. made bulldozer bought with U.S. tax dollars. A U.S. congressional resolution demanding an independent inquiry into Corrie's death has been buried in committee, leaving the Israeli military's investigation _ which conveniently cleared itself of any wrong doing as the only official probe.
The ISM says that this non-response has sent a clear, and dangerous, signal. According to Olivia Jackson, a 25-year-old British citizen still in Rafah, "after Rachel was killed, [the Israeli military] waited for the response from the American government and the response was pathetic. They have realized that they can get away with it and it has encouraged them to keep on going."
First there was Brian Avery, a 24-year-old citizen shot in the face on April 5. Then Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist shot in the head and left brain dead on April 11. Next was James Miller, the British cameraman shot dead while wearing a vest that said "TV." In all of these cases, eye-witnesses say the shooters were Israeli soldiers.
There is something else that Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie have in common: both of their stories have been distorted by a military for its own purposes. According to the official story, Lynch was captured in a bloody gun battle, mistreated by sadistic Iraqi doctors, then rescued in another storm of bullets by heroic Navy SEALs. In the past weeks, another version has emerged. The doctors that treated Lynch found no evidence of battle wounds, and donated their own blood to save her life. Most embarrassing of all, witnesses have told the BBC that those daring Navy SEALs already knew there were no Iraqi fighters left in the area when they stormed the hospital.
But while Lynch's story has been distorted to make its protagonists appear more heroic, Corrie's story has been posthumously twisted to make her, and her fellow ISM activists, appear sinister.
For months, the Israeli military had been looking for an excuse to get rid of the ISM "troublemakers." It found it in Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif , the two British suicide bombers. It turns out that they had attended a memorial to Rachel Corrie in Rafah, a fact the Israeli military has seized on to link the ISM to terrorism. Members of ISM point out that the memorial was open to the public, and that they knew nothing of the British visitors' intentions. As an organization, the ISM is explicitly opposed to the targeting of civilians, whether by Israeli bulldozers or Palestinian bombers. Furthermore, many ISMers believe that their work may reduce terrorist incidents by demonstrating that there are ways to resist occupation other than the nihilistic revenge offered by suicide bombing.
No matter. In the past two weeks, half a dozen ISM activists have been arrested, several deported, and the organization's offices have been raided. The crack down is now spreading to all "internationals," meaning there are fewer and fewer people in the occupied territories to either witness the ongoing abuses or assist the victims. On Monday, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council that dozens of UN aid workers had been prevented from getting in and out of Gaza, calling it a violation of "Israel's international humanitarian law obligations."
On June 5 there will be an international day of action for Palestinian rights. One of the key demands is for the UN to send an international monitoring force into the occupied territories. Until that happens, many are determined to continue Corrie's work, despite the risks. Over forty students at her former college, Evergreen State in Olympia, have already signed up to go to Gaza with the ISM this summer.
So who is a hero? During the attack on Iraq, some of Corrie�s friends emailed her picture to MSNBC asking that it be included on the station's "wall of heroes," along with Jessica Lynch. The network didn't comply, but Corrie is being honored in other ways. Her family has received more than 10,000 letters of support, communities across the country have organized powerful memorials, and children all over the occupied territories are being named Rachel.
It's not a made-for-TV kind of tribute, but perhaps that's for the best.
Naomi Klein is the author of 'No Logo' and 'Fences and Windows'. This article first appeared in The Globe and Mail.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0521-01.htm
Rachel Corrie died for nothing. She is already forgotten. She died in the foolish belief that the Israelis play by the same rules that we do. That non-violent protest is a way of getting your message across, that if I act with decency and respect I will get treated the same way. That isnt how bullies work. The only thing they understand is the language of greater strength, any sign of willingness to negotiate, to act with human dignity is seen as weakness. The americans and the israelis dont care about her or the palestinians and they never have and they never will.
She got treated the same way they treat the arabs. With contempt. The wall of silence that comes up whenever an Israeli commits some atrocity is astonishing. If it was an Iraqi that bulldozed her I am sure we would never hear the end of it.
American college student Rachel Corrie was tragically killed on Sunday when she fell down as an IDF bulldozer destroyed a house in Gaza.
The bulldozer was part of an operation to eliminate tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to illegally smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
Corrie apparently stood atop a mound of dirt as the bulldozer approached the house, but then fell backward, tumbling down the mound and out of sight. The bulldozer continued and accidentally crushed her.
The IDF Spokesman said that soldiers repeatedly warned demonstrators to keep a safe distance.
Corrie was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. She was known for anti-Israel and anti-American activities, as this photo from Gaza (http://www.honestreporting.com/grap...cles/corrie.jpg) shows Corrie burning an American flag, while Palestinian children look on.
(In general, we wonder on what basis the International Solidarity Movement justifies shielding a house used for weapons smuggling.)
The Washington Post (http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar...-2003Mar16.html) notes two important points:
1) soldiers driving an armored bulldozer have limited visibility because of the narrow window.
2) One of the ISM founders admits the protesters might not have been as disciplined in their protest as they should have been.
Most media reports failed to mention that the IDF bulldozer was looking for smuggling tunnels. Instead, reports described the house sympathetically as "the home of a Gazan doctor."
And the entire mainstream media neglected to mention Corrie's anti-American activities and flag-burning.
Nice, factual presentation of what really happened to Rachel Corrie:
http://www.alisrael.com/rachel_corrie/
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| Originally posted by melech_mike Nice, factual presentation of what really happened to Rachel Corrie: http://www.alisrael.com/rachel_corrie/ |
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| Originally posted by tranceaholic hahaha israel.com |
The International Solidarity Movement -- the pro-Palestinian "humanitarian group" to which the late American college student Rachel Corrie belonged -- is back in the news. On Thursday, the IDF raided the ISM's Jenin office to find a wanted member of the Islamic Jihad sheltered within. The terrorist was arrested; the ISM claimed ignorance.
Read the story at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...e_campaigners_3
There is a lot to say about this ISM. Its motives and intentions are questionable. Their tactics and propaganda could get the most loving, caring, genuine people to start hating Israel too. It's called brainwashing...
They make themselves and their cause out to look so helpless, so victimized, desperate etc... They are masters of mellow-dramatic outpours and outcries. Look deeper into their conniving intentions.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by melech_mike American college student Rachel Corrie was tragically killed on Sunday when she fell down as an IDF bulldozer destroyed a house in Gaza. The bulldozer was part of an operation to eliminate tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to illegally smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza. Corrie apparently stood atop a mound of dirt as the bulldozer approached the house, but then fell backward, tumbling down the mound and out of sight. The bulldozer continued and accidentally crushed her. The IDF Spokesman said that soldiers repeatedly warned demonstrators to keep a safe distance. Corrie was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement. She was known for anti-Israel and anti-American activities, as this photo from Gaza (http://www.honestreporting.com/grap...cles/corrie.jpg) shows Corrie burning an American flag, while Palestinian children look on. (In general, we wonder on what basis the International Solidarity Movement justifies shielding a house used for weapons smuggling.) The Washington Post (http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar...-2003Mar16.html) notes two important points: 1) soldiers driving an armored bulldozer have limited visibility because of the narrow window. 2) One of the ISM founders admits the protesters might not have been as disciplined in their protest as they should have been. Most media reports failed to mention that the IDF bulldozer was looking for smuggling tunnels. Instead, reports described the house sympathetically as "the home of a Gazan doctor." And the entire mainstream media neglected to mention Corrie's anti-American activities and flag-burning. |
The consumer public got a huge dose of misleading information when Associated Press distributed a photo showing Corrie, standing in (apparently) direct view of the bulldozer driver, dressed in orange and speaking into a megaphone in the direction of the oncoming vehicle.
The AP caption reads: "Rachel was run over Sunday by the bulldozer that she was trying to stop from tearing down a building in the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said."
See the AP photo at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../168/3j4y0.html
The problem with the AP photo caption is that readers are led to believe that this photo depicts the very scene and moment of the accident. The implication is criminal recklessness on the part of the IDF driver.
In fact, however, this photo was NOT taken in the moments before Corrie's death. Joseph Smith, of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, was the photographer and wrote a chronological account of the incident (published on pro-Palestinian websites).
Smith says that the photo of Corrie "standing with megaphone" is ascribed to the time period 2pm-4pm. In addition, during this period, Smith notes that the bulldozer "always stopped in time to avoid injuring them."
At the time of Corrie's death (5pm), Smith describes Corrie as "sitting, with arms waving" (no megaphone), and another colleague holding the megaphone from a distance.
Additionally, one key point that Smith does not mention is that the bulldozers shown in the two photos are different types. The later photo is a bulldozer with much smaller windows, and hence reduced visibility.
Read Smith's account at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1284.shtml
Thus, the AP photo and caption fails to note the two most essential factors in determining visibility or lack thereof: 1) Corrie was no longer standing, but had changed to a sitting position, and 2) she was no longer in possession of attention-grabbing megaphone.
When publishing such a photo, AP is obligated to explain details of chronology; in the absence of any information, readers presume that since the bulldozer appears 8-10 feet away from Corrie, the photographer must have snapped the picture moments before the bulldozer hit her.
This photo was published by many of the 15,000 media outlets that AP services. And though the accompanying articles may provide clarifying information, a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, by not providing a caption that clearly counterbalances the easy "misread," AP has misrepresented Corrie's death and contributed to a worldwide slander of the IDF.
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| Originally posted by Cyrus King .... THE IDF ARE MURDERERS..LIVE WITH IT |
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| Originally posted by melech_mike I was in the IDF, thus making me a murderer? |
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| Originally posted by occrider I'm pretty sure all Israelis have a mandatory 2 years of service in the IDF am I right mike? |
Both of these women we're striving for essentially the same ideal, the libration of an occupied people. However, the actions of one we're held high above that of the other. Why?
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| Originally posted by PeacefulWarrior Both of these women we're striving for essentially the same ideal, the libration of an occupied people. However, the actions of one we're held high above that of the other. Why? |
This is slightly off topic, but I heard they are making a TV-movie about the Jessica Lynch story.
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