Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Israelis kill American peace activist in Palestine

On 16 March, there were three more deaths in the Gaza Strip, among them an American activist with the International Solidarity Movement, killed by an Israeli bulldozer. One Palestinian man in Rafah and an adolescent in Khan Yunis were also killed.

On Monday 17 March, hundreds of Palestinians held a symbolic funeral for US student Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli Army bulldozer as she protested the demolition of a house in southern Gaza's Rafah refugee camp. Corey, a 23-year-old student from Olympia, Washington, who was due to graduate from Evergreen College this year, was killed by the bulldozer, which ran her over during the demolition of Dr Samir Masri's house. She died from skull and chest fractures. There had been eight international protestors at the site, four from the US and four from Britain.

Holding a stretcher draped with an American flag, around 1,000 Palestinians marched through the refugee camp as a sign of mourning for the American. "We fly a US flag today to show our support to all American peace lovers, those like Rachel," said Palestinian farmer Hassan Abu Toa'ma.

Schoolchildren befriended by Corrie during her time in Rafah filed past the American woman's body at the local morgue.

"Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop," a witness said. "She waved for the bulldozer to stop. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled 'stop, stop,' and the bulldozer didn't stop at all. It had run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her."

The Israelis described the killing as "a regrettable accident" and said the driver's vision had been hampered by the small, armoured windows.

Rachel's e-mails home reveal a passionate and thoughtful young woman who had been marked by her experiences in Palestine, like so many other visitors, shocked at the level of repression and awestruck by the hospitality and warmth of the Palestinians, despite everything.

In one, she wrote: "You asked me about non-violent resistance. When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family's house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I'm having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it."

The day after Rachel Corrie lost her life, nine Palestinian civilians, including three children, were killed in less than four hours when Israeli occupying forces moved into Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip and Beit Lahia in the north. Twenty people were injured during the incursions.

This small-scale casual slaughter goes on, as the world focuses on the large-scale massacre to come in Iraq.