Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old senior at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the Rafah Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip on March 16. Corrie was run over—and run over again, when an army bulldozer backed up over her a second time—as she tried to prevent soldiers from demolishing a Palestinian home in the camp.… return to article
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Reader Comments (31)Page 1 of 1 pagesI would respect your group more if you spent time riding on busses in Israel as well.This conflict is two sided but it seems you feel sorry for the Palestinians.The one thing I would ask you to think of is What if the Jews were the weak ones and the Palestinians had the power,would there be any jews left alive?
Posted by Rob on Mar 21, 2003 at 9:57 PM Thanks for your sober and clearheaded assesment of the situation and it’s significance.
Posted by James D. Newman on Mar 22, 2003 at 3:54 AM This goes to show what a blatantly evil Frankenstein state Israel is.
Posted by Clark Barr on Mar 22, 2003 at 9:39 AM Thank you for that informative article. Your observation that if Rachel Corrie was killed by the Iraqi Army there would be fuming outrage, is completely on the spot. It’s past time for someone to put a stop to Israel’s blatant war crimes.
Posted by N.C. on Mar 23, 2003 at 5:41 PM I wonder if she will get to deflower 70 virgins in Paradise. Or hasn’t Jihad adopted Title IX? She did her part, I say. (To cleanse the gene pool, that is).
Posted by Veinas on Mar 24, 2003 at 4:26 PM Why have many of the human shields fled Iraq with a changing worldview? Because the evil there is paletable. Some teams have hours of footage showing Iraqi’s begging for help in escaping.
If the PA would quite suppressing freedom of the press similar stories might arise out of the ‘occupied terreritories’ Instead most ‘journalists’ in the West Bank and Gaza spend time getting their shoot right and chewing out the actors who flub it, alla the man who fell off a funeral stretcher 3 times last year (and then got back on to continue the procession).
The foolishness of ‘shields’ like Ms. Corrie are only compounded by their failure to consider shielding the other side. Let such ‘shields’ attend upcoming Passover celebrations or ride the public buses as Rob from Connecticut suggested then their ‘non-violent’ intentions (I don’t remember Gandhi burning the Union Jack) might hold some credibility.
Posted by Carl Snodgrass on Mar 24, 2003 at 5:14 PM I say Americans should walk away from Israel and Palestine. Both of ‘em. Turn our backs, let them deal with it. Sure, we’ve been involved for 40 years, but originally we have the Germans to thank for the necessity of a Jewish state. Anyone who sides wholeheartedly with one side or another of that conflict is confused to the political bantering that both sides are so adept at using. Hey Germany, write up the perfect plan to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Send it to their fearless leaders. We have our own mistakes to deal with in this country.
Posted by ROCKTIME on Mar 25, 2003 at 5:55 PM Frickin’ Evergreen… If that ain’t a liberal mind warping cesspool, I don’t know what is. Think before you act, kid.
Posted by ROCKTIME on Mar 25, 2003 at 5:57 PM Why are people surprised by the fact that a person standing in front of an oncoming bulldozer was unable to get out of the way and was subsequently run over by it?
Any commentors ever been 10 feet in front of a moving bulldozer?
Any commentors ever operated a bulldozer or heavy equipment? Ever crush anything you could not see with it?
Would it surprise anyone to know that thousands of people are killed or injured by heavy machinery every year?
Ms. Corrie engaged in an extremely dangerous activity. There is no one to blame for her death but her. Her youth does not compound the tragedy, it helps to explain it. She apparently just didn’t know any better, which is understandable.
Posted by Nus on Mar 26, 2003 at 2:04 PM rachel is an american hero,she did what the US goverment should be doing.to protect and liberate the palestinians. there are no 2 sides,ther are one side,Isreal,the agressor ,with jets,tanks, and apaches.and the victimes,the palestinians with no arms.history of this conflict did not start with sucide bombings.the palestinians waited 50 years before using this terrible tactic,after israel kept killing them,and steeling their land
Posted by adam on Mar 26, 2003 at 5:55 PM Adam… The Palestinians “ain’t” saints. Can you see that, or have you been blinded by some one-sided media source? Just be open enough to admit, the conflict is 2 sided and both sides have been guilty of attrocities. I don’t think the US should be involved, or at least, other nations should take more initiative in solving the problem if they are so upset about it.
Posted by cake on Mar 26, 2003 at 7:09 PM My prayers to Rachaels family and friends. It is Americans like her, whom have no evil intent and only care was to expose injustice and brutality and perhaps save a few innocent lives, who is representitive of what American kids could do. She had choices. Watch MTV and party with the millions of other college kids, or try to make a difference in this world. I applaud her efforts and people of all ages and races whom have the conviction to sacrifice their time for the betterment of mankind. Even though we have never met, I will remember her and her spirit.
As an American I say shame on the Sharon government and those that back him here in this great land of freedom that back his brutal tactics. He has caused irrepreable harm to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples quest to live in security and peace and allowed our AMERICAN credibility and steed to suffer because of it. Pray that someday wisened statemen like Shimon Peres will rise to the forefront so that the people in the area can live in peace and the peace activists can go home safely to their families.
Posted by Chester Polwin on Mar 27, 2003 at 6:29 PM Anyone know if the U.S. government has responded in any way?
Posted by Rachel on Mar 27, 2003 at 8:30 PM RACHEL!?! You’re alive? From Iowa? I thought you were from Washington?
Posted by cake on Mar 28, 2003 at 10:59 AM Rachel Corries senseless muder will be remembered. She wished only that people should live in peace in a time that so many governments are hell bent on killing. On May 17th in London I and thousands of other people will march for justice in Palestine. We will remember Rachel and people like her who peacefully challenge the cruelty of oppression. May she rest in peace.
Posted by John Reilly on Mar 29, 2003 at 4:37 PM The responsibles of Corrie’s awful death should be punished
Posted by Simone Giami on Mar 29, 2003 at 8:13 PM I for one will be marching in London, for the palestinians, and will be carrying a banner with the name of Rachel Corrie.
We must never forget people like Rachel
Posted by Phil Reilly on Mar 30, 2003 at 2:05 PM Nobodys fault but her own. How hard is to understand you don’t stand in front of a moving bulldozer. And why should the US investigate her death when she’s over there burning our flag.
Posted by jon on Mar 30, 2003 at 3:28 PM I’m a Muslim from Lebanon, where all those who knew about Rachel’s brutal murder were deeply moved by her heroic act. Rachel didn’t have to lose her life to gain our love and respect, her mere presence in Palestine to defend the just arab cause of living peacefully on our land was enough. We truly admire Rachel and all our friends, friends of justice who support human rights all over the world, we are truly thankful for all of them, they prove to be real humans when others are either careless or human figures with hearts and minds that belong to the zoo!
as for our dear Rachel, I totally disagree with Jon and Nus who are trying to show us that Rachel was a stupid person who didn’t realize that standing in front of a bulldozer is dangerous.. I ask you both to read Rachel’s e-mail to her parents and get to know this pure butterfly better. She was a person with a pure heart and a wise mind, she knew she was standing in front of a bulldozer to prevent the driver from demolishing the house of an ordinary, innocent man. What she didn’t know was that some people are capable of coldly killing people as they kill musquitos, just like those who are giving orders to bombard Iraqi villages and cities killing hundreds of innocent civilians to rid them of their bad leader..I wonder how those who are for this war will react if some super power emerges in the future and invades the US to rid them of their bad leader! It’s another fictitious war as Mr Michael Moore put it.. just for the oil companies, the arms factories and the contractors of the US (mostly linked one way or the other to people in the government) and the UK where they are trying to their own piece of the cheese!
Posted by Rana on Mar 31, 2003 at 11:19 AM No Arab terror, no need for reoccupation, no need for Rachel Corrie to be in Rafah. It’s that simple, and that sad.
Posted by Rick on Apr 2, 2003 at 1:32 AM how does one brittle body
stops a bulldozer?
it cannot
i just learned that
the machine does keep on going
and grinding
it does not stop for life or prayer
it did not stop
for Rachel Corrie
it will not stop
for you or me
it does not stop
it is that strong
but the stakes are that high
freedom and land
we have to take the blow
suck blood from our teeth
freedom has to ooze out of wounds
and broken bones
it takes sacrifice
and the machine does not stop
for one brittle body
or two or three or four
but what i need to know
is how many human beings does it take
for a bulldozer to stop?
we got the numbers
and if the machine does not stop
for one two or three
will it stop for four hundred?
Posted by poetaxingon.net on Apr 2, 2003 at 11:04 AM Yes, this conflict is 2 sided. Neither side has any claim to being the Ultimate victims.
BUT and this is a HUGE BUT, USA’s support is completely one sided mainly due to lobbyism, (so both the democrats and republicans take dirty money), but also in part because the PLO movement were at one point targeting americans in their Terrorist actions.
If the USA would stop their lopsided support of Israel, demand a complete halt on terrorist bombings along with a full withdrawal of ALL settlers, we might, just might stop this complete lunacy.
Martin Hansen.
Posted by Martin Hansen on Apr 4, 2003 at 1:33 PM Can’t believe some of the sick storie sabout Rachel here, it was an illegal demolition, she was protesting, it’s a fact that the driver saw her, thee protests go on all the time, yet that stupid( I want to swear) person just muredered her. Yes palestinians aren’t saints, no race on earth is, but the Israeli governments are animals, fact is, it is they who are slaughtering another peoples, it is they who are breaking intenational laws. Is it any wonder the Arabs and other nations of the world ar erallying against them? It’s just what Israel wants, do rile up these nations into a frenzy so they cn excuse their imperial acts, barbarism and illegal practises. In respect to another poster here, if the Palestinans had the power would there be any jews left, Well, yes there would be, just like how we jews have always lived in that land, we spent hundreds of years under Islamic rule and the relationship was for the most part amicable, unlike our experience with Christian nations. Rachel was a martyr, a brave and beautiful soul who will be remembered by so many for her acts. That’s what you call a real human.
Posted by subgeniux on Apr 7, 2003 at 4:05 PM No neeed for Arab terror? Laughable, we could go right back to the start of this, to the Zionist terrosrsit Irgun movement. Why do you think the Palestinians sacrifice themselves? with their lives? It is through desperation, they tried stopping attacks, but believe me my friend, the Israeli state is not intereested in peace, it needs mor eland, it has an agenda that is way beyond what most of you know or understand. They need the Palestinian intifada, they need the terrorism, they fuel it. Let me know, and I[ll put up some links, Have a read at an ex-mossad agents book, he has a new one coming out soon. maybe tht’ll show you why the Palestianians ar eprobably mor einnocent in all this, and how guilty israel is. By the way, I a Jewish, an ex-Zionist go here to see us http://www.nimn.org, not all jews support that evil country
Posted by subgeniux on Apr 7, 2003 at 4:10 PM Poetaxington.net: Your poetry sucks. Quit wasting everyone’s time with that doggerel. More importantly, Rachel Corrie got what she deserved. That was the home of a suicide bomber she was trying to protect. Any idiot who goes over there to try to dictate policy to Israel in a combat zone deserves whatever they get.
Posted by Bill on Apr 7, 2003 at 9:06 PM All people should honour and respect Rachel and others like her, not because of her stance, but because she stood up for what she believed was right. It is wrong to deride the memory of someone with such courage. I hope that one day I have the courage to stand up as she did.
Posted by Shadowstormcrow on Apr 8, 2003 at 3:55 PM Although I’ve stated my position before, in other forums about Rachel Corrie, I’ll state it again here; One does NOT have to approve of the Israeli occupation of WEST BANK, GAZA STRIP, and EAST JERUSALEM to realize that, tragically, Rachel Corrie used some poor judgement, which, along with the complete recklessness of the Israeli soldier(s) who were driving the bulldozer, also contributed to the loss of her life.
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