Rachel Corrie

Rachel Aliene Corrie (born April 10, 1979 in Olympia , Washington , USA ; † March 16, 2003 in Rafah (Gaza Strip) ) was an American activist of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was fatally injured in a house demolition carried out by the Israeli forces . The circumstances surrounding her death, especially whether it was a homicide , remained controversial.

School and study time

Rachel Corrie comes from a family of four, her father is an insurance clerk and the mother is a musician. After graduating from Capital High School in her hometown of Olympia , she studied liberal arts in the same city at Evergreen State College , a course aimed at promoting general education and basic intellectual skills.

During her studies, Corrie volunteered with the Washington Conservation Corps, a department of the Environment Department and part of the AmeriCorps program in Washington State to protect and enhance the environment. Other volunteer work included patient visits to a hospital for three years. Prior to her trip to Gaza, Corrie also organized a pen pals program between children from Olympia and Rafah.

Circumstances of death

Travel to Palestinian Territories

In 2003, Corrie temporarily canceled her studies and in January traveled to the West Bank and the then Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip to take part in various ISM solidarity campaigns for Palestinians. She told a fellow student that she wanted to use the privileges of a US citizen to help Palestinians against the occupation. She first took part in an ISM training course in the West Bank, which taught, among other things, how to attract the attention of the army in order to avoid accidents.

During her protest actions she turned against house demolitions in Palestinian territories by the Israeli military. The actions were not crowned with success, however, the destruction could not be prevented. In addition, the activists were viewed with skepticism by some Palestinians as rumors spread that they were spies. During a demonstration against the Iraq war on February 15, Corrie was given pictures of a US and Israeli flag to be burned. She refused to burn the Israeli flag, but burned the US image in protest against US foreign policy, which met with criticism in the US and was often used against her after her death. Corrie also took part in a Canadian aid project to repair wells that had been destroyed by the Israeli military.

Rachel Corrie on the morning of March 16, 2003

Rachel Corrie standing in front of a bulldozer

Death and information on the course

Corrie died on March 16, 2003 while trying to stop the destruction of a Palestinian home by an Israeli Forces armored bulldozer . Activists had been injured a number of times before. However, Corrie was the first to die among ISM members. According to the army, the area had previously been closed to civilians.

Seven other British and American activists were there with her. The Israeli military saw the activists and fired warning shots. Corrie was wearing a bright orange jacket. There are different statements about the exact sequence of events that followed, through which Corrie was fatally injured:

According to several reports by the Israeli armed forces, it was an accident. The bulldozer driver overheard and overlooked Corrie, and then falling debris caused her death. The spokesman for the Israeli military accused ISM of putting their activists in danger if they willfully enter a combat zone.

The attending ISM activists Tom Dale, Richard Purssell and Joe Carr stated that as the bulldozer approached, Corrie climbed a mound to be seen by the driver. Her foot was trapped in the process, whereupon she was run over. They thought it was impossible that the driver hadn't seen Corrie. In addition, the activists tried to draw the driver's attention to the dangerous situation by waving and using a megaphone.

ISM members took Corrie to a nearby hospital where only her death could be determined. The autopsy by the Israeli pathologist Yehuda Hiss revealed that Corrie's death was caused by "pressure on the chest ( asphyxia ), fractures of the ribs and vertebrae on the back of the spine and shoulder blade, and lacerations in the right lung with bleeding from the pleura ".

Reactions

Commemoration in Olympia, Washington (2003)

In a 2005 report, Human Rights Watch criticized the Israeli military investigation for lacking transparency, independence, and thoughtfulness.

A US government spokesman said it regretted the death of Rachel Corrie.

In March 2010, Corrie's parents sued Israel for damages in the Haifa District Court . In a first-instance ruling on August 28, 2012, the lawsuit was dismissed on the grounds that it was an unfortunate accident in a crisis area and that every thinking person had left the area at the request of the military . Corries' mother accused Israel of having a well-lubricated system to protect its military . During the trial, following US intervention, four previously expelled ISM activists were granted entry visas so that they could testify as witnesses. An application by the plaintiffs to question a doctor from Rafah who examined Corrie's body and found her death was not granted. The court decision was criticized by the UN Human Rights Council special envoy for the Palestinian Territories, Richard A. Falk . The Israeli Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the first instance on appeal in 2015.

Rachel Corrie Street in Ramallah, March 16, 2010

Reception and souvenirs

While Corrie was hyped as a martyr by the political left after her death, she tried to demonize right-wing conservative circles as a terrorist supporter. In a cartoon in the student magazine of the University of Maryland, College Park , sitting in front of a bulldozer to protect a "gang of terrorists" was presented in the style of a dictionary entry as an example of the rule for "stupidity". Around 60 of the approximately 35,000 students at the university protested against this cartoon.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie at the Playhouse Theater, London 2006

In the spring of 2005, based on Corrie's diaries and e-mails piece was My Name Is Rachel Corrie of The Guardian -Journalistin Katharine Viner in London, directed by Alan Rickman premiered. It deals with Corrie's work in the Gaza Strip and her experiences there. The German version was broadcast for the first time on April 8, 2008 as a radio play Mein Name ist Rachel Corrie with Birgit Minichmayr in the leading role. After the New York premiere of the play had been postponed indefinitely, the US premiere took place in an off-Broadway theater in October 2006 .

Billy Bragg wrote a new text for the song The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll by Bob Dylan , which thematized Corrie's death. The film Rachel by Simone Bitton shows the actions of Corrie and the Israeli soldiers as well as the investigations into the circumstances of the death of Rachel Corrie in a mixture of interviews and fiction. It premiered at the Berlinale 2009.

The Free Gaza Movement ship MS Rachel Corrie and a street in Ramallah that was inaugurated on the seventh anniversary of her death in the presence of her parents and ISM members were named after Rachel Corrie .

literature

Let Me Stand Alone , WW Norton & Company, 2008
My name is Rachel Corrie . Nick Hern Books, London 2006, ISBN 1-854598783 .

Web links

Commons : Rachel Corrie - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

^ Profiles: Rachel Corrie . In: BBC News . August 28, 2012 ( bbc.com [accessed August 20, 2020]).

↑ Pat and Samir Twair: Southern California Chronicle: Hundreds Salute International Solidarity Movement, Rachel Corrie's Parents . In: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs . July / August 2003, pp. 62-64.

^ Tomas Alex Tizon, Lynn Marshall: Activist Had Soft Spot for Underdogs . March 18, 2003. Retrieved February 2, 2011.

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e New York Times: Israeli Army Bulldozer Kills American Protesting in Gaza. In: The New York Times. dated March 17, 2003.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Joshua Hammer: The Death of Rachel Corrie . In: Mother Jones . September / October 2003.

↑ Counterstatement to Mother Jones article, Counterpunch , September 20, 2003.

↑ Overview of events in Gaza since Feb 14th by Rachel Corrie from Gaza, February 28, 2003.

↑ ^a ^b ^c Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military's Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing re-published at the UNHCR website.

↑ Brief report from April 2003: Israeli report clears troops over US death. In: The Guardian. dated April 14, 2003.

^ Final report of the investigation by the Israeli military from June 2003: Israel calls Corrie death accident. In: BBC News. dated June 27, 2003.

↑ Raji Sourani: Impunity for US Peace Activist's Death . Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). June 30, 2003. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. Retrieved February 2, 2011.

^ American peace activist killed by army bulldozer in Rafah . In: Ha'aretz , March 18, 2003.

↑ Israeli bulldozer kills American protester . On: CNN , March 25, 2003.

↑ Spiegel Online of August 28, 2012 , Jerusalem Post of August 28, 2012

↑ Akiva Eldar: Israel grants visas to witnesses in suit over Rachel Corrie death . ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Haaretz , February 23, 2010. @1@ 2

↑ UN human rights expert speaks out on Israeli ruling on Rachel Corrie verdict . The United Nations. August 30, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2012.

^ Peter Beaumont: Rachel Corrie's family loses wrongful death appeal in Israel's supreme court. , The Guardian February 13, 2015

↑ Andrew O'Hehir: Rorschach "Rachel" . In: Salon , May 3, 2009. Accessed 2018-30-03.

^ Students protest cartoon of Rachel Corrie: Newspaper's editors refuse to apologize for running it . In: Associated Press , Seattle Post-Intelligencer , March 21, 2003.

↑ Radio play My name is Rachel Corrie , produced by Deutschlandfunk.

^ Too Hot for New York In: The Nation , April 3, 2006

↑ | The lonesome death of Rachel Corrie , The Guardian, March 28, 2006

↑ Rachel. By Simone Bitton (PDF; 175 kB), Berlinale film archive 2009

↑ Rachel Corrie in the Internet Movie Database (English)

^ Israeli Military Boards Gaza-Bound Aid Ship

↑ Ramallah to name street after US activist Rachel Corrie ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Haaretz , March 17, 2010. @1@ 2

personal data
SURNAME	Corrie, Rachel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Corrie, Rachel Aliene (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American activist of the International Solidarity Movement
DATE OF BIRTH	April 10, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH	Olympia (Washington) , USA
DATE OF DEATH	March 16, 2003
Place of death	Rafah

[1] Profiles: Rachel Corrie . In: BBC News . August 28, 2012 ( bbc.com [accessed August 20, 2020]).

[2] Pat and Samir Twair: Southern California Chronicle: Hundreds Salute International Solidarity Movement, Rachel Corrie's Parents . In: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs . July / August 2003, pp. 62-64.

[3] Tomas Alex Tizon, Lynn Marshall: Activist Had Soft Spot for Underdogs . March 18, 2003. Retrieved February 2, 2011.

[nyt-4] A ^b ^c ^d ^e New York Times: Israeli Army Bulldozer Kills American Protesting in Gaza. In: The New York Times. dated March 17, 2003.

[Hammer-5] Joshua Hammer: The Death of Rachel Corrie . In: Mother Jones . September / October 2003.

[6] Counterstatement to Mother Jones article, Counterpunch , September 20, 2003.

[7] Overview of events in Gaza since Feb 14th by Rachel Corrie from Gaza, February 28, 2003.

[note-8] Promoting Impunity: The Israeli Military's Failure to Investigate Wrongdoing re-published at the UNHCR website.

[9] Brief report from April 2003: Israeli report clears troops over US death. In: The Guardian. dated April 14, 2003.

[10] Final report of the investigation by the Israeli military from June 2003: Israel calls Corrie death accident. In: BBC News. dated June 27, 2003.

[11] Raji Sourani: Impunity for US Peace Activist's Death . Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). June 30, 2003. Archived from the original on March 3, 2011. Retrieved February 2, 2011.

[12] American peace activist killed by army bulldozer in Rafah . In: Ha'aretz , March 18, 2003.

[13] Israeli bulldozer kills American protester . On: CNN , March 25, 2003.

[14] Spiegel Online of August 28, 2012 , Jerusalem Post of August 28, 2012