Activism News

On 14 February 2002 the ISM faced two almost simultaneous crisis in Rafah and Nablus. Both involved incidents where members of the ISM were in danger of being killed or seriously injured by the soldiers of the Israeli Occupying Army while conducting non-violent resistance to the occupation. ISM Media Coordinator Michael Sheikh writes about two events with direct bearing on the Rachel Corrie case.

Rachel Corrie was an incredibly good person. I mourn and am very saddened by her murder earlier today, 16 March 2003. She was killed by a bulldozer as the Israeli military ran over her as she was protesting the destruction of Palestinian homes in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Rachel grew up in Olympia, Wa. I originally met her when she was a student in the options program at Lincoln school around 1989. She was a friend of my son and played on the same YMCA basketball team as my daughter. Rachel and I talked a lot the last two years and marched together at various demos. Rachel was a totally caring and gentle person who was outraged by oppression wherever it took place and had become very active working for social justice and peace. Peter Bohmer, a friend of Rachel Corrie’s from Olympia, writes about Rachel’s life.

At 11 am on Saturday the 15th of February 100-150 Palestinians were joined in Rafah by nine internationals in a march for peace for the people of Iraq, in protest of US government policies towards the people of Iraq and Palestine, and in support of the political rights of protesters in New York City. This demonstration occurred in conjunction with protests around the world. Rachel Corrie writes for the ISM.

“Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop. She waved for the bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled, ‘Stop, stop,’ and the bulldozer didn’t stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her.” An American International Solidarity Movement activist was killed today while protesting and trying to prevent a house demolition in Gaza.

The Israel-EU Association Agreement is founded on the basis of a respect for human rights. Recent calls by French universities for this agreement to be suspended do not constitute a “boycott,” but rather a moral and correct response to Israel’s human rights abuses. Writing in Le Monde, Monique Chemillier-Gendreau responds to the critics who have attempted to label such actions as “anti-Semitism,” and who have failed to recognize the moral consequences of inaction.

In April 2002, following the Israel’s “operation” in Jenin, first calls for institutional academic boycott of Israeli universities appeared in England and in France. The British petition called to freeze European Union contracts with Israeli university as long as Israel continues its present policy. What started as the individual voice of concerned academics, has become lately a formal resolution of a French university. Israeli academic Tanya Reinhart comments.

“As a group that has faced ethnic cleansing in the recent past, we, as Jews and as members of Jews Against the Occupation, feel the need to speak out in order to prevent similar inhumane acts from being perpetrated on another people in our name.” An important statement from Jews against the Occupation suggests actions to prevent the transfer of Palestinians under cover of a war in Iraq.