Rachel Corrie KIA RIP

Alison Weir wrote in Counterpunch on April 3rd 2003 about the killing on March 16th of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli soldier driving an armoured Caterpillar D9 bulldozer in the Rafah regugee camp. (Memorial website here)

Rachel a 23 year old American non - violent human rights protestor was killed intentionally.

Rachel and others practicing Gandhian non - violence in the Gaza Strip had been pleading with Israeli soldiers for two hours not to destroy a Palestinian family home. Without warning the Israeli bulldozer operator began driving his giant bulldozer toward the home, with Rachel sitting in the bulldozer’s path. Witnesses report that she then stood up on the mound of debris and dirt pushed by the bulldozer blade and looked straight at the operator through the window. He continued, and she was pulled underneath the tractor, its blade crushing her. He then backed up, running over her again, burying her deeper into the dirt.

Three friends ran to Rachel and dug her out. According to an eyewitness report by Joe Smith of Kansas City: “Her body was in a mangled condition, she said ‘my back is broken!’ but nothing else. Her eyes were open and she was clearly in a great deal of pain.” A Palestinian ambulance made it through Israeli forces, and took her to the hospital, where she died. Reports are unclear whether it was her fractured skull or the suffocation caused by crushed lungs and being buried in the dirt that caused her death.

Richard Purssell, a fellow activist who was standing just a few feet away from her, recalls: "She was standing on top of a pile of earth. The driver cannot have failed to see her. As the blade pushed the pile, the earth rose up. Rachel slid down the pile. It looks as if she got her foot caught. The driver didn't slow down; he just ran over her. Then he reversed the bulldozer back over her again."

Rachel's grieving mother Cindi has been a picture of dignity says Robert Fisk. “US citizens, she wrote, "should ask themselves how it is that an unarmed US citizen can be killed with impunity by a soldier from an allied nation receiving massive US aid... When three Americans were killed, presumably by Palestinians, in an explosion on October 15th, 2003 ... the FBI came within 24 hours to investigate the deaths. After one year, neither the FBI nor any other US-led team has done anything to investigate the death of an American killed by an Israeli."

On the 2nd Anniversary of her death, March 16th 2005 Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to support an independent investigation of her death.

AIUSA note that this year's Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Israel agreed, stating bluntly that "U.S. officials who have seen the IDF report found inconsistencies among the statements of the people involved in the accident and other witnesses," there is no indication that the US has sought further investigation of these inconsistencies.

Christy Moore released a new album last week “Burning Times” which has this dedication..

"This album is dedicated to the memory of Rachel Corrie who lost her life in Gaza. She stood before an American built, Israeli driven earthmover as she tried to defend a Palestinian home that was about to be demolished. She was armed with a megaphone. The Caterpillar machine drove straight over Rachel killing her in the earth."